Messaging Systems: A Visual Reference
How to Read This Post Each scenario shows a diagram first, then a short note on why that system fits best. Complexity increases as you scroll. System Strength RabbitMQ Smart broker, routing flexibility, push-based delivery Kafka Immutable log, high throughput, replay from any offset JetStream NATS Lightweight persistence, built-in dedup, low operational cost Level 1 — Foundations 1. Simple Task Queue flowchart LR P[Producer] -->|task| Q[(Queue)] Q -->|deliver| C[Consumer] style P fill:#4a9eff,stroke:#2d7ed8,color:#fff style Q fill:#ff6b6b,stroke:#d44,color:#fff style C fill:#51cf66,stroke:#37b24d,color:#fff RabbitMQ. Push-based delivery with acknowledgments. Consumer confirms completion before the broker removes the message. No polling, no offset tracking — just send and ack. ...