Emqx
App in the BluixApps catalog
What it is
EMQX is a distributed MQTT broker built in Erlang — millions of concurrent connections, MQTT 5.0 / MQTT 3.1.1 support, clustering, bridges to Kafka / Postgres / etc. The leading OSS MQTT broker for IoT, real-time messaging, edge computing.
For teams running anything from a smart-home server (a few thousand connections) to industrial IoT (millions), EMQX is the industry-standard choice.
What it's for
- IoT messaging — device-to-cloud telemetry for sensors, smart-home, industrial
- Real-time pub/sub — chat, notifications, live updates at scale
- Vehicle telematics — connected car platforms
- Smart-home hub — central message broker for Home Assistant / OpenHAB
- Edge computing — local broker for offline-capable IoT
Who it's for
- IoT platform engineers building device telemetry at scale
- Smart-home enthusiasts running MQTT broker for Home Assistant / Node-RED
- Industrial IoT teams managing thousands of factory sensors
- Real-time app builders needing pub/sub message broker
- Embedded systems devs developing MQTT-based device fleets
Why teams pick EMQX over alternatives
- Erlang concurrency — handles millions of connections on modest hardware
- MQTT 5.0 — latest spec with shared subscriptions, request/response
- Clustering — horizontal scale via clustering, no shared state required
- Apache 2.0 — fully open
- Built-in dashboard — admin UI for managing topics, clients, ACL
- Bridges — Kafka, RabbitMQ, Postgres, Redis bridges built-in
Integrations
- Protocols — MQTT 3.1.1 / 5.0, MQTT over WebSocket, CoAP, LwM2M, STOMP
- Auth — built-in users, LDAP, MySQL/Postgres, JWT, OAuth, custom HTTP
- ACL — topic-level access control via DB / file
- Bridges — Kafka, RabbitMQ, Postgres, Redis, MongoDB sink
- Webhooks — fire on client events (connect, disconnect, message)
- Prometheus metrics — built-in metrics endpoint
- REST API — programmatic broker management
Notable users & community
- 14k+ GitHub stars
- Used by HSBC, VW, Verifone, SAIC Motor for production IoT
- Backed by EMQ Technologies (CN/SG) — sustainable open-core company
- Featured in IoT platform architecture guides
- Active community in MQTT / IoT space
Tips & operations
- Set retention policy — retained messages accumulate without expiry; configure cleanup
- Use clustering for HA — single-node broker = single point of failure for IoT platform
- Auth + ACL from day one — open broker = vulnerability; always require auth
- TLS for all client connections — MQTT supports TLS; never use plain MQTT in production
- Monitor connection counts — Prometheus metrics + alerts on connection spikes
- Mind Erlang memory — EMQX is memory-hungry; size VPS accordingly for millions of connections
What we ship in BluixApps
- Docker compose: EMQX single-node (clustering documented for Enterprise tier)
- Pinned
emqx/emqx:5.8(release-tagged) - HTTPS via Let's Encrypt; admin UI with random password
- MQTT + MQTT-over-WebSocket + dashboard enabled
- Persistent volume for retained messages + ACL
- TLS configuration documented in install report
- Backup hook covers config + retention data
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 |
