Open Source IoT Platform: Your Guide To Smart Solutions

Rudy Daugherty 10 May 2025

In an era where the Internet of Things (IoT) is rapidly transforming industries, are you searching for a powerful, flexible, and cost-effective solution to manage your connected devices? OpenRemote, a 100% open-source IoT platform, offers a comprehensive solution for manufacturers and system integrators, empowering them to build and manage their IoT ecosystems with unparalleled control and freedom.

OpenRemote emerges as a beacon of innovation in the crowded IoT landscape. It is a platform designed to simplify the complexities of connecting and managing networked assets, offering a robust set of features and functionalities for professionals across various sectors. With an open-source license (AGPLv3), it fosters collaboration and provides an accessible pathway for developers to build and scale their IoT solutions without vendor lock-in. The platform's flexibility and open architecture allows for seamless integration with diverse hardware, software, and communication protocols, ensuring a future-proof approach to IoT deployments. The core of the OpenRemote system is the "manager," a headless Java application acting as an IoT context broker. It captures the current asset state of the system and is the nucleus around which all functionality revolves.

Here's a closer look at the platform's key components and features, presented in a way that's easy to understand and apply:

Feature	Description
100% Open Source	OpenRemote is entirely open source, offering complete transparency, customization, and no vendor lock-in. The platform offers source code is freely available and can be modified to meet the individual needs of a project.
Auto Provisioning	Streamlines the device onboarding process. Devices are automatically connected and configured, drastically reducing manual effort and accelerating deployments.
White Labeling	Allows manufacturers and system integrators to customize the platform with their branding, creating a seamless and professional user experience.
Device Management	Comprehensive tools to monitor, control, and manage devices across their lifecycle. The devices can be connected to monitor and control through a single interface.
Asset Management	Provides the tools to create a dynamic schema of assets, allowing for the organization, categorization, and management of various asset types and their data.
Protocol Integration	Supports a wide array of communication protocols, enabling interoperability with diverse devices and systems.
Visualization	Offers tools to create insightful dashboards and visualizations to monitor data and gain actionable insights. This allows users to present complex data in an easy-to-understand format.
API and Extensibility	Provides robust APIs, allowing for integration with existing systems and enabling the creation of domain-specific smart applications.
Smart Applications	Facilitates the development of applications tailored to specific use cases. Smart applications can be built for smart cities, smart buildings, or industry-specific applications.
Open Source License	Available under the AGPLv3 license, ensuring freedom to use, modify, and distribute the platform. This license allows for freedom of use and removes vendor lock-in, offering complete access to the source code.

Reference: openremote.io

OpenRemote's capabilities extend to various real-world scenarios. One notable example includes its application in smart cities. The platform allows cities to connect and analyze live data, extracting valuable insights from a range of sources. This smart aggregation of data is critical for optimizing services and achieving new insights into urban activity.

Consider the possibilities within a smart city context. OpenRemote can integrate with smart line sag sensors for a Digita Powergrid IoT solution, visualizing and alerting users to issues in overhead power lines. In the domain of energy, OpenRemote acts as a hub, collecting data from diverse sources like solar panels, wind turbines, and EV chargers, along with weather predictions and historical data. The platform then uses this information to generate forecasts for electricity production and consumption. This provides a real-time snapshot of operations for better management of energy.

For professionals in the industry, OpenRemote offers a robust toolkit for building tailored IoT solutions. Service organizations can develop dedicated dashboards for alarm management and create custom applications for clients. The platform is not only a data aggregator, but also a proactive tool. The location manager allows setting flush frequency and temperature limits. For example, Sfella-enabled showers are remotely monitored and controlled using OpenRemote's IoT edge gateway software. Alerts are set for managers to receive notifications in case of any unusual behavior. A mobile application even supports remote flushing.

OpenRemotes commitment to open-source also has real-world implications. The platform's "auto provision" feature eases the integration challenges when manufacturing devices, they can be prepared to connect automatically upon powering on at the customer site. This facilitates large-scale deployments. OpenRemote's approach allows companies to get started quickly. This contrasts with other proprietary IoT platforms that charge expensive license fees. The platform supports many different protocols. This flexibility is crucial in a world where devices use a wide variety of communication standards.

For developers and collaborators, OpenRemote welcomes contributions to enhance the platform further. The project's documentation, source code, and issue tracking are openly accessible, inviting developers to participate in its evolution. This collaborative model underscores the essence of open source, where innovation is driven by a community of individuals dedicated to creating better tools.

The platform enables the creation of smart buildings, smart airports, and other applications. OpenRemote's flexibility to work with various data types and communication protocols makes it suitable for these various use cases. It allows for a centralized system that aggregates data to identify trends and provide insights for efficiency.

OpenRemote's core strengths are its open-source nature, ease of deployment, and adaptability. The platform's architecture minimizes dependence on proprietary software and provides complete control over data. Furthermore, with the ability to integrate with various systems for energy monitoring, security, lighting, or access control, OpenRemote stands out as a versatile choice. By combining live data and insights, the platform adds value to smart cities by combining live data to optimize services.

OpenRemote offers a comprehensive set of APIs. Each API requires authentication (with the exception of read/write of public asset attributes). This ensures the safety and security of data. From connecting devices to building applications, OpenRemote covers the full spectrum of features needed to build IoT solutions.

The projects journey, since its inception in 2015, embodies a commitment to solving the complexities of IoT. The ambition of OpenRemote is to be a solution to the issues of integrating different protocols and data sources into a user-friendly data management solution. This approach contrasts to the current market, where many IoT platforms lock users into specific ecosystems.

The focus on energy management is particularly noteworthy. With the resurgence of green power generation, OpenRemote provides capabilities to monitor and optimize renewable energy infrastructure. The platform is designed to minimize carbon emissions and increase financial returns through intelligent energy management. This makes the platform a vital resource for achieving the sustainability targets in many countries.

OpenRemotes architecture is built for industrial IoT. The platform allows the connection and monitoring of industrial machines. The auto-provisioning feature and integration capabilities streamline processes for equipment manufacturers and system integrators.

OpenRemote provides various features such as Device management and auto provisioning, customisation of asset types, and visualization, providing all elements to be used by anyone. OpenRemote, with its open-source ethos, provides an inclusive approach to developers. All features work in tandem with each other, this provides flexibility and makes it a preferred choice of IoT platform.

OpenRemote simplifies connecting networked assets to mobile and web applications. It is an open-source alternative for professionals. Its architecture provides many advantages. It ensures a smooth transition from connecting devices to building apps that are specific to a domain. The software allows for ease of use, which is a core value. This user-friendly design has helped OpenRemote become the go-to platform. OpenRemote continues to shape the future of IoT, which is defined by its focus on openness, flexibility, and developer empowerment.