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  1. Stackups
  2. Application & Data
  3. Platform as a Service
  4. Realtime Backend API
  5. SignalR vs ably

SignalR vs ably

OverviewComparisonAlternatives

Overview

SignalR
SignalR
Stacks656
Followers1.2K
Votes146
GitHub Stars9.3K
Forks2.3K
Ably
Ably
Stacks63
Followers98
Votes96
GitHub Stars351
Forks63

SignalR vs ably: What are the differences?

  1. Performance and Scalability: SignalR is designed to provide real-time communication between a client and server using various transport protocols, such as WebSockets and Long Polling. However, ably offers a more scalable solution by providing a global network of data centers, enabling high performance and low latency communication across the globe.
  2. Reliability and Fault Tolerance: SignalR relies on the stability and availability of the underlying infrastructure, which can lead to potential issues in case of server failures. In contrast, ably ensures high reliability and fault tolerance by automatically handling server failures and seamlessly switching to available backup servers.
  3. Cross-Platform Support: While SignalR primarily focuses on .NET platforms, ably offers cross-platform support for various programming languages including JavaScript, Java, Python, and more. This flexibility allows developers to use ably in their preferred programming language and integrate it with different client technologies.
  4. Real-Time Features and Push Notifications: SignalR provides real-time communication capabilities, but it lacks built-in push notification functionalities. ably, on the other hand, offers a comprehensive set of real-time features along with push notifications, allowing developers to easily send notifications to clients on various devices.
  5. Presence Functionality: SignalR does not provide native support for presence functionality, which allows tracking the online status or availability of users. However, ably offers built-in presence functionality that enables developers to monitor the presence of users and receive notifications when users join or leave a channel.
  6. Operational Insights and Monitoring: ably provides real-time operational insights and monitoring features, including dashboards and analytics, which allow developers to gain visibility into the health and performance of their real-time applications. SignalR does not have built-in monitoring capabilities, requiring developers to implement their own monitoring solutions.

In summary, ably offers enhanced performance, scalability, reliability, cross-platform support, real-time features, presence functionality, and operational insights when compared to SignalR, making it a robust choice for real-time communication and push notification requirements.

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Detailed Comparison

SignalR
SignalR
Ably
Ably

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 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.

-
Pub/Sub Channels API: built-in user presence, message history, token auth, guaranteed message ordering, stream continuity; Protocol Adapters API: stream data over open protocols like WebSockets, MQTT, SSE, and more; Reactor API: link your other systems to Ably so you can use your existing compute to queue and consume high volumes of realtime messages in bulk, transform or filter messages by executing functions on them, or pass messages on to other systems for onward processing; A unified API to provide native push notifications using APNS and GCM; Data Stream Network: Ably's cloud network of 16+ datacenters and 175+ PoPs.
Statistics
GitHub Stars
9.3K
GitHub Stars
351
GitHub Forks
2.3K
GitHub Forks
63
Stacks
656
Stacks
63
Followers
1.2K
Followers
98
Votes
146
Votes
96
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 32
    Supports .NET server
  • 25
    Real-time
  • 18
    Free
  • 16
    Fallback to SSE, forever frame, long polling
  • 15
    WebSockets
Cons
  • 2
    Requires jQuery
  • 2
    Expertise hard to get
  • 1
    Weak iOS and Android support
  • 1
    Big differences between ASP.NET and Core versions
Pros
  • 10
    WebSockets
  • 9
    Highly reliable
  • 8
    Great technical support
  • 8
    Massive scalability
  • 8
    SSE
Integrations
.NET
.NET
PHP
PHP
Java
Java
Objective-C
Objective-C
React Native
React Native
Swift
Swift
Unity
Unity
Ruby
Ruby
Node.js
Node.js
JavaScript
JavaScript
.NET
.NET

What are some alternatives to SignalR, Ably?

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.

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.

SocketCluster

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.

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.

Supabase

Supabase

Supabase is currently in early-Alpha .It is an open-source Firebase alternative. It adds realtime and RESTful APIs to your PostgreSQL database without a single line of code.

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