Ubidots

Overview

Ubidots is a full-stack IoT service for ingesting device readings, calculating derived values, visualizing them, and triggering operational responses. It fits system integrators and enterprise teams that want these stages in one hosted platform, while STEM targets educational and personal non-commercial work. Its integrated workflow is a strong reason to choose it; mobile-user restrictions and device-based billing can make other approaches preferable for wider audiences or unusual device schemas.

Key features

Devices and machines can publish data through MQTT or HTTP, giving projects two established ingestion paths. Widget-based dashboards turn those readings into views for operators and customers. Synthetic variables apply arithmetic and statistical operations across a selected time frame, so teams can derive useful indicators instead of displaying only raw telemetry.

Events can evaluate variable conditions, detect device inactivity, or run on schedules. They can send email, SMS, voice calls, Slack messages, or webhooks, covering both human escalation and system-to-system automation. Plugins connect AWS IoT, OpenWeather, and LoRaWAN, with custom cron, webhook, and widget plugins available when built-in connections do not fit.

Real-time stream processing, custom dashboards, anomaly detection, and machine-learning tools broaden its appeal beyond basic monitoring. Security capabilities include HTTPS with SSL, MQTT with TLS, token authentication, and token revocation. Infrastructure is hosted in AWS's us-east-2 (Ohio) data center; private deployment in another data center or cloud provider is offered on Enterprise tiers.

The iOS and Android apps show devices, historical variable data, web dashboards, event logs, and push notifications. They cannot create or edit dashboards, so administration remains a web task. Standard mobile access is for account owners and administrators; end users need an on-demand white-labeled app, an important limitation for customer-facing deployments.

Pricing

Ubidots uses a freemium model. A typical core-platform account starts with a free 30-day trial, allowing evaluation before a paid commitment. Billing counts each device with up to 20 variables; additional variables may be charged as additional devices, so a variable-heavy design can consume quota faster than its physical device count suggests.

Ubidots STEM

This plan is free (0.00 USD) for non-commercial projects and includes three devices. It is appropriate for classroom work, experiments, and personal prototypes, but the non-commercial condition and three-device ceiling rule it out for production or commercial deployments.

Professional

Professional costs $99 a month. It includes 50 devices, 10M dots per month, six months of data retention, five organizations, up to five end users, and community support. That package suits a small commercial rollout with moderate telemetry and a limited user group. The device, data-volume, retention, and seat caps are meaningful constraints for larger fleets or long-term historical analysis.

Industrial

Industrial has custom pricing and supports one to thousands of devices, custom capacity, 24 months of retention, and standard support. It is the logical step when Professional's quotas or community-only support are insufficient, but budgeting requires a quote.

Enterprise

Enterprise is also custom priced, with one to thousands of devices, custom capacity, more than 24 months of retention, private deployment, SSO, SLAs, and a technical account manager. Choose it when governance, contractual availability, or deployment location matters as much as telemetry features.

Platforms

Ubidots is available on web, Android, iOS, and through an API. The API and MQTT/HTTP ingestion support connected applications, while the mobile apps are mainly for viewing and operational follow-up rather than dashboard authoring.

Who it's for

System integrators and enterprise customers are the clearest audience: they can combine ingestion, calculations, dashboards, alerts, integrations, and security controls in one service. Professional fits a 50-device-or-smaller commercial deployment with up to five end users. STEM is suitable for non-commercial education and personal projects. Look elsewhere if end users must freely build dashboards in a mobile app, if private hosting is required below Enterprise, or if billing by device penalizes a design with many variables.

Pros and cons

Pros

• End-to-end IoT workflow: ingestion, derived variables, dashboards, events, and integrations are covered in one platform.
• Broad event delivery: email, SMS, voice, Slack, and webhooks support varied escalation paths.
• Flexible integration surface: AWS IoT, OpenWeather, LoRaWAN, and custom plugin types extend the core service.
• Enterprise controls: private deployment, SSO, SLAs, and a technical account manager are available on Enterprise.

Cons

• Mobile administration gap: dashboard creation and editing are unavailable in the iOS and Android apps.
• Restricted standard mobile audience: ordinary end users need a separate on-demand white-labeled app.
• Quota-sensitive billing: variables beyond 20 per device can be billed as additional devices.
• Professional limits: 50 devices, 10M dots monthly, six months of retention, and five end users may not suit expanding deployments.

Alternatives

ThingsBoard is worth choosing when you need Linux, macOS, Windows, or self-hosted options alongside web and mobile access; its Free plan covers five devices and 1M data points per month.

OpenRemote is a sensible alternative for a free, self-hosted IoT platform with community support.

Thinger.io suits projects seeking cloud tiers sized for 100 or 1,000 devices and substantial storage.

Arduino IDE is the better choice when the need is a free, open-source development environment rather than a hosted IoT application platform.

Datacake offers a five-device free tier and a 25-device Hobby plan priced at 25 EUR per month.

Kaa IoT Platform is an option for API, web, or self-hosted deployments, including a free five-device plan and a 99.00 USD monthly tier for up to 100 devices.

Losant Enterprise IoT Platform is aimed at teams comfortable with higher-priced plans, starting at $250 a month for 100,000 payloads and 90 days of retention.

Mender is preferable when the core requirement is Linux device over-the-air updating rather than dashboards and event automation.

For broader discovery, browse IoT Device Management Platforms and IoT Analytics Software.

Verdict

Choose Ubidots if you are building a commercial or enterprise IoT application that needs data ingestion, calculated metrics, dashboards, and automated actions together, with a path from a 30-day trial to enterprise controls. Choose another platform if mobile end users must author dashboards, if you need private deployment without Enterprise terms, or if device-and-variable billing and Professional's quotas do not match your fleet.