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Networking · head to head

Cloudflare vs HiveMQ

Cloudflare logo

Cloudflare

Networking

The web performance and security company

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
HiveMQ logo

HiveMQ

Networking

Enterprise MQTT broker for industrial IoT with a published self-managed price list

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Cloudflare free tier limited to basic features (no advanced analytics or premium features); HiveMQ the Community Edition lacks clustering, persistence extensions, the control centre and all enterprise bridges, so a prototype built on it does not become production by buying support.
  • They diverge on capability: Cloudflare covers Global CDN, HiveMQ covers MQTT 5 and 3.1.1.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Cloudflare and HiveMQ actually diverge.

Attributes where Cloudflare and HiveMQ differ
AttributeCloudflareHiveMQ
Pricing modelfreemiumPer month by connections and throughput
PlatformsWebLinux, Docker, Kubernetes, Web
Founded2009Unknown

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 Cloudflare

  • Global CDN
  • DDoS Protection
  • WAF
  • DNS
  • SSL/TLS
  • Load Balancing
  • Bot Management
  • Workers (Serverless)

Only in HiveMQ

  • MQTT 5 and 3.1.1
  • Native clustering
  • Data Hub
  • Extension framework
  • Enterprise bridges
  • Control centre

What people use each for

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

Cloudflare

  • Global content delivery network (CDN) with 330+ data centres worldwidenot HiveMQ
  • DDoS protection and bot blockingnot HiveMQ
  • Web application security and rate limitingnot HiveMQ
  • DNS management and domain protectionnot HiveMQ
  • Static and dynamic content cachingnot HiveMQ
  • Serverless computing via Cloudflare Workersnot HiveMQ
  • Database and storage services (D1, R2)not HiveMQ
  • Performance optimisation for Core Web Vitalsnot HiveMQ

HiveMQ

  • A connected vehicle fleet where devices drop off the network for hours and sessions must survivenot Cloudflare
  • An industrial plant bridging MQTT telemetry into Kafka without writing and operating the bridgenot Cloudflare
  • A utility that needs message-level schema validation so one faulty firmware release cannot corrupt the data lakenot Cloudflare
  • An IoT project that needs a self-managed broker price for a budget submission without entering a sales processnot Cloudflare

Where each one falls short

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

Cloudflare

  • Free tier limited to basic features (no advanced analytics or premium features)
  • Pro tier ($20-25/month) caps at professional websites (higher tiers needed for enterprise scale)
  • Caches only anonymous API GET responses (authenticated requests and non-GET methods not cached)
  • Geographic coverage limited to announced 330+ cities (may not cover all regions globally)

HiveMQ

  • The Community Edition lacks clustering, persistence extensions, the control centre and all enterprise bridges, so a prototype built on it does not become production by buying support.
  • The entry commercial tiers cap at ten thousand connections, and device fleets grow, so the step to Enterprise capacity pricing arrives sooner than most projects plan for.
  • It is a JVM application, so memory tuning and garbage collection behaviour become the operator’s problem at high connection counts, unlike the C-based brokers in this space.
  • Extensions are written in Java against HiveMQ’s SPI, which means custom authentication logic is locked to the platform and cannot move to another broker.
  • For simple use cases it is substantially heavier and more expensive than Mosquitto or EMQX, and small deployments frequently pay enterprise prices for clustering they never use.

Pricing, plan by plan

Cloudflare

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Cloudflare review.

HiveMQ

Free
  • Community EditionFree
    • Apache 2.0 licence
    • MQTT 3.1.1 and 5 support
    • Single broker, no clustering
  • Launch$299/month
    • Ten thousand connections
    • Five hundred messages per second
    • Single broker deployment
  • Run$499/month
    • Ten thousand connections
    • One thousand messages per second
    • Single broker deployment
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Priced by connections and throughput
    • Multi-broker and multi-site deployments
    • Distributed data intelligence

Which should you pick?

Choose Cloudflare if

  • You need global cdn.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You also want ddos protection.
Cloudflare review

Choose HiveMQ if

  • You need mqtt 5 and 3.1.1.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Web.
  • You also want native clustering.
HiveMQ review

Questions people ask

Is Cloudflare or HiveMQ better?
Neither clearly leads. Cloudflare starts at Free and HiveMQ at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Cloudflare or HiveMQ?
Cloudflare starts at Free and HiveMQ at Free.
Does Cloudflare or HiveMQ run on more platforms?
Cloudflare runs on Web. HiveMQ runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Web.
Can I use Cloudflare for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Cloudflare best used for?
Cloudflare is most often used for global content delivery network (cdn) with 330+ data centres worldwide, ddos protection and bot blocking, web application security and rate limiting, dns management and domain protection. Of those, global content delivery network (cdn) with 330+ data centres worldwide and ddos protection and bot blocking are not what HiveMQ is typically brought in for.
What can Cloudflare do that HiveMQ cannot?
Cloudflare covers Global CDN, DDoS Protection, WAF, DNS. HiveMQ covers MQTT 5 and 3.1.1, Native clustering, Data Hub, Extension framework.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Cloudflare: Does Cloudflare have a free tier?

Yes, Cloudflare includes a free tier with generous allowances: 100k daily requests for Workers, 10 GB monthly storage for R2, and 1 GB for Workers KV.

Source
HiveMQ: Is HiveMQ free?

The Community Edition is Apache 2.0 and free, but it has no clustering and none of the enterprise extensions.

Cloudflare: How much does Cloudflare cost beyond the free tier?

Cloudflare uses pay-as-you-go pricing beyond free allocations, charging per million requests, per GB-month of storage, or per vCPU-second depending on the service.

Source
HiveMQ: What does the commercial version cost?

Self-managed Launch is 299 US dollars a month for ten thousand connections; Run is 499 with higher throughput.

Cloudflare: Does Cloudflare charge egress fees?

No, Cloudflare explicitly states no egress fees and no hidden costs; you only pay for the usage metrics specific to each service.

Source
HiveMQ: Does it support MQTT 5?

Yes, both MQTT 5 and 3.1.1, including shared subscriptions and session expiry intervals.

Cloudflare: What's the Enterprise pricing model for Cloudflare?

Cloudflare Enterprise offers custom pricing and volume discounts available through direct sales for organizations with specialized needs and large-scale usage.

Source
HiveMQ: Can it bridge into Kafka?

Yes, via a commercial enterprise extension, not in the Community Edition.

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