MosquittovsNATS
Two self-hosted projects, compared on the numbers selfhost.directory tracks live: score, popularity, release cadence and setup effort.
| Mosquitto | NATS | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 76/100 | 80/100 |
| Rank in category | #1 of 10 in IoT | #2 of 12 in Message Broker |
| GitHub stars | 11 306 | 20 953 |
| Stars, last 30 days | +86 | +191 |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 0 | 18 |
| Latest release | — | v2.14.9 · 26 Oct 2026 |
| Setup | Moderate | Moderate |
| Official Docker image | No | Yes |
| License | Other | Apache-2.0 |
| Main language | C | Go |
Which one should you pick?
NATS scores 80/100 against 76/100 for Mosquitto, so it is the safer default.
NATS ships more often: 18 stable releases in the past year, against 0 for Mosquitto.
NATS is growing faster right now (+191 stars in 30 days).
Mosquitto details →NATS details →
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