# Mosquitto vs NATS

> 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 | 20 954 ✓ |
| Stars, last 30 days | +86 | +192 ✓ |
| 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 (+192 stars in 30 days).

## Details

- [Mosquitto](https://selfhost.directory/project/mosquitto) (markdown: https://selfhost.directory/project/mosquitto.md)
- [NATS](https://selfhost.directory/project/nats) (markdown: https://selfhost.directory/project/nats.md)

---
Source: https://selfhost.directory/compare/mosquitto-vs-nats