VerneMQ

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

As of 31 August 2026, VerneMQ is free to use. A distributed MQTT broker built on Erlang/OTP by a small Swiss company, maintained steadily for a decade. Softwr lists it under Databases. VerneMQ is made by Octavo Labs AG, available on Linux, Docker, macOS, Kubernetes.

Visit siteVisit VerneMQ

Overview

What VerneMQ does

VerneMQ is an MQTT broker written in Erlang/OTP that clusters across nodes, supports MQTT 3.1, 3.1.1 and 5.0, and offers a plugin system for authentication, authorisation and message hooks in Erlang, Lua, Python, Java or over WebHooks. It is deliberately narrow: it is a broker with clustering and extensibility, not a data integration platform, and its design goals are predictable memory behaviour and per-session backpressure under load rather than a large feature surface. The fact that changes a decision is the licensing split. The source in the GitHub repository is Apache 2.0, but the binary packages and official Docker images published by Octavo Labs are covered by a separate VerneMQ EULA which requires a yearly subscription contribution for commercial use. Teams that build from source stay under Apache 2.0; teams that docker pull the convenient image are, per those terms, expected to pay. That distinction is not obvious from the repository page and has caught organisations mid-deployment. VerneMQ is developed and maintained by Octavo Labs AG in Zurich, the successor to Erlio GmbH, which is a small company rather than a venture-funded one. Development continues, with 2.x releases through 2026, but the pace and support depth reflect the size of the team. Buyers are industrial and IoT operators who want a stable, unopinionated broker without the feature bloat and licence churn of larger alternatives, and who can accept a narrow support bench.

What people use it 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

Where it falls short

Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about 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.

Cross-shopped

What people choose instead of VerneMQ

Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.

VerneMQvs
EMQX
EMQX: If you need a rule engine, database bridging and a managed cloud and can accept BSL licence terms
VerneMQvs
RabbitMQ
RabbitMQ: If your messaging is not device-centric and you want AMQP plus MQTT in one broker
VerneMQvs
NATS
NATS: If you can choose the protocol and want a simpler operational model under Apache 2.0

Pricing

What VerneMQ costs

Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.

Source build

Free

Apache 2.0 licensed source from GitHub
Full clustering and plugin capability
You compile and package it yourself
Community support only

Binary packages and Docker images

On request

Covered by the VerneMQ EULA, not Apache 2.0
Yearly usage subscription expected for commercial use
Official builds and Docker images
Price not published, arranged with Octavo Labs

Commercial support

On request

Evaluation, customisation and operations assistance
Custom development
Long-term maintenance agreements
Quoted per engagement

Capabilities

Features

Erlang/OTP clustering
Nodes join a cluster with shared subscription and session distribution
MQTT 5.0 support
Full MQTT 5 including shared subscriptions and message expiry
Plugin system
Hooks implemented in Erlang, Lua, Python, Java or via HTTP webhooks
Backpressure handling
Per-session flow control that protects the broker under slow consumer load
Bridge support
Broker to broker bridging including to other MQTT implementations
Metrics export
Prometheus and Graphite metrics for cluster and session state
MQTT over WebSockets
Browser clients connecting to the same broker
Pluggable auth backends
Authentication and topic ACLs from files, databases or external services

Answered, with sources

Questions people ask

Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.

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.

Is the project still maintained?

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

Does it have a managed cloud?

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

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.

Keep looking

Where to go from VerneMQ

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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for VerneMQ, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.

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