amqp vs amqplib - which Node.js amqp client library is better?

I would recommend amqp.node and bramqp over node-amqp. node-amqp has a lot of bugs and is poorly maintained, and it hides the "channel" concept which introduces a lot of problems for rabbitmq servers (because they are never closed).


This question probably requires an updated answer in 2020.

You may still refer to bakkerthehacker's answer as to what the different libraries do.

In 2020:

  1. amqp doesn't seem to be supported anymore. It was last published 2 years ago.
  2. For AMQP 0-9-1 protocol, amqplib is the most widely used library.
  3. For AMQP 1.0 protocol, you could go with rhea.

I'm the guy that wrote the bramqp library. So I'm going to admit from the start I may be a bit biased. :P

In my opinion, as long as you know the spec, bramqp should work fine. Otherwise, use amqp.node


The following are the amqp libraries available for node.js.

amqplib / amqp.node - promise style, still updated, looks pretty stable and easy

bramqp - provides a full low level access to AMQP functions, not recommended for starting out

amqp-coffee - coffeescript implementation similar to amqp/node-amqp

amqp / node-amqp - popular, fixed API, not updated as often, a few odd bugs, stable but limited


The following libraries use one of the previous libraries, while providing an easier to use interface or adding features

rabbit.js uses amqplib/amqp.node

wascally uses amqplib/amqp.node

amq uses amqplib/amqp.node

amqpea uses bramqp

easy-amqp uses amqp/node-amqp

rabbus uses wascally


I am also going to add node-amqp10 separately, as it can connect to amqp 1.0 servers.

If there are any more that I should add, just let me know.