Networking · alternatives
Alternatives to HiveMQ
23 networking tools sit alongside HiveMQ in this directory. Below is what separates each from HiveMQ on the figures we hold, price, model, tier count and rating, and a direct comparison for every one.
- Alternatives listed
- 23
- With a free tier
- 15
- Cheaper to start
- 0
- HiveMQ starts at
- Free, then $299/month
Why people look past HiveMQ
Only what the record supports. Each point below is a figure on the HiveMQ entry measured against the tools listed beside it.
Cost climbs steeply across the tiers
HiveMQ publishes 4 tiers, from Free up to On request. Teams that outgrow the entry plan can find the next rung a large step, the HiveMQ pricing page breaks each one down.
What each alternative does differently
Ordered by the aggregated rating on each catalogue entry. Differences are drawn from price, pricing model, tier count and rating, the fields the category listing carries. For a feature-level difference, follow the head-to-head link on each card: those pages read both full records.
Lightweight messaging protocol for IoT devices
- Sold on a open-source model rather than Per month by connections and throughput.
- 1 tier to HiveMQ's 4.
Open-source distributed event streaming platform
- Sold on a Open source, no licence fee; managed services billed separately model rather than Per month by connections and throughput.
- 1 tier to HiveMQ's 4.
Open-source message broker supporting AMQP and other protocols
- Sold on a Open source, no licence fee; managed services billed separately model rather than Per month by connections and throughput.
- 1 tier to HiveMQ's 4.
Open source infrastructure monitoring, free at its core, with paid support and modules sold separately by Icinga GmbH
- Sold on a Open source core, with paid repository, module and support subscriptions sold separately model rather than Per month by connections and throughput.
- 2 tiers to HiveMQ's 4.
Free, community-driven network monitoring with commercial support sold by a third-party partner, not the project itself
- Sold on a Open source, no licence fee; commercial support sold by a third-party partner model rather than Per month by connections and throughput.
- 1 tier to HiveMQ's 4.
Software-defined mesh networking, free up to 10 devices and one network, then billed per device
- Sold on a Free up to 10 devices and 1 network, then per additional device per month model rather than Per month by connections and throughput.
- 3 tiers to HiveMQ's 4.
Every HiveMQ alternative at a glance
A dash means the catalogue entry carries no figure, not that the answer is nothing.
| Tool | Entry price | Model | Tiers | Head to head |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HiveMQ (this page) | Free, then $299/month | Per month by connections and throughput | 4 | |
| MQTTMQTT as a protocol if you are choosing a standard rather than a specific broker implementation. | Free | Open-source | 1 | vs HiveMQ |
| Apache KafkaApache Kafka if the workload is server-to-server event streaming rather than intermittently connected devices. | Free | Open source, no licence fee; managed services billed separately | 1 | vs HiveMQ |
| RabbitMQRabbitMQ if you need several messaging protocols including MQTT and already run it for other queues. | Free | Open source, no licence fee; managed services billed separately | 1 | vs HiveMQ |
| Icinga | Free | Open source core, with paid repository, module and support subscriptions sold separately | 2 | vs HiveMQ |
| LibreNMS | Free | Open source, no licence fee; commercial support sold by a third-party partner | 1 | vs HiveMQ |
| ZeroTier | Free | Free up to 10 devices and 1 network, then per additional device per month | 3 | vs HiveMQ |
| pfSense | Free | Open source Community Edition, free; commercial Plus edition sold separately by Netgate | 2 | vs HiveMQ |
| OpenVPN | Free | Open source core is free; Access Server billed per simultaneous connection | 3 | vs HiveMQ |
| Catchpoint | Free | Free tier plus published entry tiers, enterprise quote-only | 4 | vs HiveMQ |
| NetBird | Free | Per user per month | 3 | vs HiveMQ |
| Nebula | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 2 | vs HiveMQ |
| Headscale | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs HiveMQ |
| Twingate | Free | Per user per month | 3 | vs HiveMQ |
| Zabbix | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 2 | vs HiveMQ |
| Netdata | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 2 | vs HiveMQ |
| Domotz | On request | Per collector or per managed device per month | 2 | vs HiveMQ |
| Juniper Mist | On request | Quote, hardware plus required Wi-Fi Assurance subscription | 2 | vs HiveMQ |
| Auvik | On request | Quote, per managed device | 1 | vs HiveMQ |
| Kentik | On request | Annual contract only, per tier | 2 | vs HiveMQ |
| Cisco Meraki | On request | Quote, hardware plus mandatory recurring licence | 1 | vs HiveMQ |
| PRTG Network Monitor | On request | Per sensor tier, billed monthly on an annual contract | 5 | vs HiveMQ |
| ThousandEyes | On request | Quote, unit-based consumption on annual or prepaid contracts | 1 | vs HiveMQ |
| MikroTik RouterOS | On request | One-time purchase, per licence level | 2 | vs HiveMQ |
Ratings are aggregated from third-party sources and imported with each catalogue entry; Softwr hosts no reviews of these products. How each figure is used is set out on the HiveMQ badges page.
Cheaper ways to solve the same problem
What you would be giving up
HiveMQ is most often brought in for a connected vehicle fleet where devices drop off the network for hours and sessions must survive, an industrial plant bridging mqtt telemetry into kafka without writing and operating the bridge, a utility that needs message-level schema validation so one faulty firmware release cannot corrupt the data lake, an iot project that needs a self-managed broker price for a budget submission without entering a sales process. Anything replacing it has to cover the ones you actually depend on, and a cheaper tool that misses one of them is not cheaper.
Two things this page cannot settle. It compares on price, model, tier count and rating, because those are the fields the category listing carries, feature-level differences need both full records, which is what the head-to-head pages load. And the ratings are third-party aggregates imported with each entry rather than reviews written here, so a 0.2 difference between two tools is noise rather than a finding.
If HiveMQ is broadly right and the question is cost, the HiveMQ pricing breakdown covers every tier and what each one adds. If you want the whole field rather than a shortlist, the Networking category lists everything the directory holds, and best networking tools ranks them.
HiveMQ runs on linux, docker, kubernetes, web. Platform coverage is not carried on the category listing for the alternatives, so it is one more thing to check on each head-to-head page rather than here.
Questions about HiveMQ alternatives
- What are the main alternatives to HiveMQ?
- 23 other networking tools are listed in this directory, led by MQTT, Apache Kafka, RabbitMQ, Icinga. They are ordered by the aggregated rating on each catalogue entry, not by any Softwr ranking.
- What is the best free alternative to HiveMQ?
- 15 of the alternatives listed here can be used without paying: MQTT, Apache Kafka, RabbitMQ, Icinga, LibreNMS.
- Why do people look for an alternative to HiveMQ?
- On the figures on record, one thing stands out: cost climbs steeply across the tiers. Each is set out with the numbers behind it above.
- What would I give up by switching from HiveMQ?
- HiveMQ is most often brought in for a connected vehicle fleet where devices drop off the network for hours and sessions must survive, an industrial plant bridging mqtt telemetry into kafka without writing and operating the bridge, a utility that needs message-level schema validation so one faulty firmware release cannot corrupt the data lake, an iot project that needs a self-managed broker price for a budget submission without entering a sales process. Anything you replace it with has to cover the ones you actually rely on, the side-by-side comparisons linked from each alternative below put the two feature records against each other.
- Is there an open-source alternative to HiveMQ?
- MQTT is recorded with an open-source licence model.
- How were these HiveMQ alternatives chosen?
- They are the tools filed in the same category, Networking, ordered by the aggregated rating on each entry. There is no editorial shortlist, and nothing on this page is paid: no sponsored placement runs on alternatives pages and the order cannot be bought. Softwr has not used these products.
- Where can I compare HiveMQ against one of these directly?
- Every alternative below has a side-by-side page against HiveMQ covering price, platforms, features and what each one is used for. Those pages read the full record for both products rather than the summary shown here.
- Does this list cover every networking tool?
- No. It covers what this directory holds in the Networking category, 23 tools beside HiveMQ. The category page lists the rest of the catalogue as it grows.