MQTT vs Mosquitto: What are the differences?

# Introduction

Key differences between MQTT and Mosquitto are highlighted below:

1. **Protocol vs. Broker**: MQTT is a lightweight messaging protocol designed for small sensors and mobile devices to communicate efficiently over unstable networks, while Mosquitto is an open-source message broker that implements the MQTT protocol to enable message exchange between clients.
2. **Communication Functionality**: MQTT defines the communication protocol rules such as message formatting, delivery, and acknowledgment, whereas Mosquitto acts as a middleware server that manages the flow of messages between different clients subscribing/publishing to various topics.
3. **Scalability**: MQTT protocol can scale horizontally by adding more brokers to handle increased message traffic, ensuring high availability and fault tolerance, whereas Mosquitto can be scaled vertically by upgrading hardware resources to meet growing messaging demands.
4. **Cross-Platform Compatibility**: MQTT protocol is platform-independent and can be used on various operating systems and devices, ensuring interoperability, while Mosquitto is written in C/C++ and offers compatibility with multiple platforms, including Windows, Linux, and macOS.
5. **Security Features**: MQTT supports various security mechanisms like TLS/SSL encryption and username/password authentication to protect data transmission, while Mosquitto provides access control lists (ACLs), user authentication, and encryption options to secure message exchange between clients.
6. **Ease of Integration**: MQTT protocol offers easy integration with different programming languages and frameworks, simplifying the development of IoT applications, whereas Mosquitto provides libraries and APIs for popular languages like Python, Java, and C++ to facilitate seamless integration with existing systems.

# Summary

In summary, MQTT and Mosquitto differ in terms of their protocol implementation, communication functionality, scalability, compatibility, security features, and ease of integration.