HiveMQ MQTT Broker vs NATS
HiveMQ MQTT Broker
hivemq.comNATS
nats.ioSide by side
| Figure | HiveMQ MQTT Broker | NATS |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $299/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 7 | 1 |
| Spec score · Message Broker Software | 8.3 (#9) | 7.4 (#29) |
| Spec score · Message Queue (MQ) Software | 8.2 (#10) | 7.5 (#19) |
| Deployment | The self-managed broker can run on private, hybrid, and public clouds, with pre-built images for Kubernetes, OpenShift, and DC/OS. | NATS is designed for distributed systems and edge deployments, and supports topology growth using leaf nodes and superclusters. |
| Integrations | HiveMQ extensions integrate with streaming services, databases, data warehouses, and security services; the maker lists Kafka, Amazon Kinesis, and Google Pub/Sub extensions. | The download page lists connectors and utilities for Apache Flink, Apache Spark, AWS, Elasticsearch, Fluent Bit, MongoDB, Prometheus, and other tools. |
| Intended users | HiveMQ describes the broker as built for mission-critical enterprise operations and large-scale IoT deployments. | NATS is aimed at teams building distributed systems with dynamic, loosely coupled services, including deployments on low-resource edge devices. |
| Purpose | HiveMQ Broker provides reliable, event-driven MQTT messaging between connected devices and enterprise systems. | NATS is an open-source messaging system for building distributed systems across clouds and user-defined edge environments. |
| Security | 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. | NATS documents authentication, subject-level authorization, TLS encryption, and isolated accounts for multitenancy. |
Plans
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
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.