What is VerneMQ used for?

VerneMQ is a distributed MQTT broker that scales horizontally and vertically on commodity hardware. It is a good fit for mobile messaging with lower overhead than XMPP; connecting IoT field devices to data centers and apps; and smart infrastructure for cities, homes, and transportation.

Is VerneMQ open source?

Yes. VerneMQ is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at vernemq/vernemq and is written mainly in Erlang.

Yes. VerneMQ is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

Can I self-host VerneMQ?

Yes. VerneMQ can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.

What is VerneMQ an alternative to?

VerneMQ is an open-source alternative to Particle, AWS IoT Core, Azure IoT Hub and ThingWorx. Other open-source alternatives to Particle include DGIoT, EMQX and Kaa.

Is VerneMQ actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to VerneMQ was on 8 October 2026, and the latest release is 2.2.1, published on 17 September 2026. The project has 3.6k stars on GitHub.

VerneMQ: open-source alternative to Particle, AWS IoT Core

About VerneMQ

VerneMQ is a high-performance, distributed MQTT broker based on Erlang/OTP. It scales horizontally and vertically on commodity hardware to support a high number of concurrent publishers and consumers while maintaining low latency and fault tolerance. The broker is open source and enterprise support is available.

Key features

Scales horizontally and vertically on commodity hardware
Supports high number of concurrent publishers and consumers
Maintains low latency and fault tolerance
Built on Erlang/OTP for highly scalable messaging
Provides CLI tools, integration APIs, and plugins
Includes built-in plugins for file-based authentication

Good fit for

Mobile messaging with lower overhead than XMPP
Connecting IoT field devices to data centers and apps
Smart infrastructure for cities, homes, and transportation

Built with: Erlang tools
Tags: mqtt; message broker; iot; erlang; distributed; open source

VerneMQ: questions and answers

What is VerneMQ used for?: VerneMQ is a distributed MQTT broker that scales horizontally and vertically on commodity hardware. It is a good fit for mobile messaging with lower overhead than XMPP; connecting IoT field devices to data centers and apps; and smart infrastructure for cities, homes, and transportation.
Is VerneMQ open source?: Yes. VerneMQ is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at vernemq/vernemq and is written mainly in Erlang.
Is VerneMQ free?: Yes. VerneMQ is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host VerneMQ?: Yes. VerneMQ can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
What is VerneMQ an alternative to?: VerneMQ is an open-source alternative to Particle, AWS IoT Core, Azure IoT Hub and ThingWorx. Other open-source alternatives to Particle include DGIoT, EMQX and Kaa.
Is VerneMQ actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to VerneMQ was on 8 October 2026, and the latest release is 2.2.1, published on 17 September 2026. The project has 3.6k stars on GitHub.