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MQTT Explorer vs MQTT CLI: catalog facts
MQTT Explorer	MQTT CLI
Free Free and open source under the MIT licence.	Free Free and open source under the Apache 2.0 licence, backed by HiveMQ.
Windows, macOS, Linux	Windows, Command line
Hierarchical topic tree with activity visualisation Diff view and per-topic history	Full MQTT 5.0 and 3.1.1 feature support Interactive shell with syntax highlighting and command history
Current version is still labelled beta Focused on inspection and debugging rather than broker administration	Command line only, with no graphical interface Some commands only apply to HiveMQ brokers
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License: MIT	License: Apache-2.0
No account needed	No account needed
Not stated if it works offline	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked October 2, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked October 2, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.