Is EMQX worth the price?
EMQX offers a generous Serverless tier with a free quota, making it accessible for small projects and testing.
The jump to Dedicated Flex at $234/month is reasonable for businesses needing dedicated resources and 24/7 support. This pricing structure is fair, catering well to developers and small to medium-sized businesses needing robust MQTT solutions.
Pricing Plans
Free TrialServerless
$0/Month
- Free quota every month. Pay-as-you-go beyond.
- Up to 1000 connections
- Free monthly quota on sessions, traffic, and rule actions
- TLS/SSL encryption
- Basic monitoring & alerts
- 8/5 Support
Dedicated Flex
$234/Month
- Includes traffic allowance and 24/7 support.
- Dedicated, isolated cluster
- VPC Peering & Private Link
- 40+ out-of-box integrations
- 99.99% Uptime SLA
- 24/7 Premium Support
BYOC
Custom
- Tailored to your security & compliance needs.
- Deployed in your VPC
- Custom data plane & control plane
- Managed upgrades and observability
- Tailored for specific compliance
Enterprise
Custom
- High-performance MQTT with advanced security, governance, and data integration for regulated or air-gapped environments.
- Annual subscription
- Deploy anywhere (on-prem, edge, cloud)
- Custom plugins & extensions
- Professional services
- Priority feature requests
Hidden Costs & Gotchas
Pay-as-you-go beyond Serverless free quota
Custom pricing for BYOC and Enterprise tiers
Potential for high traffic overage charges
Annual subscription for Enterprise tier
Which Plan Do You Need?
Developers and hobbyists
SMBs needing dedicated MQTT
Enterprises with custom needs
How EMQX Compares to Competitors
Compared to AWS IoT Core, EMQX's Serverless tier offers a more explicit free quota structure, potentially simplifying cost prediction for lower usage. While other managed MQTT brokers like HiveMQ Cloud also offer free tiers, EMQX's Dedicated Flex at $234/month provides a competitive entry point for dedicated infrastructure with strong SLA and support, often at a lower initial cost than comparable enterprise-grade solutions.
EMQX Pricing FAQ
How much does EMQX cost?
EMQX starts at $234/month on the Dedicated Flex plan. A free plan is also available with limited features.
Does EMQX have a free plan?
Yes. EMQX offers a free plan called "Serverless". It includes: Free quota every month. Pay-as-you-go beyond., Up to 1000 connections, Free monthly quota on sessions, traffic, and rule actions.
Does EMQX offer a free trial?
Yes, EMQX offers a free trial. No credit card is typically required to start the trial, though this may vary.
Is there a cheaper alternative to EMQX?
Yes. Popular alternatives to EMQX include K3s, Node-RED, Blynk, Zerynth. Free alternatives include K3s, Node-RED, Blynk. Compare them side-by-side on Toolradar.
Cheaper alternatives to EMQX
Direct competitors with similar features. Many offer free tiers or lower per-seat pricing.
