Mosquitto

App in the BluixApps catalog

What it is

Mosquitto is the Eclipse Foundation's MQTT broker — lightweight, embedded-friendly, the reference implementation of MQTT 3.1.1 / 5.0. Single binary (or container), handles thousands of concurrent connections on minimal hardware. The default MQTT broker for Home Assistant, OpenHAB, and most IoT projects.

Where EMQX targets industrial-scale (millions of connections), Mosquitto targets home / small-business IoT with simplicity first.

What it's for

  • Home automation hub — Home Assistant / OpenHAB MQTT broker
  • Small-scale IoT — sensor networks, device telemetry
  • Embedded systems — runs on Raspberry Pi, ESP32 dev boards
  • Real-time messaging — pub/sub for chat, notifications, dashboards
  • Edge gateways — local broker that bridges to cloud MQTT

Who it's for

  • Home automation enthusiasts running Home Assistant / OpenHAB
  • IoT prototypers developing device-to-cloud telemetry
  • Embedded engineers building MQTT-based product firmware
  • Small businesses with sensor / IoT deployments under 10k devices
  • Educators teaching MQTT concepts with the reference implementation

Why teams pick Mosquitto over alternatives

  • EPL-2.0 / EDL-1.0 — fully open
  • Reference implementation — the canonical MQTT broker
  • Tiny footprint — runs on a Raspberry Pi Zero
  • Production-grade — battle-tested in millions of home automation deployments
  • MQTT 5.0 support — latest protocol features
  • Multi-platform — Linux, Windows, macOS, embedded

Integrations

  • Home automation — Home Assistant, OpenHAB, Domoticz, Tasmota
  • MQTT clients — every MQTT library works with Mosquitto
  • TLS support — TLS / mTLS for secure connections
  • Auth backends — password file, dynsec plugin, custom plugins
  • Bridge mode — bridge to other MQTT brokers (cloud, peer brokers)
  • WebSocket support — MQTT over WebSocket for browser clients
  • Plugin API — C plugin API for custom auth / persistence

Notable users & community

  • Default broker in Home Assistant + OpenHAB documentation
  • Eclipse Foundation stewardship
  • Backed by Eclipse IoT working group
  • Long-running OSS project (>10 years)
  • Reference implementation cited in MQTT specifications

Tips & operations

  • Always enable auth — anonymous brokers get hijacked by bots within hours
  • TLS for non-LAN clients — anything over the internet needs TLS, not plain MQTT
  • Persistent sessions — enable for clients that need offline message delivery
  • Topic ACLs — restrict what topics users can publish/subscribe to
  • Backup config + persistence file — simple flat files; standard backup works
  • Log review — connection attempts indicate brute-force; monitor + alert

What we ship in BluixApps

  • Docker compose: Mosquitto + persistent config volume
  • Pinned eclipse-mosquitto:2.0 (release-tagged)
  • Auth enabled by default; passwd file mounted from config
  • TLS configuration documented in install report
  • MQTT + MQTT-over-WebSocket ports exposed
  • Persistent volume for retained messages + config
  • Backup hook covers config + persistence database
Read this app's deep dive on bluix.app ↗

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Same catalog. Scaling tenant isolation, white-label and support tier.

TierTenantsCatalogSupportWhite-labelMonthly
Stacks119 curated stacksStandard$19/moDetailDeploy
Starter10Full catalogStandard+$15–25/mo$49/moDetailDeploy
Pro25Full catalogPriority bugfix+$15–25/mo$149/moDetailDeploy
Growth100Full catalogPriority bugfix+$15–25/mo$349/moDetailDeploy
Scale500Full catalog7-day window+$15–25/mo$799/moDetailDeploy
EnterpriseUnlimitedFull catalogPriority 7-dayBundled$1,499/moDetailDeploy

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