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Networking · head to head

Eclipse Mosquitto vs Rook

Eclipse Mosquitto logo

Eclipse Mosquitto

Networking

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

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Rook logo

Rook

Cloud

Kubernetes operator that deploys and manages Ceph storage clusters

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.; Rook rook automates Ceph but does not abstract it, so an incident still demands Ceph expertise, and organisations without it end up hiring consultants at exactly the wrong moment.
  • They diverge on capability: Eclipse Mosquitto covers MQTT 5.0 support, Rook covers Ceph operator.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

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

Attributes where Eclipse Mosquitto and Rook differ
AttributeEclipse MosquittoRook
PlatformsLinux, Windows, macOS, DockerLinux, Kubernetes
CategoryNetworkingCloud

Identical on both: starting price (Free), pricing model (Open source, no licence fee), 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 Rook

  • Ceph operator
  • Block, file and object
  • Erasure coding
  • CSI driver
  • Automated upgrades
  • Multi-cluster mirroring

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

Rook

  • An on-premises Kubernetes platform needing block, shared filesystem and S3 storage without buying three productsnot Eclipse Mosquitto
  • A team that already runs Ceph and wants its lifecycle managed declaratively inside Kubernetesnot Eclipse Mosquitto
  • A large cluster where three-way replication overhead is unaffordable and erasure coding is requirednot Eclipse Mosquitto
  • An organisation building a private cloud that cannot use managed cloud storage services for residency reasonsnot 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.

Rook

  • Rook automates Ceph but does not abstract it, so an incident still demands Ceph expertise, and organisations without it end up hiring consultants at exactly the wrong moment.
  • There is no vendor and no SLA; the realistic commercial support routes are IBM Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation or an independent Ceph consultancy, both of which change the cost picture entirely.
  • Ceph is resource hungry, needing substantial memory and dedicated disks per OSD, so the hardware cost of a properly sized cluster is often underestimated.
  • Recovery and rebalancing after a disk or node failure generates heavy background input and output that can degrade application performance for hours, which surprises teams sizing for steady state.
  • Minimum viable clusters require several nodes with several disks each, so it is impractical at small scale and the entry hardware cost exceeds simpler alternatives.

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

Rook

Free
  • RookFree
    • Apache 2.0 licensed, no licence fee
    • Graduated CNCF project
    • Community support via GitHub and Slack only

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 Rook if

  • You need ceph operator.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Kubernetes.
  • You also want block, file and object.
Rook review

Questions people ask

Is Eclipse Mosquitto or Rook better?
Neither clearly leads. Eclipse Mosquitto starts at Free and Rook at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Eclipse Mosquitto or Rook?
Eclipse Mosquitto starts at Free and Rook at Free.
Does Eclipse Mosquitto or Rook run on more platforms?
Eclipse Mosquitto runs on Linux, Windows, macOS, Docker. Rook runs on Linux, 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 Rook is typically brought in for.
What can Eclipse Mosquitto do that Rook cannot?
Eclipse Mosquitto covers MQTT 5.0 support, Very small footprint, Bridging, WebSockets listener. Rook covers Ceph operator, Block, file and object, Erasure coding, CSI driver.

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.

Rook: Who supports it in production?

Nobody by default. IBM sells Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation, which is supported Rook and Ceph, and independent consultancies sell Ceph support. Decide this before deployment.

Eclipse Mosquitto: What licence is it?

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

Rook: Does it need Ceph knowledge?

Yes. Rook handles deployment and routine operations, but troubleshooting a degraded cluster is a Ceph skill and there is no way around it.

Eclipse Mosquitto: How many clients can it handle?

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

Rook: Can it replace an object storage appliance?

Functionally yes, through the RADOS gateway, but you take on the operations that an appliance vendor would otherwise carry.

Eclipse Mosquitto: Does it support MQTT 5?

Yes, along with 3.1.1 and 3.1.

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