12 of the Best IoT Platforms
*Updated for 2017
The Internet of Things (IoT) is the exploding network of objects, sensors, and “things” connected to
the internet.
The IoT ecosystem contains a number of different types of companies focusing on hardware, device management, middleware, connectivity, security, analytics, and more. Complete IoT platform companies are particularly valuable to anyone looking to deploy a real IoT application.
It is easy to list out the major core cloud providers that are playing in the IoT like AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. Utilizing these services often requires some pretty experienced architects and engineering depth to build and manage a complete IoT solution.
In this post, we’ll take a look at platforms that simplify the implementation of complete IoT solutions, from data ingestion to front-end applications. These IoT-as-a-Service platforms reduce, and at times, eliminate the need for large, in-house IoT development teams. Think of these companies as an application layer built on top of a core cloud provider, abstracting out the complexities of deployment, scale, security, compatibility, APIs, etc. These platforms are critical to reducing time-to-market and costs for many IoT projects.
Below is a list of 12 platform companies simplifying the process of implementing an IoT application.
In no particular order…
Initial State
Initial State a data platform for the Internet of Things (IoT), making it easy for anyone, from novice to enterprise, to send data from sensors and applications to a cloud where that data can be accessed anytime and instantly turned into something awesome – interactive real-time dashboards, charts, statistics, notifications, webhooks, etc.
Individual accounts are available with detailed pricing for each tier listed here. Enterprise features such as hosted, white-labeled solutions can be found here.
Cayenne – myDevices
myDevices is an Internet of Things solutions company that accelerates IoT development and empowers enterprises to quickly design, prototype, and commercialize IoT solutions. Cayenne is a drag-and-drop IoT project builder application enables engineers, makers, network operators and system integrators to quickly and easily develop and deploy IoT solutions across a wide variety of verticals.
Individual accounts are available with detailed pricing for different features listed here. Pricing for enterprise accounts, including professional services, can also be found here.
Ubidots
Ubidots is a codeless IoT Platform designed to help you prototype and scale your IoT projects to production. Ubidots allows you to connect your devices to their cloud using one of their device specific firmware libraries, then create custom visualizations in clean, real-time dashboards. You can send SMS, emails, or trigger webhooks based on your data.
Limited feature individual accounts are available for education and are free. Exact pricing for enterprise accounts are not listed on their website, but there is a “request a quote and free trial” link on their pricing page here.
Pubnub
PubNub is a secure global Data Stream Network (DSN) and easy-to-use API that enables its customers to connect, scale, and manage realtime applications and IoT devices. Pubnub focuses on simplifying realtime data applications at scale, allowing developers to build realtime apps as easily as building a web page. Pubnub’s BLOCKS catalog allows you to run serverless functions and easily connect your realtime data to one of dozens of other partner companies.
Pubnub’s pricing is based on the number of devices and transactions per month and can be found here.
Medium One
Medium One provides a cloud-based platform that enables developers to send event data via their API, which in turn, triggers workflows in real-time. Workflows are based on python scripts that simply call built-in Medium One libraries and services. Medium One provides data storage, real-time analytics, dashboards, and machine learning services.
Medium One offers a free developer’s account as well as an individual professional account and enterprise accounts. Pricing is metered on number of incoming events per day. Medium One’s pricing details can be found here.
Bug Labs (freeboard and dweet)
Bug Labs creates ridiculously simple Internet of Things tools and solutions. Freeboard is an open-source IoT dashboard. Dweet is a simple messaging and alert service for IoT applications. Dweetpro, the enterprise version of Dweet, provides easy-to-use APIs for data storage, device management, and alerts/notifications. Dweet and Freeboard can be combined to provide a complete data collection/streaming to data visualization service.
Dweet and Freeboard offer separate pricing options. Dweetpro pricing can be found here and is based on the number of private dweet “locks”. Freeboard pricing can be found here and is based on the number of private dashboards.
Particle
The Particle Cloud is the powerful centerpiece of the Particle platform, handling many of the most complex pieces of creating an IoT product. From robust security, to reliable infrastructure, to a flexible integrations system, the Particle Cloud has everything you need to move quickly and succeed. The Particle Cloud makes it easy to control your fleet of devices with tools your technical team is already comfortable with. This helps reduce development complexity, time-to-market, and device management overhead.
Particle Cloud pricing is based on the number of devices and incoming events per month and can be found here.
MoBagel
MoBagel provides analytics and predictive AI for IoT data. MoBagel uses a highly secure and reliable cloud infrastructure that is optimized for big data collection and machine learning. MoBagel’s infrastructure is built for large scale aggregated statistics and can process over 10M requests per second.
MoBagel pricing is based on the number of devices and requests per month and can be found here.
Grove Streams
The Grove Streams Data Analytics Platform is a cutting-edge cloud-based service providing decision making capabilities to many users and devices as data arrives from many sources. It was designed to be easy to use across multiple platforms by everyone from corporate app developers to product managers to sensor engineers to electronic enthusiasts. The Platform is easily scalable from one device to one million devices.
Grove Streams pricing is based on the amount of incoming/outgoing data, number of users, and SMS notifications. Detailed pricing for individual and enterprise accounts can be found here.
thethings.iO
thethings.iO is an IoT platform that enables fast and scalable connection of things to the Internet, allowing you to monitor and manage your devices in real-time and get flexible analytic reports. You can create dashboards and control panels for your final customers with the customized brand styles and URLs of your company.
thethings.iO pricing is based on the number of devices and number of API calls per month and can be found here.
Losant
Losant IoT platform is an enterprise-ready cloud platform that enables developers to easily make use of real-time data by rapidly developing smart, connected solutions for the Internet of Things. Losant’s components are seamlessly integrated for a unified developer experience across all parts of your IoT stack.
Losant’s pricing is based on the number of devices, amount of data, and data retention. Pricing details can be found here.
Thinger.io
Thinger.io allows you to connect and manage your Internet of Things products within minutes. They offer a ready to go scalable cloud infrastructure for connecting millions of devices. You can control them with their easy to use admin console, or integrate them in your business logic with their REST API.
Thinger.io’s pricing is based on the number of devices, dashboards, endpoints, and buckets used per month. Pricing details for Thinger.io can be found here.