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Home Assistant vs Eclipse Mosquitto

Home Assistant logo

Home Assistant

Smart Home

Open source home automation that puts local control and privacy first

From
Free
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

  • Each has a real cost: Home Assistant add-ons run only on Home Assistant Operating System installations, and Container installations have no access to them; 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: Home Assistant covers Local Control, Eclipse Mosquitto covers MQTT 5.0 support.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Home Assistant and Eclipse Mosquitto actually diverge.

Attributes where Home Assistant and Eclipse Mosquitto differ
AttributeHome AssistantEclipse Mosquitto
Pricing modelopen-sourceOpen source, no licence fee
PlatformsLinux, Docker, Raspberry Pi, MacOS, WindowsLinux, Windows, macOS, Docker
CategorySmart HomeNetworking
Founded2013Unknown

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), 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 Home Assistant

  • Local Control
  • Privacy First
  • Automation Engine
  • Custom Integrations
  • 150+ integrations
  • Voice Control
  • Mobile App
  • REST API

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.

Home Assistant

  • Home automationnot Eclipse Mosquitto
  • Energy monitoringnot Eclipse Mosquitto
  • Security systemsnot Eclipse Mosquitto
  • Device integrationnot Eclipse Mosquitto

Eclipse Mosquitto

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

Where each one falls short

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

Home Assistant

  • Add-ons run only on Home Assistant Operating System installations, and Container installations have no access to them
  • Thread and Z-Wave are controlled by add-ons, so a Container install has no out-of-the-box support for either
  • A Container installation means bringing your own Linux host with Docker and handling updates by hand
  • The recommended install path expects dedicated hardware such as a Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 with at least 2 GB of RAM, an Odroid, or an x86-64 machine
  • Every documented hardware option requires a wired Ethernet connection

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

Home Assistant

Free
  • Community EditionFree
    • Unlimited devices
    • Full automation
    • Local control

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 Home Assistant if

  • You need local control.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Docker, Raspberry Pi, MacOS, Windows.
  • You also want privacy first.
Home Assistant 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 Home Assistant or Eclipse Mosquitto better?
Neither clearly leads. Home Assistant starts at Free and Eclipse Mosquitto at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Home Assistant or Eclipse Mosquitto?
Home Assistant starts at Free and Eclipse Mosquitto at Free.
Does Home Assistant or Eclipse Mosquitto run on more platforms?
Home Assistant runs on Linux, Docker, Raspberry Pi, MacOS, Windows. Eclipse Mosquitto runs on Linux, Windows, macOS, Docker.
Can I use Home Assistant for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Home Assistant best used for?
Home Assistant is most often used for home automation, energy monitoring, security systems, device integration. Of those, home automation and energy monitoring are not what Eclipse Mosquitto is typically brought in for.
What can Home Assistant do that Eclipse Mosquitto cannot?
Home Assistant covers Local Control, Privacy First, Automation Engine, Custom Integrations. Eclipse Mosquitto covers MQTT 5.0 support, Very small footprint, Bridging, WebSockets listener.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Home Assistant: Does Home Assistant software cost anything?

Home Assistant core software is completely free and open source. It is operated by the Open Home Foundation as a non-profit, which means it cannot be sold or acquired. Commercial products like Home Assistant hardware are sold separately.

Source
Eclipse Mosquitto: Can Mosquitto be clustered?

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

Home Assistant: Are there paid products from Home Assistant?

Home Assistant offers official hardware products including Home Assistant Green, Connect ZBT-2, Connect ZWA-2, and Voice Preview Edition, which have separate pricing. Nabu Casa provides commercial services as an official partner.

Source
Eclipse Mosquitto: What licence is it?

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

Eclipse Mosquitto: How many clients can it handle?

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

Eclipse Mosquitto: Does it support MQTT 5?

Yes, along with 3.1.1 and 3.1.

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