Purpose-Built IIoT vs General Cloud
SIMBIOSYS vs Azure IoT Hub
An honest comparison across the criteria that matter to operational IIoT deployments.
Azure IoT Hub is a flexible service for teams with deep Microsoft Azure expertise and the engineering resources to build custom solutions on top of cloud primitives. Microsoft's ready-made application layer, Azure IoT Central, has accepted no new applications since 23 September 2026, and existing ones end on 20 September 2029. Microsoft now recommends IoT Hub with the Device Provisioning Service and Microsoft Fabric. For organisations that want operational IIoT visibility without building a data pipeline, a dashboard layer and a multi-tenancy model from scratch in the cloud, that route introduces substantial engineering and ongoing architectural overhead. SIMBIOSYS is a purpose-built IIoT platform: the data ingestion, storage, visualisation and alerting are all pre-built and ready to configure for your environment.
| Criteria | SIMBIOSYS | Azure IoT Hub | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Built-in dashboards, no custom development | Fully supported | Not available | Azure IoT Hub has no built-in dashboards. Microsoft points to Microsoft Fabric Real-Time Intelligence and Power BI, which you set up separately. IoT Central, which had dashboards, accepts no new applications |
| White-label branding for partners | Fully supported | Not available | Azure IoT services are not white-label; custom branding requires building your own application layer |
| No Azure architecture expertise required | Fully supported | Not available | Azure IoT Hub requires expertise in Event Hubs, Stream Analytics, Cosmos DB, Power BI and Azure networking to build a complete solution |
| Transparent, predictable monthly pricing | Fully supported | Not available | Azure IoT pricing is complex and metered across multiple services: message ingestion, storage, compute, egress and Power BI all bill separately |
| GDPR-compliant UK data residency | Fully supported | Fully supported | Azure UK South region is available; data residency configuration requires explicit setup across each Azure service used |
| Multi-tenancy out of the box | Fully supported | Not available | Multi-tenancy in Azure IoT requires custom development of tenant isolation, data partitioning and access control |
| UK-based support team | Fully supported | Not available | Microsoft Azure support is global and tier-dependent. 24x7 technical support starts with the Standard plan at $100 a month. A UK-based team is not stated |
| Threshold alerts without custom development | Fully supported | Partially / with caveats | IoT Hub alerting is built from message routing, Event Grid, Functions or Logic Apps, or Fabric Activator. IoT Central's basic rules are not open to new applications |
| Operational in days, not months | Fully supported | Not available | Building a production-ready IIoT solution on Azure typically takes several months of engineering |
| Protocol flexibility (MQTT, Modbus, LoRaWAN) | Fully supported | Partially / with caveats | Azure IoT Hub natively supports MQTT (with limited features), AMQP and HTTPS; Modbus, LoRaWAN and industrial protocols require edge modules or third-party gateways with custom code |
Why Teams Switch to SIMBIOSYS
These are the three reasons organisations most frequently cite when moving from Azure IoT Hub to SIMBIOSYS.
Skip the Architecture Project
Building a complete IIoT solution on Azure (IoT Hub, Stream Analytics, Cosmos DB, Power BI, API Management and Microsoft Entra ID) is a significant multi-month engineering project. SIMBIOSYS delivers the same operational outcome pre-built, configured and managed.
Costs You Can Predict
Azure IoT billing spans multiple services with consumption-based pricing that is hard to forecast. SIMBIOSYS pricing is structured and predictable. You know exactly what you are paying each month, with no surprise egress charges or storage bills.
Built for Industrial IoT
Azure is a horizontal cloud platform. SIMBIOSYS is purpose-built for industrial IoT: it connects devices, gateways and PLCs over MQTT, HTTP, WebSocket and Modbus, with dashboards and alerting models designed for operational monitoring workflows.
What switching involves
If your team has evaluated Azure IoT Hub and concluded that the architecture complexity, cost unpredictability or need for specialist Azure engineers makes it the wrong fit, SIMBIOSYS is a purpose-built alternative worth evaluating. Book a demo and we will show you your use case running on SIMBIOSYS within a single call.
See SIMBIOSYS in Action
Book a 30-minute demo with our solutions team. We will show you the platform configured for your industry, answer your questions and give you a clear picture of what switching would involve.
Book a demo