Internet of Things (IoT) is becoming one of the most popular technology aspects that get implemented practically. As IoT promises to provide excellent services and delivers support for powering the interconnected devices and automate the systems without any human intervention, the use of IoT is promoted and encouraged among businesses and individuals alike.

And this has given rise to the enormous growth of the IoT industry that leads many companies to start providing services in the same sector. The IoT industry is estimated to grow around 1.6 trillion U.S. Dollars by 2025. The continued progress of this technology leads to increased development and asks for excellent support. And developers can benefit the most from it.

IoT Development: Challenges and Solutions

The resources required for developing IoT-enabled devices are accessible to reputable firms and popular companies who hold the power to invest time and money equally. However, there still are frameworks that help in developing excellent IoT-enabled solutions without costing much.

IoT development with excellent resources still has to answer challenges and issues that any normal development faces. Lack of enough skills, security and privacy concerns, device compatibility, and more are the challenges that IoT development usually suffers from. 

However, using the excellent support that multiple IoT frameworks deliver, it becomes easier to overcome these hurdles and produce the best results. While you can always rely on delivering exceptional results, the use of multiple frameworks provides excellent services that developers are looking forward to.

4 Excellent Open Source IoT Frameworks Every Developer Can Use

Here are the best open-source IoT frameworks that can be used to deliver excellent IoT-enabled solutions that encourage extended use of the IoT networks.

1. ThingSpeak

ThingSpeak allows for IoT analytics with its cloud supportive features that make it easier for you to analyze the live data. It supports MATLAB code that a developer can write and perform actions on the live data streams. It includes different functions like data visualization, preprocessing, analysis, and more. 

The functions included in ThingSpeak are:

• Location Tracing
• Information distribution through public channels and gathering through a private channel
• Includes cloud support
• Online analytics of data to identify patterns and relations
• device executions supported through command schedule
• Social sharing support through Twilio and Twitter
• Alerts for every reaction

It allows one to prototype an IoT system in advance before they start the development. The analytics and data generated through ThingSpeak are incredibly reliable as the tool enables performing the best operations and delivers excellent results to make your IoT system full proof. The tool is open-source, and the latest update R2019b has been released in January 2020.

2. DeviceHive

DeviceHive is one of the popular and out-of-the-box tools most developers are searching for. The tool is open source, and hence there are many contributors ready to guide you through the usage of it. The prices are decided based on the customer requirements, but the performance of this tool is enough to explain its wide popularity.

DeviceHive includes functions that encourage excellent solution development. The functions and features offered by DeviceHive are:

• It supports WebSocket APIs, REST APIs,and adds MQTT API as a plugin.
• Allows testing the installation- using Swagger, and API developer tool.
• Includes support for multiple client libraries- Node.js, Python, Java are the primary ones supported through DeviceHive.
• Supports Android, iOS devices and other libraries
• JSON messages are used for efficient communication among devices.
• Includes support for Docker and Kubernetes installation and deployment.

DeviceHive is ultimately an open-source micro-services architecture encouraging platform that allows to control and test IoT systems under different circumstances. DeviceHive can be customized as per the business needs, and charges are calculated as per the requirements. Moreover, it includes support for public, private, and hybrid clouds and makes the management easier than ever.

3. Thinger.io

Thinger.io allows for connecting and prototyping the tools that are added in the IoT system a developer is developing. The tool provides excellent support to every software development company that aims to create an IoT system by connecting multiple devices altogether.

The features included in Thinger.io are:

• Support integration of multiple devices of various manufacturers.
• A freemium account for a lifetime that allows free access for prototyping, which later can be put in use by using premium servers.
• Most of the code modules are available in Github for free with MIT license. Therefore, it becomes easier to start from the basics.
• Easier programming, as only a few lines of code, is required to connect devices in the network and form an IoT system.
• The platform is entirely white-labeled. Hence, it can be updated according to your requirements; colors, fonts, names, and more.
• Includes cloud support.
• Allows real-time data retrieval and analytics to perform better operations according to the needs.

Thinger.io is an excellent tool that provides support for your every IoT need. The platform helps scale and manage the products of the IoT system and prototypes everything to allow efficient management and conclude the right way to perform the programming. It will enable multiple plugin inclusion that builds an extensive system supporting every need and creating a great impression over the users.

4. Zetta

Zetta is an open-source API-dedicated framework that is first of its kind and delivers excellent support for building IoT infrastructures. It helps manage the continuous streaming of data to provide excellent information exchange services. It includes a data visualization facility, but the primary advantage of using Zetta is its support for reactive programming.

There are multiple features integrated into this platform to support excellent data exchange:

• It comes for free
• Easy deployment among numerous cloud vendors
• It can display notifications and can fire queries
• The data collected can be shared among other analytics platforms easily
• Based on Node.js and hence, is easier to operate

Zetta is an IoT dashboard that is not very popular for development practices among the developers. However, the followers and users of Zetta are extremely satisfied with the performance of this tool. As it produces the best results for the IoT universe and its applications, Zetta is one of the favorites of developers who have already used it once.

Conclusion

There are many open-source frameworks available in the market apart from the discussed. However, based on the choices of expert developers, these tools are great at providing excellent results without demanding higher amounts. The primary benefit of using open-source tools is that there are contributors who support and promote the use of them by introducing changes and solutions to problems.

However, data security concerns remain questionable when using these tools. But the performance delivered through these tools is excellent. Based on the requirements and deadlines assigned, these tools provide excellent support and encourage the profound development of solutions that promote the use of IoT in everyday life.