EMQX
Industrial IoT software
IoT connectivity management software
IoT platforms
Message queue (MQ) software
- Features
- Ease of use
- Ease of management
- Quality of support
- Affordability
- Market presence
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$234 per month
Free TrialFree version
Small
Medium
Large
- Real estate and property management
- Construction
- Manufacturing
What is EMQX
EMQX is an MQTT broker and messaging platform used to connect IoT devices and applications through publish/subscribe messaging. It is used by IoT platform teams, industrial engineering groups, and software developers to ingest telemetry, manage client connections, and route events to downstream systems. EMQX supports MQTT and related protocols (including MQTT over WebSocket) and is commonly deployed on-premises, in containers/Kubernetes, or as a managed cloud service. It differentiates through a focus on high-concurrency MQTT connectivity, clustering, and extensibility via rules/bridges to external data systems.
Strong MQTT connectivity core
EMQX is purpose-built for MQTT-based pub/sub messaging, which fits common IoT telemetry and command-and-control patterns. It supports MQTT features such as persistent sessions and QoS levels that are frequently required in device connectivity scenarios. This makes it a practical backbone for connecting many devices and applications without requiring a full industrial application platform.
Flexible deployment options
EMQX can run self-managed on-premises, in VMs, or in containerized environments such as Kubernetes, which aligns with industrial and edge deployment constraints. It also offers a managed cloud option for teams that prefer to offload operations. This flexibility helps organizations standardize messaging across plants, regions, and cloud environments.
Integration via rules and bridges
EMQX includes mechanisms to route or transform messages and forward them to external systems (for example, databases, streaming platforms, or HTTP services) depending on edition and configuration. This supports common IoT pipelines where device telemetry must be delivered to analytics, historians, or application services. Compared with broader industrial suites, EMQX focuses on the messaging layer while still providing practical integration hooks.
Not a full IIoT suite
EMQX primarily addresses device messaging and connectivity rather than end-to-end industrial use cases. Capabilities such as asset modeling, OEE/production apps, built-in dashboards, and manufacturing workflows typically require additional products. Buyers expecting a turnkey industrial platform may need significant integration work around EMQX.
Operational complexity at scale
Running a high-throughput broker cluster requires careful planning for sizing, persistence, high availability, and upgrades. Teams may need specialized expertise in MQTT semantics, client behavior (QoS/session settings), and network reliability to avoid performance or delivery issues. Managed service options can reduce this burden, but self-managed deployments still carry operational overhead.
Protocol scope is MQTT-centric
While EMQX supports MQTT and related transport options, industrial environments often require additional protocols and gateway functions (for example, PLC/SCADA-oriented connectivity) that are outside a broker’s core scope. Organizations may need separate edge connectivity software to normalize non-MQTT data sources. This can increase architecture complexity in heterogeneous OT environments.
Plan & Pricing
| Plan | Price | Key features & notes |
|---|---|---|
| Serverless (Fully-managed) | $0 / month (free monthly quota; pay-as-you-go beyond) | Usage-based (session minutes + traffic). Up to 1,000 connections on starter; free monthly quota on sessions, traffic and rule actions; TLS/SSL; Basic monitoring & alerts; 8x5 support. Billing: free quota applied first, charges when exceeded. |
| Dedicated Flex (Fully-managed, single-tenant) | Starts at $234 / month | Single-tenant clusters in isolated VPC; includes monthly traffic allowance and 24/7 premium support; 99.99% SLA; 14‑day free trial available. Billed hourly or annual prepaid; base hourly fees per selected tier + traffic egress charges (see notes). |
| BYOC (Bring-Your-Own-Cloud) | Custom / Contact Sales | EMQX-managed control plane in your cloud account; pricing tailored for security/compliance; contact sales for quote; free trials/PoC available on request. |
| Enterprise (Self-managed) | Custom (annual subscription) | On‑prem or air‑gapped deployments, custom plugins, professional services, priority feature requests; contact sales for quote. |
Notes:
- Dedicated/Dedicated Flex traffic egress: $0.15 / GB (public outbound); free traffic quota typically 100 GB/month for certain tiers; unused monthly free traffic does not roll over. (See official pricing docs for hourly base fee matrices and tier detail.)
- Serverless is pay-as-you-go with a recurring free monthly quota; charges occur only after free quota is consumed.
- EMQX Tables (time-series store) has its own per-deployment hourly tiers (e.g., 2 vCPU/8GB ≈ $0.39/hr, monthly estimates shown) and per-GB storage/egress pricing; billed as part of EMQX Cloud subscription.
Seller details
EMQ Technologies Co., Ltd.
Hangzhou, China
2017
Private
https://www.emqx.com/
https://x.com/EMQTech
https://www.linkedin.com/company/emqx
