---
title: Sinks & Forwarders
slug: concepts/sinks-and-forwarders
docTags: 
createdAt: 2025-07-17T11:47:42.671Z
---

Sinks & Forwarders are used to output data from Factry Historian over [MQTT](https://mqtt.org/). Using Sinks & Forwarders is ideal when plugging Factry Historian into a UNS architecture.

Both mechanisms work together to **output data** from the Historian, but they serve different purposes and operate differently:

- [Sinks](docId\:uHMCdTK0tRx-qUIpd8PEY) are the MQTT brokers that Forwarders send their data to.
- [Forwarders](docId\:TD6EMj3F_0XsGJI7p4dAg) determine which data from Factry Historian is pushed to which Sink.