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Frequently Asked Questions

Here you'll find detailed answers to the questions we get asked the most. If you still don't find the answer you're looking for, feel free to get in touch at connhex@compiuta.com.

Product​

What is included with Connhex?​

With every version of Connhex you'll get:

  • a state-of-the art data collection infrastructure. Simply put, this is an entity responsible for receiving data and storing it efficiently into a database
  • every service included in Connhex Cloud
  • Connhex Control: Connhex's device management application. Think of it like an admin-level device management application for all the devices connected to Connhex: you can see what messages are coming from each device, send commands and configuration to devices
  • out of the box Grafana integration to create custom dashboards

Connhex Edge licenses are billed separately - see here for details.

Will my customers see Connhex's logo? Can they see my platform has been built on top of Connhex?​

Absolutely not.

Connhex has been designed to be the foundation for your product, with an emphasis on your. Moreover, Connhex is not yet another white-label platform: if you're using one of those, you can probably customize the both the logo and the branding - but your most knowledgeable customers will still be able to tell what white-label platform you're using.

I bought a Connhex license. What else do I need to offer a complete service to my customers?​

It really depends on your needs. A few examples:

  • if you plan to use Connhex to gather data and create dashboards, you can leverage Connhex's Grafana integration. Let Connhex do the heavy lifting for you - getting data from devices into a database - and build your own dashboards to visualize those data. A typical use case for this is the creation of internal dashboards to monitor company equipment
  • if you need to create a complex web application that includes more advanced logic than simply collecting and visualizing device data - think users management, handling user-devices associations, generating reports - you'll need to hire a software development team, typically a software house or a web agency. The advantage in using Connhex is one of demand and supply: there are many great companies that can develop beautiful apps, less of those know all the nitty-gritty details involved in getting data from intermittent sources and storing it efficiently. By choosing Connhex, you are expanding the pool of potential suppliers for the solution - and lowering the total cost dramatically
  • if you need to create a mobile app, all of the previous still applies with a single exception - you'll probably need to hire dedicated mobile developers instead of a standard web agency

These are just examples: if you're not sure whether your solution could benefit from leveraging Connhex or not contact us at connhex@compiuta.com and we'll take a look at it together.

What is the difference between Connhex Standard and Connhex Enterprise?​

The main difference between those two versions is the performance you'll be getting. Approximately speaking, there are two factors that scale the cost of a data collection infrastructure:

  • how much data is involved
  • what is the availability required for the infrastructure. For example, are you okay with the system being down for a few hours in a year or not?

Connhex Enterprise is engineered to auto-scale as the data flow goes up, whereas Connhex Standard has been engineered and optimized to work with relatively low hardware resources - this is why Connhex Standard is not simply a shrinked down version of Connhex Enterprise.

Can I upgrade to Connhex Enterprise and retain all of the data previously collected with Connhex Standard ?​

Of course you can. If Connhex Standard is hosted by you, just get in touch and we'll provide the migration tools - and support if necessary. If Connhex Standard is hosted by us, we'll take care of migrating all of your data.

Can't I just strap together some open-source projects and get the same functionalities Connhex provides?​

The short answers is: yes, but.

You can definitely piece together many open-source projects and write some glue-code to connect them together. You can also write it yourself from scratch. However, there are a few things to consider:

  • that glue code can easily represent half of your project: it could be still a lot of work before being able to put the first piece of code in production
  • open-source components are typically developed in isolation. While this is why open-source is great for lots of infrastructural stuff (we didn't write an MQTT broker from scratch, rest assured!), you can't build a great product by forcing together pieces that are not intended to work this way. This is another reason why, if you decide to go the in-house route, you'll need to write a lot of it yourself.
  • sad as this is, open-source founding is a hard problem in itself. You should also factor in the risk of the project you're using to be abandoned in the future
  • creating something is just a fraction of the work. The real deal is testing it, smoothing out edge cases and making sure it's production-grade
  • once you bring a project in-house, it immediately becomes both an asset and a liability. You should compare the benefits of building it yourself with the costs of monitoring, maintaining and updating it. Do you have a dedicated team or do you need to build one? What's your core business and where are you subtracting resources from?

Keep in mind the total cost of ownership concept: you'll need to code your solution, test it, validate it, monitor it, maintain it and support it.

Why isn't Connhex open-source?​

We've shared our reflections here. In a nutshell, we will never open-source something if we can’t do it properly: right now we are still a small team, focused on serving our customers as best as we can. The overhead involved in managing and supporting an open-source project would be at the expense of the level of service we are currently providing.

Edges vs. devices​

The difference between an edge and a device is actually very simple. An edge is a physical electronic device that is running Connhex Edge, while a device is a generic object sending messages to Connhex and receiving commands from it. In short, you can think of edges as super-powerful devices that leverage Connhex Edge's functionalities.

What are the minimum hardware requirements for Connhex Edge?​

Like everything in software, it depends 😁. We wrote extensive documentation on this topic: you can find it here.

Pricing​

Do you offer a free version of Connhex?​

In short: no, we do not.

We are a small, independent and self-founded team with the goal to operate in a way that’s sustainable. Our business model is simple: we sell our product at a fair price and that's it. We believe this commitment to long-term sustainability is a responsibility to our customers, who can trust that we’ll continue to be here and leverage Connhex as a foundation for their products. We are focused on making Connhex better every day instead of spending time trying to upsell customers that have signed up to a free tier of our product.

We understand you may want to have a look at what can be created with Connhex and maybe even trying it before committing to a purchase. Therefore we:

  • try to continuosly improve our online documentation and use cases
  • are more than happy to chat and help you understand if Connhex is the right product for you
  • guarantee 30 day money back on all Connhex instances hosted by us, as long as you have not accessed our servers during this period

"Ok, but I would really like to try Connhex before committing to a purchase!". Fair enough: just get in touch at connhex@compiuta.com and we'll find a way to meet your needs.

How much is Connhex Enterprise? The website doesn't show it.​

As of right now, Connhex Enterprise is priced differently according to a few factors - how many devices the application needs to handle, what cloud provider has been chosen and what availability is expected, to name a few. We are working to publish its pricing transparently, without either scaring potential customers with a too big of a number unnecessarily or giving false hopes. Expect updates on this front - just contact us for the time being.

I want to move Connhex to a different server. Do I need to pay another license?​

No, you don't. Just contact us before migrating the system and we'll generate a new license, while deactivating the previous one. If you want to clone Connhex on a different server, keeping two active installations, you need to pay an extra license instead. This may be the case if you want to provide two of your customers with two identical but separate platforms based on Connhex.

How is Connhex Edge billed?​

We usually charge a one time fixed amount for each Connhex Edge license you get. Each license is tied to a single device, so it's not possible to move licenses between devices - or to share a license across devices. Updates to the Connhex Edge executable can be purchased at a discount for each license.

Alternatively, we offer an annual subscription to keep your devices always updated with the latest Connhex Edge version: contact us connhex@compiuta.com and we'll be happy to discuss it.

Support​

I don't understand which Connhex version suits me best. Can you help?​

Of course, we'd be delighted to. Reach us at connhex@compiuta.com and we'll get back to you.

I don't find a phone number on any of your websites. Does this mean you're not reachable by phone?​

We're definitely reachable by phone and ready to jump on a call if you'd like us to, but we prioritize product development and supporting current customers over new business. We don't have a dedicated sales team and reinvest all of the profits coming from Connhex into making it better.

I'm experiencing an issue with my Connhex instance. Who can I contact?​

To get the fastest response, you can contact us through any dedicated support channel we've shared with you. If you're not able to access those, just send us an e-mail and we'll get in touch with you.