Softwr

Networking · head to head

Eclipse Mosquitto vs Nitric

Eclipse Mosquitto logo

Eclipse Mosquitto

Networking

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

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Nitric logo

Nitric

Cloud

Infrastructure, handled

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.; Nitric smaller community compared to Terraform or Pulumi
  • They diverge on capability: Eclipse Mosquitto covers MQTT 5.0 support, Nitric covers Multi-language support.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

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

Attributes where Eclipse Mosquitto and Nitric differ
AttributeEclipse MosquittoNitric
Pricing modelOpen source, no licence feeUnknown
PlatformsLinux, Windows, macOS, DockerAWS, Azure, GCP, Kubernetes
CategoryNetworkingCloud

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 Eclipse Mosquitto

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

Only in Nitric

  • Multi-language support
  • Common resource abstractions
  • Local development
  • Multi-cloud deployment
  • Infrastructure as code generation
  • Vendor lock-in avoidance

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 Nitric
  • An industrial gateway that buffers local telemetry and bridges selected topics to a cloud brokernot Nitric
  • Local development and testing of MQTT clients without provisioning a cloud IoT servicenot Nitric
  • An air-gapped deployment where a broker with no licence server and no phone-home behaviour is a requirementnot Nitric

Nitric

  • Building APIs with multi-cloud deployment capabilitynot Eclipse Mosquitto
  • Creating microservices across different cloud providersnot Eclipse Mosquitto
  • Developing serverless applications in Python or Gonot 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.

Nitric

  • Smaller community compared to Terraform or Pulumi
  • Limited third-party provider plugins compared to dedicated IAC tools
  • Documentation could be more comprehensive

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

Nitric

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Nitric review.

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 Nitric if

  • You need multi-language support.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on AWS, Azure, GCP, Kubernetes.
  • You also want common resource abstractions.
Nitric review

Questions people ask

Is Eclipse Mosquitto or Nitric better?
Neither clearly leads. Eclipse Mosquitto starts at Free and Nitric at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Eclipse Mosquitto or Nitric?
Eclipse Mosquitto starts at Free and Nitric at Free.
Does Eclipse Mosquitto or Nitric run on more platforms?
Eclipse Mosquitto runs on Linux, Windows, macOS, Docker. Nitric runs on AWS, Azure, GCP, 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 Nitric is typically brought in for.
What can Eclipse Mosquitto do that Nitric cannot?
Eclipse Mosquitto covers MQTT 5.0 support, Very small footprint, Bridging, WebSockets listener. Nitric covers Multi-language support, Common resource abstractions, Local development, Multi-cloud deployment.

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.

Nitric: Is Nitric free?

Yes, Nitric is an open-source framework. Costs only apply when deploying to cloud providers like AWS, Azure, or GCP.

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.

Nitric: Can I switch cloud providers?

Yes, Nitric lets you write code once and deploy to AWS, Azure, GCP, or Kubernetes without modification.

Source
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.

Share

Related pages

More on Eclipse Mosquitto

More on Nitric

Keep looking

Other head to heads