Aranet Cloud alternative — a comparison for companies in Poland
Aranet Cloud alternative for companies in Poland: a free plan for 10 sensors, data hosted in the EU, a Polish team, and hardware plus platform from one vendor.
Zespół Nextriv4 min read
In this article
An Aranet alternative is a question that comes up at two moments: when a company is choosing its first environmental monitoring system and comparing vendors — or when a pilot of a few sensors is about to grow into a full deployment and suddenly subscription costs, the language of support and where the data physically lives start to matter. Aranet has fairly earned its recognition, and there is no point pretending otherwise. But there is also a reason why companies in Poland increasingly weigh its cloud against solutions built closer to home: monitoring is not a one-off sensor purchase but years of a relationship with the platform vendor. Below is a matter-of-fact comparison — criterion by criterion.
Who Aranet Cloud is a good choice for
Aranet is a Latvian manufacturer of wireless sensors, best known for its portable CO₂ meter with an e-ink display, which gained international popularity during the pandemic. Aranet Cloud is its cloud platform, collecting data from sensors via base stations; the manufacturer is known for deployments in buildings, schools and agriculture, including greenhouses.
Who will this choice suit? First — users who value a brand with established international recognition and an active user community. Second — people who primarily need portable, personal CO₂ measurement, which is exactly the use case the brand started from. Third — organisations that already run this manufacturer's sensors and simply want to grow the existing ecosystem.
An Aranet alternative — how Nextriv differs
One vendor and support in Polish. Nextriv sensors, gateways and platform come from a single vendor — when something needs attention, there is no passing of responsibility between a hardware manufacturer and a cloud operator. The team is Polish, and the platform, documentation and support work in Polish, with billing in złoty. For a company where the system is used by a warehouse worker and a shift manager, not just the IT department, the language of the interface and of the support call often matters more than many a feature.
A free plan instead of a trial period. Instead of a trial version with a countdown of days, Nextriv offers a perpetual FREE plan: 10 sensors, 1 gateway, 2 users, 5 alert rules and a full 365 days of raw measurement history. That is enough to run a whole season on a real site before you spend a single złoty on a subscription — details in the pricing.
Alerts designed for responding, not reading. Each metric takes up to four thresholds (two warning and two critical), and notifications arrive by e-mail, SMS, web push, in Microsoft Teams, on Discord or as an audible in-app alarm. An unacknowledged event escalates to the next people in line, quiet hours mute the nights where that is a deliberate decision, and the system itself notices a sensor that has gone silent — by default after twice its reporting interval. Missing data is, after all, not the same as good air.
Data in the European Union and accountability. Nextriv's infrastructure runs in the EU, each organisation's data is isolated at the database level, sign-in is protected by 2FA, and security events go to a separate register. PDF reports can carry a SHA-256 signature with a QR code and a verification address — an auditor can check the document's authenticity on their own. We covered this in more depth in the article on IoT sensor data security.
CO₂ measurement of the same optical class. The Nextriv Sense CO₂ sensor measures carbon dioxide with NDIR technology across 400–5000 ppm with ±(30 ppm + 3% of reading) accuracy, plus temperature (±0.2 °C) and humidity (±2% RH). The e-ink display shows the reading and an emoji that needs no knowledge of "ppm", configuration is a smartphone tap over NFC, and the replaceable batteries last 3–5 years. Long-range radio — roughly 2 km in the city and up to 15 km in open terrain — covers sites where Wi-Fi ends behind the second wall; why that matters for CO₂ sensors is unpacked in CO₂ sensor: radio or Wi-Fi.
And where temperature and humidity are enough — in a warehouse, a back room or a server room — the same platform runs on a simpler, cheaper climate sensor:
The comparison at a glance
| Criterion | Nextriv | Aranet Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | yes — 10 sensors, 1 gateway, 365 days of raw history | per the manufacturer's current offer |
| Data storage location | infrastructure in the European Union | check with the manufacturer |
| Platform and support language | Polish team, platform and support in Polish | international offer — check with the manufacturer |
| Hardware and platform | sensors, gateways and cloud from one vendor | own ecosystem of sensors and cloud |
| Signed reports | PDF with a SHA-256 signature, QR code and verification address | check with the manufacturer |
The table deliberately includes only the items we are certain of on our own side. Aranet's offer — plans, subscription prices, feature scope — changes like any SaaS offer, so verify it with the manufacturer or a distributor before deciding.
FAQ
Can I connect Aranet sensors to the Nextriv platform?
No — the entry point to the platform is Nextriv sensors connecting through Nextriv gateways; separately, existing analogue sensors (4–20 mA / 0–10 V) can be connected through the Nextriv Hub Edge gateway with industrial inputs. The simplest way to start a migration is in parallel: the free plan lets you run up to 10 sensors alongside the existing system and compare both for a few weeks at no licence cost.
Will employees see the air status without logging into the app?
Yes. The Sense CO₂ variant with an e-ink display shows readings and an emoji on the spot, and the screenless version signals air status with a traffic-light LED. Current readings can also be shared as a public widget available via a tokenized link — no accounts needed.
What does it cost to start, and what comes next?
The FREE plan costs 0 PLN indefinitely (10 sensors, 1 gateway, 365 days of history) — you only buy the hardware once. The paid plan, 99 PLN net per 30 days or 990 PLN net per year (excl. VAT), removes the quantity limits and extends raw measurement history to 1825 days (5 years).
Compare on your own data
The best comparison is done not on datasheets but on your own site. Check the pricing and price out your own scale, or book a short demo — we will show alerts, reports and charts on a live system, and you can launch a free-plan pilot the same day.
As of March 2026; check offer details with the manufacturer.
