ThingsBoard Community vs Professional Edition: Which Fits Your IoT Project?
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ThingsBoard is one of the most mature open-source IoT platforms on the market. But with two editions – Community Edition (CE) and Professional Edition (PE) – the question arises: which one fits your project? This article compares both editions in detail: features, pricing, deployment options and a concrete decision guide.
Table of Contents
- What is ThingsBoard?
- Community Edition: Features in Detail
- Professional Edition: What's Added?
- Feature Comparison Table
- Deployment Options and Pricing
- LoRaWAN Integration: CE vs PE
- Add-ons in the ThingsBoard Ecosystem
- Migration CE to PE
- When Which Edition?
- Our Recommendation at WZ-IT
- Further Reading
What is ThingsBoard?
ThingsBoard is an open-source IoT platform for device management, data collection, data processing and visualisation. The platform supports protocols like MQTT, CoAP and HTTP, offers a powerful rule engine and scales in cluster mode to millions of devices.
There are two editions:
- Community Edition (CE): Free, Apache 2.0 licence, fully open source
- Professional Edition (PE): Commercial, includes all CE features plus enterprise functionality
According to ThingsBoard, 80% of code changes flow directly back into the CE. The PE extends the CE with features like RBAC, white-labelling, SSO and native platform integrations.
Community Edition: Features in Detail
The CE is not a stripped-down trial version – it is a fully-fledged, scalable IoT platform:
Protocols and Connectivity
- MQTT, CoAP, HTTP, SNMP, LWM2M as transport protocols
- IoT Gateway with industrial protocol connectors: Modbus, OPC-UA, BACnet, BLE, CAN and more
Device Management
- Device & asset management with digital twins
- OTA firmware updates via the platform
- Device provisioning and grouping
Data Processing
- Rule engine for data processing, alarms and actions
- Calculated fields and AI rule nodes
- Data forwarding to external systems
Visualisation
- Real-time dashboards with 600+ IoT-specific widgets
- Mobile-responsive dashboard views
- Alarm management and notifications
Architecture
- Multi-tenancy out of the box
- Cluster-capable – scalable to millions of devices
- PostgreSQL as database (up to approx. 5,000 msg/sec), hybrid with Cassandra for higher loads
- Deployment: Self-managed only (Docker, Kubernetes, bare-metal)
Professional Edition: What's Added?
The PE includes all CE features plus these enterprise functions:
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| RBAC | Role-based access control with granular permissions |
| White-Labelling | Custom branding (logo, colours, email templates) without code changes |
| SSO / OAuth2 | Single sign-on integration with identity providers |
| Platform Integrations | AWS IoT, Azure IoT Hub, Google PubSub, Kafka, LoRaWAN, Sigfox |
| Device Library | 400+ pre-built payload decoders for LoRaWAN and other protocols |
| Automated Reporting | Scheduled report generation and distribution |
| Solution Templates | Pre-built IoT solution templates |
| Secrets Storage | Secure credential storage |
| Scheduler | Time-based actions |
| Dedicated Support | SLA-based support instead of community forum |
The PE is particularly relevant for organisations building multi-customer platforms with custom branding or requiring native LPWAN integration without external components.
Feature Comparison Table
| Area | CE | PE |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-Tenancy & Clustering | ✅ | ✅ |
| Rule Engine & AI Models | ✅ | ✅ |
| MQTT / CoAP / HTTP | ✅ | ✅ |
| IoT Gateway (Modbus, OPC-UA, BACnet) | ✅ | ✅ |
| OTA Firmware Updates | ✅ | ✅ |
| Real-time Dashboards (600+ Widgets) | ✅ | ✅ |
| Digital Twins | ✅ | ✅ |
| Calculated Fields & AI Rule Nodes | ✅ | ✅ |
| Mobile App | ✅ | ✅ (+ PE Mobile App) |
| LPWAN (LoRaWAN, Sigfox) native | ❌ | ✅ |
| System Integrations (AWS/Azure/Kafka) | ❌ | ✅ |
| RBAC | ❌ | ✅ |
| SSO / OAuth2 | ❌ | ✅ |
| White-Labelling | ❌ | ✅ |
| Reporting & Scheduling | ❌ | ✅ |
| Device Payload Library (400+) | ❌ | ✅ |
| Solution Templates | ❌ | ✅ |
| Managed Cloud | ❌ | ✅ |
| Support Model | Community | Advanced + SLA |
Deployment Options and Pricing
Community Edition
Free. Apache 2.0 licence, commercial use permitted. Deployment on your own infrastructure (Docker, Kubernetes, bare-metal). No device or user limits in the software.
PE Public Cloud (ThingsBoard Cloud)
Hosted by ThingsBoard in North America or Europe:
| Plan | Price/Month (EUR) | Devices | Assets | Data Points/Month | Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | €0 | 5 | 5 | 1M | Community |
| Prototype | €45 | 50 | 50 | 10M | Community |
| Pilot | €145 | 100 | 100 | 100M | Help Desk + White-Label |
| Startup | €385 | 500 | 500 | 500M | Priority Help Desk |
| Business | €725 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1B | Priority Help Desk |
From Business: €0.30/additional device. Top-ups for devices, integrations, traffic and storage available.
PE Self-managed (Pay-as-you-go)
Licence for your own infrastructure – hosting costs are separate:
| Plan | Price/Month | Devices | Assets | Instances |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maker | $10 | 10 | 10 | 1 Prod |
| Prototype | $39 | 50 | 50 | 1 Prod |
| Pilot | $99 | 100 | 100 | 1 Prod |
| Startup | $299 | 500 | 500 | 2 Prod |
| Business | $499 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 3 Prod |
White-labelling included from Pilot plan. Trendz Analytics and Edge Computing as add-ons.
PE Private Cloud (Managed)
Fully managed infrastructure by ThingsBoard:
| Plan | Price/Month | Devices | Uptime | Msg/Min |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Launch | $1,499 | 5,000 | 99.9% | 50,000 |
| Growth | $2,199 | 25,000 | 99.9% | 100,000 |
| Scale | $3,999 | 50,000 | 99.95% | 500,000 |
| Enterprise | Custom | 100,000+ | Custom | Unlimited |
Includes automatic backups, 24/7 monitoring, production support and multi-AZ database replication.
PE Perpetual Licence
One-time licence fee (CAPEX instead of OPEX) for air-gapped and offline scenarios. Full data sovereignty. Price on request.
LoRaWAN Integration: CE vs PE
The LoRaWAN question is one of the most common decision factors:
PE: Native Integration
The Professional Edition includes built-in LoRaWAN integration with 400+ pre-built payload decoders. Devices are registered and managed directly in ThingsBoard.
CE: ChirpStack as External Solution
The Community Edition has no native LoRaWAN support. The proven alternative: ChirpStack as an external LoRaWAN network server. ChirpStack decodes payloads and sends data via MQTT to ThingsBoard CE.
Our assessment: CE + ChirpStack offers more flexibility than PE's built-in integration. ChirpStack is open source, vendor-independent and supports all LoRaWAN gateways. The additional setup effort is minimal – and you avoid licence costs and vendor lock-in. We describe the interplay in detail in ThingsBoard, Grafana & ChirpStack in the IoT Stack.
Add-ons in the ThingsBoard Ecosystem
| Product | Description | Availability |
|---|---|---|
| Trendz Analytics | AI-powered analysis, anomaly detection, forecasting | Add-on for CE & PE |
| ThingsBoard Edge | Edge computing – local data processing at the source | CE Edge (with CE server), PE Edge (with PE server) |
| TBMQ | Standalone MQTT broker (CE free, PE with licence) | Standalone |
| PE Mobile App | White-label mobile app (iOS + Android) | $99/month + $1,000 setup |
| IoT Gateway | Industrial protocols (Modbus, OPC-UA, BACnet) | Free with CE & PE |
Migration CE to PE
ThingsBoard enables seamless migration from CE to PE:
- Telemetry data and configurations are fully preserved
- Dashboards, devices and rules are carried over
- Note: Custom source code modifications to the CE are lost during the upgrade
Migration is possible in both directions – from CE to PE and back. This reduces risk when evaluating the PE.
When Which Edition?
| Scenario | Recommendation |
|---|---|
| PoC / prototyping / evaluation | CE – free, full feature set |
| Small to medium commercial projects | CE – no licence costs, no device limits |
| LoRaWAN projects | CE + ChirpStack – more flexible than PE's built-in integration |
| Multi-customer platform with custom branding | PE – white-labelling without code changes |
| Enterprise with SSO, RBAC and SLA support | PE – granular access control and guaranteed support |
| Managed hosting without own infrastructure | PE Cloud or WZ-IT Managed CE |
| Offline / air-gapped deployment | PE Perpetual – one-time purchase, no internet required |
Our Recommendation at WZ-IT
For the majority of SME projects, the Community Edition is the right choice. The CE offers device management, rule engine, dashboards and multi-tenancy – this covers the requirements of most IoT projects.
Our Stack
We rely on a proven open-source stack:
- ThingsBoard CE for device management and dashboards
- ChirpStack for LoRaWAN connectivity
- Grafana for deep data analysis and monitoring
- Node-RED for data pipelines and automation
The entire stack runs on German Hetzner servers – GDPR-compliant, no vendor lock-in, no ongoing licence costs.
When Do We Recommend the PE?
The PE is worthwhile for:
- White-label requirements (custom branding for end customers)
- Enterprise SSO (integration with Azure AD, Okta etc.)
- Granular RBAC (when multi-tenancy alone is not sufficient)
For most other scenarios – including larger projects with hundreds of devices – the CE with the right stack setup provides everything you need.
→ Discuss Your IoT Project → ThingsBoard Managed Hosting
Further Reading
Frequently Asked Questions
Answers to important questions about this topic
Yes. The Community Edition is published under the Apache 2.0 licence and can be used for commercial projects at no cost. There are no device limits in the software – scaling depends only on hardware.
The CE includes device management, rule engine, dashboards, multi-tenancy and clustering. The PE adds RBAC, white-labelling, SSO/OAuth2, native LoRaWAN/Sigfox integration, 400+ payload decoders, automated reporting and dedicated support.
No. The CE can receive LoRaWAN data via ChirpStack as an external LoRaWAN network server. ChirpStack sends decoded data via MQTT to ThingsBoard CE. The PE offers native LoRaWAN integration without an external server.
Yes. The Apache 2.0 licence permits commercial use without restrictions. You can use the CE for client projects, host it on your own infrastructure and offer managed hosting services with it.
PE self-managed starts at $10/month (Maker, 10 devices). The Pilot plan with 100 devices and white-labelling costs $99/month. ThingsBoard Cloud (hosted) starts at $49/month (Prototype, 50 devices). Managed Private Cloud from $1,499/month.
Yes. ThingsBoard provides seamless migration. Telemetry data and configurations are preserved. Custom source code modifications to the CE are lost during the upgrade.
ThingsBoard CE can be fully operated on your own infrastructure in Germany or the EU – for example on a Hetzner server. Since no data flows to third parties, GDPR compliance is in your own hands.
The CE has no software limits. PostgreSQL as the database supports up to approx. 5,000 msg/sec. For over 1 million devices or more than 5,000 msg/sec, ThingsBoard recommends a hybrid of PostgreSQL + Cassandra in cluster mode.
Written by
Timo Wevelsiep
Co-Founder & CEO
Co-Founder of WZ-IT. Specialized in cloud infrastructure, open-source platforms and managed services for SMEs and enterprise clients worldwide.
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