Why developers like Socket.IO

What is Socket.IO?

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

Socket.IO is a tool in the Realtime Backend / API category of a tech stack.

Socket.IO is an open source tool with 54K GitHub stars and 9.8K GitHub forks. Here’s a link to Socket.IO's open source repository on GitHub

Who uses Socket.IO?

Companies

1275 companies reportedly use Socket.IO in their tech stacks, including Alibaba Travels, Bepro Company, and PLAID.

Alibaba Travels

Bepro Company

PLAID

Barogo

Patreon

Trello

AO.com

TradingView

Gorgias

Developers

6799 developers on StackShare have stated that they use Socket.IO.

Node.js Web Stack

Pubu

ytnobody

Personal

Hitalo Silva

vitorbritto

Realtime Search

paruckerr

Channely

Socket.IO Integrations

React, Flutter, Backbone.js, Angular 2, and Gatsby are some of the popular tools that integrate with Socket.IO. Here's a list of all 12 tools that integrate with Socket.IO.

React

Flutter

Backbone.js

Angular 2

Gatsby

Auth0

Cloud Firestore

Sails.js

Outbrain

Pros of Socket.IO

213

Real-time

142

Event-based communication

141

Node.js

102

Open source

101

WebSockets

Binary streaming

No internet dependency

Fallback to polling if WebSockets not supported

Large community

Ease of access and setup

Push notification

Decisions about Socket.IO

Here are some stack decisions, common use cases and reviews by companies and developers who chose Socket.IO in their tech stack.

Noam Shemesh

Jul 16, 2020 | 9 upvotes · 572K views

Shared insights

We are starting to work on a web-based platform aiming to connect artists (clients) and professional freelancers (service providers). In-app, timeline-based, real-time communication between users (& storing it), file transfers, and push notifications are essential core features. We are considering using Node.js, ExpressJS, React, MongoDB stack with Socket.IO & Apollo, or maybe using Real-Time Database and functionalities of Firebase.

Ritwik Neema

May 27, 2020 | 5 upvotes · 134.8K views

Shared insights

Hello. So, I wanted to make a decision on whether to use WebRTC or Amazon Chime for a conference call (meeting). My plan is to build an app with features like video broadcasting, and the ability for all the participants to talk and chat. I have used Agora's web SDK for video broadcasting, and Socket.IO for chat features. As I read the comparison between Amazon Chime and WebRTC, it further intrigues me on what I should use given my scenario? Is there any way that so many related technologies could be a hindrance to the other? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks. Ritwik Neema

Mohit Patel

Mar 24, 2021 | 1 upvote · 20.7K views

Shared insights

PubNub

Socket.IO

I am trying to replace Socket.IO with PubNub. Provide the way to do it.

node.js - pubnub integration in react js frontend and nodejs backend - Stack Overflow

Bruno Diaz

CEO at Guvery · Jun 24, 2021 | 3 upvotes · 1.1K views

Shared insights

Socket.IO

JavaScript

PHP

Node.js

Hello guys, my team is looking for some stack pre-build to implement a real-time chat. Meanwhile, we had built a little infrastructure with Node.js, PHP/JavaScript, and Socket.IO, and it works fine, but we want to evolve. Thanks!

See all decisions

Blog Posts

Open Sourcing Querybook, Pinterest’s Collaborative Big Data Hu...

Jun 23 2021 at 5:13PM

+17

1267

Socket.IO's Features

Real-time analytics - Push data to clients that gets represented as real-time counters, charts or logs.
Binary streaming - Starting in 1.0, it's possible to send any blob back and forth: image, audio, video.
Instant messaging and chat - Socket.IO's "Hello world" is a chat app in just a few lines of code.
Document collaboration - Allow users to concurrently edit a document and see each other's changes.

Socket.IO Alternatives & Comparisons

What are some alternatives to Socket.IO?

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.

SocketCluster

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.

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

ExpressJS

Express is a minimal and flexible node.js web application framework, providing a robust set of features for building single and multi-page, and hybrid web applications.

See all alternatives

Related Comparisons