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Automation Integration · head to head

HighByte Intelligence Hub vs Eclipse Mosquitto

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
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

  • Only Eclipse Mosquitto 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.; 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: HighByte Intelligence Hub covers Data modelling, 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 HighByte Intelligence Hub and Eclipse Mosquitto actually diverge.

Attributes where HighByte Intelligence Hub and Eclipse Mosquitto differ
AttributeHighByte Intelligence HubEclipse Mosquitto
Starting price$18500/yearFree
Pricing modelPer site per yearOpen source, no licence fee
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWindows, Linux, DockerLinux, Windows, macOS, Docker
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 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.

HighByte Intelligence Hub

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

Eclipse Mosquitto

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

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

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

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 HighByte Intelligence Hub if

  • You need data modelling.
  • You work on Windows, Linux, Docker.
  • You also want unified namespace.
HighByte Intelligence Hub 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 HighByte Intelligence Hub or Eclipse Mosquitto better?
Neither clearly leads. HighByte Intelligence Hub starts at $18500/year and Eclipse Mosquitto at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, HighByte Intelligence Hub or Eclipse Mosquitto?
Eclipse Mosquitto has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $18500/year for HighByte Intelligence Hub and Free for Eclipse Mosquitto.
Does HighByte Intelligence Hub or Eclipse Mosquitto run on more platforms?
HighByte Intelligence Hub runs on Windows, Linux, Docker. Eclipse Mosquitto runs on Linux, Windows, macOS, Docker.
Can I use Eclipse Mosquitto for free?
Yes. Eclipse Mosquitto 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 Eclipse Mosquitto is typically brought in for.
What can HighByte Intelligence Hub do that Eclipse Mosquitto cannot?
HighByte Intelligence Hub covers Data modelling, Unified namespace, Pipelines, Connectors. Eclipse Mosquitto covers MQTT 5.0 support, Very small footprint, Bridging, WebSockets listener.

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.

Eclipse Mosquitto: Can Mosquitto be clustered?

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

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.

Eclipse Mosquitto: What licence is it?

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

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.

Eclipse Mosquitto: How many clients can it handle?

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

HighByte Intelligence Hub: Can I buy it perpetually?

No. It is an annual subscription only.

Eclipse Mosquitto: Does it support MQTT 5?

Yes, along with 3.1.1 and 3.1.

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