In February 2026, SUSE acquired Losant, with plans to integrate the technology into their portfolio. For teams currently building on Losant or evaluating it for new projects, the acquisition introduces uncertainty around future support, roadmap, and pricing. Many are exploring alternatives. Here's how Blynk compares.
Losant and Blynk serve teams managing connected equipment, but they start from different places. Losant was built for enterprise industrial teams connecting to existing PLCs and building management systems through protocols like Modbus and OPC UA. Blynk was built for equipment manufacturers and service companies adding connectivity to their products, with white-label mobile apps, device management, and self-serve pricing included.
The difference goes beyond connectivity. Blynk's low-code environment is valuable not just during development and launch, but after. Teams can continue iterating their product based on market feedback, tweaking solutions for specific customer needs, updating dashboards, and adjusting automations without deploying engineers or hiring contractors for each change. For companies like Raypak (commercial heating remote diagnostics), Comfort Systems (HVAC service operations), and StreetLeaf (solar streetlight fleets), this means the product keeps evolving without the IoT platform becoming a bottleneck.
This comparison covers pricing models, mobile app capabilities, industrial protocol support, and where each platform fits best.
Losant recently added self-service pricing tiers. Their model is payload-based: you pay for data events (any object that triggers a workflow), not for devices.
There's no hard device limit. Losant sets a soft cap of 1,000 devices, which they'll increase free of charge on request.
What payload-based pricing means in practice: A device sending data every 5 minutes generates ~8,640 payloads per month. On the Launch plan (100,000 payloads), that's roughly 11 devices. On Growth (500,000 payloads), roughly 57 devices. Devices that report less frequently stretch further. Overages cost $100 per additional 100,000 payloads on Launch, $50 per 100,000 on Growth.
The pricing model is flexible for deployments with many devices sending infrequently. It gets expensive quickly for chatty devices.
Blynk uses device-based pricing. All tiers include the cloud platform, native mobile app builder, and device management.
Production scales on a simple sliding scale: $199 for 100 devices, with each additional 100 devices adding $100/month. Production can go all the way to 2,000 devices at $2,099/month, and includes 12-month data retention, SMS alerting, a 99.95% SLA, and same-day support. Annual billing saves 20% across all paid tiers. Enterprise includes white-label mobile apps, dedicated support, SLA, and private deployment options.
Bottom line: For a 50-device deployment, Blynk's Prototype tier costs $99/month vs. Losant's $250-1,000+ depending on data frequency. For 500 devices, Blynk's Production tier costs $599/month with no data caps, while Losant's Growth plan starts at $1,000/month with payload limits. Both offer custom enterprise pricing at scale.
This is the clearest difference between the two platforms, and for equipment manufacturers and service companies, it's often the deciding factor.
Blynk includes a native mobile app builder on every tier. You design the interface with drag-and-drop widgets, configure role-based views for different user types (installers, technicians, end customers), and your customers access it through the Blynk app on iOS and Android. At Enterprise tier, the app publishes under your own brand as a standalone app on the App Store and Google Play. Raypak uses this for their Raymote app, giving technicians remote diagnostics on commercial boilers and pool heaters. Comfort Systems' service teams access HVAC equipment status across sites. OMIS monitors crane fleet health from the field. The app is how these companies deliver operational value, not a nice-to-have.
Losant doesn't build mobile apps. Their "End-User Experiences" are web-based interfaces, accessible through a browser, not native apps. You can brand them with custom domains and SSL, and they include user authentication and multi-tenancy. But they're not app-store apps. There's no iOS or Android native experience, no push notifications through the OS, no offline app functionality.
Web-based dashboards work well for operations centers and facility management teams viewing data on desktop screens. They're less practical when a field technician needs equipment status on a job site, an installer needs to commission a device, or an end customer expects the same mobile experience they get from every other product in 2026.
Bottom line: If your deployment needs mobile access for field teams, service technicians, or end customers, Blynk provides that out of the box. Losant doesn't, and building native apps separately means integrating another tool and another team into your stack.
Losant's edge computing and industrial protocol support is where the platform is focused.
Losant's Gateway Edge Agent is a Docker container that runs on Linux hardware (their partner gateways from Dell, Advantech, Vantron, or any Linux-capable device). It supports industrial protocols that Blynk doesn't: Modbus TCP and RTU, OPC UA, BACnet, SNMP, S7 (Siemens), and Allen-Bradley (EtherNet/IP). If you're connecting to PLCs, building automation systems, or legacy industrial equipment, Losant supports those protocols through its edge agent.
The edge agent also handles offline scenarios. It processes data locally, runs workflows without cloud dependency, and uses store-and-forward to sync when connectivity returns. For deployments in manufacturing plants, remote facilities, or anywhere with unreliable internet, this is a meaningful capability.
Blynk provides on-device firmware libraries and managed cloud infrastructure for 100+ device types, connecting via MQTT, HTTP API, and Blynk.Edgent (which handles WiFi provisioning, BLE-assisted setup, network management, and OTA updates). If you need Modbus or OPC UA to talk to existing industrial equipment, Blynk doesn't natively support those protocols. An ESP-IDF SDK adds production-grade support for teams building native ESP32 firmware. Data Converters let you connect devices without firmware changes by parsing incoming payloads into Blynk's data format, useful when integrating third-party sensors or legacy hardware. Blynk also supports satellite connectivity (Iridium, Myriota) for deployments in remote or off-grid locations. AI-assisted development through the Platform Assistant accelerates device configuration and dashboard creation. For equipment manufacturers adding connectivity to their products, Blynk handles the entire device lifecycle: provisioning, firmware updates, fleet management, enterprise-grade RBAC with multi-organization management, and customer-facing mobile apps on a single platform. Raypak added connected product capabilities to commercial heating equipment they've manufactured for decades. Fiedler manages asset tracking and fleet operations. The pattern is the same: existing equipment manufacturer, new IoT capability, one platform handling it end to end.
Bottom line: If you're connecting to existing PLCs and building management systems in brownfield industrial environments, Losant's native protocol support handles that. If you're an equipment manufacturer adding connectivity to your products and need the full stack from firmware to mobile app, Blynk covers that without assembling it from parts.
Beyond the sticker price, the two pricing models create different dynamics as your deployment grows.
Losant's payload model means your costs scale with data volume, not device count. A fleet of 500 devices sending data every 30 minutes costs less than 50 devices sending every 10 seconds. This is useful if you have many devices with low data frequency (asset trackers that report location hourly, environmental sensors that sample every 15 minutes). It's less attractive for devices that stream data continuously or report at high frequency.
The unpredictability is the tradeoff. A firmware bug that sends data too frequently could spike your bill. Seasonal patterns (HVAC devices reporting more during summer peaks) create variable costs that are harder to budget. You need to understand your data patterns before you can forecast costs accurately.
Blynk's device model is simpler: you pay for the number of registered devices. Data frequency doesn't affect the price. A device sending data every second costs the same as one sending daily, so you never have to worry about costs growing as devices report more frequently. That makes budgeting straightforward: 200 devices = $299/month, regardless of how chatty they are.
The limitation is that you pay for device slots whether they're actively transmitting or not. Seasonal businesses with devices that go idle for months still pay for those slots.
Bottom line: Losant's payload pricing rewards low-frequency, high-device-count deployments. Blynk's device pricing rewards predictability. For equipment manufacturers planning production deployments, knowing exactly what 200 devices costs per month matters more than optimizing per-payload rates. And for teams scaling from prototype to fleet, the pricing path is visible from day one.
Losant fits when your deployment matches these scenarios:
Losant's customer base reflects this positioning. Ingersoll Rand uses it for equipment monitoring. CVG Airport tracks indoor terminal trains in real time. UCSF uses it for environmental monitoring.
Blynk fits when your deployment matches these scenarios:
Blynk's customer base includes Raypak (commercial heating since 1947, part of Rheem), OMIS (crane fleet monitoring), Comfort Systems (HVAC service operations), Fiedler (asset tracking and fleet management), and StreetLeaf (smart infrastructure). These are companies where equipment downtime has real financial consequences.
Losant and Blynk don't compete head-to-head on most deployments. Losant is an enterprise industrial IoT platform built for teams connecting to existing PLCs and building management systems, with edge protocols, Gartner recognition, and deployment flexibility that enterprise procurement teams value. Blynk serves equipment manufacturers and service companies managing critical assets, with dashboards and data visualization, no-code mobile apps (white-label at Enterprise), enterprise-grade RBAC, AI-assisted development, Data Converters, MCP Server, FOTA, device provisioning, and predictable pricing from one place.
The decision is usually clear once you answer two questions: Are you connecting to existing industrial equipment, or adding connectivity to your own products? And do your field teams and customers need mobile access?
If you need both, the honest answer is that no single platform covers the full spectrum. But most deployments land clearly on one side.
Companies like Raypak, StreetLeaf, and Comfort Systems chose Blynk because they could ship connected products and manage critical equipment on a single platform. Start building at blynk.io.
Does Losant have a mobile app builder?
No. Losant's end-user interfaces are web-based. You can brand them with custom domains, but they're browser-accessed, not native iOS or Android apps. Blynk includes its app builder on every tier, with white-label standalone app publishing at Enterprise.
Can Blynk connect to Modbus or OPC UA devices?
Not as a native Modbus endpoint. The standard approach is a gateway architecture: an ESP32, Raspberry Pi, or Node-RED instance polls the Modbus device (RTU or TCP) and publishes the parsed values to Blynk via datastreams. Blynk provides gateway and Node-RED blueprints as starting points. This works well for adding cloud monitoring and mobile access to existing Modbus equipment, but it's an extra layer compared to Losant's native protocol support at the edge.
How does Losant's payload pricing compare to Blynk's device pricing?
Losant charges per data event (payload). A device sending data every 5 minutes generates ~8,640 payloads per month. On Losant's $250/month Launch plan, that supports roughly 11 devices. Blynk's $99/month Prototype plan supports 50 devices regardless of data frequency.
Is Losant free to try?
Yes. Losant's Developer Sandbox includes all enterprise features with up to 10 devices and 30-day data retention. No credit card required. Blynk's Free tier supports 5 devices.
Which platform is better for HVAC products?
It depends on the deployment. For HVAC equipment manufacturers adding connectivity to their products, Blynk has strong traction: Raypak (commercial boilers and pool heaters), Comfort Systems (HVAC service operations), and other HVAC companies use Blynk for remote monitoring, fault alerts, and customer-facing mobile apps. For building management system integrations where you're connecting to existing BACnet controllers, Losant's native protocol support at the edge is a better fit.
.png)
