The Arduino IoT Cloud Platform Leaves Beta, Promises to Bring About "the Next Phase" of Development

The Arduino IoT Cloud, an effort to make building Internet of Things (IoT) projects on top of Arduino and Arduino-compatible development boards, is now out of beta in a move the team claims will usher in "the next phase" of their cloud platform.

"The full release of Arduino IoT Cloud provides an end-to-end solution that makes building connected projects easy for makers, IoT enthusiasts, and professionals from start to finish," the team notes. "Arduino IoT Cloud’s low-code approach helps you to optimize their workflows and simplify device registration for convenience and flexibility. If you are an advanced user, the platform also enables other methods of interaction, including HTTP REST API, MQTT, command line tools, JavaScript, and WebSockets."

"Using open hardware and IoT standards, you can send and receive data across multiple connected objects within the platform — making it perfectly suited to professionals that want to manage fleets of devices. Arduino IoT Cloud supports STEM/STEAM learning programs as well. Educators can share sketches with students with pre-existing code that allows entry-level developers to understand and create projects without having any prior coding experience."

The full release of the Arduino IoT Cloud has the same key features which made its beta a tempting proposition: A low-code environment that can automatically generate code for common tasks, ready to be deployed immediately or tweaked; a simple onboarding process for newly-unboxed devices; and a relatively new mobile dashboard app for on-the-go monitoring. The platform also includes integration with a variety of third-party services — Alexa, Google Sheets, If This Then That (IFTTT), and ZAPIER, as well as offering its own application programming interface (API) with custom endpoint webhook support.

Some functionality, however, comes at a cost — literally: While accounts on the Arduino IoT Cloud are available free of charge, they come with built-in limits for a total of 100 sketches, 100MB of storage, and 200 seconds of compilation time per day among other restrictions including no support for third-party development boards in the Web Editor; upgrading to the $6.99/month Maker Plan allows for 250 sketches, 200MB of storage, unlimited compilation time, and supports ESP8266-based third-party boards in the Web Editor. Those who need more, meanwhile, can apply for the price-on-application Pro accounts.

More details can be found in the official announcement post, or on the Arduino IoT Cloud site itself.