RabbitMQ vs SQS

Traditional AMQP message broker versus AWS-managed queue service.

Overview

What is being compared

RabbitMQ is an open-source AMQP message broker with rich routing and acknowledgment semantics. SQS is a fully managed AWS queue with simpler semantics and no broker to run.

Type — Open-source message broker — Fully managed AWS queue service
Protocol — AMQP — HTTP and HTTPS API
Routing — Exchanges with several types — None, a flat queue
Acknowledgment — Consumer acks — Simpler semantics
Operations — You manage the broker — Zero operational overhead

How RabbitMQ routes

Publishers send to an exchange, not a queue. Bindings decide which queues get a copy.

How SQS delivers

Producers send straight to a queue and consumers poll it. Any routing lives in your code or in SNS in front.

One message through RabbitMQ

The publisher, the broker and the consumer exchange AMQP frames; the consumer's ack or nack decides what happens to the message.

> [!NOTE] RabbitMQ buys routing flexibility; SQS buys freedom from broker management.

> [!TIP] Broker routing next to a flat queue, a message that fails processing on each, and the choice between them play step by step in Visual Explanation below.