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Best Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka Alternatives in 2026

Updated

20 platforms from message queue (MQ) software ranked against Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka on the same published basis.

  1. 1
    HiveMQ MQTT Broker Free plan apiLinuxself-hostedWin $299/mo7.4
    Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka vs HiveMQ MQTT Broker
  2. 2
    Aiven for Apache Kafka Free plan apiLinuxWeb $35/mo7.3
    Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka vs Aiven for Apache Kafka
  3. 3
    Amazon SQS Free plan apiWeb Free7.3
    Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka vs Amazon SQS
  4. 4
    Confluent Cloud Free plan apiLinuxWeb $385/mo7.3
    Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka vs Confluent Cloud
  5. 5
    Google Cloud Pub/Sub Free plan apiWeb $40/mo7.3
    Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka vs Google Cloud Pub/Sub
  6. 6
    Apache ActiveMQ Free plan apiLinuxself-hostedWin Free7.2
    Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka vs Apache ActiveMQ
  7. 7
    Apache Pulsar Free plan apiLinuxMacself-hostedWin Free7.2
    Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka vs Apache Pulsar
  8. 8
    NATS Free plan apiLinuxself-hosted Free7.2
    Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka vs NATS
  9. 9
    RabbitMQ Free plan apiLinuxMacself-hostedWin Free7.2
    Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka vs RabbitMQ
  10. 10
    Redpanda Free trial apiLinuxself-hostedWeb 6.9
    Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka vs Redpanda
  11. 11
    Tencent Distributed Message Queue (TDMQ) apiWeb 6.8
    Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka vs Tencent Distributed Message Queue (TDMQ)
  12. 13
    StreamNative Free trial apiself-hostedWeb $73/mo6.7
    Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka vs StreamNative
  13. 14
    Eclipse Mosquitto Free plan LinuxMacself-hostedWin Free5.8
    Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka vs Eclipse Mosquitto
  14. 15
    EMQX Free plan Web $234/mo5.8
    Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka vs EMQX
  15. 16
    ZeroMQ Free plan LinuxMacself-hostedWin Free5.8
    Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka vs ZeroMQ
  16. 17
    Azure App Service Free plan LinuxWebWin Free5.5
    Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka vs Azure App Service
  17. 18
    IBM MQ LinuxMacWebWin $1.02/mo5.3
    Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka vs IBM MQ
  18. 19
    Google Cloud Managed Service for Apache Kafka Web 5.1
    Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka vs Google Cloud Managed Service for Apache Kafka
  19. 20
    Solace PubSub+ Event Broker Web 5.0
    Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka vs Solace PubSub+ Event Broker
  20. 21
    Apache Kafka 4.8
    Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka vs Apache Kafka

Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka alternatives compared

#PlatformScoreFree planFromRuns on
1HiveMQ MQTT Broker7.4Free plan$299/moAPI, Linux, self-hosted, Windows
2Aiven for Apache Kafka7.3Free plan$35/moAPI, Linux, Web
3Amazon SQS7.3Free planFreeAPI, Web
4Confluent Cloud7.3Free plan$385/moAPI, Linux, Web
5Google Cloud Pub/Sub7.3Free plan$40/moAPI, Web
6Apache ActiveMQ7.2Free planFreeAPI, Linux, self-hosted, Windows
7Apache Pulsar7.2Free planFreeAPI, Linux, Mac, self-hosted, Windows
8NATS7.2Free planFreeAPI, Linux, self-hosted
9RabbitMQ7.2Free planFreeAPI, Linux, Mac, self-hosted, Windows
10Redpanda6.9No—API, Linux, self-hosted, Web
11Tencent Distributed Message Queue (TDMQ)6.8No—API, Web
13StreamNative6.7No$73/moAPI, self-hosted, Web
14Eclipse Mosquitto5.8Free planFreeLinux, Mac, self-hosted, Windows
15EMQX5.8Free plan$234/moWeb
16ZeroMQ5.8Free planFreeLinux, Mac, self-hosted, Windows
17Azure App Service5.5Free planFreeLinux, Web, Windows
18IBM MQ5.3No$1.02/moLinux, Mac, Web, Windows
19Google Cloud Managed Service for Apache Kafka5.1No—Web
20Solace PubSub+ Event Broker5.0No—Web
21Apache Kafka4.8No——
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Questions about Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka alternatives

What is the best alternative to Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka?

HiveMQ MQTT Broker, number 1 in message queue (MQ) software with a score of 7.4 out of 10. The others here: Aiven for Apache Kafka, Amazon SQS, Confluent Cloud and 16 more.

What is the best free alternative to Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka?

HiveMQ MQTT Broker is the best-ranked alternative with a free plan. 13 of the 20 alternatives here publish a free plan on their own pricing pages.

How are these alternatives ranked?

Ranked on what each maker publishes, open and connectable first: a public API, open-source code, the depth of its documentation and a free tier to try it on. Model lists are sorted by the figure in their title, exactly as each provider publishes it.