Is VerneMQ or Vitess better?

Neither clearly leads. VerneMQ starts at Free and Vitess at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, VerneMQ or Vitess?

VerneMQ starts at Free and Vitess at Free.

Does VerneMQ or Vitess run on more platforms?

VerneMQ runs on Linux, Docker, macOS, Kubernetes. Vitess runs on Linux, macOS, Docker, Kubernetes.

Can I use VerneMQ for free?

Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.

What is VerneMQ best used for?

VerneMQ is most often used for an industrial operator that wants an mqtt broker with predictable memory behaviour and no data integration features it will not use, a team building from source to stay strictly under apache 2.0 terms with no vendor licence entanglement, a deployment needing custom authentication logic implemented as a plugin in lua or over a webhook, an organisation that wants a broker maintained by a small european company rather than by a vendor that keeps changing licences. Of those, an industrial operator that wants an mqtt broker with predictable memory behaviour and no data integration features it will not use and a team building from source to stay strictly under apache 2.0 terms with no vendor licence entanglement are not what Vitess is typically brought in for.

What can VerneMQ do that Vitess cannot?

VerneMQ covers Erlang/OTP clustering, MQTT 5.0 support, Plugin system, Backpressure handling. Vitess covers Horizontal Sharding, Connection Pooling, Query Routing, Online Schema Changes.

Databases · head to head

VerneMQ vs Vitess

VerneMQ

Databases

Erlang MQTT broker whose source is Apache 2.0 but whose official binaries need a paid subscription

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

Vitess

Databases

Scalable database clustering system for horizontal scaling of MySQL

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Each has a real cost: VerneMQ the official binaries and Docker images are not Apache 2.0 but sit under a EULA requiring a yearly commercial subscription, a distinction easy to miss and awkward to discover during a licence audit.; Vitess vTGate scatter queries without sharding key incur significant performance penalties
They diverge on capability: VerneMQ covers Erlang/OTP clustering, Vitess covers Horizontal Sharding.
Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which VerneMQ and Vitess actually diverge.

Attributes where VerneMQ and Vitess differ
Attribute	VerneMQ	Vitess
Pricing model	quote	Unknown
Platforms	Linux, Docker, macOS, Kubernetes	Linux, macOS, Docker, Kubernetes
Founded	Unknown	2010

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Databases).

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 VerneMQ

Erlang/OTP clustering
MQTT 5.0 support
Plugin system
Backpressure handling
Bridge support
Metrics export
MQTT over WebSockets
Pluggable auth backends

Only in Vitess

Horizontal Sharding
Connection Pooling
Query Routing
Online Schema Changes
Shard Management
Replication Management
Automated Failover
MySQL

What people use each for

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

VerneMQ

An industrial operator that wants an MQTT broker with predictable memory behaviour and no data integration features it will not usenot Vitess
A team building from source to stay strictly under Apache 2.0 terms with no vendor licence entanglementnot Vitess
A deployment needing custom authentication logic implemented as a plugin in Lua or over a webhooknot Vitess
An organisation that wants a broker maintained by a small European company rather than by a vendor that keeps changing licencesnot Vitess

Vitess

Transaction processingnot VerneMQ
Data storagenot VerneMQ
Application backendnot VerneMQ
Reportingnot VerneMQ
Data analyticsnot VerneMQ

Where each one falls short

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

VerneMQ

The official binaries and Docker images are not Apache 2.0 but sit under a EULA requiring a yearly commercial subscription, a distinction easy to miss and awkward to discover during a licence audit.
Octavo Labs is a very small company, so support depth, response times and the bus factor on the codebase are materially thinner than at HiveMQ or EMQ.
There is no data integration or rule engine layer, so routing messages into a database means writing and operating your own consumer service.
Operating an Erlang cluster requires runtime knowledge that most teams do not have and will use for nothing else in their stack.
There is no vendor-managed cloud offering, so every deployment is self-operated with the infrastructure and on-call cost that implies.

Vitess

VTGate scatter queries without sharding key incur significant performance penalties
Foreign key constraints not enforced across shards, requiring application-level integrity handling
Single primary per keyspace limits multi-region write capabilities
Distributed transactions without proper sharding key routing suffer performance degradation

Pricing, plan by plan

VerneMQ

Free

Source buildFree
- Apache 2.0 licensed source from GitHub
- Full clustering and plugin capability
- You compile and package it yourself
Binary packages and Docker images$undefined/year
- Covered by the VerneMQ EULA, not Apache 2.0
- Yearly usage subscription expected for commercial use
- Official builds and Docker images
Commercial support$undefined/year
- Evaluation, customisation and operations assistance
- Custom development
- Long-term maintenance agreements

Vitess

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Vitess review.

Which should you pick?

Choose VerneMQ if

You need erlang/otp clustering.
You want to start without paying.
You work on Linux, Docker, macOS, Kubernetes.
You also want mqtt 5.0 support.

VerneMQ review

Choose Vitess if

You need horizontal sharding.
You want to start without paying.
You work on Linux, macOS, Docker, Kubernetes.
You also want connection pooling.

Vitess review

Questions people ask

Is VerneMQ or Vitess better?: Neither clearly leads. VerneMQ starts at Free and Vitess at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, VerneMQ or Vitess?: VerneMQ starts at Free and Vitess at Free.
Does VerneMQ or Vitess run on more platforms?: VerneMQ runs on Linux, Docker, macOS, Kubernetes. Vitess runs on Linux, macOS, Docker, Kubernetes.
Can I use VerneMQ for free?: Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is VerneMQ best used for?: VerneMQ is most often used for an industrial operator that wants an mqtt broker with predictable memory behaviour and no data integration features it will not use, a team building from source to stay strictly under apache 2.0 terms with no vendor licence entanglement, a deployment needing custom authentication logic implemented as a plugin in lua or over a webhook, an organisation that wants a broker maintained by a small european company rather than by a vendor that keeps changing licences. Of those, an industrial operator that wants an mqtt broker with predictable memory behaviour and no data integration features it will not use and a team building from source to stay strictly under apache 2.0 terms with no vendor licence entanglement are not what Vitess is typically brought in for.
What can VerneMQ do that Vitess cannot?: VerneMQ covers Erlang/OTP clustering, MQTT 5.0 support, Plugin system, Backpressure handling. Vitess covers Horizontal Sharding, Connection Pooling, Query Routing, Online Schema Changes.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

VerneMQ: Is VerneMQ free?

The source is Apache 2.0 and free. The official binary packages and Docker images are covered by a separate EULA that expects a yearly fee for commercial use.

Vitess: Is Vitess free to use?

Yes. Vitess is completely free and open source under the Apache 2.0 license. It is a graduated CNCF project with no licensing costs or pricing tiers.

Source

VerneMQ: Is the project still maintained?

Yes. Octavo Labs AG in Zurich continues to publish 2.x releases, most recently in 2026.

Vitess: What databases does Vitess support?

Vitess supports MySQL and MariaDB as backend databases. It acts as a middleware layer that adds sharding and orchestration capabilities on top of these databases.

Source

VerneMQ: Does it have a managed cloud?

No. Every deployment is self-hosted, with commercial support available from Octavo Labs.

Vitess: Does Vitess require Kubernetes to run?

No. Vitess can run on Kubernetes using the Vitess Operator, but it can also be deployed on traditional infrastructure. Kubernetes integration is optional and provides additional automation benefits.

Source

VerneMQ: How does it compare to EMQX?

Narrower in features and without a rule engine, but with a simpler licence story for source builds after EMQX moved to BSL.

Vitess: How does Vitess handle cross-shard transactions?

Vitess supports distributed transactions across shards, but they require queries to be routed through the sharding key. Transactions without a proper sharding key can result in slower performance.

Source

Vitess: Does Vitess enforce foreign key constraints?

Vitess does not enforce foreign key constraints across shards by default. Referential integrity must be managed at the application layer, though per-database support can be enabled with limitations.

Source

VerneMQ vs Vitess

VerneMQ

Vitess

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in VerneMQ

Only in Vitess

What people use each for

VerneMQ

Vitess

Where each one falls short

VerneMQ

Vitess

Pricing, plan by plan

VerneMQ

Vitess

Which should you pick?

Choose VerneMQ if

Choose Vitess if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on VerneMQ

More on Vitess

Keep looking

Other head to heads