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Databases · head to head

Canary Labs vs EMQX

Canary Labs logo

Canary Labs

Databases

Industrial process historian with published per-tag pricing and no client licence fees

From
$3000/year
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
EMQX logo

EMQX

Databases

Erlang MQTT broker for large IoT fleets, relicensed to BSL with production free use limited to one node

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only EMQX has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Canary Labs pricing steps by tag band rather than actual tags, so a site sitting just above a threshold pays the next band in full; growth from 3,400 to 3,600 tags is a licence purchase, not a rounding error.; EMQX the move to Business Source Licence 1.1 at version 5.9 in May 2025 limits free production use to a single node, so the clustering that justifies choosing EMQX now requires a paid subscription from the second node onward.
  • They diverge on capability: Canary Labs covers Loss-less compression, EMQX covers Erlang clustering.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Canary Labs and EMQX actually diverge.

Attributes where Canary Labs and EMQX differ
AttributeCanary LabsEMQX
Starting price$3000/yearFree
Pricing modelPer tag band per yearPer month by connection and session volume
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWindows, WebLinux, Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud, macOS

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Databases).

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 Canary Labs

  • Loss-less compression
  • Unlimited clients
  • Store and forward
  • Views service
  • Sparkplug B
  • Calculation engine
  • Axiom
  • ODBC and REST

Only in EMQX

  • Erlang clustering
  • MQTT 5.0 and QUIC
  • Rule engine
  • Data integration sinks
  • Session persistence
  • Multi protocol gateways
  • Authentication and authorisation
  • Dashboard and REST API

What people use each for

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

Canary Labs

  • A manufacturer that needs a compliant historian but cannot justify a PI System enterprise agreementnot EMQX
  • A water utility replacing SCADA-embedded logging with a historian that survives the next SCADA replacementnot EMQX
  • An Ignition site that wants long-term storage and trending without paying per-client for dashboardsnot EMQX
  • A plant with regulatory data-retention obligations where swinging-door compression would not survive an auditnot EMQX

EMQX

  • A connected vehicle platform needing millions of persistent MQTT sessions with QUIC for handover across mobile networksnot Canary Labs
  • An industrial operator routing sensor telemetry straight into TimescaleDB or Kafka without writing a consumer servicenot Canary Labs
  • An IoT product team that has outgrown a single Mosquitto instance and needs clustering and shared subscriptionsnot Canary Labs
  • A smart building deployment mixing MQTT, CoAP and LwM2M devices on one brokernot Canary Labs

Where each one falls short

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

Canary Labs

  • Pricing steps by tag band rather than actual tags, so a site sitting just above a threshold pays the next band in full; growth from 3,400 to 3,600 tags is a licence purchase, not a rounding error.
  • CustomerCare at 18 percent of licence cost is effectively mandatory on perpetual licences because lapsing it removes upgrades, so the perpetual option is not really a one-time cost.
  • The storage format is proprietary; getting data out at volume means the ODBC connector, an additional 2,500 USD one-time or 1,000 USD a year, or writing against the REST API.
  • Canary is a small vendor with a limited partner network outside North America, so support coverage and integrator availability in Europe and Asia are thinner than for AVEVA or Ignition.
  • It is a Windows-only server product with no Linux or container deployment, which complicates placing collectors in modern edge estates.

EMQX

  • The move to Business Source Licence 1.1 at version 5.9 in May 2025 limits free production use to a single node, so the clustering that justifies choosing EMQX now requires a paid subscription from the second node onward.
  • The relicensing arrived in a minor release, which caught users who had pinned to 5.x expecting Apache 2.0 terms and forced legal review of existing deployments.
  • Running an Erlang/OTP cluster well requires operational knowledge most teams do not have, and diagnosing distribution, mnesia or memory issues means learning a runtime you use for nothing else.
  • Enterprise pricing is quoted rather than published for the self-managed edition, so the cost of the clustered configuration you actually need is invisible until you talk to sales.
  • The Serverless tier caps at around a thousand connections and shares infrastructure, which makes it a prototyping tier rather than a genuine small production option.

Pricing, plan by plan

Canary Labs

$3000/year
  • Subscription, 3,500 tags$3000/year
    • Unlimited Axiom clients
    • Unlimited Excel clients
    • Support and upgrades included
  • Perpetual, 3,500 tags$8730/one-time
    • 7,400 USD licence plus 1,330 USD first-year CustomerCare
    • CustomerCare renews at 18 percent of licence cost per year
    • Unlimited clients
  • Private cloud, 3,500 tags$12320/year
    • Hosted by Canary
    • 1,500 USD one-time setup fee per system
    • Scales to around 58,684 USD per year at 60,000 tags
  • Enterprise unlimited$undefined/year
    • Unlimited tags
    • Negotiated licensing terms
    • Quoted pricing

EMQX

Free
  • Open Source single nodeFree
    • BSL 1.1 licence since version 5.9
    • Free production use of one node only
    • All former enterprise features visible
  • ServerlessFree
    • Free monthly quota then pay as you go
    • Up to 1,000 connections
    • 8 by 5 support
  • Dedicated Flex$234/month
    • Single tenant cluster
    • Traffic allowance included
    • 24/7 support
  • Enterprise self-managed$undefined/year
    • Deploy on premises, at the edge or in any cloud
    • Clustering licensed
    • 256 MB maximum message size

Which should you pick?

Choose Canary Labs if

  • You need loss-less compression.
  • You work on Windows, Web.
  • You also want unlimited clients.
Canary Labs review

Choose EMQX if

  • You need erlang clustering.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud, macOS.
  • You also want mqtt 5.0 and quic.
EMQX review

Questions people ask

Is Canary Labs or EMQX better?
Neither clearly leads. Canary Labs starts at $3000/year and EMQX at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Canary Labs or EMQX?
EMQX has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $3000/year for Canary Labs and Free for EMQX.
Does Canary Labs or EMQX run on more platforms?
Canary Labs runs on Windows, Web. EMQX runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud, macOS.
Can I use EMQX for free?
Yes. EMQX has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Canary Labs starts at $3000/year.
What is Canary Labs best used for?
Canary Labs is most often used for a manufacturer that needs a compliant historian but cannot justify a pi system enterprise agreement, a water utility replacing scada-embedded logging with a historian that survives the next scada replacement, an ignition site that wants long-term storage and trending without paying per-client for dashboards, a plant with regulatory data-retention obligations where swinging-door compression would not survive an audit. Of those, a manufacturer that needs a compliant historian but cannot justify a pi system enterprise agreement and a water utility replacing scada-embedded logging with a historian that survives the next scada replacement are not what EMQX is typically brought in for.
What can Canary Labs do that EMQX cannot?
Canary Labs covers Loss-less compression, Unlimited clients, Store and forward, Views service. EMQX covers Erlang clustering, MQTT 5.0 and QUIC, Rule engine, Data integration sinks.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Canary Labs: What does Canary cost?

8,730 USD for a 3,500 tag perpetual system including first-year CustomerCare, or 3,000 USD a year on subscription.

EMQX: Is EMQX still open source?

Not in the OSI sense since version 5.9. It is source-available under Business Source Licence 1.1, reverting to Apache 2.0 four years after each release.

Canary Labs: Are client licences extra?

No. Unlimited Axiom browser clients and unlimited Excel clients are included on every tier.

EMQX: Can I run a free cluster?

No. The additional use grant permits free production use of one node; clustering requires a commercial licence.

Canary Labs: Is perpetual cheaper than subscription?

Canary states perpetual pays off after roughly three years, and after that you still pay 18 percent CustomerCare annually.

EMQX: What changed for existing users?

Community and enterprise editions merged, so all features are now visible, but the licence terms tightened in the same minor release.

Canary Labs: Does it use lossy compression?

No. Canary stores every collected value rather than approximating the trend, which matters for regulated data retention.

EMQX: Which version is still Apache 2.0?

Releases before 5.9 remain under Apache 2.0, and each BSL release converts to Apache 2.0 four years after publication.

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