Softwr

Networking · head to head

HiveMQ vs Juniper Mist

HiveMQ logo

HiveMQ

Networking

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

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Juniper Mist logo

Juniper Mist

Networking

AI-driven wireless and wired networking where a Wi-Fi Assurance subscription is a required, not optional, add-on

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only HiveMQ has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: 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.; Juniper Mist wi-Fi Assurance is a required subscription, not optional support, so the AI-driven monitoring that is the product's core selling point cannot be declined while still running the hardware in a supported way
  • They diverge on capability: HiveMQ covers MQTT 5 and 3.1.1, Juniper Mist covers AI-driven assurance.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which HiveMQ and Juniper Mist actually diverge.

Attributes where HiveMQ and Juniper Mist differ
AttributeHiveMQJuniper Mist
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelPer month by connections and throughputquote, hardware plus required Wi-Fi Assurance subscription
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsLinux, Docker, Kubernetes, WebWeb, iOS, Android

Identical on both: 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 HiveMQ

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

Only in Juniper Mist

  • AI-driven assurance
  • Marvis virtual network assistant
  • Device-agnostic subscriptions
  • SD-WAN integration
  • Location services

What people use each for

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

HiveMQ

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

Juniper Mist

  • A large campus or retail network operations team wanting AI-assisted root-cause analysis rather than manual log correlation for wireless issuesnot HiveMQ
  • An organisation already standardised on Juniper wired infrastructure wanting a unified wireless and SD-WAN management platformnot HiveMQ
  • A network team that wants subscriptions decoupled from specific device serial numbers, easing hardware refresh cyclesnot HiveMQ
  • An enterprise wanting natural-language network troubleshooting through the Marvis virtual assistant rather than raw dashboardsnot HiveMQ

Where each one falls short

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

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.

Juniper Mist

  • Wi-Fi Assurance is a required subscription, not optional support, so the AI-driven monitoring that is the product's core selling point cannot be declined while still running the hardware in a supported way
  • Pricing is entirely quote-based with no published list price, and third-party estimates of typical contract size vary widely, making it hard to budget before engaging Juniper sales
  • Premium Analytics is priced as a further add-on beyond the already-required base subscription, so the full-featured cost is higher than the headline Wi-Fi Assurance price alone
  • As with other cloud-managed hardware in this category, ongoing cloud connectivity is required for full functionality, and local resilience during an internet outage should be verified before purchase
  • Deployment-level licence attachment eases hardware swaps but still means the licence, not the hardware, is the thing actually being renewed and paid for indefinitely
  • Juniper's acquisition of Mist folds product direction into Juniper's broader roadmap and pricing strategy, which has already shifted since acquisition and may shift again

Pricing, plan by plan

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

Juniper Mist

On request
  • Wi-Fi Assurance$undefined/year
    • Required base subscription for AI-driven monitoring and cloud management
  • Premium Analytics$undefined/year
    • Additional add-on subscription on top of Wi-Fi Assurance

Which should you pick?

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

Choose Juniper Mist if

  • You need ai-driven assurance.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want marvis virtual network assistant.
Juniper Mist review

Questions people ask

Is HiveMQ or Juniper Mist better?
Neither clearly leads. HiveMQ starts at Free and Juniper Mist at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, HiveMQ or Juniper Mist?
HiveMQ has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for HiveMQ and On request for Juniper Mist.
Does HiveMQ or Juniper Mist run on more platforms?
HiveMQ runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Web. Juniper Mist runs on Web, iOS, Android.
Can I use HiveMQ for free?
Yes. HiveMQ has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Juniper Mist starts at On request.
What is HiveMQ best used for?
HiveMQ is most often used for a connected vehicle fleet where devices drop off the network for hours and sessions must survive, an industrial plant bridging mqtt telemetry into kafka without writing and operating the bridge, a utility that needs message-level schema validation so one faulty firmware release cannot corrupt the data lake, an iot project that needs a self-managed broker price for a budget submission without entering a sales process. Of those, a connected vehicle fleet where devices drop off the network for hours and sessions must survive and an industrial plant bridging mqtt telemetry into kafka without writing and operating the bridge are not what Juniper Mist is typically brought in for.
What can HiveMQ do that Juniper Mist cannot?
HiveMQ covers MQTT 5 and 3.1.1, Native clustering, Data Hub, Extension framework. Juniper Mist covers AI-driven assurance, Marvis virtual network assistant, Device-agnostic subscriptions, SD-WAN integration.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

HiveMQ: Is HiveMQ free?

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

Juniper Mist: Is the Wi-Fi Assurance subscription optional?

No, Juniper lists it as a required subscription for Mist wireless deployments; Premium Analytics is a further optional add-on.

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.

Juniper Mist: Is pricing published?

No, Juniper does not publish per-device or per-site pricing; it is quoted per deal.

HiveMQ: Does it support MQTT 5?

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

Juniper Mist: Are licences tied to specific hardware serial numbers?

No, Mist subscriptions attach to the deployment and are not bound to individual device serial numbers, which eases hardware refresh.

HiveMQ: Can it bridge into Kafka?

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

Share

Related pages

More on HiveMQ

More on Juniper Mist

Keep looking

Other head to heads