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Networking · head to head

Catchpoint vs Eclipse Mosquitto

Catchpoint logo

Catchpoint

Networking

Internet and digital experience monitoring, with a genuinely published entry price through its WebPageTest product line

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Eclipse Mosquitto logo

Eclipse Mosquitto

Networking

Small, EPL-licensed MQTT broker that runs on hardware other brokers cannot

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Catchpoint its flagship enterprise Internet Performance Monitoring product reverts to custom Enterprise pricing beyond the Quick Start package, so full-scale deployment cost is not knowable from the public site; Eclipse Mosquitto there is no clustering: Mosquitto is a single process, so high availability means building your own failover and accepting session loss on switchover.
  • They diverge on capability: Catchpoint covers Global vantage point network, Eclipse Mosquitto covers MQTT 5.0 support.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Catchpoint and Eclipse Mosquitto actually diverge.

Attributes where Catchpoint and Eclipse Mosquitto differ
AttributeCatchpointEclipse Mosquitto
Pricing modelFree tier plus published entry tiers, enterprise quote-onlyOpen source, no licence fee
PlatformsWebLinux, Windows, macOS, Docker

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Networking).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Catchpoint

  • Global vantage point network
  • WebPageTest integration
  • BGP and DNS monitoring
  • Real user monitoring
  • Token-based points model

Only in Eclipse Mosquitto

  • MQTT 5.0 support
  • Very small footprint
  • Bridging
  • WebSockets listener
  • Command line clients
  • Dynamic security plugin

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Catchpoint

  • A web performance engineer wanting a fuller-featured, paid version of WebPageTest with longer retention and more locationsnot Eclipse Mosquitto
  • An enterprise SRE or network team monitoring internet-dependent application delivery, DNS and CDN performance at scalenot Eclipse Mosquitto
  • An organisation wanting BGP-level visibility into internet routing issues affecting its servicesnot Eclipse Mosquitto
  • A team wanting real user monitoring with session replay alongside synthetic testing from one vendornot Eclipse Mosquitto

Eclipse Mosquitto

  • A home or building automation stack where the broker must run on the same small computer as everything elsenot Catchpoint
  • An industrial gateway that buffers local telemetry and bridges selected topics to a cloud brokernot Catchpoint
  • Local development and testing of MQTT clients without provisioning a cloud IoT servicenot Catchpoint
  • An air-gapped deployment where a broker with no licence server and no phone-home behaviour is a requirementnot Catchpoint

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Catchpoint

  • Its flagship enterprise Internet Performance Monitoring product reverts to custom Enterprise pricing beyond the Quick Start package, so full-scale deployment cost is not knowable from the public site
  • The token-based points model, while flexible, requires understanding point consumption per test type to budget usage accurately, which is not always intuitive upfront
  • The IPM Quick Start Package carries a 12-month minimum commitment, so there is no genuinely short-term way to trial the enterprise product at scale
  • WebPageTest's published tiers are aimed at web performance testing specifically; the broader enterprise IPM feature set (BGP, DNS, CDN monitoring) is not available at those lower published prices
  • As with ThousandEyes, meaningful internet path visibility depends on a large distributed vantage point network that only the vendor controls, so coverage gaps in specific regions are not something a buyer can fix themselves
  • Session replay and RUM features are gated to the Expert tier and above, so lower tiers give synthetic testing only, without the real user data many teams actually want

Eclipse Mosquitto

  • There is no clustering: Mosquitto is a single process, so high availability means building your own failover and accepting session loss on switchover.
  • Persistence is a local file rather than a replicated store, so a disk failure or an unclean shutdown can lose retained messages and queued QoS traffic.
  • Practical capacity is a few thousand concurrent clients on typical hardware, so a growing device fleet eventually forces a migration to a clustered broker.
  • The Eclipse Public Licence is weak copyleft rather than permissive, which some legal teams treat as a blocker when embedding the broker in a shipped commercial product.
  • There is no commercial support to buy from the project, so production incidents rely on community mailing lists or on paying a third party who happens to know the codebase.

Pricing, plan by plan

Catchpoint

Free
  • WebPageTest StarterFree
    • 150 monthly test runs
    • 60-day retention
    • 30 global locations
  • WebPageTest Professional$180/year
    • 1,000-20,000 monthly test runs
    • 13-month retention
    • 40 global locations
  • WebPageTest Expert$11988/year
    • Real user monitoring with session replay
    • Unlimited users with SSO
    • 3,000+ agents across 300+ cities
  • IPM Quick Start$10000/year
    • Single end-to-end journey monitoring
    • DNS, SSL, CDN and API monitoring

Eclipse Mosquitto

Free
  • Eclipse MosquittoFree
    • Eclipse Public License 2.0 with Eclipse Distribution Licence
    • MQTT 5.0, 3.1.1 and 3.1
    • No client or message limits beyond your hardware

Which should you pick?

Choose Catchpoint if

  • You need global vantage point network.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You also want webpagetest integration.
Catchpoint review

Choose Eclipse Mosquitto if

  • You need mqtt 5.0 support.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Windows, macOS, Docker.
  • You also want very small footprint.
Eclipse Mosquitto review

Questions people ask

Is Catchpoint or Eclipse Mosquitto better?
Neither clearly leads. Catchpoint starts at Free and Eclipse Mosquitto at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Catchpoint or Eclipse Mosquitto?
Catchpoint starts at Free and Eclipse Mosquitto at Free.
Does Catchpoint or Eclipse Mosquitto run on more platforms?
Catchpoint runs on Web. Eclipse Mosquitto runs on Linux, Windows, macOS, Docker.
Can I use Catchpoint for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Catchpoint best used for?
Catchpoint is most often used for a web performance engineer wanting a fuller-featured, paid version of webpagetest with longer retention and more locations, an enterprise sre or network team monitoring internet-dependent application delivery, dns and cdn performance at scale, an organisation wanting bgp-level visibility into internet routing issues affecting its services, a team wanting real user monitoring with session replay alongside synthetic testing from one vendor. Of those, a web performance engineer wanting a fuller-featured, paid version of webpagetest with longer retention and more locations and an enterprise sre or network team monitoring internet-dependent application delivery, dns and cdn performance at scale are not what Eclipse Mosquitto is typically brought in for.
What can Catchpoint do that Eclipse Mosquitto cannot?
Catchpoint covers Global vantage point network, WebPageTest integration, BGP and DNS monitoring, Real user monitoring. Eclipse Mosquitto covers MQTT 5.0 support, Very small footprint, Bridging, WebSockets listener.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Catchpoint: Is there a free tier?

Yes, WebPageTest Starter is free with 150 monthly test runs.

Eclipse Mosquitto: Can Mosquitto be clustered?

No. It is a single process. High availability requires an external failover arrangement you build yourself.

Catchpoint: Is enterprise IPM pricing published?

Only the entry Quick Start Package at $10,000/year with a 12-month minimum; full Enterprise pricing is custom.

Eclipse Mosquitto: What licence is it?

Eclipse Public License 2.0 alongside the Eclipse Distribution License, a weak copyleft rather than a permissive licence.

Catchpoint: Does Catchpoint own WebPageTest?

Yes, Catchpoint operates WebPageTest as a productised offering with its own tiered pricing.

Eclipse Mosquitto: How many clients can it handle?

A few thousand concurrent connections on ordinary hardware; beyond that, use a clustered broker.

Eclipse Mosquitto: Does it support MQTT 5?

Yes, along with 3.1.1 and 3.1.

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