How to choose OPC and industrial IoT software

Choose OPC and industrial IoT software by the layer you need, the operating systems you run and the license model. An OPC product connects PLCs and devices to SCADA, historians and cloud systems, while an industrial IoT platform models that data so other systems can reuse it. The OPC and industrial connectivity ranking and the industrial IoT platforms ranking cover those two jobs.

Decide whether you need a driver layer or a data model

Kepware Server is a connectivity layer. It collects data from PLCs, controllers and devices and passes it to SCADA, analytics and cloud applications, and the vendor lists over 150 drivers. HighByte Intelligence Hub works one level up. It models OT data from OPC UA, Modbus and Sparkplug MQTT sources and delivers it to IT and cloud systems, with support for a Unified Namespace architecture.

Node-RED is a free flow editor that wires devices and APIs together. It has no asset models or device management, so production systems usually add a platform for those jobs. Litmus lists native connectors for PLCs, DCS, historians and OPC, along with ISA-95 hierarchies.

Bridge classic OPC or speak OPC UA directly

Many plants still run classic COM OPC servers, and gateways bridge those servers into OPC UA so legacy clients keep working. Prosys OPC UA Gateway wraps OPC DA, AE and HDA servers as OPC UA servers. It runs as a 32-bit and 64-bit Windows application, and connections can be added at runtime without a restart.

UaGateway covers classic OPC DA servers, with a secure tunneler and a store and forward archive. It runs only on Windows, and its features are sold as individual license keys. dataFEED OPC Suite offers an OPC UA server and an OPC Classic gateway for PLCs including Siemens S7 and Rockwell ControlLogix, and it sends data to MQTT and REST targets. Cogent DataHub carries OPC DA and UA tunnels and a Modbus OPC server, and it runs on Windows Server.

Check the operating system before you shortlist

Operating system limits remove options early. Kepware Server runs on Windows, and Kepware Edge covers Linux. HighByte runs on Windows, macOS, Linux and Docker, and Telegraf installs on Windows, macOS and Linux. UaExpert's free version runs on Windows and Linux, and open62541 runs on Windows, Linux, RTOS and Android.

Several commercial gateways are Windows products. dataFEED OPC Suite runs on Windows only, and Cogent DataHub lists Windows as its only platform. Prosys OPC UA Gateway is a Windows application, and UaGateway runs only on Windows and names no Linux build. The Linux filter on the OPC ranking shows the products that run there.

Read the license model and the trial

License models differ more than features do. Kepware licenses are quoted, and its trial lasts two hours at a time. dataFEED OPC Suite licenses are tied to a version, so 4.x licenses do not work with 5.x, and its trial runs for 72 hours.

Cogent DataHub is an annual subscription with a 24-month minimum term, and it includes free upgrades during the term. HighByte is an annual subscription priced per factory, with a free 30-day trial license. In the IoT group, AWS IoT SiteWise is pay-as-you-go with no minimum fee, and its costs split across messaging, storage, queries and exports. Litmus publishes a Foundation plan from $1,500 a month per site, and its higher tiers are quoted.

Open-source and Turkish options

The list has no open-source OPC server or gateway. The free options are libraries, agents, middleware, flow editors and clients. open62541 is an MPL-2.0 C library for developers building OPC UA servers and clients. Telegraf is an MIT-licensed agent with OPC UA and Modbus input plugins, and it moves values into time-series and messaging systems. EdgeX Foundry is Apache 2.0 edge middleware under Linux Foundation hosting. UaExpert is a free OPC UA client for testing, although some of its plugins need license keys.

For Kepware licenses in Turkey, OPC Turkey* is the local sales and support site, and it lists no prices. ASP Dijital*, an Istanbul company, implements HighByte, GoodData and Industrial Defender projects, and its site publishes no prices either.

Our picks from the ranking

The two rankings place the products covered here in these orders.

The OPC and industrial connectivity software ranking places them in this order:

• Kepware Server (92.5): multi-vendor plants needing one driver layer, on Windows and Linux.
• dataFEED OPC Suite (88.5): OPC Classic to OPC UA gateway with cloud output.
• Cogent DataHub (85.0): Windows OPC and Modbus gateways on subscription.
• HighByte Intelligence Hub (83.5): edge data modeling for a Unified Namespace.
• OPC Turkey* (73.5): Kepware licenses and support in Turkey.
• Prosys OPC UA Gateway (79.0): migrating legacy COM OPC servers to OPC UA on Windows.
• UaGateway (78.5): migrating COM DA servers to OPC UA on Windows.
• open62541 (77.5): free MPL-2.0 OPC UA library for developers building servers in C.
• Telegraf (72.0): open-source OPC UA and Modbus data collection.
• UaExpert (70.0): testing and commissioning OPC UA servers.

The industrial IoT platforms ranking places them in this order:

• HighByte Intelligence Hub (91.0): plant data modeling for a Unified Namespace.
• Litmus (89.0): edge data platform with plant-level AI.
• ThingWorx (86.0): Kepware-based connected apps and dashboards.
• AWS IoT SiteWise (85.5): AWS-hosted asset models with metered costs.
• ASP Dijital* (76.5): Turkish projects needing integration services.
• Insights Hub (84.5): manufacturers that want AI analytics on plant data.
• Cognite (84.0): enterprise industrial data and AI programs.
• Azure IoT Operations (82.5): Azure-first teams running Kubernetes at the edge.
• Cumulocity (81.0): device-heavy equipment fleet management.
• EdgeX Foundry (79.5): engineering teams building a vendor-neutral edge layer.
• Node-RED (78.5): prototyping and edge glue logic.

What to do next

Write down the PLC families, protocols and operating systems you must support, then check the driver list of each candidate. If legacy COM OPC servers must speak OPC UA, shortlist a gateway and test its trial against your own server. If you need a data model across many plants, compare HighByte with Litmus or AWS IoT SiteWise, and request quotes from vendors that do not publish prices. Licensing differs more than features, so read the license terms before you compare feature lists.