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RabbitMQ

Robust multi-protocol messaging broker for cloud-native applications

Message Brokers & Queues

RabbitMQ delivers reliable, high-throughput messaging across AMQP, MQTT, STOMP, and streaming protocols, with extensive tooling, Kubernetes support, and commercial options for enterprise deployments.

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Overview

Overview

RabbitMQ is a mature, feature‑rich messaging broker that enables reliable, high‑throughput communication between applications. It natively supports a wide range of protocols—including AMQP 0‑9‑1, AMQP 1.0, MQTT 3.1/3.1.1/5.0, STOMP 1.0‑1.2, and their WebSocket variants—allowing diverse clients to interoperate through a single platform. Advanced queue types such as quorum queues provide data safety and consistency, while the RabbitMQ Stream protocol offers persistent, append‑only logs with non‑destructive consumer semantics for event‑streaming workloads.

Deployment & Operations

The broker can be deployed on‑premises, in virtual machines, or orchestrated with Kubernetes using the official RabbitMQ Cluster Operator, which automates node provisioning, clustering, and upgrades. Comprehensive tooling includes CLI utilities, extensive documentation, and built‑in metrics exposed to Prometheus for Grafana dashboards. Enterprises can opt for commercial editions and Broadcom‑backed support, while the community offers forums, Discord, and Libera Chat for assistance. RabbitMQ’s MPL 2.0 license ensures freedom to modify and redistribute the software.

Highlights

Support for AMQP, MQTT, STOMP, and RabbitMQ Stream protocols
Quorum queues for data safety and consistency
Official Kubernetes Cluster Operator for automated deployment
Built‑in Prometheus metrics and Grafana dashboards

Pros

  • Broad multi‑protocol compatibility
  • Mature ecosystem with extensive documentation
  • High availability options via quorum queues and clustering
  • Commercial support available from Broadcom

Considerations

  • Erlang runtime may be unfamiliar to some ops teams
  • Operational complexity can increase with large clusters
  • Commercial support incurs additional cost
  • No native graphical management UI

Managed products teams compare with

When teams consider RabbitMQ, these hosted platforms usually appear on the same shortlist.

Amazon SQS logo

Amazon SQS

Fully managed message queuing service for decoupling and scaling distributed applications

Azure Service Bus logo

Azure Service Bus

Fully managed enterprise message broker for decoupling applications via message queues and publish/subscribe topics

Google Pub/Sub logo

Google Pub/Sub

Global messaging service for event ingestion and fan‑out

Looking for a hosted option? These are the services engineering teams benchmark against before choosing open source.

Fit guide

Great for

  • Microservices architectures needing reliable message routing
  • IoT solutions that require MQTT/WebSocket ingestion
  • Event streaming and replay scenarios
  • Enterprises demanding multi‑protocol interoperability

Not ideal when

  • Ultra‑low latency use cases where broker overhead matters
  • Teams without Erlang or RabbitMQ operational expertise
  • Simple point‑to‑point messaging where a lightweight broker suffices
  • Serverless environments with strict resource limits

How teams use it

Microservices communication

Decoupled services exchange messages reliably via AMQP or MQTT, scaling horizontally.

IoT telemetry ingestion

Collect sensor data over MQTT/WebSocket and route to processing pipelines.

Event streaming and replay

Persist event logs with RabbitMQ Streams for replayable analytics.

High-availability workloads

Use quorum queues to ensure data safety across node failures.

Tech snapshot

JavaScript55%
Shell28%
Makefile11%
Java5%
Dockerfile1%
HTML1%

Tags

mqttrabbitmqstreamsamqp-0-9-1message-brokerstompamqp1-0amqpmessagingstreaming

Frequently asked questions

What messaging protocols does RabbitMQ support?

RabbitMQ supports AMQP 0‑9‑1, AMQP 1.0, MQTT 3.1/3.1.1/5.0, STOMP 1.0‑1.2, and their WebSocket variants.

How can I run RabbitMQ on Kubernetes?

Use the official RabbitMQ Cluster Operator, which automates provisioning, clustering, and upgrades within a Kubernetes cluster.

Is commercial support available for RabbitMQ?

Yes, Broadcom offers commercial editions and support contracts for RabbitMQ.

What monitoring integrations are provided?

RabbitMQ exposes Prometheus metrics and includes Grafana dashboard templates for visual monitoring.

Under which license is RabbitMQ released?

RabbitMQ is licensed under the Mozilla Public License 2.0 (MPL 2.0).

Project at a glance

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