head to head · open source
AutoMQ vs Trench
AutoMQ has 10,775 GitHub stars, 771 forks, 60 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Trench has 1,663 stars, 64 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. AutoMQ leads on adoption by 548% (10,775 vs 1,663 stars). AutoMQ is written in Java under Apache-2.0; Trench is written in TypeScript under MIT. AutoMQ has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, Trench 4%. AutoMQ was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (kafka), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| AutoMQ | Trench | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 11K | ★ 1.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-04-06 |
| Forks | ⑂ 771 | ⑂ 64 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick AutoMQ if
- You weight community size — 11K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Trench if
- You want the Trench feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Trench fits your workflow better
About AutoMQ
AutoMQ is an Apache 2.0 licensed, Java based diskless distribution of Kafka that keeps stream data on S3 instead of broker local disks, aimed at platform and infrastructure teams running event streaming at cloud scale.
read the full AutoMQ overview →
About Trench
Trench is an open source analytics infrastructure project written in TypeScript under the MIT license. It is built around Apache Kafka, ClickHouse, and a Node.js based service, and it is distributed as a single production ready Docker image for event tracking. The project sits in the open source event streaming and analytics ecosystem, where teams collect product events, query them quickly, and connect data to dashboards, LLM retrieval pipelines, observability tools, or other analytics products.
read the full Trench overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is AutoMQ or Trench more popular?
AutoMQ has 10,775 GitHub stars and Trench has 1,663. AutoMQ has the larger community by that measure.
Are AutoMQ and Trench free?
Both are open source. AutoMQ is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Trench under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between AutoMQ and Trench?
AutoMQ is written in Java and Trench in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, AutoMQ or Trench?
Choose AutoMQ if you want the larger community (10,775 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Trench if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.