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Golioth vs Mender

How Golioth and Mender differ on target hardware, rollback, deployment and cost.

GoliothMender
TypeMCU cloudLinux OTA
TargetsMCU (Zephyr-first)Embedded Linux
DeploymentSaaSSaaS + self-hosted
RollbackManual release targeting; rollback by publishing a prior artifactA/B partitions with automatic rollback on failed boot
How it worksOne consumption meter instead of plans: $0.25 per connected device per month, $0.0095 per megabyte of OTA traffic, and separate rates for logs and streaming data. Every account gets the same features, which makes small fleets cheap and makes cost forecasting arithmetic rather than negotiation.Writes the new root filesystem to the inactive partition, reboots into it, and rolls back automatically if the device fails to check in. Delta updates and phased rollouts sit in the paid tiers; the update mechanism itself is open source and self-hostable.
Pricing*$50 free credits; $0.25/device/mo + $0.0095/MBOSS free; hosted from $34/mo
Free tierYesYes
Open sourceDevice SDK (Apache-2.0)Apache-2.0 (client + server)
Best forZephyr projects that want predictable unit costLinux fleets that must never brick

Golioth

  • Cheapest credible option at small and mid scale
  • Cost is calculable before you commit
  • Deep Zephyr integration
  • Zephyr-centric — other RTOSes are less travelled
  • Metered bytes need watching on chatty fleets

Mender

  • A/B rollback is the safest widely deployed model
  • Genuinely usable open-source edition, not a crippled demo
  • Self-host or hosted without changing the client
  • Dual partitions cost you flash — roughly double the rootfs
  • Not designed for constrained MCUs

Bottom line

Choose Golioth for zephyr projects that want predictable unit cost. Choose Mender for linux fleets that must never brick.

* Published list pricing (vendor pricing pages, August 2026).