Best IoT Operating Systems for Startups
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Compare the Top IoT Operating Systems for Startups as of June 2025
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What are IoT Operating Systems for Startups?
IoT operating systems (OS) are specialized software platforms designed to run on Internet of Things (IoT) devices, providing the necessary functionality for resource management, communication, and real-time processing. These operating systems are optimized for low power consumption, small memory footprints, and efficient processing, allowing IoT devices to operate in environments with limited resources. IoT operating systems typically offer features like device control, sensor management, connectivity protocols, and security to ensure that IoT devices perform reliably and securely. They are used in a variety of IoT applications, such as smart home devices, wearables, industrial machinery, and automotive systems. Compare and read user reviews of the best IoT Operating Systems for Startups currently available using the table below. This list is updated regularly.
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1
Mongoose OS
Cesanta
Mongoose OS is open source and comes in two editions: Community and Enterprise. Reliable Over-The-Air updates Secure device provisioning Remote management. Trusted, field-tested, proven performance. Open source under Apache 2.0 license. Commercial licensing & support are available. integrated into thousands of commercial products deployed to hundreds of millions of devices in production environments. Mongoose OS is Google Cloud IoT Core Partner. Microsoft Azure IoT recommends Mongoose OS for OTA, automatic device management and deploying firmware updates at scale. 'Microsoft Developer: The IoT Show' demonstrates on how to update the firmware of devices running Mongoose OS over-the-air with The Azure IoT Hub Automatic Device Management. Google Cloud IoT Core uses MQTT for communication.Starting Price: $0.89 per unit -
2
VxWorks
Wind River
The World’s Leading Real-Time Operating System for the Intelligent Edge For nearly 35 years, VxWorks has been used to ensure the security, safety, and reliability you need to design and build mission-critical embedded systems that simply must work. VxWorks® is the industry’s most trusted and widely deployed real-time operating system (RTOS) for mission-critical embedded systems that must be secure and safe. It delivers a proven, real-time, and deterministic runtime combined with a modern approach to development. Regardless of industry or device type, companies building intelligent edge systems rely on the VxWorks pedigree of security, safety, high performance, and reliability. VxWorks is a deterministic, priority-based preemptive RTOS with low latency and minimal jitter. It is built on an upgradable, future-proof architecture to help you rapidly respond to changing market requirements and technology advancements.Starting Price: $18,500 / seat -
3
FreeRTOS
FreeRTOS
Developed in partnership with the world’s leading chip companies over a 15-year period, and now downloaded every 170 seconds, FreeRTOS is a market-leading real-time operating system (RTOS) for microcontrollers and small microprocessors. Distributed freely under the MIT open source license, FreeRTOS includes a kernel and a growing set of IoT libraries suitable for use across all industry sectors. FreeRTOS is built with an emphasis on reliability and ease of use. With proven robustness, tiny footprint, and wide device support, the FreeRTOS kernel is trusted by world-leading companies as the de facto standard for microcontrollers and small microprocessors. With detailed pre-configured demos and Internet of Things (IoT) reference integrations, there is no need to determine how to setup a project. Quickly download, compile, and get to market faster. Our partner ecosystem provides a breadth of options including community contributions and professional support. -
4
Mbed OS
Arm
Arm Mbed OS is a free, open-source IoT operating system that includes all the necessary features to develop IoT products. The OS includes everything you need to develop smart, connected products on Arm Cortex-M based hardware, including machine learning capabilities, security, connectivity stacks, an RTOS kernel and drivers for sensors and I/O devices. Arm Mbed OS is designed for the Internet of Things. It is integrated with connectivity, machine learning, networking, and security stacks and is supported with software libraries, development hardware, tutorials and examples. From hardware to the cloud, Mbed OS supports more than 70 silicon, module, cloud, and OEM partners, optimizing your developer choice. By using the Mbed OS API, your application code can remain clean, portable, and simple, while taking advantage of security, communications and machine learning. The integrated solution reduces development cost, time, and risk. -
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BlackBerry QNX
BlackBerry QNX
Launch your critical embedded systems faster with our commercial RTOS, development tools and services. BlackBerry QNX delivers a time-tested real-time operating system (RTOS), hypervisor, and other embedded software to help make you successful. We are the embedded OS of choice for ventilators, train controls, factory automation systems, medical robots and more. Whether your priority is safety certification, security or performance, our software, tools and services can help you build more reliable products. If you’re looking to increase security or safety, or you want to streamline your cross-platform development process, we can help. We can bring your plans to life with an RTOS and hypervisor purpose-built for embedded systems, including pre-certified product variants. Our modular microkernel architecture delivers better reliability and saves duplication of OS development effort across multiple products. -
6
Contiki-NG
Contiki-NG
Contiki-NG is an open-source, cross-platform operating system for Next-Generation IoT devices. It focuses on dependable (secure and reliable) low-power communication and standard protocols, such as IPv6/6LoWPAN, 6TiSCH, RPL, and CoAP. Contiki-NG comes with extensive documentation, tutorials, a roadmap, release cycle, and well-defined development flow for smooth integration of community contributions. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, Contiki-NG sources are distributed under the terms of the 3-clause BSD license. This license gives everyone the right to use and distribute the code, either in binary or source code format, as long as the copyright license is retained in the source code.Starting Price: $4 per user per month -
7
Torizon
Toradex
Torizon makes developers more productive and helps them create easy-to-maintain products. Integrated over-the-air updates and device monitoring allow you to ship earlier, patch bugs in the field, deliver new features and detect issues faster. Software containerization simplifies maintenance and provides an additional layer of robustness. Torizon is constantly validated on Toradex System on Modules (SoMs) to ensure that you can fully focus on your application, rather than the operating system. Torizon lets you develop your product in an agile and iterative fashion. The seamlessly integrated remote update features make it possible to deploy new software easily, while device monitoring gives you instant feedback about performance and potential issues. -
8
RT-Thread
RT-Thread
Welcome to the RT-Thread initiative on SourceForge! RT-Thread is a community-led, open-source Real-Time Operating System. It boasts an extensive feature set, compatibility with over 600 ready-to-use software packages and a broad spectrum of components, and supports all mainstream chip architectures. It also includes a proprietary IDE, the RT-Thread Studio, to assist engineers in quickly embarking on embedded and IoT development. Designed with scalability in mind, RT-Thread is a flexible option for various IoT applications, thanks to its Nano version tailored for resource-limited applications. We invite you to join us on this thrilling journey and help shape the future of IoT and RTOS! -
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LynxOS
Lynx Software Technologies
LynxOS has been deployed in millions of embedded devices and has operated reliably for 30+ years across multiple safety and security-critical embedded markets. It is a tried and true approach for hosting applications on a Unix-like OS model wherein all resources and application services are centrally managed by a common kernel and is best-suited for working with hardware architectures that predate virtualization. We want our customers to buy what they need, and only what they need. Real-time operating systems can provide a tremendous amount of value, but they are not required for every embedded system design. For a more complete listing of our RTOS-related resources, visit our Embedded Systems Learning Center, which is filled with helpful material for making software purchase decisions as you design or update your system and consider which real-time platform vendor is right for you. -
10
MindSphere
Siemens
MindSphere® is the leading industrial IoT as a service solution. Using advanced analytics and AI, MindSphere powers IoT solutions from the edge to the cloud with data from connected products, plants and systems to optimize operations, create better quality products and deploy new business models. Built on the Mendix application platform, MindSphere empowers customers, partners and the Siemens organization to quickly build and integrate personalized IoT applications. Our team of experts is happy to answer your questions and help you get started with MindSphere. Connect assets and upload data to the cloud . Collect, monitor, and analyze data in real-time. Take advantage of apps and solutions that solve real problems. Develop apps that increase the business value of your data. Make use of an open environment for development and operations. -
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Raspberry Pi OS
Raspberry Pi Foundation
Raspberry Pi Imager is the quick and easy way to install Raspberry Pi OS and other operating systems to a microSD card, ready to use with your Raspberry Pi. Watch our 45-second video to learn how to install an operating system using Raspberry Pi Imager. Download and install Raspberry Pi Imager to a computer with an SD card reader. Put the SD card you'll use with your Raspberry Pi into the reader and run Raspberry Pi Imager. Browse a range of operating systems provided by Raspberry Pi and by other organisations, and download them to install manually. -
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TizenRT
Tizen
Tizen is an open and flexible operating system built from the ground up to address the needs of all stakeholders of the mobile and connected device ecosystem, including device manufacturers, mobile operators, application developers and independent software vendors (ISVs). Tizen platform is commercialized on smart TVs, smartphones, wearable devices (Gear S, Gear Fit), and smart home appliances. However, low-end and low-cost IoT devices, such as home appliances without display and wearable bands with a small LCD, have received less attention. The objective of TizenRT is to extend the Tizen platform device coverage to these kind of low-end devices. -
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Ubuntu Core
Canonical
An Ubuntu SSO account is required to create the first user on an Ubuntu Core installation. We will walk you through the steps of flashing Ubuntu Core on a Raspberry Pi 2, 3, 4 or CM3. At the end of this process, you will have a board ready for production or testing snaps. An Ubuntu SSO account is required to create the first user on an Ubuntu Core installation. Your board is now ready to have snaps installed, it’s time to use the snap command to install your first snap. The Snap Store is where you can find the best Linux apps packaged as snaps to install on your Ubuntu device and get started with your secure IoT journey. -
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Android Things
Google
Android Things lets you experiment with building devices on a trusted platform, without previous knowledge of embedded system design: Develop using the Android SDK and Android Studio, access hardware such as displays and cameras natively through the Android framework, use the Android Things Console to push over-the-air feature and security updates. Android Things enables you to build apps on top of popular hardware platforms like the Raspberry Pi 3. The Board Support Package (BSP) is managed by Google, so no kernel or firmware development is required. Software images are built and delivered to devices through the Android Things Console. This gives you a trusted platform to develop on with standard updates and fixes from Google. -
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Apache Mynewt
Apache
Meet your application’s demands from a choice of open source networking stacks e.g. Bluetooth Low Energy 5, Bluetooth Mesh, Wi-Fi, LoRaWAN, and more. Ensure security is built into the code as well as lifecycle management for your product. Ready your IoT network of billions for remote monitoring, troubleshooting, management, and upgrade. Compose, fine-tune, and build your image within hours or even minutes. -
16
Huawei LiteOS
Huawei
Huawei LiteOS is an IoT-oriented software platform integrating an IoT operating system and middleware. It is lightweight, with a kernel size of under 10 KB, and consumes very little power — it can run on an AA battery for up to five years! It also allows for fast startup and connectivity and is very secure. These capabilities make Huawei LiteOS a simple yet powerful one-stop software platform for developers, lowering barriers to entry for development and shortening time to market. Huawei LiteOS provides a unified open-source API that can be used in IoT domains as diverse as smart homes, wearables, Internet of Vehicles (IoV), and intelligent manufacturing. Huawei LiteOS enables an open IoT ecosystem, helping partners to quickly develop IoT products and accelerate IoT development. -
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OpenWrt
OpenWrt
OpenWrt is a highly extensible GNU/Linux distribution for embedded devices (typically wireless routers). Unlike many other distributions for routers, OpenWrt is built from the ground up to be a full-featured, easily modifiable operating system for embedded devices. In practice, this means that you can have all the features you need with none of the bloat, powered by a modern Linux kernel. Instead of trying to create a single, static firmware, OpenWrt provides a fully writable filesystem with optional package management. This frees you from the restrictions of the application selection and configuration provided by the vendor and allows you to use packages to customize an embedded device to suit any application. For developers, OpenWrt provides a framework to build an application without having to create a complete firmware image and distribution around it. -
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MicroPython
MicroPython
The MicroPython pyboard is a compact electronic circuit board that runs MicroPython on the bare metal, giving you a low-level Python operating system that can be used to control all kinds of electronic projects. MicroPython is packed full of advanced features such as an interactive prompt, arbitrary precision integers, closures, list comprehension, generators, exception handling and more. Yet it is compact enough to fit and run within just 256k of code space and 16k of RAM. MicroPython aims to be as compatible with normal Python as possible to allow you to transfer code with ease from the desktop to a microcontroller or embedded system. -
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Embedded Linux
Canonical
Developers are much more productive on Ubuntu than handcrafted embedded Linux. Sharing a platform shares the cost. Licensing is cheaper, updates more tested and maintenance shared. Familiar and widely used Ubuntu means easy CI/CD, better tools, faster updates and better kernels. Linux is not a differentiator. Use pre-enabled boards and focus on software unique to your story. Managing a familiar environment and platform is easier and cheaper than a specialist OS. Naturally. More Linux developers choose Ubuntu, so the talent pool is deeper and broader. Tap the biggest talent pool. Ubuntu is ahead of the pack by every measure. Productivity starts with reuse. Accelerate developers with the world’s largest package selection. -
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TinyOS
TinyOS
TinyOS is an open source, BSD-licensed operating system designed for low-power wireless devices, such as those used in sensor networks, ubiquitous computing, personal area networks, smart buildings, and smart meters. A worldwide community from academia and industry use, develop, and support the operating system as well as its associated tools, averaging 35,000 downloads a year. The transition to hosting at GitHub is now complete. Part of this transition includes slowly retiring TinyOS development mailing lists for bug tracking and issues to using the GitHub trackers. Thanks to all of the developers who are now improving TinyOS and requesting pulls! -
21
Windows for IoT
Microsoft
When you develop with Windows, you join our world-wide partner ecosystem across hardware and software solutions, integrations, and services. Experience our continually evolving feature set, and developer friendly tools, for a smooth device-building experience. Windows IoT provides 10-Year OS Lifecycle Support that is guaranteed with no hidden costs through our Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC). Windows IoT operating systems support backwards compatibility in line with Microsoft’s application compatibility promise. With Windows IoT you can use Azure services as building blocks to construct customized IoT solutions. Azure provides the industry’s broadest portfolio of cloud services and capabilities according to your needs and with the requirements from your industry. Windows IoT is compatible with any existing device management solution. -
22
Amazon FreeRTOS
Amazon
FreeRTOS is an open source, real-time operating system for microcontrollers that makes small, low-power edge devices easy to program, deploy, secure, connect, and manage. Distributed freely under the MIT open source license, FreeRTOS includes a kernel and a growing set of software libraries suitable for use across industry sectors and applications. This includes securely connecting your small, low-power devices to AWS Cloud services like AWS IoT Core or to more powerful edge devices running AWS IoT Greengrass. FreeRTOS is built with an emphasis on reliability and ease of use, and offers the predictability of long term support releases. A microcontroller contains a simple, resource-constrained processor that can be found in many devices, including appliances, sensors, fitness trackers, industrial automation, and automobiles. -
23
TorizonCore
Toradex
Install TorizonCore in one click with the preinstalled Toradex Easy Installer. A Graphical User Interface (GUI) and Debian containers with APT Package Manager get you started in minutes. An extending selection of development tools such as the Flash Analytics tool helps to build reliable products fast. TorizonCore is open-source and built with the Yocto Project based on the Toradex Embedded Linux BSP, which enables further customization. Torizon offers full integration with Visual Studio 2019, providing a convenient way to use a Windows development PC and familiar tools while at the same time giving you the advantages of the rich Linux ecosystem. Toradex continues to support Windows Embedded Compact / WinCE, but for a developer who wishes to move to Linux, Visual Studio with Torizon is an excellent choice. -
24
Nucleus RTOS
Siemens Digital Industries Software
Nucleus® RTOS enables system developers to address the complex requirements demanded by today’s advanced embedded designs. Nucleus brings together kernel-rich functionality and tooling features ideal for applications where a scalable footprint, connectivity, security, power management, and deterministic performance are essential. Nucleus RTOS is a proven, reliable, and fully optimized RTOS. Nucleus has been successfully deployed in highly demanding markets with rigorous safety and security requirements such as industrial systems, medical devices, airborne systems, automotive and more. Stable deterministic kernel with a small memory footprint. A lightweight process model for optimized memory partitioning. Dynamically load and unload processes for greater modularity of applications. -
25
Device OS
Particle
Device OS features an easy-to-use programming framework to help you write applications that run on your devices. With one line of code you'll be securely sending messages to the web. There are four main communication primitives you use to talk to the web through the Device Cloud. The only IoT platform where hardware, software, connectivity and cloud infrastructure are fully integrated out-of-the-box, so that you can deliver OTA updates of any scale quickly and safely. Setting up is easy so that you can push remote updates in minutes, no custom integrations required. Our unique Intelligent Firmware Release feature has built in context awareness, which makes it possible to complete a fleet-wide OTA firmware update in minutes. Particle offers both single device and fleet-wide OTA capabilities that seamlessly scale along with your fleet, from prototype to production. -
26
Micrium OS
Silicon Labs
At the heart of any embedded OS is a kernel, which provides vital task scheduling and multi-tasking services to ensure that the timing requirements of your application code can be met, even as you regularly update and expand that code with new features. Micrium OS is more than a kernel, though, providing a number of additional modules to help you meet your project’s needs. Micrium OS is provided entirely free of charge for deployment on Silicon Labs EFM32 and EFR32 devices! You can begin adding Micrium’s professional-quality components to your projects today without payment of any licensing fees. -
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We collaborate with open-source and commercial partners to provide MIPS support for many of the popular Real Time Operating Systems (RTOS) and the new generation of IoT specific Operating Systems. In addition, we have developed the MIPS Embedded Operating System (MEOS) with Virtualization extensions that targets deeply embedded applications and the IoT space. MEOS is MIPS’ in-house real-time operating system (RTOS). Being in-house, it is always the first to support new cores and architecture features. Version 3.1 of MEOS includes a virtualization library to extend MEOS into a hypervisor for use on MIPS cores which implement the MIPS Virtualization module. Where possible we will assist in the development open-source real-time/IoT operating systems through the donation of engineering resource or the supply of development hardware and tools.
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RIOT
RIOT
RIOT powers the Internet of Things like Linux powers the Internet. RIOT is a free, open source operating system developed by a grassroots community gathering companies, academia, and hobbyists, distributed all around the world. RIOT supports most low-power IoT devices, microcontroller architectures (32-bit, 16-bit, 8-bit), and external devices. RIOT aims to implement all relevant open standards supporting an Internet of Things that is connected, secure, durable & privacy-friendly. RIOT supports DTLS transport layer security, IEEE 802.15.4 encryption, Secure Firmware Updates (SUIT), multiple cryptographic packages, and crypto secure elements. RIOT is modular to adapt to application needs. We aim to support all common network technologies and Internet standards. RIOT is open to new developments and often an early adaptor in networking. -
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Fuschia OS
Fuschia
Fuchsia is a new open source operating system created at Google that is currently under active development. We are building Fuchsia from the kernel up to meet the needs of today’s growing ecosystem of connected devices. Fuchsia is still evolving rapidly, but the underlying principles and values of the system have remained relatively constant throughout the project. The core architectural principles guiding Fuchsia’s design and development are: secure, updatable, inclusive, and pragmatic. A core set of architectural principles - secure, updatable, inclusive, pragmatic - guides Fuchsia's design and development. As an inclusive, open source community, Fuchsia welcomes high-quality, well-tested contributions from all. While there are frameworks proposed to guide its design, Fuchsia is a work in progress. With community contributions and ongoing development, Fuchsia will change over time to meet the evolving needs of developers, manufacturers, and consumers. -
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Zephyr
Zephyr
From simple embedded environmental sensors and LED wearables to sophisticated embedded controllers, smart watches, and IoT wireless applications. Implements configurable architecture-specific stack-overflow protection, kernel object and device driver permission tracking, and thread isolation with thread-level memory protection on x86, ARC, and ARM architectures, userspace, and memory domains. For platforms without MMU/MPU and memory constrained devices, supports combining application-specific code with a custom kernel to create a monolithic image that gets loaded and executed on a system’s hardware. Both the application code and kernel code execute in a single shared address space.
