ThingSpeak vs Ubidots

ThingSpeak is a cloud IoT analytics platform for collecting, visualizing and analyzing live data streams. Devices can send data through REST or MQTT APIs, and listed libraries support Arduino, ESP8266, ESP32, Particle and Raspberry Pi. Each channel stores up to eight fields, with data private by default and an option to make channels public. Users can run scheduled MATLAB code hosted by ThingSpeak without a separate MATLAB license. React and TimeControl apps support responses to channel conditions and scheduled computations. The platform supports near-real-time stream processing, custom dashboards and machine learning tools. MathWorks describes its uses as IoT prototyping, proof-of-concept systems and hosted production for small- to medium-sized systems. The Free plan is free for non-commercial use, with four channels, three million messages per year and a 15-second update interval. MATLAB code execution is limited to 20 seconds for free users; TimeControl cannot schedule MATLAB Analysis more often than every five minutes, and channel visualizations update after ten minutes. Platforms listed are API and web.

Ubidots provides tools to ingest, compute, visualize and act on IoT data in full-stack applications. Devices and machines can send data over MQTT or HTTP, and dashboards use widgets to display device data. Synthetic variables perform statistical and arithmetic operations on raw data over a time frame. Events can react to variable conditions, device inactivity or schedules and trigger email, SMS, voice calls, Slack messages or webhooks.

Plugins support AWS IoT, OpenWeather and LoRaWAN, as well as custom cron, webhook and widget plugins. Android and iOS apps show devices, historical variable data, web dashboards, event logs and push notifications, but cannot create or edit dashboards. The standard app is for account owners and admins; end users require an on-demand white-labeled app. The free STEM plan is for non-commercial projects and includes three devices. Professional costs $99 a month; a typical core-platform account begins with a free 30-day trial. Each device includes up to 20 variables for billing; additional variables may be billed as additional devices.