NATS

NATS is a high-performance messaging system for services, devices, and distributed systems. It connects cloud, on-premise, edge, and IoT environments through a single lightweight server that runs anywhere from a large cluster down to a Raspberry Pi.

The core server handles publish/subscribe, request-reply, and load-balanced queue groups over a simple text-based protocol, with more than 40 client language implementations. Its JetStream layer adds persistence, streaming, replay, and key-value and object stores on top of that core.

NATS is governed by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation under the Apache License 2.0. A third-party security audit was carried out by Trail of Bits in April 2025. The server is self-hosted and available as a Docker image.