HiveMQ MQTT Broker

Overview

HiveMQ MQTT Broker moves messages between connected devices and enterprise systems using MQTT. It is best suited to organizations operating large IoT fleets or mission-critical services that need configurable delivery, security controls, and room to change broker capacity at runtime. Smaller deployments should compare the plan limits with their expected traffic before choosing it.

Key features

Protocol support spans MQTT 3.1, 3.1.1, and 5.0, plus TCP, TLS, and WebSocket. Persistent messages stored to disk and queues for offline clients help preserve delivery when a recipient is unavailable; configurable guarantees, QoS, and dead-letter queues give operators additional ways to handle delivery and failure. A 256 MB maximum message size accommodates large payloads, though those capabilities matter less to workloads built around small, frequent telemetry messages.

Dynamic clustering allows nodes to be added or removed without downtime, and the cluster can grow or shrink while running. That flexibility suits operators whose capacity needs change, but it does not remove the need to size and license a deployment appropriately. HiveMQ describes the broker as scaling to millions of connections and billions of messages.

Extensions connect to streaming services, databases, data warehouses, and security services, including Kafka, Amazon Kinesis, and Google Pub/Sub. Security options include TLS 1.2/1.3, mutual TLS, fine-grained access control, pluggable authentication such as OAuth 2.0 and LDAP, and audit logging. HiveMQ states it is ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certified and SOC 2 Type II compliant, relevant credentials for teams with formal security requirements.

Pricing

HiveMQ uses a freemium model, with free and paid options and a 15-day trial. The self-managed broker starts in evaluation mode without a valid license and allows up to 25 client connections, so that mode is for evaluation rather than a production-scale deployment.

Lab has no published price and is capped at 100 connections and 100 messages per second, based on a normalized 5 KB message size. It is a small-scale option, but its low connection and throughput ceilings limit its use for growing deployments.

Launch costs $299 a month, billed at $299/month. It includes one broker deployment, 10,000 connections, 500 messages per second at a normalized 5 KB message size, and Community support. Run costs $499 a month, billed at $499/month, for the same deployment and connection count but twice the throughput—1,000 messages per second—and Silver support. Launch fits teams whose load stays within the lower rate and who can use Community support; Run is the clearer fit when throughput or support coverage justifies the additional monthly cost.

Serverless has no published price and includes 100 connections and 10 GB/month of traffic. Starter has no published price; its stated rate is From $0.34/hour+ $0.80/million messages. It includes 10,000 connections, 1 MB/sec, a 99.95% Uptime SLA, and Silver support. The usage-based rate may suit teams whose traffic varies, while the stated throughput ceiling and hourly-plus-message charges need to be weighed against expected use.

Self-Managed Enterprise has custom pricing for self-managed, multi-broker and multi-site deployments with custom capacity. Fully-Managed Enterprise also has no published price and offers up to 99.99% uptime. These options target larger or more availability-sensitive deployments; teams should compare their required operating model and uptime target against the published plans.

Platforms

HiveMQ supports API, Linux, self-hosted, and Windows environments. The self-managed broker can run on private, hybrid, and public clouds, with pre-built images for Kubernetes, OpenShift, and DC/OS. The hybrid deployment model and configurable delivery guarantees give teams deployment and message-handling choices, while the self-managed evaluation cap is important for anyone assessing it in a live environment.

Who it's for

HiveMQ is aimed at enterprises and large IoT operators that need MQTT messaging at scale, dynamic clustering, persistence, and a broad set of security controls. Its deployment flexibility can also suit teams running across private and public infrastructure. A small project with modest connection counts and no need for enterprise support or multi-site operations may find the plan ceilings and enterprise-oriented tiers unnecessary.

Pros and cons

Pro: Runtime cluster changes without downtime help operators adapt capacity without a planned broker outage.

Pro: Persistent messaging, offline queues, configurable guarantees, QoS, and dead-letter queues provide multiple delivery and failure-handling mechanisms.

Pro: TLS, mutual TLS, access controls, pluggable authentication, audit logging, and stated compliance credentials address demanding security needs.

Con: The self-managed evaluation mode supports only 25 client connections, which is restrictive for larger evaluations.

Con: The priced Launch and Run plans both cap connections at 10,000 and use a normalized 5 KB message size for throughput figures, so teams must assess those limits against their actual workload.

Con: Community support is included with Launch, while Silver is included with Run; Gold and Platinum support, which can be available up to 24×7, are higher support options.

Alternatives

For teams choosing among messaging categories, browse Message Queue (MQ) Software or Message Broker Software.

EMQX is another freemium broker with a free Serverless plan that includes up to 1,000 connections; consider it when that free connection allowance is a priority.

Confluent Cloud offers a free Basic plan with serverless, fully managed clusters, autoscaling Kafka resources, and more than 80 managed connectors; choose it when managed Kafka resources and connectors are central.

Aiven for Apache Kafka has a free plan with 250 KiB/s throughput, three days of retention, five topics, and two partitions per topic; consider it when those bounded Kafka resources fit the workload.

Google Cloud Pub/Sub offers 10 GiB of free throughput; it may suit teams prioritizing that free allowance.

Solace PubSub+ Event Broker has a 30-day cloud event broker trial; consider it when a time-limited cloud broker trial is the priority.

RabbitMQ is a free, self-managed broker under the Mozilla Public License 2.0, with best-effort community support; it is an option for teams favoring open-source self-management.

Apache Pulsar is a free open-source option from the Apache Software Foundation.

Eclipse Mosquitto is a free on-premises option with core MQTT features.

Verdict

Choose HiveMQ for large IoT or enterprise deployments that need MQTT delivery controls, runtime clustering, and substantial security options across flexible infrastructure. Its main advantage is the combination of operational flexibility and delivery features; its main drawback for smaller teams is that the paid tiers have defined capacity ceilings and enterprise-level needs can lead to custom-priced plans. If your requirements are modest or the evaluation connection cap is too restrictive, compare a free or lower-capacity alternative first.