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Automation Integration · head to head

HighByte Intelligence Hub vs HiveMQ

HighByte Intelligence Hub logo

HighByte Intelligence Hub

Automation Integration

Industrial DataOps middleware that models and contextualises OT data before it reaches IT systems

From
$18500/year
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

  • Only HiveMQ has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: HighByte Intelligence Hub it is subscription only with no perpetual licence, so the data pipelines are a permanent operating cost and stop working if the subscription lapses.; 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: HighByte Intelligence Hub covers Data modelling, HiveMQ covers MQTT 5 and 3.1.1.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which HighByte Intelligence Hub and HiveMQ actually diverge.

Attributes where HighByte Intelligence Hub and HiveMQ differ
AttributeHighByte Intelligence HubHiveMQ
Starting price$18500/yearFree
Pricing modelPer site per yearPer month by connections and throughput
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWindows, Linux, DockerLinux, Docker, Kubernetes, Web
CategoryAutomation IntegrationNetworking

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

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 HighByte Intelligence Hub

  • Data modelling
  • Unified namespace
  • Pipelines
  • Connectors
  • High availability
  • Store and forward
  • Central configuration
  • REST data server

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.

HighByte Intelligence Hub

  • A manufacturer replacing hand-written Python scripts that push historian tags to a cloud warehouse with a modelled, supportable pipelinenot HiveMQ
  • A company building a unified namespace where OT payloads must carry asset context before they reach the brokernot HiveMQ
  • A data centre operator aggregating building and power telemetry into one cloud model across a campusnot HiveMQ
  • A team that needs PI System data joined with MES and ERP context without giving IT direct access to the control networknot HiveMQ

HiveMQ

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

Where each one falls short

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

HighByte Intelligence Hub

  • It is subscription only with no perpetual licence, so the data pipelines are a permanent operating cost and stop working if the subscription lapses.
  • Pricing is per site with a 18,500 USD floor, so a small plant or a proof of concept pays enterprise money for a handful of tags; there is no tag-scaled or starter tier.
  • The Hub does not store data. It has no historian, so a destination outage longer than the store-and-forward buffer means lost data and you still need a historian or warehouse underneath.
  • Definitions of a site and a plant are negotiated rather than published, which creates room for disagreement at renewal when a customer adds a building or a second line.
  • The product depends on a small vendor with a narrow focus; if your integration needs drift towards general ETL or streaming, you end up running HighByte alongside a separate data stack rather than instead of one.

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

HighByte Intelligence Hub

$18500/year
  • Professional$18500/year
    • Single plant or agreed coverage area
    • Unlimited data models and pipelines
    • High availability, embedded MQTT broker, PI System integration
  • Factory Starter Pack$50000/year
    • Three factories
    • Central configuration across instances
    • All premium features included
  • Data Center Starter Pack$65000/year
    • Single aggregation point in customer cloud
    • All premium features included
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Unlimited installations under one annual contract
    • Negotiated multi-year and multi-site discounts
    • Quoted pricing

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 HighByte Intelligence Hub if

  • You need data modelling.
  • You work on Windows, Linux, Docker.
  • You also want unified namespace.
HighByte Intelligence Hub 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 HighByte Intelligence Hub or HiveMQ better?
Neither clearly leads. HighByte Intelligence Hub starts at $18500/year and HiveMQ at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, HighByte Intelligence Hub or HiveMQ?
HiveMQ has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $18500/year for HighByte Intelligence Hub and Free for HiveMQ.
Does HighByte Intelligence Hub or HiveMQ run on more platforms?
HighByte Intelligence Hub runs on Windows, Linux, Docker. HiveMQ runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Web.
Can I use HiveMQ for free?
Yes. HiveMQ has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. HighByte Intelligence Hub starts at $18500/year.
What is HighByte Intelligence Hub best used for?
HighByte Intelligence Hub is most often used for a manufacturer replacing hand-written python scripts that push historian tags to a cloud warehouse with a modelled, supportable pipeline, a company building a unified namespace where ot payloads must carry asset context before they reach the broker, a data centre operator aggregating building and power telemetry into one cloud model across a campus, a team that needs pi system data joined with mes and erp context without giving it direct access to the control network. Of those, a manufacturer replacing hand-written python scripts that push historian tags to a cloud warehouse with a modelled, supportable pipeline and a company building a unified namespace where ot payloads must carry asset context before they reach the broker are not what HiveMQ is typically brought in for.
What can HighByte Intelligence Hub do that HiveMQ cannot?
HighByte Intelligence Hub covers Data modelling, Unified namespace, Pipelines, Connectors. HiveMQ covers MQTT 5 and 3.1.1, Native clustering, Data Hub, Extension framework.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

HighByte Intelligence Hub: What does a HighByte licence actually cost?

18,500 USD per year for Professional covering one plant, 50,000 USD for three factories, 65,000 USD for a cloud data centre aggregation point.

HiveMQ: Is HiveMQ free?

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

HighByte Intelligence Hub: Is pricing based on tag count?

No. All licences include unlimited data models and pipelines; the licence covers a coverage area, not a data volume.

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.

HighByte Intelligence Hub: Does HighByte store historical data?

No. It models and routes data in motion. You still need a historian or a warehouse as the destination.

HiveMQ: Does it support MQTT 5?

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

HighByte Intelligence Hub: Can I buy it perpetually?

No. It is an annual subscription only.

HiveMQ: Can it bridge into Kafka?

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

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