Where EMQX Serverless's free tier stops
EMQX Serverless EMQX Serverless stops being enough when a project needs more than 1,000 connections or outgrows the included monthly quotas for session minutes, traffic, and rule actions. The free tier does include TLS/SSL encryption, basic monitoring and alerts, and 8/5 support, so the issue is not missing basics. The limit is capacity and usage volume: once the broker needs to carry more connected devices, more traffic, or more rule-processing work each month, the free plan reaches its ceiling.
Switch table
| EMQX Serverless | HiveMQ Cloud | CloudAMQP | Svix | Hook0 | Hookdeck Event Gateway | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| connections | up to 1,000 connections | 100 connections | 20 connections | Not listed in free_tier_items | Not listed in free_tier_items | 1 user included |
| monthly traffic or throughput | 1 GB traffic per month | 10 GB data traffic per month | Not listed in free_tier_items | Not listed in free_tier_items | Not listed in free_tier_items | 5 events per second throughput per project |
| message or event volume | 1,000,000 rule actions per month and 1,000,000 session minutes per month | Not listed in free_tier_items | 1 million messages per month | Not listed in free_tier_items | Up to 100 events per day | 10,000 events per month |
| retention | Not listed in free_tier_items | Not listed in free_tier_items | Up to 28 days of idle queue time | 30-day payload retention | 7 days of data retention | 3-day event data retention |
| support level | 8/5 support | Basic support included | Not listed in free_tier_items | Not listed in free_tier_items | Community support included | Not listed in free_tier_items |
| Card required | - | Unknown | No | No | No | No |
| First paid tier | - | Starter, starting from $0.34/hour + $0.80/million messages | Elegant Ermine, $19 per month | Professional, from $490 / month | Startup, €59 /mo excl. VAT | Team, starts at $39 /month |
The alternatives
HiveMQ Cloud
FTV 44 / 100HiveMQ Cloud's free Serverless plan includes a shared MQTT platform, 100 connections, 10 GB of data traffic per month, MQTT 3.1, 3.1.1, and 5.0 support, MQTT over TLS/SSL, WebSocket support, and basic support. It is a straightforward managed MQTT broker for learning or light experimentation, with no credit card required. The main appeal is traffic allowance: 10 GB per month gives more room for message volume than a 1 GB traffic cap. It falls short on connection count, since the free tier is limited to 100 connections versus EMQX Serverless's up to 1,000. Switch here if your broker load is light on device count but heavier on traffic.
- Beats EMQX Serverless: 10 GB data traffic per month versus 1 GB per month
- Falls short: 100 connections versus up to 1,000
- Who should switch: Switch if you need more monthly traffic headroom but can stay well under 100 concurrent connections.
CloudAMQP
FTV 53 / 100CloudAMQP's free plan is a shared RabbitMQ broker for development use with 1 million messages per month, 20 connections, up to 100 queues, up to 10,000 queued messages, and up to 28 days of idle queue time. It is better suited to queue-based message handling than MQTT-specific broker work. The free tier's advantage is queue-oriented controls, especially the queue and backlog limits that make it useful for RabbitMQ development. It falls short on connection capacity, since the free plan is capped at 20 connections and requires a different broker model altogether. Choose it if your workload is really RabbitMQ and you care about queues more than MQTT protocol features.
- Beats EMQX Serverless: Up to 100 queues and 10,000 queued messages
- Falls short: 20 connections versus up to 1,000
- Who should switch: Switch if your project is RabbitMQ-based and queue depth matters more than MQTT-specific features.
Svix
FTV 78 / 100Svix's free plan includes Dispatch, Stream, and Ingest, with no credit card required, a 99.9% uptime SLA, 50 messages per second, 30-day payload retention, an embeddable webhooks UI, and connectors and transformations. It is built around webhook infrastructure rather than MQTT, so the free offering is strongest when you need event delivery, ingestion, and debugging tools in one place. It beats EMQX Serverless on uptime commitment and on the product scope around webhook handling. It falls short because it is not a broker for connected devices, and the free tier is about message rate and retention rather than connection-based broker usage. Switch if your real need is webhooks, not MQTT.
- Beats EMQX Serverless: 99.9% uptime SLA and webhook tooling
- Falls short: Not an MQTT broker, so it does not cover broker-style connections
- Who should switch: Switch if your app sends and receives webhooks rather than managing MQTT device connections.
Hook0
FTV 68 / 100Hook0's free Developer tier is a fully managed cloud service with 1 developer, 1 application, 10 event types, 10 subscriptions, up to 100 events per day, 7 days of data retention, community support, and no credit card required. It is a small but complete hosted webhook platform for teams that want to start quickly without owning infrastructure. The advantage is the simplicity of the starter shape and the included managed service. It falls short on scale and on broker-style throughput, with a hard daily event cap and much narrower resource limits than EMQX Serverless. Use it if you want a tiny, managed webhook setup and do not need MQTT.
- Beats EMQX Serverless: Fully managed cloud service with no infrastructure to own
- Falls short: Up to 100 events per day versus broker-style monthly quotas and up to 1,000 connections
- Who should switch: Switch if you want a small managed webhook setup and can live with a strict daily cap.
Hookdeck Event Gateway
FTV 69 / 100Hookdeck Event Gateway's free Developer plan includes up to 10,000 events per month, 100,000 discarded requests per month, 3-day event data retention, 1 user, and 5 events per second of throughput per project. It focuses on ingestion, routing, filtering, and observability for inbound HTTP events rather than MQTT device brokering. The free tier is strongest where discarded-request handling and event visibility matter, especially for teams debugging event intake. It falls short on connection handling and on broker-specific features, since the plan is built around event throughput per project instead of connected-device capacity. Switch if you need observability around inbound events more than MQTT broker behavior.
- Beats EMQX Serverless: 100,000 discarded requests per month and event observability
- Falls short: 5 events per second throughput per project versus MQTT broker connections and traffic quotas
- Who should switch: Switch if your workload is inbound event ingestion and routing, not MQTT messaging.
Two quick picks
HiveMQ Cloud
HiveMQ Cloud is the closest MQTT replacement in the list. It keeps the managed broker shape, TLS/SSL, WebSocket support, and protocol support, so the switch usually changes less than moving to a webhook-first tool.
CloudAMQP
CloudAMQP offers the most obvious free headroom on its listed volume controls, with 1 million messages per month, 100 queues, and 10,000 queued messages. It is still capped, but it gives more room to grow before a small project needs to pay.
Frequently asked questions
Which alternative is closest if I am already using MQTT clients?
HiveMQ Cloud is the closest fit because it is also a managed MQTT broker with TLS/SSL and WebSocket support, so the migration is usually simpler than moving to a webhook platform.
Which free plan gives the most room before paying?
CloudAMQP has the largest listed free-volume allowances in the set, especially for messages, queues, and queued messages, though it is RabbitMQ-based rather than MQTT-based.
Do any of these alternatives avoid credit-card entry?
Yes for HiveMQ Cloud, Svix, Hook0, and Hookdeck Event Gateway. CloudAMQP's free plan does not explicitly state that a card is unnecessary in the provided details.
Which option is best if I need webhooks instead of MQTT?
Svix is the best fit for webhooks, followed by Hook0 and Hookdeck Event Gateway depending on whether you want webhook dispatch, small managed starter limits, or event ingestion and observability.
Bottom line
For most builders outgrowing EMQX Serverless, HiveMQ Cloud is the best first alternative because it stays in the MQTT broker category and keeps the switch simple. If the main problem is traffic volume rather than connection count, its 10 GB monthly data allowance is also the most relevant upgrade among the free plans here. If you need the most free headroom overall, CloudAMQP is worth a look, but it is a different broker model and is less of a drop-in move.
Read the full listing for EMQX Serverless. Scores use the FTV methodology at /ftv. Browse more alternatives on /alternatives, or head-to-head comparisons on /compare.