Pros/Cons of using BizTalk instead of NServiceBus or MassTransit

Question

I am curious if it even makes consider BizTalk for the implementation of a pub/sub messaging architecture (basically what you can do with NServiceBus or MassTransit is all I really need). My manager tends to want to stick with frameworks provided directly from Microsoft and so as part of my due diligence as to which one to use I need to give a good set of pro/cons for both sides. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

One of the major cons of a Broker is that it is very difficult to version and upgrade. You would have to stop the flow of messages to upgrade a particular endpoint(s). A Service Bus allows endpoints to be autonomous and be upgraded independently.

Then there is a difference in terms of scale. With a Broker the tendency is to scale those up(vertical) versus a Service Bus which is built for scaling out(horizontal). You would also have to make the Broker highly available through some sort of HA setup(clustering usually). This combined with the cost of software to do so can become pretty cost prohibitive.

NSB in particular will be offering a paid support model so if your manager is nervous about not having someone on the other end of the line when something goes wrong, you can buy into support.