Home automation hub
Home Assistant / OpenHAB MQTT broker
// official site: mosquitto.org ↗
DEVOPS · PRO TIER
Eclipse Mosquittopro
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.
// What it is
A closer look.
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.
// Use cases
What it's for.
Concrete scenarios where teams pick Eclipse Mosquitto over the SaaS alternative.
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
Built for these teams.
If your team profile matches one of these, Eclipse Mosquitto is a strong fit out of the box.
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
// Differentiators
Why teams pick Eclipse Mosquitto.
When evaluating self-hosted options for this category, here are the dimensions on which Eclipse Mosquitto consistently lands above the 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
Connects to.
The stack you'll plug Eclipse Mosquitto into — services, protocols, and adjacent apps in the BluixApps catalog.
◇
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
// Adoption & deployment
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
What we ship
- 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
// Tips & operations
Run it properly.
Operational guidance from running this in production — what to lock down, what surprises people.
// PERFORMANCE
Always enable auth
anonymous brokers get hijacked by bots within hours
// SECURITY
TLS for non-LAN clients
anything over the internet needs TLS, not plain MQTT
// OPERATIONS
Persistent sessions
enable for clients that need offline message delivery
// RELIABILITY
Topic ACLs
restrict what topics users can publish/subscribe to
// DEPLOYMENT
Backup config + persistence file
simple flat files; standard backup works
// SCALING
Log review
connection attempts indicate brute-force; monitor + alert
128
// min ram (MB)
1
// min disk (GB)
1883
// access port
tcp
// protocol
pro
// bluixapps tier
// Alternatives in DevOps
Compare with
Project resources
Official sitemosquitto.org ↗