From HiveMQ Cloud to EMQX Cloud.

A fully managed HiveMQ Cloud alternative. Start free with Serverless or choose a dedicated deployment.

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Free monthly quota on Serverless. Dedicated options for isolation, private networking, and higher SLAs.

Your move to EMQX Cloud A broad arrow carries message tiles from a neutral HiveMQ Cloud platform to a violet EMQX Cloud platform. HiveMQ Cloud Your current broker EMQX Cloud Your next MQTT home
Fully managed MQTTBroker operations handled by EMQ
Free monthly quotaUsage-based pricing on Serverless
Dedicated optionsCapacity and control for production
Keep building with managed MQTT

Why migrate
to EMQX Cloud?

Move from HiveMQ Cloud Serverless or PAYG to a fully managed MQTT service that fits your workload.

01

Stay fully managed.

We run and maintain the broker. You build devices and applications.

02

Build on standard MQTT.

Keep familiar MQTT clients and messaging patterns. Test compatibility before cutover.

03

Choose a plan that fits.

Choose Serverless for smaller workloads, or dedicated resources for more capacity and control.

Choose your destination

Find the right home
for your MQTT workload.

Choose based on your traffic, device behavior, and operational requirements.

Usage-based MQTT

Serverless

For smaller workloads. Start with a free monthly quota and pay for usage beyond it.

$0within the free monthly quota

Pay as you go when paid usage is enabled.

  • Up to 1,000 concurrent connections
  • Free quota for sessions, traffic, and rule actions
  • 99.9% uptime SLA
  • 8×5 support
Start Free Check Serverless limits

The connection limit is a capacity limit, not a free allowance.

Dedicated MQTT capacity

Dedicated Flex

Dedicated resources, private networking, more integrations, and a higher SLA.

From$234/ month

Capacity-based pricing. Cloud and region affect final cost.

  • Dedicated, isolated MQTT cluster
  • Private networking and 40+ integrations
  • 99.99% uptime SLA
  • 24×7 support
Start 14-Day Trial Discuss your migration

Networking and integration availability depend on configuration.

Is Serverless a fit? Check more than your connection count.

A small fleet can still have a high-volume gateway or subscriber. Check these limits against your actual workload.

1,000concurrent connections
10 / secpublishes per client
10subscriptions per client

Also check message sizes, subscription patterns, session expiry, and integrations. If your requirements exceed a limit, review Dedicated Flex before moving devices.

View all quotas and limits

Need to run in your own cloud account? EMQX Cloud also offers BYOC.

Explore BYOC with our team
Your migration, step by step

How to migrate
from HiveMQ Cloud.

Start with a representative client. Validate the new deployment, then move devices and applications in stages.

What needs to change?

Connections

Update the broker endpoint. Review ports and TLS trust settings.

Access

Recreate credentials and topic permissions. Test allowed and denied actions.

State

Plan for retained messages, subscriptions, and queued messages. They do not move automatically.

  1. Check your workload

    Review connections, traffic, subscriptions, integrations, and how you can update deployed devices.

  2. Create your deployment

    Choose the plan and region that fit. Check your billing settings before enabling production traffic.

  3. Recreate access controls

    Set up authentication, topic permissions, and the integrations your application uses.

  4. Test representative clients

    Verify TLS, publish and subscribe behavior, permissions, reconnects, and message handling.

  5. Switch in stages

    Move a small batch first. Monitor traffic and application behavior, then continue with a rollback plan.

Serverless pricing, explained

Understand your costs
before you move.

Start within the free monthly quota. Estimate ongoing usage before moving your full workload.

EMQX Serverless monthly free quotas and usage rates
MeterFree / monthBeyond the quota
Session minutes1 million$2 / million
Public traffic1 GB$0.15 / GB
Rule actions1 million$0.25 / million

One session minute is one client session for one minute. Offline persistent sessions also count. Serverless traffic includes public ingress and egress. See billing details ↗

Check your spend limit before cutover. At $0, the deployment stops when a free quota runs out. Enable paid usage and choose what happens at your limit before moving a workload that needs it.

Estimate Your Cost
Beyond MQTT

Build more on EMQX Cloud.

Explore more of EMQX Cloud: store telemetry, manage devices, and build AI workflows.

EMQX Tables

Store and query time-series data.

EMQX Fleets

Manage devices, state, and jobs.

EMQX Agents

Build AI workflows for your devices.
FAQs

Questions before you switch?

A few practical answers for moving your MQTT devices and applications.

Is EMQX Cloud an alternative to HiveMQ Cloud?

Yes. EMQX Cloud offers fully managed MQTT with Serverless and Dedicated Flex plans. For HiveMQ Cloud Serverless or PAYG workloads, compare connection limits, usage pricing, networking, and integrations to choose a plan. Update connection settings and recreate access controls, then test your clients before cutover.

Which HiveMQ Cloud plans are retiring?

HiveMQ is retiring Cloud Serverless Free and Serverless Pay As You Go. New Serverless clusters and PAYG upgrades ended on September 30, 2026. Existing Serverless service ends on December 31, 2026; clusters and their data will be deleted on January 7, 2027. This notice does not cover all HiveMQ Cloud plans. Read the official retirement notice.

Can I keep my existing MQTT clients?

EMQX supports standard MQTT clients. You can generally keep your client libraries and topic design, but you must update connection settings and validate permissions, subscription patterns, and application behavior against the target plan.

Will I need to update device firmware?

That depends on how your devices store their connection settings. If the broker address and TLS configuration can be updated remotely, a configuration change may be enough. If they are embedded in firmware, plan a firmware update. Check the target endpoint, port, hostname verification, SNI, and any pinned CA certificate.

Can I keep my usernames and passwords?

You can recreate known usernames and passwords on EMQX, including through supported imports. This requires access to the original credentials; it is not an automatic export from HiveMQ. Recreate topic permissions separately and test both allowed and denied actions. See authentication and authorization.

What happens to retained messages and sessions?

They do not transfer automatically between brokers. Retained messages can be republished to the new broker using an MQTT client. Persistent sessions, subscriptions, and messages queued for offline clients need a separate cutover plan. Keeping the same client ID does not move the old session or queue.

Is EMQX Serverless free?

Each deployment includes a monthly free quota of 1 million session minutes, 1 GB of public traffic, and 1 million rule actions. Usage beyond those quotas is charged when paid usage is enabled. The 1,000-connection capacity limit does not mean 1,000 clients can stay connected all month for free. A $0 spend limit stops the deployment when the free quota is exhausted. Learn about spend limits.

Can I migrate without downtime?

Testing and staged cutover can reduce disruption, but the interruption window depends on your devices, applications, and message handling. Plan how backend consumers and command publishers work during the transition, and verify reconnects, duplicate handling, and any required recovery process.

Can you help with a production migration?

Talk with our team about your current plan, connection count, traffic, integrations, and target cutover date. We can discuss the appropriate deployment and migration requirements. The scope of hands-on assistance depends on your workload and support arrangement.

Your next MQTT deployment

Start planning
your move today.

Create a test deployment, or talk with our team about your workload and migration timeline.

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HIVEMQ CLOUD → EMQX CLOUD · MIGRATION GUIDE
Prepare · Validate · Switch

Move your MQTT workload
with a plan.

Use this checklist for a HiveMQ Cloud Serverless or PAYG migration. The connection examples below apply to EMQX Serverless; use your deployment’s settings for Dedicated Flex.

01 — Check the workload you are moving

  • Record device and backend client counts, average session duration, peak publish rates, subscriptions, message sizes, and total traffic.
  • Inventory credentials, topic permissions, retained messages, persistent sessions, offline queues, and any Kafka or HTTP integrations.
  • Confirm that deployed clients can receive a new broker address and, where needed, updated TLS settings. Identify devices that require a firmware update.
  • Compare the target plan’s region, networking, support, and quotas and limits with these requirements.

For Serverless, check the 1,000-connection ceiling, 10 publishes per second per client, and 10 subscriptions per client. Also review wildcard subscription restrictions and session expiry for your MQTT version.

02 — Create the target deployment

  1. Sign in to EMQX Cloud, create a project if needed, and choose New Deployment. Select the plan and available region that fit your workload.
  2. For Serverless, estimate session minutes, total public traffic, and rule actions. Set a suitable spend limit and payment method when paid usage is needed. Choose whether to stop or continue billing at the limit.
  3. When the deployment is running, open its Overview page and copy the connection information. Use the current CA certificate provided there if your client needs an explicit trust file.
BROKER HOSTNAMEUse the target deployment’s address
MQTT OVER TLSPort 8883
WEBSOCKET OVER TLSPort 8084 · path /mqtt
TLS REQUIREMENTSVerify hostname, trust chain, and SNI

Check embedded CA certificates or certificate pinning against the new endpoint. Do not disable certificate verification to work around a connection error. See the deployment instructions and Serverless connection guide.

A $0 spend limit uses only the free quota and stops the deployment when it runs out. Check both the spend-limit behavior and your payment status before production cutover.

03 — Recreate authentication and topic permissions

Under Access Control → Authentication, add users or import credentials using the supported console template. You can reuse usernames and passwords you already know. Do not assume that the original passwords can be exported from HiveMQ.

Under Authorization, recreate the permitted publish and subscribe actions for each topic filter. HiveMQ Cloud denies actions that are not explicitly allowed. EMQX’s default authorization behavior differs, so copying allow rules alone can leave unintended access.

  1. For Serverless, define the intended allow rules for each username or client ID.
  2. Add an All Users fallback rule that denies publish and subscribe on #, following the documented rule order.
  3. Check for broader existing allow rules and test both authorized and unauthorized operations with representative credentials.

Read the current authorization instructions before applying rules. Recreate integrations separately and verify their endpoints, credentials, networking, and delivery behavior.

04 — Test devices and applications together

Start with MQTTX or a familiar MQTT client, then test representative real devices and backend clients.

  • Verify TLS negotiation, authentication, intended topic access, and rejection of unauthorized actions.
  • Test publish/subscribe behavior, QoS, reconnects, subscriptions, retained messages, and last-will behavior where used.
  • Exercise normal and peak traffic, message fan-out, downstream integrations, and any device command path.
  • Check application-level handling of missing or duplicate messages. Confirm that expected usage fits your budget and plan limits.

Update the broker hostname in every relevant application. Check WebSocket ports and paths, as well as SNI and pinned trust settings, rather than assuming the old settings are portable.

05 — Switch in stages and verify the result

  1. Define success criteria, the switch sequence, monitoring, and a rollback window while the old service remains available.
  2. Republish retained messages to the new broker using an MQTT client with the retain flag. Plan how changing values stay current during the transition.
  3. Re-establish subscriptions on the new broker. Existing persistent sessions, queued offline messages, and in-flight delivery state are not carried over by changing the address.
  4. Move a small batch of devices. Coordinate backend subscribers and command publishers across both environments as required, and handle duplicates explicitly.
  5. Monitor connections, message flow, authorization failures, downstream delivery, and costs. Move the remaining batches only when the checks pass.
  6. Confirm that required devices and applications no longer depend on HiveMQ Cloud Serverless before the December 31, 2026 deadline.

Retained messages are not an automatic export/import. On EMQX Serverless, the data integration “Republish” action does not store a retained message; use a suitable MQTT client. See the Republish documentation.

For offline devices, hard-coded endpoints, complex queues, or a tightly constrained interruption window, discuss the cutover with your engineering team and migration support before proceeding.

Need help matching the plan to your workload or preparing a production cutover?

Talk to a Migration Expert