Choosing your message broker

Magento does a lot of work in the background rather than while a shopper waits — sending order emails, updating stock after a sale, exporting data, applying bulk catalog changes. Those jobs are put in a message queue and picked up by Magento's background workers a moment later. The message broker is where that queue lives.

The three options

• None (MySQL queue) — the queue lives in your store's own database. Nothing extra to run, and it handles the background work of most stores perfectly well. This is the default.
• RabbitMQ — a dedicated message broker. It moves large volumes of background jobs more efficiently than the database queue and takes that load off your database. It's the broker Adobe recommends for Adobe Commerce.
• ActiveMQ (Artemis) — an alternative dedicated message broker, supported by Adobe on newer Magento versions only. Choose it if an extension or integration you rely on expects it.

Which brokers are available depends on your Magento version — see the optional column in Supported Magento versions. Options your version doesn't support are shown greyed out in the portal.

When a dedicated broker is worth it

The database queue is the right choice unless one of these applies:

• Your store handles high order volumes or frequent bulk operations (large imports, mass price or stock updates) and background jobs start to lag behind.
• An extension or integration you use (for example an ERP or marketplace connector) requires RabbitMQ or ActiveMQ.
• You're moving a store in from another host that already used a broker, and you want to keep the same setup.

If none of these fit, staying on None keeps things simple. A dedicated broker also uses some of your plan's memory, which your store would otherwise have for itself.

Switching broker

Open your store's Settings tab and use Message broker (only the account owner can change it). Pick the option you want, select Save, and confirm with Schedule switch.

• The switch happens during your store's next maintenance window — the hours you chose for planned work — never straight away. You can see and change your window under Platform maintenance window on the same tab (see Your maintenance window).
• Before switching, queued background jobs are processed first, so nothing waiting in the old queue is lost.
• Your store is briefly unavailable while it moves to the new setup, then comes back on its own. Your data, domain, extensions and settings stay as they are, and a fresh backup is taken first.
• Until the window starts you can cancel the switch from the same card.
• A brand-new store isn't moved during its first hours, so a switch booked right after you create a store may wait until a later window — the card shows the earliest time it can start.
• When it's done, the card shows the broker your store now uses. If the switch can't be completed, your store keeps running on its previous broker and the card tells you what happened.

Changing your plan and switching broker can be scheduled together — both are applied in the same maintenance window. A switch can't be scheduled while a Magento update is booked or running, or while a restore is in progress.