ESP8266 Community Forum

If you are not familiar with Linux then the overhead of the Raspberry Pi solution is significant. I am running a Raspberry Pi as a MQTT broker. It would have been more efficient to have had a ESP solution when I did it.

But since I do have the R-Pi it wasn't a lot more to use it as a web server. Yes I have done the ESP8266 webserver with SD and SPIFFS, and they are useful for certain things.

You can easily buy an ESP8266 complete with case, power supply, and even a relay onboard in quantities for less that 6$ - the Sonoff switch... With the lastest additions to the esp_uMQTT_broker, the rule engine, you can even directly use this relay in an application.

So the use case for the esp_uMQTT_broker software is not to replace an existing Pi. If you already have one as central node installed - fine! But now you can also start with a small IoT application, e.g. consisting just of a sensor and a switched actuator for less than 15$ overall and it is already based on WiFi and the open MQTT standard.

I wasn't aware of the Sonoff switch. Impressively inexpensive.

I'll admit, maybe there are applications for MQTT broker on 8266.

I'd like sonoff better if there was better design and certification of AC section.