Apache Pulsar

Apache Pulsar is ranked #3 of 27 in message queue (MQ) software on Freedom251. It runs on API, Linux, macOS, Self-hosted, Windows. There is a free plan.

Apache Pulsar plans and pricing

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Apache Pulsar Free Open-source distributed messaging and streaming platform · Apache License 2.0 pulsar.apache.org · 29 Sept 2026

Compared on message queue (MQ) software

Free plan: Yes
Deployment model: self-hosted
Stream processing: Yes
Schema registry: Yes
Delivery guarantee: both
Supported client languages: Java, Go, Python, C++, C#/.NET, Node.js, WebSocket

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6.5

Apache Pulsar

What it does: Apache Pulsar is an open-source, distributed messaging and streaming platform built for the cloud.
Latency and scale: Pulsar supports message consumption with less than 10 ms latency and up to one million unique topics in a single cluster.
Geo-replication: Pulsar supports configurable replication across geographic regions and automatic client failover to healthy clusters.
Tenancy and access: Tenants and policies let organizations control access to data and actions, and isolate brokers for noisy-neighbor protection.
Clients: Officially maintained client libraries are available for Java, Go, Python, C++, Node.js, and C#.
Integrations: Built-in connectors import and export data for systems including Kafka, RabbitMQ, MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Cassandra, and Elasticsearch.
Serverless processing: Pulsar Functions process messages using user-defined logic and support Java, Python, and Go.
Storage and retention: Tiered storage can offload data from BookKeeper to blob storage such as S3 for unlimited retention.
Security controls: Pulsar provides encryption, pluggable authentication, and authorization controls, but these are not enabled by default.
Release integrity: Pulsar release files have OpenPGP signatures and SHA-512 checksums for integrity verification.
Deployment: Pulsar can run in Docker or Kubernetes, and the project offers a Helm chart for Kubernetes deployment.
Notable release limit: The 5.0.0-M2 milestone is intended for early testing and feedback and is not meant for production use.
Maker: The Apache Software Foundation is a nonprofit organization that provides software for the public good.
Price from: Free

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Where it ranks on Freedom251

Best Message Queue (MQ) Software in 2026#3 of 27
Best Schema Registry Software in 2026#1 of 23
Best Event Streaming Platforms in 2026#3 of 22

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Sources

pulsar.apache.org· checked 29 Sept 2026
pulsar.apache.org/features/· checked 29 Sept 2026
pulsar.apache.org/docs/4.2.x/io-connectors/· checked 29 Sept 2026
pulsar.apache.org/docs/4.2.x/functions-overview/· checked 29 Sept 2026
pulsar.apache.org/docs/5.0.x/security-overview/· checked 29 Sept 2026
pulsar.apache.org/download/· checked 29 Sept 2026
apache.org/foundation/· checked 29 Sept 2026