IoT
MQTT vs HTTP for IoT Applications
Understand messaging patterns, overhead, reliability and operational tradeoffs between MQTT and HTTP for connected devices.
MQTT and HTTP solve different communication patterns. Choosing well depends on whether devices need persistent messaging, occasional API calls, commands, retained state and predictable behaviour during network interruption.
MQTT for event streams and commands
MQTT maintains a broker connection and routes messages by topic. It is efficient for frequent telemetry, device groups and server-to-device commands, while quality-of-service levels and session handling must be configured carefully.
HTTP for explicit resource operations
HTTP is familiar, stateless and well supported by web infrastructure. It suits occasional uploads, configuration APIs and integrations where each request can be handled independently, but repeated handshakes may add overhead for constrained devices.
Many systems use both
A practical architecture may use MQTT between field devices and the platform, then HTTP APIs for dashboards, business integrations and configuration. Security identity, retries, deduplication and observability matter more than protocol preference alone.
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