Edge Computing - Professional Edition
ThingsBoard Edge Professional Edition (PE) is the commercial version of ThingsBoard Edge, an advanced IoT platform designed for managing and processing IoT data at the edge in production-grade and enterprise environments.
It offers comprehensive features including white-labeling, role-based access control (RBAC), advanced integrations, and enterprise-grade capabilities, while maintaining seamless synchronization with ThingsBoard Server.
New to edge computing? Edge computing means processing data where it's generated rather than sending everything to the cloud.
See What is Edge? for a detailed introduction, or jump to our Getting Started to begin working with ThingsBoard Edge.
If you only have one site, deploying ThingsBoard Server on-premises may be enough.
Use ThingsBoard Edge when you have multiple or remote locations that need local processing, dashboards, and automation, but you don't want a full Server at each site.
Server stays your central hub, while Edge runs on lightweight hardware at each site and keeps working offline, then syncs data and configuration back to Server.
Edge Professional Edition is an add-on to your ThingsBoard PE subscription. Your plan includes a base number of Edge instances, and you can purchase additional instances as needed.
See the Pricing Page for details on what's included with each plan, or contact your System Administrator.
Yes, ThingsBoard Edge is specifically designed to run on a variety of Edge hardware platforms, including single-board computers like Raspberry Pi and other devices with sufficient processing power and memory.
Edge keeps running. It processes data, triggers alarms, and updates dashboards locally — no cloud required. When connectivity returns, Edge automatically syncs everything with your ThingsBoard Server. No data loss, no manual intervention.
We recommend up to 1,000 devices per Edge instance based on typical edge hardware and connectivity constraints. You can exceed this number; performance depends on your specific hardware and network conditions.
If you need more capacity, you can deploy multiple Edge instances. Alternatively, if you are using version 4.0 or later, you can cluster Edge nodes for high availability.
Yes. Edge natively supports MQTT, CoAP, HTTP, SNMP, and LwM2M. For other protocols, use:
For other protocols, use the ThingsBoard IoT Gateway to bridge legacy devices. Gateway supports Modbus, BACnet, OPC-UA, and more, and is available at no extra cost.
Or, the Platform Integrations to connect via OPC-UA, ChirpStack, and 30+ other systems using convertor library.
No, the ThingsBoard Professional Edition is a commercial project and can not be modified.
Both editions provide device management, rule engine, dashboards, and standard protocols (MQTT, CoAP, HTTP, etc.).
Community Edition is free and open-source.
Professional Edition is commercial and adds:
- White-labeling: Deploy under your company's brand.
- Solution templates: Pre-built IoT solutions ready to install with dashboards, rule chains, and sample devices.
- Converter library: Ready-to-use decoder functions for 100+ devices across 6 LoRaWAN networks.
- Scheduler: Automate report generation, attribute updates, and device commands.
Not necessarily. Community Edition is production-ready and supports commercial deployments. You can build, sell, and deploy commercial products on CE.
The choice between CE and PE depends on your specific requirements.
Consider PE if you need to:
- Deliver a branded product to customers.
- Connect legacy equipment via OPC-UA or other industrial protocols.
- Deploy pre-built solutions (irrigation, water metering, waste management, etc.).
- Manage multiple end-customers with hierarchical access control.
No. Edge edition must match your ThingsBoard Server edition:
- CE Edge connects to ThingsBoard CE Server.
- PE Edge connects to ThingsBoard PE Server.
PE-specific features (white-labeling, solution templates, integrations, etc.) require both PE Edge and PE Server to function.
- CE Edge: The number of Edge instances is unlimited.
- PE Edge: The number of included Edge instances depends on your ThingsBoard PE plan. You can add extra Edge instances for an additional monthly cost. Check your plan details or contact your administrator to see how many Edge instances are included.
Yes, but it requires upgrading your entire system:
- Upgrade your ThingsBoard Server from CE to PE.
- Purchase the Edge Computing add-on for your PE license.
- Reinstall Edge using PE packages.
Before upgrading: Back up any custom dashboards, rule chains, or configurations. Consult our support team for assistance or see our migration guide for step-by-step instructions.
Community Edition is free and open-source - no trial needed. Download and use it indefinitely at no cost.
For Professional Edition, you can start with the Free plan, which is limited in terms of the number of devices, but which has Edge Computing add-on permanently enabled. This allows you to try out the add-on features free of charge.
Edge Professional Edition includes all Community Edition features plus:
- UI customization: White-labeling and custom menu configuration.
- Solution templates: Pre-built IoT solutions ready to install.
- Platform Integrations: Connect to OPC-UA servers, and other systems with ready-to-use decoders for 100+ devices.
- Scheduler: Automate reports, commands, and updates.
- Customer hierarchy: Organize multiple end-customers with isolated access.
No, ThingsBoard Edge Professional Edition does not support multi-tenancy.
Professional Edition supports a single tenant and multiple customers with hierarchy.
For instance, if an Edge owner is a sub-customer, all the parent entities of that sub-customer up to the tenant level will be provisioned to the Edge. This means customers from the same hierarchy path can access the same Edge instance.
However, you can not share an instance between multiple tenants, and devices from multiple tenants can not connect to a single Edge instance. If you need multi-tenancy, provision multiple Edge instances for each tenant.
Yes. Edge includes an AI Request node in the Rule Engine that allows integration with AI services like OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, and custom AI endpoints. You can use this for predictive maintenance, anomaly detection, natural language processing, and other AI-powered analytics.
See AI predictive maintenance example for implementation details.
Not out-of-the-box for Community Edition. To connect with third-party platforms like LoRaWAN networks, you would need to develop custom integration code.
Professional Edition provides ready-to-use Platform Integrations for LoRaWAN networks (ChirpStack, TTN, Loriot), OPC-UA servers, and 30+ other platforms. See Edge Integrations documentation for more details.
Starting with version 4.0, yes. You can cluster multiple Edge nodes for high availability. If one node fails, others continue handling workloads.
Earlier versions run as single instances.
Refer to Edge Cluster Setup documentation for more details.
Edge Professional Edition supports pure SQL and hybrid SQL + NoSQL (for telemetry storage) approaches:
- PostgreSQL: The default; suitable for most deployments.
- PostgreSQL + Cassandra: A hybrid approach for high-volume telemetry (1M+ devices or >5,000 msg/sec).
Edge also supports different uplink message storages:
- PostgreSQL: The built-in default, suitable for PoC and low-load environments — not recommended for production or cluster deployments with high volumes of uplink messages.
- Kafka: Recommended for production deployments.
Yes. you can. The Rule Engine allows you to automate device workflows, data processing, and alerts based on incoming telemetry.
For example, you can automatically provision devices, transform data, trigger actions based on thresholds, or forward telemetry to external systems.
Yes. Edge runs rule chains locally for real-time processing. Starting with version 4.0, you can create and edit rule chains directly on Edge. In earlier versions, rule chains are configured as templates on the Server and pushed to Edge.
See Edge Rule Chain Templates for more information.
Yes. You can manage firmware versions, schedule updates, and track deployment status across your devices. See OTA updates documentation for setup instructions.
No, there is no dedicated mobile app for ThingsBoard Edge.
However, you can access and manage Edge instance through a web browser on any device, including mobile devices. Typically, instance is hosted on port 8080.
Partially. Edge version X.Y.Z works with:
- Server version X.Y.Z (same version).
- Server versions X.Y+1 and X.Y+2 (up to two minor versions ahead).
Edge does not work with older Server versions.
Example: Edge 3.8.0 works with Server 3.8.0, 3.8.1, and 3.9.0 — but not with Server 3.7.x or earlier. If your Edge is newer than your Server, upgrade the Server first.
See also Edge Release Notes.
Less than you might think. Edge runs on:
- Raspberry Pi or similar single-board computers.
- Industrial gateways.
- Mini PCs or embedded systems.
- Any machine with 1GB+ RAM for light workloads, 4GB+ for heavy use.
To upgrade to the latest version, follow upgrade instructions.
ThingsBoard Edge supports various protocols, including MQTT, CoAP, HTTP, and LwM2M.
Legacy devices can be connected to the platform via ThingsBoard Gateway. More information is available on the connectivity page.
You can also use the ThingsBoard Integrations to connect devices from different sources and with custom payloads to the edge.
Edge runs on Docker, Ubuntu, CentOS, Windows, and Raspberry Pi. See the Installation Guide for step-by-step instructions.
See the Installation Options for step-by-step instructions.
Yes, the official Docker image is available on Docker Hub.
By default, Edge stores time-series data in PostgreSQL, which handles both device metadata and telemetry efficiently for typical deployments.
For high-volume scenarios (1M+ devices or >5,000 msg/sec), you can configure a hybrid setup where time-series data is stored in Cassandra while PostgreSQL handles device metadata and attributes.
No, many IoT devices are not designed to embed third-party SDKs.
ThingsBoard Edge provides a simple API over common IoT protocols, so you can choose any client-side library you like, or even use your own. Some useful references include MQTT client-side libraries list and C-implementation for CoAP.
Starting from version 4.2, we offer Long-Term Support (LTS) versions for production users with extended security updates and stability improvements.
You can always contact us with any questions.
Also, support can be provided by the ThingsBoard community
- Community Forums: Engage with other users and developers.
- GitHub Issues: Report bugs or request features.
- Documentation: Comprehensive guides and API references available on the ThingsBoard Documentation.
Yes, we do provide 24/7 support. If this is what you're looking for, please contact us for a more detailed discussion about your specific needs.
Also, starting from version 4.2, we offer Long-Term Support (LTS) versions for production users with extended security updates and stability improvements.