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
Get this app — pick a BluixApps plan
Same catalog. Scaling tenant isolation, white-label and support tier.
| Tier | Tenants | Catalog | Support | White-label | Monthly | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stacks | 1 | 19 curated stacks | Standard | — | $19/mo | DetailDeploy |
| Starter | 10 | Full catalog | Standard | +$15–25/mo | $49/mo | DetailDeploy |
| Pro | 25 | Full catalog | Priority bugfix | +$15–25/mo | $149/mo | DetailDeploy |
| Growth | 100 | Full catalog | Priority bugfix | +$15–25/mo | $349/mo | DetailDeploy |
| Scale | 500 | Full catalog | 7-day window | +$15–25/mo | $799/mo | DetailDeploy |
| Enterprise | Unlimited | Full catalog | Priority 7-day | Bundled | $1,499/mo | DetailDeploy |