Managed MQTT Broker Comparison — Product Packages and Pricing
In this article, we will compare the differences between several managed MQTT Brokers in aspects of product packages and pricing.
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Join For FreeWhat Is Managed MQTT Broker? What’s the Benefit?
MQTT, “message queuing telemetry transport,” was created to solve problems of efficient use of the bandwidth of the low-speed data channel. Accordingly, server solutions (in particular messaging brokers) were needed to serve the operation of this protocol.
Since cloud solutions are currently distributed in almost all areas of information technology, the corresponding cloud systems, or managed brokers, have appeared in the field of management and monitoring of the Internet of Things.
Managed brokers don’t require you to set up anything on your server to enable MQTT communication. Managed broker services let you use their hosted brokers for your system. Save your time on the operational overhead and focus on delivering business that matters.
Since the managed MQTT Broker is a cloud-native application hosted on the cloud that scales elastically with your workload, you get real-time observability at any scale with no upfront engineering or budget commitment; plus, usage-based pricing ensures you only pay for what you use.
Brokers I Choose to Compare
I choose the products from independent MQTT Broker vendors who focus on this area instead of other IoT fields. Compared to the comprehensive IoT platform like AWS IoT Core or Azure IoT Hub, the independent products are more flexible and avoid binding with particular cloud services.
Managed MQTT Brokers are usually the cloud implement of self-hosted MQTT Broker.
Product Brand |
Self-hosted Broker |
Managed Broker |
---|---|---|
EMQX |
EMQX Enterprise |
EMQX Cloud |
HiveMQ |
HiveMQ Broker |
HiveMQ Cloud |
Mosquitto |
Mosquitto MQTT Broker |
ProEdition |
Cloud MQTT |
Mosquitto MQTT Broker |
CloudMQTT |
This article will compare the differences between several managed MQTT Brokers in product terms of packages and pricing aspects.
Product Package Summary
EMQX Cloud and HiveMQ Cloud have various product packages set for different client scenarios.
Package |
EMQX Cloud |
HiveMQ Cloud |
ProEdition |
CloudMQTT |
---|---|---|---|---|
Free or Trial |
14 days free trial free |
Free broker - No uptime guarantee- Community support - Connect up to 100 IoT devices - 10 GB data traffic per month included - Up to 3 days data retention time |
14 days free trial |
✖️ |
Volumn based |
✖️ |
Pay As you Go - 99.5% uptime- Basic support - Connect up to 1,000 IoT devices - 100 GB data traffic per month - No base price - Shared Infrustructure |
✖️ |
✖️ |
Hourly BillingorMonthly Billing(Basic) |
Standard Plan - Single cluster- Up to 10,000 connections - Contains 100G traffic - Support Webhook - Support MQTT bridge - 99% uptime - 8/5 technical support |
Standard Plan - Single cluster- 99.9% uptime - Basic support - Connect up to 10,000 IoT devices - 100 GB data traffic / month included - Confluent Cloud integration addable |
From S to XL (High Availability Not Included) - 100 ~ 10000 connections- Contains 100GB of traffic - Single node |
Humble Hedgehog - 25 users/aclrules/connections - 20 Kbit/s - 3 bridges - Support by e-email hourly |
Hourly BillingorMonthly Billing(Advanced) |
Professional Plan - Multiple clusters- Up to 100,000 connections - Contains up to 1T traffic - Support data integrations - Support VPC peering - SLA 99.99% - 24/7 technical support |
From S to XL (High Availability Included) - 100 ~ 10000 connections- Contains 100GB traffic - 3 clusters nodes |
Keen Koala Loud Leopard Power Pug |
|
Prepaid |
Annual Prepaid, 15% off from Hourly Billing |
✖️ |
Annual Prepaid, 15% off from Monthly Billing |
✖️ |
Premium |
Premium IIoT Protocols SupportData Persistence Edge Gateway Management Edge Computing SLA 99.99% Consulting service |
Dedicated Plan - unlimited connections- 99.99% uptime - 24/7 support - Control Center - Support VPC Peering |
Enterprise - 10000+ connections- Individual Agreement |
✖️ |
Free Package
HiveMQ Cloud free broker can set up to 100 device connections. No uptime guarantees. You can't choose where the broker should be deployed. Because of those limitations, the free broker packages only can be used for tests or personal projects.
EMQX Cloud offers 14 days free trial period. All the features and limitations are the same as the paid plans, except the connection limits (the connections of trial deployment are set to the lowest level). However, it is not free all the time, but you can do most test work in 14 days.
ProEdition gives a free 14-day license. However, this is a shared instance regarding the number of messages sent and received in the management center.
Free Package |
PROS |
CONS |
---|---|---|
HiveMQ Cloud |
No time limit. |
Only suitable for MQTT learning and personal project. |
EMQX Cloud |
Entire features in both Standard and Professional Plans. |
Trial is time limited (14 days). |
Pro Edition |
Entire feature, no limited. |
shared instance. |
Volume Based Package
HiveMQ Cloud provides a "Pay As You Go" mode. It is based on the number of sessions and data. There is a monthly limit of 1,000 sessions and 100 GB of data per month. PSYG guarantees 99.5% SLA. It is an affordable way to start if your business is small in devices and message size.
Volume Based Package |
PROS |
CONS |
---|---|---|
HiveMQ Cloud |
PSYG mode is especially friendly for some lightweight business. |
The traffic fee would be expensive if there is a large data transfer. |
Hourly Billing or Monthly Billing Package
The Standard Plan of HiveMQ Cloud is designed for critical use. The price of the package is set to $1.5/per hour— connections up to 10,000 IoT devices, a significant amount that can accommodate most IoT scenarios. But the package is not flexible enough if you have 5,000 devices and want to pay half the price. The cluster can be deployed in AWS.
EMQX Cloud provides a more precise product package in hourly billing mode. The Standard Plan is designed for general IoT use, and the Professional Plan is for more advanced use involving data integration. You can choose the connection specification from 1,000 to 100,000 at the corresponding price. Another advantage of EMQX Cloud hourly billing mode is the cluster can be deployed in 17 regions across AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure.
Pro Edition's package pricing is a wide range, from S level (100 clients) to XL level (10,000 clients). And each level has a single cluster node or three cluster nodes to choose from. For small businesses and limited clients connections,
CloudMQTT offers four product packages, including one basic package and three advanced packages. At the same time, it provides rich availability regions in the cloud platform.
Hourly Billing Package |
PROS |
CONS |
---|---|---|
HiveMQ Cloud |
Integration with confluent cloud |
- Only one kind of hourly rate - Deployment region is limited - Data integration is not free |
EMQX Cloud |
- The wide pricing ranges - The various regions to deploy |
|
Pro Edition |
- The wide range of packages - High availability to choose for every level |
The brokers are hosted by Hetzner. |
CloudMQTT |
The various regions to deploy | There is no package for around 5000 connections. |
Prepaid Package
You can buy a whole year package usage of EMQX Cloud service in advance at 15% off from the normal price. This price model is especially for long-term use clients.
Also, ProEdition offers 15% off if you buy the service annually.
Prepaid Package |
PROS |
CONS |
---|---|---|
EMQX Cloud |
Save money for long-term users. |
The billing circle can't be paused. |
Premium Package
All the premium packages are not available for direct use. The solution is customized to each client; pricing varies from client to client.
Pricing Model Comparison
Pricing |
EMQX Cloud |
HiveMQ Cloud |
Pro Edition |
CloudMQTT |
---|---|---|---|---|
PAY AS YOU GO |
✖️ |
- $ 0.10 /device monthly - $ 0.15 /GB monthly |
✖️ |
✖️ |
Hourly BillingorMonthly Billing(Basic) |
Standard Plan - 1,000 connections / 1,000 TPS Start at $ 0.18 per hour- 5,000 connections / 5,000 TPS Start at $ 0.50 per hour - 10,000 connections / 5,000 TPS Start at $ 0.88 per hour - Including Traffic: 100G per month, Traffic Exceed Price: $ 0.15 per GB |
Standard Plan $ 1.5 per hour |
From S to XL (High Availability Not Included) - S : $20 per month- M : $95 per month - L : $179 per month - XL : $299 per month - Traffic Exceed Price: $ 0.162 per GB |
Humble Hedgehog $ 5 per month |
Hourly BillingorMonthly Billing(Advanced) |
Professional Plan - 1,000 connections: $0.36 per hour- 5,000 connections: $0.99 per hour - 10,000 connections: $1.49 per hour - 50,000 connections: $3.99 per hour - 100,000 connections: $7.19 per hour - Traffic Exceed Price: $ 0.15 per GB |
From S to XL (High Availability Included) - S : $239 per month- M : $359 per month - L : $539 per month - XL : $719 per month - Traffic Exceed Price: $ 0.162 per GB |
Keen Koala Loud Leopard Power Pug |
|
Prepaid |
Start from $ 1,340 per year (Standard) Start from $ 7,371 per year (Professional) |
✖️ |
15 % Off |
✖️ |
Specifications |
EMQX Cloud |
HiveMQ Cloud |
Pro Edition |
CloudMQTT |
---|---|---|---|---|
100 connections |
- |
free |
$20 / mo |
$19 / mo |
1000 connections |
$130 / mo |
- |
$95 / mo |
$99 / mo |
$260 / mo |
- |
$359 / mo |
- |
|
5000 connections |
$360 / mo |
- |
$179 / mo |
- |
$713 / mo |
- |
$539 / mo |
- |
|
10000 connections |
$633 / mo |
$1080 / mo |
$299 / mo |
$299 / mo |
$1073 / mo |
$719 / mo |
Price Comparisons
To compare different pricing approaches, I created four different scenarios based on the number of devices, message size, and message rate.
Scenario 1 — Standard Connection of Use
Devices: 1,000; Message Size: 8KB; Message Rate: 2 messages/minute
Total Monthly Messages: 87,600,00; Total Data (GB): 668 (730 hours/month)
Packages |
Cluster Fee |
Traffic Fee |
Total |
---|---|---|---|
HiveMQ Cloud Standard |
$ 1,095 |
$ 85.2 |
$ 1,180.2 |
HiveMQ Cloud PSYG |
$ 100 |
$ 100.2 |
$ 200.2 |
EMQX Cloud Standard (Hourly) |
$ 131.4 |
$ 85.2 |
$ 216.6 |
EMQX Cloud Standard (Prepaid - monthly average) |
$ 111.7 |
$ 85.2 |
$ 196.9 |
ProEdition (M,Single) |
$ 95 |
92 |
$ 187 |
CloudMQTT(Loud Leopard) |
$ 99 |
- |
$ 99 |
Scenario 2 — Large Message Size; Limited Number of Devices
Devices: 200; Message Size: 50KB; Message Rate: 2 messages/minute
Total Monthly Messages: 17,520,00; Total Data (GB): 835 (730 hours/month)
PACKAGES |
Cluster Fee |
Traffic Fee |
Total |
---|---|---|---|
HiveMQ Cloud Standard |
$ 1,095 |
$ 110.25 |
$ 1,205.25 |
HiveMQ Cloud PSYG |
$ 20 |
$ 125.25 |
$ 145.25 |
EMQX Cloud Standard (Hourly) |
$ 131.4 |
$ 110.25 |
$ 241.65 |
EMQX Cloud Standard (Prepaid - monthly average) |
$ 111.7 |
$ 110.25 |
$ 222 |
ProEdition (M,Single) |
$ 95 |
$ 119 |
$ 214 |
CloudMQTT(Loud Leopard) |
$ 99 |
- |
$ 99 |
Scenario 3 — More Frequent Messages; Smaller Message Size
Devices: 5,000; Message Size: 4KB; Message Rate: 60 messages/minute
Total Monthly Messages: 13,140,000,000; Total Data (GB): 50,125 (730 hours/month)
PACKAGES |
Cluster Fee |
Traffic Fee |
Total |
---|---|---|---|
HiveMQ Cloud Standard |
$ 1,095 |
$ 7,503.7 |
$ 8,598.7 |
EMQX Cloud Standard (Hourly) |
$ 365 |
$ 7,503.7 |
$ 7868.7 |
EMQX Cloud Standard (Prepaid - monthly average) |
$ 310.2 |
$ 7,503.7 |
$ 7814 |
ProEdition (L,Single) |
$ 179 |
$ 8104 |
$ 8283 |
CloudMQTT(Power Pug) |
$ 299 |
- |
$ 299 |
Scenario 4 — More Connections; Smaller Message Size
Devices: 10,000; Message Size: 4KB; Message Rate: 1 messages/minute
Total Monthly Messages: 438,000,000; Total Data (GB): 1671 (730 hours/month)
PACKAGES |
Cluster Fee |
Traffic Fee |
Total |
---|---|---|---|
HiveMQ Cloud Standard |
$ 1,095 |
$ 235.6 |
$ 1330.6 |
EMQX Cloud Professional (Hourly) |
$ 1087.7 |
$ 235.6 |
$ 1323.3 |
EMQX Cloud Professional (Prepaid - monthly average) |
$ 924.5 |
$ 235.6 |
$ 1160 |
ProEdition (XL, High Availibility) |
$ 719 |
$ 254 |
$ 973 |
CloudMQTT(Power Pug) |
$ 299 |
- |
$ 299 |
We can see that the price varies from different product packages. However, in the last scenario, the prices are nearly the same. That allows me to compare the infrastructure in a fair approach.
Infrastructure |
HiveMQ Cloud Standard |
EMQX Cloud Professional |
ProEdition (XL, High Availibility) |
---|---|---|---|
Connections |
Up to 10,000 |
Up to 10,000 |
Up to 10,000 |
Cluster |
Single |
Multiple |
Multiple |
SLA |
99.9 % |
99.99% |
- |
Regions |
Assigned |
17 regions |
5 regions |
Free Traffic |
100 GB |
100 GB |
100GB |
Support Level |
8 / 5 |
24 / 7 |
- |
Conclusions
All the managed MQTT broker products present various packages and pricing strategies to satisfy different levels of clients.
- If you need to learn anything about MQTT, HiveMQ Cloud’s free broker is a good choice.
- Both EMQX Cloud and ProEdition provide a 14-days14-day free trial that let you get a better understanding of the services.
- EQMX Cloud and ProEdition packages are designed carefully, taking into account the needs of the customers. Meanwhile, high availability is available for the advanced scenario.
- CloudMQTT’s packages are relatively cheap, especially if there is large traffic; it saves you quite a lot of money.
The Price is not everything for an MQTT broker. Next, I will explore the features, performance, support, and more about all these products in the further series.
Opinions expressed by DZone contributors are their own.
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