EMQX vs HiveMQ
On the evidence we track, EMQX leads this comparison with a composite score of 65/100. Scores are only directly comparable because these tools share a category; the full breakdown and every source is below.
Capabilities
Feature-by-feature on the axes that matter for realtime messaging infra. “-” means undocumented, not absent.
What each one is
The product in its own terms, so the numbers below have context.
EMQX
LeaderEMQX is an MQTT-based message broker designed to connect and manage millions of IoT devices in real time. It supports multiple deployment models (cloud-hosted, self-managed, and bring-your-own-cloud), comprehensive protocol support beyond MQTT, and integrations with 50+ external systems for data routing and processing.
HiveMQ
HiveMQ is a messaging platform purpose-built around MQTT to transport data from industrial equipment and IoT devices to business applications across hybrid environments. It supports managed cloud, self-hosted, and on-premise deployments with strong security, scalability, and governance features for mission-critical operations.
Pricing
List pricing as published by each vendor, with the date we read it. Always verify at the source before you buy.
EMQX
LeaderFrom free tier to $234/month managed, or custom enterprise pricing
- ServerlessFree
- Up to 1000 connections
- TLS/SSL encryption
- Basic monitoring & alerts
- 8/5 support
- Dedicated Flex$234/month with included traffic allowance
- Dedicated isolated cluster
- VPC peering & private link
- 40+ integrations
- 99.99% uptime SLA
- 24/7 premium support
- BYOCContact sales
- Deployed in your VPC
- Custom data plane & control plane
- Managed upgrades and observability
- Compliance tailored to your needs
- EnterpriseContact sales
- Deploy anywhere (on-prem, edge, cloud)
- Custom plugins & extensions
- Professional services
- Priority feature requests
HiveMQ
Free tiers available. Production from $299/month. Usage-based and capacity-based options for larger deployments.
- LabFree
- TLS encryption
- Authentication & authorization
- Free MQTT connectivity
- Production$299/month
- TLS encryption
- RBAC
- 99.95% Uptime SLA
- Broker REST API
- Cloud ServerlessFree
- TLS encryption
- Authentication
- Authorization
- Cloud StarterUsage-based pricing
- TLS encryption
- Authentication
- Authorization
- 99.95% Uptime SLA
- Broker REST API
- Cloud EnterpriseContact sales
- Full RBAC
- Client certificate authentication
- OAuth/JWT
- Audit logging
- Client event history
- +2 more
- Self-Managed EnterpriseContact sales
- On-premise deployment
- Up to 99.99% Uptime SLA
- Full RBAC
- Client certificate authentication
- OAuth/JWT
- +3 more
Platform & deployment
Where each product runs and how it can be hosted. A dash means undocumented, not unsupported.
Integrations
What each product connects to. Counts come from the vendor's own integration directory where one exists.
- Microsoft Azure
- Kafka
EMQX
Leader- Google Cloud
- Oracle Cloud
- AWS
- OpenAI
- Anthropic
- Google Gemini
- ClickHouse
- Snowflake
- Pulsar
- RabbitMQ
- MySQL
- PostgreSQL
- MongoDB
- InfluxDB
- TDengine
- TimescaleDB
- BigQuery
- S3
- Azure Blob
- Confluent Cloud
- Webhook
- Amazon S3
- Azure Blob Storage
- Azure
HiveMQ
- Amazon Kinesis
- AWS CloudWatch
- Prometheus
- Graphite
- Apache Kafka
- Kubernetes
- OpenShift
EMQX or HiveMQ: which one depends on you
A composite score cannot know your constraints. Describe them and both get re-weighted against what you actually need, with the evidence behind every position.
Free to run, no account needed to start. How the evaluation works
Comparison generated from independently-sourced facts. Every value links to its source and retrieval date. See the method.