Databases · pricing
EMQX pricing
EMQX publishes 4 tiers. Below is each one, what it adds over the tier beneath it, and where the ladder stops being worth climbing for most people.
As of 31 August 2026, EMQX pricing is free, then $234/month across 4 published tiers. Figures are the vendor's list prices as recorded on this page's last check; the vendor's site is the final word.
- Entry price
- Free, then $234/month
- Model
- Per month by connection and session volume
- Tiers
- 4
- Free tier
- Yes
EMQX plans, side by side
Every published tier in ascending order of price, with the number of features each one lists. An absence here means the record does not itemise it, not that the tier lacks it.
| Plan | Price | Features listed | Step up from the tier below |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Source single node | Free | 4 | Entry tier |
| Serverless | Free | 4 | +$0/month, 4 more features |
| Dedicated Flex | $234/month | 4 | +$234/month, 4 more features |
| Enterprise self-managed | On request | 4 | Priced on request |
What each tier adds
The set difference between each tier's feature list and the one beneath it. Where a tier lists nothing new, the vendor has either stopped repeating the inherited list or the tier raises limits rather than adding capability, the record does not distinguish the two, so this page does not either.
Open Source single node
FreeThe entry tier. It covers bsl 1.1 licence since version 5.9, free production use of one node only, all former enterprise features visible, reverts to apache 2.0 four years after each release.
Serverless
FreeOver Open Source single node, this tier adds:
- Free monthly quota then pay as you go
- Up to 1,000 connections
- 8 by 5 support
- Shared multi-tenant infrastructure
Dedicated Flex
$234/monthOver Serverless, this tier adds:
- Single tenant cluster
- Traffic allowance included
- 24/7 support
- 1 MB maximum message size
Enterprise self-managed
On requestOver Dedicated Flex, this tier adds:
- Deploy on premises, at the edge or in any cloud
- Clustering licensed
- 256 MB maximum message size
- Professional services and custom plugins
Where EMQX stops being free
Open Source single node, Free
- BSL 1.1 licence since version 5.9
- Free production use of one node only
- All former enterprise features visible
- Reverts to Apache 2.0 four years after each release
Dedicated Flex, $234/month
The first thing you pay for:
- Single tenant cluster
- Traffic allowance included
- 24/7 support
- 1 MB maximum message size
What the product covers
The full EMQX feature record, grouped as the catalogue groups it. This is the product as a whole; the record does not map every feature onto a specific tier.
Other
- Erlang clustering
- MQTT 5.0 and QUIC
- Rule engine
- Data integration sinks
- Session persistence
- Multi protocol gateways
- Authentication and authorisation
- Dashboard and REST API
People bring EMQX in for a connected vehicle platform needing millions of persistent mqtt sessions with quic for handover across mobile networks, an industrial operator routing sensor telemetry straight into timescaledb or kafka without writing a consumer service, an iot product team that has outgrown a single mosquitto instance and needs clustering and shared subscriptions, a smart building deployment mixing mqtt, coap and lwm2m devices on one broker. If that is not the job you are buying for, the alternatives to EMQX are worth a look before you commit to a tier.
How that compares in Databases
Too few databases tools in this directory publish a starting price to quote a meaningful median, so the table below is a like-for-like list rather than a ranking.
| Tool | Entry price | Model | Rated | Head to head |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EMQX (this page) | Free, then $234/month | Per month by connection and session volume | - | |
| Canary Labs | $3000/year | Per tag band per year | - | vs EMQX |
| Presto | Free | Open source, no licence fee | - | vs EMQX |
| Privacera | On request | quote | - | vs EMQX |
| Dremio | Free, then $0.2/hour | Per Dremio Compute Unit consumed | - | vs EMQX |
| Solace PubSub+ | Free | quote | - | vs EMQX |
| StarRocks | Free | Open source, no licence fee | - | vs EMQX |
Ratings are aggregated from third-party sources and imported with each catalogue entry, they are not reviews hosted on Softwr. How each figure is used is set out on the EMQX badges page.
Before you pay for EMQX
Three things this page cannot tell you, and all three change the bill. The record carries a price and a billing period but not the unit - per-seat and flat-rate pricing are indistinguishable in this data, so a five-person team may be looking at five times the figure above. It carries no annual rate, so any discount for paying yearly is not something this page can quote. And it carries no trial length.
What it can tell you is the shape of the ladder: 4 tiers between Free and On request, with the jump itemised above. Because there is a free tier, the cheapest way to answer the rest is to use it before paying anything.
EMQX runs on linux, docker, kubernetes, cloud, macos, and is published by EMQ Technologies of Stockholm, Sweden. The full record is on the EMQX review, and the rest of the category is under best databases tools.
EMQX pricing questions
- How much does EMQX cost?
- EMQX publishes 4 tiers, from Free for Open Source single node up to On request for Enterprise self-managed. The entry tier costs nothing.
- Does EMQX have a free plan?
- Yes. The Open Source single node tier costs nothing and covers bsl 1.1 licence since version 5.9, free production use of one node only, all former enterprise features visible. Paying starts at $234/month for Dedicated Flex.
- What is the difference between Open Source single node and Serverless on EMQX?
- Serverless costs Free against Free, and adds free monthly quota then pay as you go, up to 1,000 connections, 8 by 5 support, shared multi-tenant infrastructure.
- Is the Enterprise self-managed plan on EMQX worth it?
- That depends entirely on whether you need what it adds, which on the published record is deploy on premises, at the edge or in any cloud, clustering licensed, 256 mb maximum message size, professional services and custom plugins. It costs On request against $234/month for Dedicated Flex. Softwr has not used either tier, so this page can tell you what changes, not whether it is worth the difference to you.
- Which databases tools can I use without paying?
- 4 of the 8 databases tools listed alongside EMQX have a free tier: Presto, Dremio, Solace PubSub+, StarRocks.
- What am I actually paying for with EMQX?
- The record lists 8 features across 1 area: other. In practice it is brought in for a connected vehicle platform needing millions of persistent mqtt sessions with quic for handover across mobile networks, an industrial operator routing sensor telemetry straight into timescaledb or kafka without writing a consumer service, an iot product team that has outgrown a single mosquitto instance and needs clustering and shared subscriptions.
- Does EMQX charge per user?
- The record carries a price and a billing period for each of its 4 tiers, but not the unit that price is charged in. Per-seat and flat-rate billing look identical in this data, so check the vendor's page before budgeting for a team.
- Are these EMQX prices current?
- They are what the catalogue entry holds, refreshed when the entry is. Vendors change pricing without notice and nobody at Softwr re-verifies each tier by hand, so treat this as a structured summary and the vendor's own pricing page as the authority.
- What should I compare EMQX against before paying?
- The closest databases tools in this directory are Canary Labs, Presto, Privacera, Dremio. Each has a side-by-side comparison with EMQX covering price, platforms and features.