IoT Services: Which Solution? (September 2017)

The idea of this series is to explore the different services available for IoT. What are their features? How easy to implement and use them? 

I'll try and keep the same project along all the offers, a weather station, and run it for one day. The weather station measures temperature, humidity, pressure and light, and reports data every 30 minutes. 
Since September 2017 when this page was initially published, almost all the services recommended have evolved.

Local Server Mandatory

On October 21, 2106, a DDoS against one Domain Name System provider (namely, Dyn) resulted in many world-class websites being unreachable. Apart from services like Twitter and GitHub, development was impacted for some online IDEs and IoT clouds.

​For most of the use cases, data is produced, processed and dispatched on the same area, within the same LAN, so the cloud isn't required. 
  • Blynk offers an interesting option with a local server. A BeagleBone or a Raspberry Pi can host the Blynk server locally, to acquire, process, store and dispatch data through WiFi.
  • Another solution relies on Node-RED hosted and running on a BeagleBone or a Raspberry Pi. Node-RED excels in dealing with heterogeneous hardware and software environments.

Even for cases where cloud offers advanced algorithms, having a degraded mode with a local server ensures the continuity of operation.
​
UPDATE The new version of Blynk 2.0 no longer features a local server. Node-RED is the only serious contender.

Server-Less Solutions

If there is no need to store data, a server-less solution could be even better.
  • Blynk offers an interesting option for Bluetooth. The smartphone or tablet connects to the device directly, with no need for a local server. 
  • A similar solution runs for WiFi with Node-RED, where the tablet receives the MQTT messages and manages the dashboard. 
​
UPDATE The new version of Blynk 2.0 no longer features a local server. Node-RED is the only serious contender.

Recommended IoT Solutions

Those recommendations focus on the ease of installation and use. 

​Blynk is a complete solution with a nice iOS or Android application. It runs on the cloud but also on a local server. The dweet and freeboard combination offers instant plug-and-play. ThinkSpeak provides advanced data processing with MATLAB. Zapier connects to a wide range of cloud services. SMTP2GO allows to send mails with attachments. Node-RED runs on a local server and provides a graphic interface to manage heterogeneous hardware and software environments.
​
UPDATE Many services have closed or target now commercial use.

Platform-Specific IoT Solutions

Those solutions rely on specific platforms. 

​Particle runs on the Core and Photon, and connects to Particle cloud services through WiFi. LightBlue Bean connects to a local Node-RED server through BLE. LinkIt One offers a comprehensive solution with hardware, software and cloud services.
​
UPDATE LightBlue and LinkIt services are no longer available.

Other IoT Solutions

The other solutions provide more advanced feature for specific needs.
 
Losant brings a whole workflow environment for customised actions. Temboo connects to almost any service available at the expense of complexity. PubNub is a reference. Cayenne MQTT relies on another string reference, MQTT. Atmosphere IoT offers a consistent development of the node, smartphone app and cloud process.

Not tested IoT Solutions

Some solutions haven't been tested, because the trial period is too short, the trial or free accounts have been discontinued, the required configuration is too specific and limited.

Notification Solutions

How to allow ​​IoT projects to send alerts, for example to smartphones? Here come the notification solutions.

Posted: 03 Sep 2017
​Updated: 23 Nov 2021