Comparing MQTT clients

MQTT Viewer

A free, open-source desktop client for macOS, Windows and Linux, focused on inspecting and debugging broker traffic. A live topic tree, a message timeline, message comparison, payload decoding, up to 10 connections and full MQTT v3.1.1 and v5.

MQTT Explorer

Popularised the topic tree view, with charts, a diff view and retained-topic cleanup. Free, cross-platform and a favourite in the Home Assistant community. No MQTT 5 or multiple connections. See the MQTT Explorer alternative page.

MQTTX

A toolkit from the team behind EMQX, spanning a desktop app, a web client and a CLI, with benchmarking and a broad set of payload codecs. See the MQTTX alternative page.

MQTT.fx

A commercial desktop client from Softblade with a Topic Explorer, Sparkplug tooling and vendor support, under paid licences. See the MQTT.fx alternative page.

Which should you choose?

MQTTX for an all-in-one toolkit with a CLI and web client. MQTT.fx for a commercial product with support. MQTT Explorer for a familiar single-broker tree. MQTT Viewer for a free, open-source desktop client focused on debugging traffic. The best MQTT clients page has a fuller rundown.

Frequently asked questions

Download MQTT Viewer for macOS, Windows or Linux.