EMQX
Scalable MQTT broker. Connect 100M+ IoT devices in one single cluster, move and process real-time IoT data with 1M msg/s throughput at 1ms latency.
Description from awesome-selfhosted (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Still maintained? Yes: 3,110 commits in the last 90 days, latest release 6.3.2 (Oct 2026).
Comparisons in Internet of Things (IoT): Home Assistant Cloud alternatives, Nest alternatives.
At a glance
EMQX quick facts
- Health score
- 97/100 GOOD
- Stars
- 16,871
- Last commit
- today (Oct 2026)
- Latest release
- 6.3.2, Oct 2026
- Licence
- Apache-2.0
Top alternatives to EMQX
In its own words
The project's README opens: "EMQX is the world's most scalable and reliable MQTT platform, designed for high-performance, reliable, and secure IoT data infrastructure. It supports MQTT 5.0, 3.1.1, and 3.1, as well as other protocols like MQTT-SN, CoAP, LwM2M, and MQTT over QUIC. EMQX enables you to connect millions of IoT devices, process and route messages in real time, and integrate with a wide range of backend data systems."
Why it ranks here
Health score explained
EMQX scores 97/100, #3 of 20 in Internet of Things (IoT): 3,110 commits in the last 90 days earn 35.0 of 35 points, the latest release (6.3.2, 14 days ago) earns 25.0 of 25, 16,871 stars add 16.9 of 20, an active, unarchived repository keeps 10 and Docker support adds the final 10. That places it in the good band (70 and above). The biggest shortfall is star count, worth 3.1 more points.
Recomputed nightly from the GitHub API. How the score is calculated.
- Commit activity 35.0 / 35
3110 commits in 90 days (30+ scores full marks)
- Release recency 25.0 / 25
6.3.2 released 14 days ago
- Stars biggest shortfall 16.9 / 20
17k stars on GitHub (logarithmic)
- Not archived 10.0 / 10
Repository is active
- Docker support 10.0 / 10
Docker image or Compose file available
Commit activity
- 3110
- Last 90 days
- 7,911
- Last 12 months
- today
- Last push
Ranked #3 of 20 tools in Internet of Things (IoT) by health , between Node RED (#2) and Thingsboard (#4) .
Details
| Licence | Apache-2.0 |
| Platforms | Docker, Erlang |
| Latest release | 6.3.2 · 14 days ago |
| Stars | 16,871 |
| Open issues | 173 |
| Docker | Yes |
| Repository | emqx/emqx ↗ |
EMQX vs its top 5 alternatives
Active tools that share a category with EMQX (Internet of Things (IoT)), scored on the same five terms.
| Tool | Health | Stars | Licence | Last commit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Node RED | 98 | 24k | Apache-2.0 | 4 days ago |
| EMQX (this tool) | 97 | 17k | Apache-2.0 | today |
| Domoticz | 94 | 3.8k | GPL-3.0 | today |
| FlowForge | 90 | 400 | Apache-2.0 | yesterday |
| FMD Server | 89 | 223 | GPL-3.0 | today |
| Tasmota | 88 | 25k | GPL-3.0 | today |
EMQX: common questions
Is EMQX still maintained?
EMQX had 3,110 commits in the last 90 days and its last push was today; the latest tagged release, 6.3.2, is from 14 days ago. Repoly recomputes this nightly.
Run itSponsored
Run EMQX on a VPS from $4/mo
EMQX ships a Docker image, so any of these providers can run it on a small instance.
- is*hosting NVMe VPS in 20+ locations, hourly billing from $5/mo Deploy ↗
- ProHoster VPS with DDoS protection included from $4/mo Deploy ↗
- GODLIKE Game and app servers on NVMe from $4/mo Deploy ↗
Affiliate links. Repoly may earn a commission, which never affects health scores.