ThingsBoard

ThingsBoard is a broad IoT platform for connecting and managing devices, processing their data, and building operational dashboards. It best suits teams with varied connectivity or deployment needs; its main trade-off is that cloud plans impose firm device and data-point ceilings.

Overview

Founded in 2016, ThingsBoard covers the path from device connectivity and data collection through server-side processing and visualization. Bringing those jobs together can suit projects that would otherwise need separate systems, though smaller, single-purpose deployments may not need the breadth.

Teams can choose ThingsBoard Cloud, dedicated Private Cloud, or on-premises deployment, including fully offline self-managed installations. That flexibility is valuable where hosting location or offline operation matters, but self-managed deployment is a different commitment from choosing a managed cloud plan.

Key features

Native connectivity covers MQTT, CoAP, HTTP, LwM2M, and SNMP. The IoT Gateway extends that range to protocols including Modbus, BACnet, CAN bus, BLE, and OPC-UA, which makes ThingsBoard a strong fit for mixed device fleets and industrial systems.

Real-time IoT and SCADA dashboards use more than 300 built-in widgets and support custom widgets. That breadth allows teams to shape operational views, rather than being limited to a small template set. A library of Rule Engine nodes supports data processing and platform customization, with real-time stream processing. Anomaly detection and machine-learning tools are also included.

Integrations connect external services and gateways such as AWS IoT, Azure IoT Hub, Google Cloud Pub/Sub, LoRaWAN servers, MQTT brokers, and OPC-UA servers. Security options include two-factor authentication, OAuth 2.0/SSO, JWT tokens, API keys, and HTTPS/TLS configuration. ThingsBoard Cloud uses infrastructure compliant with SOC II and ISO 27001 and offers North America or EU data regions.

Pricing

ThingsBoard uses a freemium model, with a free trial also offered. Cloud plans are governed by device and data-point quotas; additional entity and API-call packs can be purchased subject to plan rules. These caps make it important to size a project against both its device count and monthly data volume, not just its starting cost.

• Free: free, billed monthly, with 5 devices, 5 assets, and 1M data points/mo. It is suited to a small evaluation or pilot, but the low quotas constrain ongoing deployments.
• Prototype (ThingsBoard Cloud): $39 a month, billed $39 /month, with 50 devices, 50 assets, and 10M data points/mo. It raises the entry-level cloud limits for a small connected project.
• Prototype: $49 a month, billed monthly, with 50 devices, 50 assets, and 10M data points/mo.
• Pilot (On-premises): $99 a month, billed $99 /month, with 100 devices, 100 assets, and 1 production instance. It suits a modest self-managed deployment.
• Pilot (ThingsBoard Cloud): $99 a month, billed $99 /month, with 100 devices, 100 assets, and 100M data points/mo.
• Pilot: $149 a month, billed monthly, with 100 devices, 100 assets, and 100M data points/mo.
• Startup (ThingsBoard Cloud): $299 a month, billed $299 /month, with 500 devices, 500 assets, and 500M data points/mo.
• Startup (On-premises): $299 a month, billed $299 /month, with 500 devices, 500 assets, and 2 production instances.
• Startup: $399 a month, billed monthly, with 500 devices, 500 assets, and 500M data points/mo.
• Business: $749 a month, billed monthly, with 1,000 devices, 1,000 assets, and 1B data points/mo.
• Free (On-premises): free, billed $0 /month, with 100 devices, 100 assets, and 1 production instance. It offers a higher device ceiling than the free cloud option, for teams prepared to self-manage.
• Free (ThingsBoard Cloud): free, billed $0 /month, with 5 devices, 5 assets, and 1M data points/mo.

Paid subscriptions provide access to the ThingsBoard Support Portal, and Startup and Business include priority support. The published monthly prices make quota comparisons straightforward, but growing fleets may need higher plans or add-on packs.

Platforms

ThingsBoard supports Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, Windows, web, API, and self-hosted use. The combination of client platforms and self-managed deployment options accommodates teams with different operating environments.

Who it's for

ThingsBoard is best for IoT teams that need protocol range, real-time dashboards and processing, and a choice of managed, private, or self-managed deployment. Offline operation and the broad gateway protocol support are particular advantages for industrial or infrastructure projects. A small cloud project with few devices may find the entry caps restrictive as data volume grows.

Pros and cons

• Pros: Broad native and gateway protocol support helps connect heterogeneous fleets.
• Pros: More than 300 built-in widgets, custom widgets, and real-time SCADA visualization give teams substantial dashboard scope.
• Pros: Cloud, Private Cloud, and offline-capable on-premises deployment provide meaningful hosting flexibility.
• Cons: The free cloud plan is limited to 5 devices, 5 assets, and 1M data points/mo, so it is mainly suitable for evaluation or very small projects.
• Cons: Paid cloud tiers remain quota-based, requiring teams to track device and data-point growth.

Alternatives

Consider InfluxDB if its freemium model and pay-for-what-you-use Cloud Serverless option better fit a usage-based choice; it also has an InfluxDB 3 Core single-node plan.

TDengine is worth comparing if fully open-source TSDB software with clustering under the AGPL license is the priority.

Datacake may suit a smaller fleet: its free plan covers 5 devices and its Hobby plan covers up to 25 devices, with one year of data retention.

TagoIO offers a free plan with 5 devices and 5 dashboards, while its Starter plan provides 100 devices per profile.

Ubidots is an option for non-commercial projects through its free STEM plan, which covers 3 devices.

Zoho IoT is an alternative with a Standard plan covering 100 devices/assets, 240 M datapoints storage, and 12 months of data retention.

Losant Enterprise IoT Platform offers a Launch plan at $250 a month with 100,000 payloads per month and 90 days of data retention.

OpenRemote is another option to compare.

For broader comparisons, see IoT Analytics Software, IoT Device Management Platforms, and IoT Edge Platforms.

Verdict

Choose ThingsBoard when a project needs broad device connectivity, real-time processing and dashboards, and deployment control in one platform. Its protocol and hosting flexibility are compelling, but small cloud deployments should look elsewhere if the low device and data-point ceilings do not leave enough room to grow.