Free RabbitMQ GUI tools (2026)
You do not need to pay to get a RabbitMQ UI: the Management UI comes with the broker, and the community built a few more. Here are the free options, what each one is good at, and the gaps that lead teams to a paid tool.
How we compared them
- Is it really free, including for teams and commercial use?
- What does it take to install and keep running?
- Can it inspect messages safely?
Quick comparison
| Capability | Management UI | RabbitScout | RabbitMQ UI extension | rabbitmqadmin | Grafana |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Browse messages safelyLook at the messages sitting in a queue without losing them or disturbing consumers. | Partly"Get messages" consumes messages and optionally requeues them, which changes order and redelivery flags | PartlyPeek messages with pagination through the management API | PartlySame "Get messages" as the Management UI, with JSON formatting | Partly"get" consumes and optionally requeues, like the Management UI | No |
| Search & filter messagesFind specific messages by body, headers or properties instead of paging through them one by one. | NoNo message search or filtering | PartlySorting of peeked messages | No | NoPipe the output to grep or jq | No |
| Replay dead lettersRe-publish failed or dead-lettered messages back to a queue or exchange. | PartlyOnly with the shovel plugin ("Move messages"), whole queue at a time | Not documented | No | PartlyScriptable by hand | No |
| Metrics & chartsMessage rates, queue depth and other time series. | YesBasic rate and depth charts | YesLive streaming charts and history up to 24h | PartlyManagement UI charts | PartlyRaw numbers, no charts | YesLong-term metrics, dashboards and alerting |
| Many brokers in one placeSwitch between local, staging and production brokers without re-entering credentials. | NoOne broker per browser tab, log in to each | NoOne broker per deployment | No | PartlyNamed nodes in a config file | YesMany clusters in one Grafana |
1. RabbitMQ Management UI
Web UI · Any browser · Free (bundled with RabbitMQ)
The Management UI ships with RabbitMQ as the rabbitmq_management plugin and is served on port 15672. It covers broker administration well: users, vhosts, permissions, policies, queues, exchanges, connections and basic charts.
Strengths
- Free and already installed with most RabbitMQ setups
- Complete administration: users, vhosts, permissions, policies, feature flags
- Officially maintained by the RabbitMQ team
- Works from any browser, nothing to install on your machine
Limitations
- No safe way to browse a queue: "Get messages" is a consume plus requeue
- No message search, filtering or selective replay
- One broker at a time, credentials re-entered per environment
- Slow and cluttered with thousands of queues
Best for: Broker administration (users, permissions, policies) and quick checks when nothing else is installed. See RabbitMQ Management UI alternatives.
2. RabbitScout
Self-hosted web dashboard · Self-hosted (Node.js or Docker), any browser · Free
RabbitScout is an MIT-licensed Next.js dashboard that proxies the RabbitMQ management API. You deploy it (Node.js or Docker) next to a broker and each user logs in with their own RabbitMQ credentials. It offers live charts, queue and exchange management, message peeking and test publishing.
Strengths
- Free and open source (MIT)
- Modern, fast web UI with live charts and a command palette
- Shared by a whole team from one deployment
- Respects RabbitMQ user tags and permissions
Limitations
- You have to deploy, expose and maintain another web service
- One broker per deployment
- Message tooling is basic: peek and publish, no documented replay workflow
Best for: Teams who want a free, modern, shared web dashboard and are happy to self-host it. See RabbitScout alternatives.
3. RabbitMQ UI (Chrome extension)
Browser extension · Chrome · Free
The "RabbitMQ UI" Chrome extension adds conveniences to the management web console: it remembers the last message published to each queue and parses, beautifies and minifies JSON payloads.
Strengths
- Free and installs in seconds
- Makes JSON payloads readable in the Management UI
Limitations
- Only tweaks the Management UI, so it inherits all its limits
- Chrome only
- Rarely updated (last listed update in 2023)
Best for: People who are happy with the Management UI and only want nicer JSON handling. See RabbitMQ UI (Chrome extension) alternatives.
4. rabbitmqadmin
CLI · macOS, Windows, Linux · Free
rabbitmqadmin is the official CLI for the RabbitMQ HTTP API. It lists and declares queues, exchanges and bindings, publishes and gets messages, and exports or imports definitions, which makes it ideal for scripts and CI.
Strengths
- Free and official
- Perfect for automation, CI and definitions import/export
- Works over SSH and in containers
Limitations
- Text output: inspecting payloads and routing is tedious
- Same destructive "get" as the Management UI
- No visual overview of routing or queue health
Best for: Scripting, CI pipelines and server-side automation. See rabbitmqadmin alternatives.
5. Grafana + Prometheus
Monitoring stack · Self-hosted or Grafana Cloud, any browser · Free (open source), Grafana Cloud has paid tiers
RabbitMQ exposes Prometheus metrics through the rabbitmq_prometheus plugin, and the RabbitMQ team publishes Grafana dashboards for them. This is the go-to stack for long-term metrics, dashboards and alerting, but it does not look at messages.
Strengths
- Best-in-class long-term metrics and alerting
- Official RabbitMQ dashboards available
- One place to monitor RabbitMQ next to the rest of your stack
Limitations
- Metrics only: cannot browse, search or replay messages
- Several components to run and maintain
- Tells you that a queue is growing, not which messages are stuck
Best for: Production monitoring and alerting across clusters, as a complement to a debugging tool. See Grafana + Prometheus alternatives.
When a paid RabbitMQ GUI is worth it
None of the free tools can browse a queue without consuming messages, search through a backlog, or replay a selection of dead letters. If you do that more than occasionally, the time saved pays for a tool quickly.
RabbitGUI costs 29€ once with free updates forever and a 30-day refund. QueueExplorer starts at $149 per computer.
FAQ
Yes. It is part of RabbitMQ (rabbitmq_management plugin) and is open source under the MPL 2.0.
Yes, RabbitScout is MIT-licensed and can be self-hosted with Docker. For metrics dashboards, Prometheus and Grafana are free and open source.
More comparisons
Facts last verified on 2026-11-02. Sources: RabbitMQ docs: Management Plugin, GitHub: Ralve-org/RabbitScout, Chrome Web Store listing, RabbitMQ docs: management CLI, RabbitMQ docs: Prometheus and Grafana. Spotted something outdated? Email nicolas@tggl.io and we will fix it.