How is this different from Kafka and NATS?

[kawpii]

Can someone state differences between Iggy vs Kafka and Iggy vs NATS?

[feamcor]

1st notable difference is on which language they are implemented:

• Kafka is written in Java/Scala
• NATS is written in Go
• Iggy is written in Rust

2nd difference:

• Kafka and Iggy are Apache projects
• NATS is a CNCF project

3rd difference:

• NATS and Iggy are incubating projects
• Kafka is a mature and stable project

[erlend-sh]

From the FAQ:

Q: What is the difference between Iggy and traditional message brokers like Kafka?

Iggy is a persistent message streaming platform that stores messages in an append-only log format, similar to Kafka. However, Iggy is designed for high performance and low latency using io_uring and a thread-per-core architecture. Iggy uses its own binary protocol rather than the Kafka protocol. Clients can use an Iggy SDK, implement the documented binary protocol, or use the HTTP API.

The welcome page of the docs also has a high level comparison.

Still, a deeper dive on the differences would be very nice. When I asked AI about a Rust alternative to NATS, Iggy was the top suggestion. They still cover slightly different ground though, and that’d be good to have a canonical explanation for.

[justinmclean]

For Kafka, SoftwareMill published a good technical deep dive on this: https://softwaremill.com/apache-kafka-vs-apache-iggy-same-log-different-engine/

In short, both store data as a partitioned append-only log with offsets, retention, consumer groups and replay. The difference is the engine. Kafka runs on the JVM and leaves storage to the operating system. Iggy is Rust, thread-per-core on io_uring, with no garbage collector. Iggy is built for throughput and low, predictable tail latency on a persistent log. It supports TCP, QUIC, WebSocket and HTTP.

Iggy also needs far less to run. It is one binary and one config file, with no JVM and nothing else to install. That makes it a good fit for a single small server, the edge, or hardware you don't control, where a Kafka cluster would be too heavy.