ThingsBoard

ThingsBoard is an open-source IoTITermIoT (Internet of Things)The IoT (Internet of Things) is the network of physical objects with sensors, software and connectivity that collect and exchange data and act autonomously.View profile platform for device management, data collection, processing and visualization. Devices connect over MQTT, CoAPProtocolCoAPCoAP (RFC 7252) brings GET/POST/PUT/DELETE to devices with 8 KB of RAM over UDP. How Observe and DTLS work, and when to pick it over MQTT.View profile, HTTP, LwM2M or SNMP, a rule engine processes the incoming telemetry, and dashboards show it in real time. The Community Edition is free under the Apache 2.0 license, while the Professional Edition and ThingsBoard Cloud are paid.

How ThingsBoard works

A ThingsBoard deployment is built around a few concepts:

• Devices and assets: devices send telemetry and attributes, while assets and relations model sites, buildings or machines as a hierarchy (a digital twinDTermDigital twinA digital twin is a virtual replica of a physical object or system, fed with real-time data for simulation, monitoring and analysis.View profile).
• Rule engine: chains of processing nodes that filter, transform and enrich messages, raise alarms and forward data to external systems.
• Dashboards: widgets that show live and historical data, including SCADA-style views.
• Multi-tenancy: tenants and customers isolate the data and devices of each client or business unit.
• IoT Gateway: a separate component for industrial protocols such as ModbusMProtocolModbusThe most widespread industrial fieldbusView profile, BACnetBProtocolBACnetOpen protocol for building automation (HVAC)View profile, CAN busCProtocolCAN busRobust serial bus for automotive and industryView profile or OPC-UA.

ThingsBoard editions: Community, Professional and Cloud

ThingsBoard comes in three main forms:

• Community Edition (CE): open source under Apache 2.0, free and self-hosted.
• Professional Edition (PE): commercial and self-managed, sold as a pay-as-you-go subscription or a perpetual license.
• ThingsBoard Cloud: the managed version run by the vendor, on monthly plans.

PE and Cloud add features that CE doesn't include: white-labeling, advanced role-based access control, a scheduler, reporting, entity groups and platform integrations. That last point matters in LoRaWANProtocolLoRaWANOpen long-range, low-power LPWANView profile projects: according to the ThingsBoard documentation, native connectors for network servers such as ChirpStackCTermChirpStackChirpStack is an open-source LoRaWAN Network Server to deploy and manage private end-to-end LoRaWAN networks.View profile, The Things Stack, LORIOT and ThingPark are available only in PE and Cloud.

ChirpStack also ships its own ThingsBoard integration, which pushes decoded device data to ThingsBoard using a per-device access token.

ThingsBoard and Cloud Studio IoT

Cloud Studio IoT is a commercial IoT platform that competes with ThingsBoard. It runs as a managed service on AWS or can be installed on-premise, offers dashboards, alarms and white-label as part of the platform, and receives LoRaWAN data from external network servers such as The Things Stack, LORIOT, ThingPark X or Helium. If you are weighing both, see the Cloud Studio IoT vs ThingsBoard comparison.