HiveMQ
German MQTT broker for IoT and industrial messaging, self-managed or fully managed
Quick Overview
| Company | HiveMQ GmbH |
|---|---|
| Category | Event Streaming Platforms |
| Headquarters | Not stated on the pages we read, Germany |
| Founded | Not stated |
| EU Presence | Yes - Germany (EU, inferred from the GmbH legal form) |
| Data Location | Customer's own infrastructure, or fully managed; trial deployment on AWS |
| Open Source | No |
| GDPR Compliant | Yes |
| Self-Hosting | Yes - self-managed on your own infrastructure |
| Main Features | MQTT broker, self-managed or fully managed, free Lab tier, self-serve plans |
| Pricing | Lab free (1 broker, 25 connections, 25 messages/s); Launch $299/month; Run $499/month; managed Starter from $0.34/hour plus $0.80 per million messages; Enterprise on request |
| Best For | IoT and industrial teams that need an MQTT broker |
| Replaces | Confluent for device messaging use cases |
Detailed Review
HiveMQ is an MQTT broker for industrial and IoT messaging. HiveMQ GmbH is the company named in the copyright line of hivemq.com, and the country Germany is inferred from the GmbH legal form because the register was not checked.
HiveMQ is a message broker for devices, not a Kafka-style event log. Facts on this page were checked on 3 November 2026.
A broker, not a log, in Event Streaming Platforms
HiveMQ delivers messages between devices and applications using MQTT. It does not keep a replayable event log in the way Apache Kafka does, which is an inference from the product pages.
Deployment options
HiveMQ can be self-managed on the customer's infrastructure or fully managed, where HiveMQ runs and operates the platform.
Plans
The Lab tier is free for one broker with 25 connections and 25 messages per second under a community licence. Fully managed Starter costs from $0.34 per hour plus $0.80 per million messages, with a 15-day trial.
Limitations to Consider
The Lab tier is limited to 1 broker, 25 connections and 25 messages per second. HiveMQ is an MQTT broker for device messaging, not a Kafka-style event log. The country is inferred from the legal form and prices are in $ with no currency code. For log-based streaming see Aiven.
Who Should Use HiveMQ
Teams that connect devices over MQTT and want a broker from a German company, not teams that need replayable Kafka streams.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- MQTT broker for IoT and industrial use
- Free Lab tier for testing
- Self-managed or fully managed
- Self-serve plans with credit card
- Managed trial of 15 days
Cons
- Not a Kafka-style event log
- Lab tier limited to 25 connections
- Country inferred from legal form
- Prices in $ with no currency code
Alternatives to HiveMQ
Other European event streaming platforms worth comparing before you decide:
Aiven
Finland · Managed Apache Kafka in EU regions, with a free plan
Axual
Netherlands · Governed Kafka platform on an EU sovereign cloud
Lenses
United Kingdom · Developer workspace and replication layer for Kafka
Ververica
Germany · Apache Flink stream processing from the Munich company
See all European event streaming platforms or compare them directly against Confluent for device messaging use cases on our alternatives page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Not directly. HiveMQ is an MQTT broker for device messaging, not a Kafka-style event log.
Yes. The Lab tier is free for one broker with 25 connections and 25 messages per second.
HiveMQ GmbH has a German legal form, but we inferred the country from it and did not check the register.