How much does MQTT cost?

MQTT publishes a single tier, Open Protocol, at Free.

Does MQTT have a free plan?

Yes. The Open Protocol tier costs nothing and covers publish-subscribe, lightweight, qos levels.

Which smart home tools can I use without paying?

3 of the 8 smart home tools listed alongside MQTT have a free tier: ESPHome, Losant, Matter.

What am I actually paying for with MQTT?

The record lists 12 features across 3 areas: other, integrations, platform. In practice it is brought in for iot messaging, sensor data, real-time updates.

Does MQTT charge per user?

The record carries a price and a billing period for each of its 1 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 MQTT 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 MQTT against before paying?

The closest smart home tools in this directory are Rachio Pro, ESPHome, Losant, Hubitat Elevation. Each has a side-by-side comparison with MQTT covering price, platforms and features.

Smart Home · pricing

MQTT pricing

MQTT publishes a single tier. Below is what it costs, what it covers, and how that compares with the smart home tools listed alongside it.

As of 30 August 2026, MQTT pricing is free. 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
Model: Open-source
Tiers: 1
Free tier: Yes

MQTT 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.

MQTT pricing tiers
Plan	Price	Features listed	Step up from the tier below
Open Protocol	Free	3	Entry tier

Where MQTT stops being free

Open Protocol, Free

Publish-subscribe
Lightweight
QoS levels

No paid tier on record

MQTT lists a free tier and no priced tier above it in the record we hold.

What the product covers

The full MQTT 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

Publish-Subscribe
Lightweight
QoS Levels
Retained Messages

Integrations

IoT platforms
Home automation
Cloud services
Edge devices

Platform

Any platform support
Embedded devices support
Cloud support
Edge computing support

People bring MQTT in for iot messaging, sensor data, real-time updates, device telemetry. If that is not the job you are buying for, the alternatives to MQTT are worth a look before you commit to a tier.

How that compares in Smart Home

Too few smart home 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.

MQTT entry price against other Smart Home tools
Tool	Entry price	Model	Rated	Head to head
MQTT (this page)	Free	open-source	-
Rachio Pro	$10/month	One-time controller purchase with optional cellular subscription	-	vs MQTT
ESPHome	Free	open-source	-	vs MQTT
Losant	Free	subscription	-	vs MQTT
Hubitat Elevation	$189.95/one-time	-	-	vs MQTT
Crestron	On request	quote	-	vs MQTT
Matter	Free	open-source	-	vs MQTT

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 MQTT badges page.

Before you pay for MQTT

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: a single tier at Free. Because there is a free tier, the cheapest way to answer the rest is to use it before paying anything.

MQTT runs on any platform, embedded devices, cloud, edge computing, and is published by OASIS Open of Burlington, Massachusetts, USA. The full record is on the MQTT review, and the rest of the category is under best smart home tools.

MQTT pricing on the vendor's own site

MQTT pricing questions

How much does MQTT cost?: MQTT publishes a single tier, Open Protocol, at Free.
Does MQTT have a free plan?: Yes. The Open Protocol tier costs nothing and covers publish-subscribe, lightweight, qos levels.
Which smart home tools can I use without paying?: 3 of the 8 smart home tools listed alongside MQTT have a free tier: ESPHome, Losant, Matter.
What am I actually paying for with MQTT?: The record lists 12 features across 3 areas: other, integrations, platform. In practice it is brought in for iot messaging, sensor data, real-time updates.
Does MQTT charge per user?: The record carries a price and a billing period for each of its 1 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 MQTT 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 MQTT against before paying?: The closest smart home tools in this directory are Rachio Pro, ESPHome, Losant, Hubitat Elevation. Each has a side-by-side comparison with MQTT covering price, platforms and features.