Which service is right for you?

Like the human internet, there are services available for almost anything you might want your devices to do. There are free services, paid services, enterprise-level, and DIY maker-friendly services available. Some services perform only one specific function, some allow you to design your own custom sub-services, and everything in between. As you might imagine, there are also innumerable useful services that don’t even exist yet, just waiting to be conceived.

The choice you make at this stage depends on what you’ve learned in the previous two videos. If the service you’ve got your eyes on does not support the MQTT protocol, it can have a big impact on your data and battery usage. Likewise, if you picked a transport like SigFox, you’ll need to make sure your service can hook into the SigFox gateway network.

One helpful way to investigate all of these services for things is to list all the processes your “things” need assistance in performing. Most of these processes can be broken down into a handful of categories: storing, retrieving and processing sensor data, coordinating communication with other IoT devices, talking to non IoT stuff on the Internet, receiving configuration changes, and dealing with humans. Knowing what you need will help you choose which service may be right for you!