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  1. Stackups
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  4. Realtime Backend API
  5. Google Cloud Pub/Sub vs SocketCluster

Google Cloud Pub/Sub vs SocketCluster

OverviewComparisonAlternatives

Overview

SocketCluster
SocketCluster
Stacks47
Followers168
Votes47
GitHub Stars6.2K
Forks322
Google Cloud Pub/Sub
Google Cloud Pub/Sub
Stacks550
Followers428
Votes13

Google Cloud Pub/Sub vs SocketCluster: What are the differences?

### Introduction
In this comparison, we will discuss the key differences between Google Cloud Pub/Sub and SocketCluster.

1. **Communication Protocol**: Google Cloud Pub/Sub uses a publish-subscribe messaging model where publishers send messages to a topic and subscribers receive messages from that topic. On the other hand, SocketCluster provides real-time bidirectional event-based communication using WebSockets.
   
2. **Scalability**: Google Cloud Pub/Sub is a fully-managed, highly scalable service that can handle high throughput and large volumes of messages with ease. SocketCluster, while also scalable, requires configuration and management of the underlying infrastructure for optimal performance.
   
3. **Pricing**: Google Cloud Pub/Sub follows a pay-as-you-go pricing model, which means you only pay for what you use. SocketCluster, being open-source, offers cost-effective solutions but may require additional resources for maintenance and support.
   
4. **Integration with Other Google Cloud Services**: Google Cloud Pub/Sub seamlessly integrates with other Google Cloud services such as BigQuery, Dataflow, and Cloud Functions, enabling easy data processing and analysis. SocketCluster, being independent, may require custom integrations with external services.
   
5. **Message Delivery Guarantees**: Google Cloud Pub/Sub provides at-least-once message delivery guarantees, ensuring that a message is delivered at least once to subscribers. SocketCluster, depending on the configuration, may provide different message delivery semantics, such as at-most-once or exactly-once.
   
6. **Managed Service vs. Self-Managed Solution**: Google Cloud Pub/Sub is a fully managed service that handles infrastructure provisioning, scaling, and maintenance automatically. In contrast, SocketCluster requires manual setup, configuration, and monitoring of the infrastructure, making it a self-managed solution.

In Summary, the key differences between Google Cloud Pub/Sub and SocketCluster lie in their communication protocol, scalability, pricing, integration with other services, message delivery guarantees, and managed vs. self-managed nature.

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CLI (Node.js)
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Detailed Comparison

SocketCluster
SocketCluster
Google Cloud Pub/Sub
Google Cloud Pub/Sub

SocketCluster is a fast, highly scalable HTTP + realtime server engine which lets you build multi-process realtime servers that make use of all CPU cores on a machine/instance. It removes the limitations of having to run your Node.js server as a single thread and makes your backend resilient by automatically recovering from worker crashes and aggregating errors into a central log.

Cloud Pub/Sub is a fully-managed real-time messaging service that allows you to send and receive messages between independent applications. You can leverage Cloud Pub/Sub’s flexibility to decouple systems and components hosted on Google Cloud Platform or elsewhere on the Internet.

Resilient on both the client and backend - Process crashes, lost connections and other failures are handled seamlessly.;Scales linearly as you add more CPU cores and workers (assuming a decent OS) - Tested with up to 16 cores.;Also designed to scale horizontally across multiple machines. See sc-redis sample.
-
Statistics
GitHub Stars
6.2K
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Forks
322
GitHub Forks
-
Stacks
47
Stacks
550
Followers
168
Followers
428
Votes
47
Votes
13
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 12
    Cluster mode is awesome
  • 8
    WebSockets
  • 7
    Scalability
  • 4
    JWT based Authentication
  • 4
    Security
Pros
  • 9
    Easy to set-up and start with
  • 2
    A great choice for microservice architecture
  • 2
    Efficient and practical for complex systems
Cons
  • 2
    Need integration with stackdriver for monitoring
Integrations
Node.js
Node.js
Google Cloud Functions
Google Cloud Functions
Cloud Functions for Firebase
Cloud Functions for Firebase

What are some alternatives to SocketCluster, Google Cloud Pub/Sub?

Firebase

Firebase

Firebase is a cloud service designed to power real-time, collaborative applications. Simply add the Firebase library to your application to gain access to a shared data structure; any changes you make to that data are automatically synchronized with the Firebase cloud and with other clients within milliseconds.

Socket.IO

Socket.IO

It enables real-time bidirectional event-based communication. It works on every platform, browser or device, focusing equally on reliability and speed.

PubNub

PubNub

PubNub makes it easy for you to add real-time capabilities to your apps, without worrying about the infrastructure. Build apps that allow your users to engage in real-time across mobile, browser, desktop and server.

Pusher

Pusher

Pusher is the category leader in delightful APIs for app developers building communication and collaboration features.

SignalR

SignalR

SignalR allows bi-directional communication between server and client. Servers can now push content to connected clients instantly as it becomes available. SignalR supports Web Sockets, and falls back to other compatible techniques for older browsers. SignalR includes APIs for connection management (for instance, connect and disconnect events), grouping connections, and authorization.

Ably

Ably

Ably offers WebSockets, stream resume, history, presence, and managed third-party integrations to make it simple to build, extend, and deliver digital realtime experiences at scale.

Syncano

Syncano

Syncano is a backend platform to build powerful real-time apps more efficiently. Integrate with any API, minimize boilerplate code and control your data - all from one place.

NATS

NATS

Unlike traditional enterprise messaging systems, NATS has an always-on dial tone that does whatever it takes to remain available. This forms a great base for building modern, reliable, and scalable cloud and distributed systems.

deepstream.io

deepstream.io

Scalable Server for Realtime Web Apps with JSON structures that can be read, manipulated and listened to, messages that can be sent to one or more subscribers, and request response workflows, between two clients or servers.

8base

8base

A cloud service designed to power enterprise-grade web and mobile applications that require support for large numbers of users, complex data and transactional requirements, comprehensive role-based security and a modern look-and-feel.

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