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Networking · head to head

Eclipse Mosquitto vs ngrok

Eclipse Mosquitto logo

Eclipse Mosquitto

Networking

Small, EPL-licensed MQTT broker that runs on hardware other brokers cannot

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
ngrok logo

ngrok

Networking

Reverse tunnel service that gives a local or private service a public URL without opening a firewall

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: 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.; ngrok free HTTP endpoints show a browser interstitial before the page loads, which breaks first impressions in demos and confuses anyone you send the link to.
  • They diverge on capability: Eclipse Mosquitto covers MQTT 5.0 support, ngrok covers Outbound agent tunnels.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Eclipse Mosquitto and ngrok actually diverge.

Attributes where Eclipse Mosquitto and ngrok differ
AttributeEclipse Mosquittongrok
Pricing modelOpen source, no licence feePer user per month
PlatformsLinux, Windows, macOS, DockerLinux, macOS, Windows, Docker, Kubernetes

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 Eclipse Mosquitto

  • MQTT 5.0 support
  • Very small footprint
  • Bridging
  • WebSockets listener
  • Command line clients
  • Dynamic security plugin

Only in ngrok

  • Outbound agent tunnels
  • Static domains
  • Traffic policy
  • Request inspection
  • Kubernetes ingress
  • TCP and TLS endpoints

What people use each for

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

Eclipse Mosquitto

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

ngrok

  • Receiving webhooks from a payment or messaging provider on a laptop during developmentnot Eclipse Mosquitto
  • Demonstrating a work in progress application to someone outside the network without deploying itnot Eclipse Mosquitto
  • Publishing a service inside a private network or Kubernetes cluster without a public load balancernot Eclipse Mosquitto
  • Giving a partner a temporary authenticated endpoint into an internal APInot Eclipse Mosquitto

Where each one falls short

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

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.

ngrok

  • Free HTTP endpoints show a browser interstitial before the page loads, which breaks first impressions in demos and confuses anyone you send the link to.
  • All traffic passes through ngrok infrastructure, so you inherit its latency and an ngrok incident takes every published endpoint down at once with no local failover.
  • Pricing is per user seat plus allowances, so a platform team publishing many endpoints ends up buying seats for people who never open the dashboard.
  • Bandwidth is metered on paid tiers, so a workload that quietly grows into serving real traffic produces overage rather than a flat bill.
  • Traffic policy configuration is specific to ngrok, so the authentication and routing logic you accumulate at the edge has to be rebuilt if you later move to a conventional ingress.

Pricing, plan by plan

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

ngrok

Free
  • FreeFree
    • One static domain
    • HTTP endpoints with a browser interstitial
    • Limited simultaneous connections
  • Personal$undefined/month
    • Removes the interstitial warning page
    • Additional reserved domains
    • TCP endpoints
  • Pro$undefined/month
    • Per user billing with team accounts
    • Traffic policy rules and edge authentication
    • Higher bandwidth allowances
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Custom terms and volume pricing
    • Dedicated capacity options
    • Compliance and audit requirements

Which should you pick?

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

Choose ngrok if

  • You need outbound agent tunnels.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Windows, Docker, Kubernetes.
  • You also want static domains.
ngrok review

Questions people ask

Is Eclipse Mosquitto or ngrok better?
Neither clearly leads. Eclipse Mosquitto starts at Free and ngrok at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Eclipse Mosquitto or ngrok?
Eclipse Mosquitto starts at Free and ngrok at Free.
Does Eclipse Mosquitto or ngrok run on more platforms?
Eclipse Mosquitto runs on Linux, Windows, macOS, Docker. ngrok runs on Linux, macOS, Windows, Docker, Kubernetes.
Can I use Eclipse Mosquitto for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Eclipse Mosquitto best used for?
Eclipse Mosquitto is most often used for a home or building automation stack where the broker must run on the same small computer as everything else, an industrial gateway that buffers local telemetry and bridges selected topics to a cloud broker, local development and testing of mqtt clients without provisioning a cloud iot service, an air-gapped deployment where a broker with no licence server and no phone-home behaviour is a requirement. Of those, a home or building automation stack where the broker must run on the same small computer as everything else and an industrial gateway that buffers local telemetry and bridges selected topics to a cloud broker are not what ngrok is typically brought in for.
What can Eclipse Mosquitto do that ngrok cannot?
Eclipse Mosquitto covers MQTT 5.0 support, Very small footprint, Bridging, WebSockets listener. ngrok covers Outbound agent tunnels, Static domains, Traffic policy, Request inspection.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Eclipse Mosquitto: Can Mosquitto be clustered?

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

ngrok: Can I use it in production?

It is sold for that now, with static domains, policy rules and a Kubernetes operator. The question is whether you accept a third party on the traffic path for every request.

Eclipse Mosquitto: What licence is it?

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

ngrok: Why does my free URL show a warning page?

Free HTTP endpoints carry an interstitial. Removing it requires a paid plan, and it is the most common reason people upgrade.

Eclipse Mosquitto: How many clients can it handle?

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

ngrok: Does it work for SSH or a database?

Yes through TCP endpoints, which are a paid feature.

Eclipse Mosquitto: Does it support MQTT 5?

Yes, along with 3.1.1 and 3.1.

ngrok: What is the self hosted alternative?

A reverse proxy on a server you own with a tunnel back to the service, or one of the self hosted tunnel projects. All of them cost more setup time than the thing they replace.

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