RabbitMQ og Kafka er begge meldingssystemer, men skiller seg fundamentalt — RabbitMQ er en tradisjonell meldingsmeglar (køer, fleksibel rutingering, meldinger som konsumeres og fjernes), mens Kafka er en distribuert begivenhet logg (bevart, gjenspillbar, høyt gjennomstrømsstreaming). De passer til ulike bruksscenarier.
Den fundamentale forskjellen
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
