Networking · head to head
HiveMQ vs OPNsense
HiveMQ
Networking
Enterprise MQTT broker for industrial IoT with a published self-managed price list
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
OPNsense
Networking
FreeBSD-based firewall and routing platform with weekly updates and a full configuration API
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- 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.; OPNsense throughput depends entirely on hardware you selected yourself, and intrusion prevention at multi-gigabit rates will saturate a machine that handled plain firewalling fine, with no vendor sizing commitment to fall back on.
- They diverge on capability: HiveMQ covers MQTT 5 and 3.1.1, OPNsense covers Stateful firewall on pf.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which HiveMQ and OPNsense actually diverge.
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 HiveMQ
- MQTT 5 and 3.1.1
- Native clustering
- Data Hub
- Extension framework
- Enterprise bridges
- Control centre
Only in OPNsense
- Stateful firewall on pf
- VPN suite
- Suricata IDS and IPS
- Full configuration API
- High availability
- Weekly update cadence
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 OPNsense
- An industrial plant bridging MQTT telemetry into Kafka without writing and operating the bridgenot OPNsense
- A utility that needs message-level schema validation so one faulty firmware release cannot corrupt the data lakenot OPNsense
- An IoT project that needs a self-managed broker price for a budget submission without entering a sales processnot OPNsense
OPNsense
- Replacing a small business firewall appliance whose renewal quote exceeded the cost of the hardwarenot HiveMQ
- Branch offices where the firewall configuration must be produced by Ansible rather than by handnot HiveMQ
- Sites that need WireGuard and intrusion prevention on the same box without separate feature licencesnot HiveMQ
- A homelab or lab network needing VLAN routing, multi-WAN and DNS filtering on one machinenot 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.
OPNsense
- Throughput depends entirely on hardware you selected yourself, and intrusion prevention at multi-gigabit rates will saturate a machine that handled plain firewalling fine, with no vendor sizing commitment to fall back on.
- The weekly update cadence is good for security but means more change events than a team used to annual appliance firmware, and occasional regressions reach production installations.
- FreeBSD underneath limits driver support compared with Linux, so recent network cards and some virtualisation drivers can be unsupported or slow.
- The plugin ecosystem is uneven in quality; some plugins are maintained by a single contributor and can lag a major release, breaking a function you depended on.
- Community support is a forum, so an outage at two in the morning on the free edition is your problem alone unless you bought the business subscription in advance.
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
OPNsense
Free- OPNsense Community EditionFree
- MIT licence with no feature restrictions
- All VPN, IDS and HA features included
- Weekly updates and two major releases a year
- OPNsense Business Edition$undefined/year
- Stabilised update track lagging community releases
- Commercial support from Deciso
- Additional enterprise plugins and configuration backup
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.
Choose OPNsense if
- You need stateful firewall on pf.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on x86-64 appliances, Virtual machines, Deciso hardware.
- You also want vpn suite.
Questions people ask
- Is HiveMQ or OPNsense better?
- Neither clearly leads. HiveMQ starts at Free and OPNsense at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, HiveMQ or OPNsense?
- HiveMQ starts at Free and OPNsense at Free.
- Does HiveMQ or OPNsense run on more platforms?
- HiveMQ runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Web. OPNsense runs on x86-64 appliances, Virtual machines, Deciso hardware.
- Can I use HiveMQ for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- 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 OPNsense is typically brought in for.
- What can HiveMQ do that OPNsense cannot?
- HiveMQ covers MQTT 5 and 3.1.1, Native clustering, Data Hub, Extension framework. OPNsense covers Stateful firewall on pf, VPN suite, Suricata IDS and IPS, Full configuration API.
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.
OPNsense: How is it different from pfSense?
It is a 2015 fork with an MIT licence, a fixed weekly release cadence, a complete configuration API and a different interface. Feature coverage is comparable; the release process and API are the real differences.
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.
OPNsense: Do I need the Business Edition?
Only if you want commercial support or a slower, stabilised update stream. No features are withheld from the community edition.
HiveMQ: Does it support MQTT 5?
Yes, both MQTT 5 and 3.1.1, including shared subscriptions and session expiry intervals.
OPNsense: Can it handle a gigabit internet connection?
Plain firewalling on modest current hardware, comfortably. With Suricata inspection enabled, expect to need a considerably stronger CPU.
HiveMQ: Can it bridge into Kafka?
Yes, via a commercial enterprise extension, not in the Community Edition.
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