Best Message Broker Software in 2026
Updated
In short: HiveMQ MQTT Broker is ranked #1 of 38 as of 4 October 2026, ahead of CloudAMQP and Faye. The best-ranked option with a free plan is CloudAMQP. The lowest first paid tier on this page is Amazon SNS at $0.06/mo.
If messages move between services in your system, broker details such as supported protocols and deployment model can shape which options merit a closer look. The entries are ranked, with RabbitMQ, Google Cloud Pub/Sub and Apache Artemis among those shown first. Compare delivery and ordering guarantees alongside dead-letter queue support, then check maximum message size against the messages you expect to handle. Free plans and paid starting prices add cost context, while the deployment options help frame where a broker can run. These specifications give you practical dimensions for weighing the brokers against the way your applications exchange data.
38 message broker software ranked on what their makers publish — plans and prices, free tiers, platforms and the facts on their own pages.
38ranked
13free plans on this page
$0.06/molowest paid tier
4 Oct 2026last checked
Input list Message Broker Software 25 channels on this page · 125 of 200 spec lines stated by the makers
Ch Tool Free planPaid fromDeployment modelDelivery guaranteesDead-letter queuesOrdering guaranteesMaximum message sizeSupported protocols Spec sheet Score
01 HiveMQ MQTT Broker Free planYesPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelhybridDelivery guaranteesconfigurableDead-letter queuesYesOrdering guaranteesnot statedMaximum message size256 MBSupported protocolsMQTT 3.1, MQTT 3.1.1, MQTT 5, TCP, TLS, WebSocket 6/8spec lines stated 7.6
02 CloudAMQP Free planYesPaid from$19/moDeployment modelcloudDelivery guaranteesconfigurableDead-letter queuesYesOrdering guaranteesper queueMaximum message size128 MBSupported protocolsAMQP, AMQPS, HTTPS, STOMP, MQTT, Web-STOMP, MQTT over WebSockets, STOMP over WebSockets, HTTP 8/8spec lines stated 7.4
03 Faye Free plannot statedPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelself hostedDelivery guaranteesconfigurableDead-letter queuesnot statedOrdering guaranteesnot statedMaximum message sizenot statedSupported protocolsBayeux 3/8spec lines stated 7.3
04 Google Cloud Pub/Sub Free planYesPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelcloudDelivery guaranteesconfigurableDead-letter queuesYesOrdering guaranteesnot statedMaximum message size10 MBSupported protocolsREST, gRPC 6/8spec lines stated 7.3
05 TIBCO FTL Free plannot statedPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelhybridDelivery guaranteesconfigurableDead-letter queuesnot statedOrdering guaranteesnot statedMaximum message sizenot statedSupported protocolsDynamic TCP Transport (DTCP); Static TCP Transport; Auto Transport; Multicast Transport; Process Transport; Shared Memory Transport; Direct Shared Memory Transport; Reliable UDP Transport (RUDP) 3/8spec lines stated 7.3
06 RabbitMQ Free planYesPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelhybridDelivery guaranteesconfigurableDead-letter queuesYesOrdering guaranteesper queueMaximum message size16 MBSupported protocolsAMQP 0-9-1, AMQP 1.0, MQTT, STOMP, RabbitMQ Streams, HTTP, WebSocket 7/8spec lines stated 7.2
07 Eclipse Mosquitto Free planYesPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelself hostedDelivery guaranteesconfigurableDead-letter queuesnot statedOrdering guaranteesnot statedMaximum message sizenot statedSupported protocolsMQTT, MQTT over WebSockets 4/8spec lines stated 7.1
08 Amazon SNS Free planYesPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelcloudDelivery guaranteesconfigurableDead-letter queuesYesOrdering guaranteesper partitionMaximum message size1 MBSupported protocolshttp, https, email, email-json, sms, sqs, application, lambda, firehose 7/8spec lines stated 7.0
09 Apache ActiveMQ Free planYesPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelself hostedDelivery guaranteesconfigurableDead-letter queuesYesOrdering guaranteesper queueMaximum message sizenot statedSupported protocolsAMQP, MQTT, OpenWire, STOMP, REST 6/8spec lines stated 7.0
10 Apache Artemis Free planYesPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelself hostedDelivery guaranteesconfigurableDead-letter queuesYesOrdering guaranteesper queueMaximum message sizenot statedSupported protocolsAMQP, MQTT, STOMP, OpenWire, Core 6/8spec lines stated 7.0
11 Red Hat Trusted Artifact Signer Free planNoPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelself hostedDelivery guaranteesnot statedDead-letter queuesYesOrdering guaranteesnot statedMaximum message sizenot statedSupported protocolsCore Protocol, AMQP 1.0, MQTT, OpenWire, STOMP, JMS 2.0 4/8spec lines stated 7.0
12 Amazon SQS Free planYesPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelcloudDelivery guaranteesconfigurableDead-letter queuesYesOrdering guaranteesper queueMaximum message size1 MBSupported protocolsAWS JSON, AWS Query, HTTPS, TLS 7/8spec lines stated 6.9
13 EMQX Free planYesPaid from$234/moDeployment modelhybridDelivery guaranteesconfigurableDead-letter queuesnot statedOrdering guaranteesnot statedMaximum message size1 MBSupported protocolsMQTT, MQTT-SN, STOMP, CoAP, LwM2M, OCPP, GB/T 32960, JT/T 808, NATS 6/8spec lines stated 6.7
14 TIBCO BusinessWorks Free planYesPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelhybridDelivery guaranteesconfigurableDead-letter queuesYesOrdering guaranteesnot statedMaximum message sizenot statedSupported protocolsJMS, TCP, SSL 5/8spec lines stated 6.6
15 ApsaraMQ for MQTT Free planNoPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelcloudDelivery guaranteesconfigurableDead-letter queuesYesOrdering guaranteesnot statedMaximum message size0.06 MBSupported protocolsMQTT 3.1.1, MQTT 5.0, WebSocket 6/8spec lines stated 6.4
16 Lightstreamer Free planYesPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelhybridDelivery guaranteesnot statedDead-letter queuesnot statedOrdering guaranteesnot statedMaximum message sizenot statedSupported protocolsnot stated 2/8spec lines stated 6.4
17 NSQ Free plannot statedPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelself hostedDelivery guaranteesat least onceDead-letter queuesnot statedOrdering guaranteesnot statedMaximum message sizenot statedSupported protocolsTCP, HTTP 3/8spec lines stated 6.2
18 Apache Qpid Broker-J Free plannot statedPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelself hostedDelivery guaranteesnot statedDead-letter queuesYesOrdering guaranteesper queueMaximum message sizenot statedSupported protocolsAMQP 0-8, AMQP 0-9, AMQP 0-9-1, AMQP 0-10, AMQP 1.0 4/8spec lines stated 6.0
19 SocketCluster Free planYesPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelself hostedDelivery guaranteesnot statedDead-letter queuesnot statedOrdering guaranteesper queueMaximum message sizenot statedSupported protocolsHTTP, WebSocket 4/8spec lines stated 6.0
20 Upstash QStash Free planYesPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelcloudDelivery guaranteesat least onceDead-letter queuesYesOrdering guaranteesper queueMaximum message size10 MBSupported protocolsHTTP 7/8spec lines stated 6.0
21 JORAM Free planYesPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelself hostedDelivery guaranteesconfigurableDead-letter queuesYesOrdering guaranteesnot statedMaximum message sizenot statedSupported protocolsJMS, AMQP 0.9.1, STOMP, HTTP/REST, SOAP 5/8spec lines stated 5.9
22 ZeroMQ Free plannot statedPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelself hostedDelivery guaranteesconfigurableDead-letter queuesnot statedOrdering guaranteesnot statedMaximum message sizenot statedSupported protocolsZMTP, TCP, UDP, IPC, inproc, PGM, NORM, WebSocket, TIPC, multicast 3/8spec lines stated 5.9
23 Eclipse Amlen Free planYesPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelself hostedDelivery guaranteesconfigurableDead-letter queuesnot statedOrdering guaranteesnot statedMaximum message sizenot statedSupported protocolsMQTT 3-5 over TCP/IP and WebSockets; JMS; custom protocol plug-ins 4/8spec lines stated 5.8
24 KubeMQ Free plannot statedPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelhybridDelivery guaranteesconfigurableDead-letter queuesYesOrdering guaranteesper queueMaximum message sizenot statedSupported protocolsKafka, RabbitMQ AMQP 0-9-1, AMQP 1.0, MQTT, STOMP, AWS SQS/SNS, Google Cloud Pub/Sub, CloudEvents, gRPC, REST, WebSocket 5/8spec lines stated 5.8
25 Moquette Free planYesPaid fromnot statedDeployment modelself hostedDelivery guaranteesconfigurableDead-letter queuesnot statedOrdering guaranteesnot statedMaximum message sizenot statedSupported protocolsMQTT 3, MQTT 5 4/8spec lines stated 5.8
Compare all 25 in a table
| # | Tool | Score | Free plan | From | Free plan | Paid from | Deployment model | Delivery guarantees |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | HiveMQ MQTT Broker | 7.6 | Free plan | $299/mo | Yes | — | hybrid | configurable |
| 2 | CloudAMQP | 7.4 | Free plan | $19/mo | Yes | 19 /mo | cloud | configurable |
| 3 | Faye | 7.3 | Free plan | Free | — | — | self_hosted | configurable |
| 4 | Google Cloud Pub/Sub | 7.3 | Free plan | $40/mo | Yes | — | cloud | configurable |
| 5 | TIBCO FTL | 7.3 | Free plan | Free | — | — | hybrid | configurable |
| 6 | RabbitMQ | 7.2 | Free plan | Free | Yes | — | hybrid | configurable |
| 7 | Eclipse Mosquitto | 7.1 | Free plan | Free | Yes | — | self_hosted | configurable |
| 8 | Amazon SNS | 7.0 | Free plan | $0.06/mo | Yes | — | cloud | configurable |
| 9 | Apache ActiveMQ | 7.0 | Free plan | Free | Yes | — | self_hosted | configurable |
| 10 | Apache Artemis | 7.0 | Free plan | Free | Yes | — | self_hosted | configurable |
| 11 | Red Hat Trusted Artifact Signer | 7.0 | No | — | No | — | self_hosted | — |
| 12 | Amazon SQS | 6.9 | Free plan | Free | Yes | — | cloud | configurable |
| 13 | EMQX | 6.7 | Free plan | $234/mo | Yes | 234 /mo | hybrid | configurable |
| 14 | TIBCO BusinessWorks | 6.6 | No | — | Yes | — | hybrid | configurable |
| 15 | ApsaraMQ for MQTT | 6.4 | No | — | No | — | cloud | configurable |
| 16 | Lightstreamer | 6.4 | No | — | Yes | — | hybrid | — |
| 17 | NSQ | 6.2 | No | — | — | — | self_hosted | at_least_once |
| 18 | Apache Qpid Broker-J | 6.0 | No | — | — | — | self_hosted | — |
| 19 | SocketCluster | 6.0 | No | — | Yes | — | self_hosted | — |
| 20 | Upstash QStash | 6.0 | No | — | Yes | — | cloud | at_least_once |
| 21 | JORAM | 5.9 | No | — | Yes | — | self_hosted | configurable |
| 22 | ZeroMQ | 5.9 | Free plan | Free | — | — | self_hosted | configurable |
| 23 | Eclipse Amlen | 5.8 | No | — | Yes | — | self_hosted | configurable |
| 24 | KubeMQ | 5.8 | No | — | — | — | hybrid | configurable |
| 25 | Moquette | 5.8 | No | — | Yes | — | self_hosted | configurable |
Is your tool on this list?
Numbered spots on this list can be sponsored. They are labelled, and the editorial order and scores never change for payment.
Questions about this list
Which message broker software is ranked first on Specifiction?
HiveMQ MQTT Broker is ranked #1 of 38 with a score of 7.6. CloudAMQP is second and Faye third.
How many of these have a free plan?
13 of the 25 on this page publish a free plan on their own pricing pages.
Which is the cheapest paid option?
On this page, Amazon SNS has the lowest first paid tier we found: $0.06/mo.
How is this list ranked?
Ranked on what each maker publishes, the fullest spec sheet first: how deeply the product is documented, the platforms it runs on, a free tier or trial to test it, and its standing. Paid placements never change a rank.
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