EMQX vs HiveMQ MQTT Broker
EMQX
emqx.comHiveMQ MQTT Broker
hivemq.comSide by side
| Figure | EMQX | HiveMQ MQTT Broker |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $234/mo | $299/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 5 | 7 |
| Spec score · Message Broker Software | 9.1 (#2) | 8.3 (#9) |
| Spec score · Message Queue (MQ) Software | 9.1 (#2) | 8.2 (#10) |
| Compliance | EMQ states that EMQX Cloud and Enterprise have SOC 2 Type 1 reports and that the company maintains TISAX AL2, ISO 27001:2022, ISO 27701:2019, ISO 20000-1:2018 and ISO 9001:2015 certifications or attestations. | HiveMQ states that it is ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certified and SOC 2 Type II compliant. |
| Deployment | EMQX can run in Docker, through a Kubernetes Operator, or from packages on Red Hat, CentOS, Rocky Linux, Amazon Linux, Ubuntu, Debian, macOS and Linux. | The self-managed broker can run on private, hybrid, and public clouds, with pre-built images for Kubernetes, OpenShift, and DC/OS. |
| Founded | 2017 | 2012 |
| Headquarters | Menlo Park, California, United States | Landshut, Germany |
| Integrations | EMQX Enterprise provides more than 40 out-of-box integrations including Kafka, AWS RDS, MongoDB, Oracle, SAP and time-series databases. | HiveMQ extensions integrate with streaming services, databases, data warehouses, and security services; the maker lists Kafka, Amazon Kinesis, and Google Pub/Sub extensions. |
| Purpose | EMQX Enterprise is an MQTT messaging platform for connecting, moving, and processing IoT business data in real time. | HiveMQ Broker provides reliable, event-driven MQTT messaging between connected devices and enterprise systems. |
| Scale | EMQX Enterprise documentation says a cluster can support up to 100 million concurrent MQTT connections and millions of messages per second with millisecond-level latency. | The maker describes the broker as scaling to millions of connections and billions of messages. |
| Security | Security features include TLS/mTLS, X.509 certificate authentication, access controls, and audit logs. | The broker page lists TLS 1.2/1.3, mutual TLS, fine-grained access control, pluggable authentication such as OAuth 2.0 and LDAP, and audit logging. |
| Support | The pricing page lists 8/5 support for Serverless and 24/7 premium support for Dedicated Flex. | The maker offers Community, Silver, Gold, and Platinum support options; Gold and Platinum support are available up to 24×7. |
Plans
EMQX
- ServerlessFree
- Dedicated Flex$234 a month
- BYOCPriced on request
- ServerlessFree
- EnterprisePrice not published
HiveMQ MQTT Broker
- Launch$299 a month
- Run$499 a month
- ServerlessPriced on request
- StarterPrice not published
- LabFree
- Fully-managed EnterprisePriced on request
- Self-managed EnterprisePriced on request
In their own words
EMQX
EMQX is an MQTT messaging platform for connecting, moving, and processing IoT business data in real time. EMQX Enterprise combines publish/subscribe messaging with durable message queuing, while a SQL-based Rule Engine and visual Flow Designer support filtering, transforming, enriching, and routing data. The platform supports MQTT and protocols or gateways including QUIC, CoAP, STOMP, and LwM2M; its listed protocols also include MQTT-SN, OCPP, GB/T 32960, JT/T 808, and NATS. EMQX says a cluster can handle up to 100 million concurrent MQTT connections and lists more than 50 native integrations. Security features include TLS/mTLS, X.509 authentication, access controls, and audit logs. Deployment options include Docker, a Kubernetes Operator, and installation packages, with macOS and Linux packages listed. Plans include free Serverless and Dedicated Flex starting at $234 per month, with a 14-day trial listed for Dedicated Flex. Serverless has limits including 1,000 sessions, 1,000 TPS, and a 1 MB message size.
HiveMQ MQTT Broker
HiveMQ MQTT Broker provides event-driven messaging between connected devices and enterprise systems. It supports MQTT 3.1.1 and MQTT 5.0, with persistent messages stored to disk, offline queuing, and quality-of-service support. Dynamic clustering lets operators add or remove broker nodes while the cluster runs. Extensions connect to streaming services, databases, data warehouses, and security services, with Kafka, Amazon Kinesis, and Google Pub/Sub listed as examples. Security options include TLS 1.2/1.3, mutual TLS, fine-grained access controls, pluggable authentication such as OAuth 2.0 and LDAP, and audit logging. The self-managed broker can run on private, hybrid, and public clouds, with images for Kubernetes, OpenShift, and DC/OS. In evaluation mode without a valid license, it supports up to 25 client connections. HiveMQ describes the broker as intended for large-scale IoT deployments and mission-critical enterprise operations. Plans include a free option; Launch is $299 a month and Run is $499 a month. Other listed plans have no price listed.