RabbitMQ i Kafka su oba sustava za razmjenu poruka, ali se fundamentalno razlikuju — RabbitMQ je tradicionalni broker poruka (redovi čekanja, fleksibilno usmjeravanje, poruke se konzumiraju i uklanjaju), dok je Kafka distribuirani event log (zadržane, ponovljive, visoko propusne stream obrade). Pogodni su za različite slučajeve upotrebe.
Fundamentalna razlika
RABBITMQ → a message BROKER (smart broker, simple consumer):
→ messages ROUTED via exchanges, CONSUMED and removed (transient)
→ rich ROUTING (exchange types); per-message handling; push-based
→ for: task queues, complex routing, request/reply, traditional messaging
KAFKA → a distributed event LOG (simple broker, smart consumer):
→ events RETAINED (not removed on consume), replayable; partition-based
→ very high throughput; multiple consumers read the same data; pull-based
→ for: event streaming, high-volume data, pipelines, retention/replay
