Aedes

What it is

Aedes is a lightweight MQTT broker designed to run on any stream server, leveraging Node.js for its implementation. It supports MQTT protocol, making it suitable for IoT applications. With a focus on simplicity and performance, Aedes is open-source under the MIT license and has a growing community of contributors. It is particularly useful for developers looking to integrate MQTT capabilities into Node.js applications without the overhead of more complex brokers.

Stream-based architecture for lightweight MQTT handling

When it fits — and when it doesn’t

Known weaknesses

Each one links to the public issue, changelog or docs page it came from, where we have one.

1. 01

   High number of open issues

   94 open issues on GitHub

2. 02

   Limited to JavaScript

   Primary language is JavaScript

3. 03

   Lacks advanced features

   Described as 'barebone' in its GitHub description

What it does well

• Lightweight and efficient

  Unpacked size of 418483 bytes and only 4 dependencies

• Open-source with active community

  67 contributors and 1969 stars on GitHub

• High weekly downloads

  116225 weekly downloads on npm

Pricing

Free tier

Yes

Paid from

—

Model

Flat rate

Enterprise plan

No

Pricing last confirmed Oct 1, 2026.