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  1. Stackups
  2. Application & Data
  3. Platform as a Service
  4. Realtime Backend API
  5. Pulsar vs Socket.IO

Pulsar vs Socket.IO

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Socket.IO
Socket.IO
Stacks13.6K
Followers11.0K
Votes776
Apache Pulsar
Apache Pulsar
Stacks118
Followers199
Votes24

Pulsar vs Socket.IO: What are the differences?

  1. Scalability: One key difference between Pulsar and Socket.IO is the scalability. Pulsar is designed for high scalability, offering features like built-in support for multi-tenancy and geo-replication, while Socket.IO may require additional configuration for scaling to handle increased load with multiple servers.
  2. Persistence: Pulsar also differs from Socket.IO in terms of persistence. Pulsar provides persistent message storage, allowing messages to be stored even if consumers are offline, whereas Socket.IO is primarily focused on real-time communication and may not have built-in support for message persistence.
  3. Data Structures: Another distinguishing factor is the support for complex data structures. Pulsar offers support for advanced data structures like queues, publish-subscribe topics, and schemas, providing more flexibility in message handling compared to Socket.IO, which may have limitations in handling diverse data structures.
  4. Compliance: In terms of compliance and reliability, Pulsar offers features like message deduplication, strict ordering guarantees, and end-to-end encryption, ensuring secure and reliable message delivery, while Socket.IO may have lesser stringent measures for compliance and reliability.
  5. Ecosystem: The ecosystem surrounding Pulsar and Socket.IO also sets them apart. Pulsar comes with a broader ecosystem of tools, integrations, and community support, making it easier to extend and integrate with other systems, whereas Socket.IO may have a more focused but potentially limited ecosystem in comparison.
  6. Extensibility: Lastly, the extensibility of the two platforms differs. Pulsar provides a flexible architecture that supports custom connectors, pluggable authentication, and authorization mechanisms, allowing for easy integration with various systems, while Socket.IO may have fewer options for customization and extension.

In Summary, Pulsar and Socket.IO diverge in key areas such as scalability, persistence, data structures, compliance, ecosystem, and extensibility.

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Advice on Socket.IO, Apache Pulsar

Noam
Noam

Jul 16, 2020

Needs adviceonNode.jsNode.jsExpressJSExpressJSReactReact

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.

1.15M views1.15M
Comments
Anil
Anil

Mar 7, 2020

Needs advice

I want to add uWebSockets.js in my application for real-time chatting, for that, I have to draw a UML and ufd diagram flow then I have to implement it in my code, my stack is node js, android, express, MongoDB, Redis. how can I do this? I want to add uWebSockets.js in my application for real-time chatting, for that, I have to draw a UML and ufd diagram flow then I have to implement it in my code, my stack is node js, android, express, MongoDB, Redis. how can I do this?I want to add uWebSockets.js in my application for real-time chatting, for that, I have to draw a UML and ufd diagram flow then I have to implement it in my code, my stack is node js, android, express, MongoDB, Redis. how can I do this?i want to add uWebSockets.js in my application for real time chatting, for that i have to draw a uml and ufd diagram flow then i have to implement it in my code , my stack is node js , android , express , mongoDb, redis . how can i do a this?

46.7k views46.7k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

Socket.IO
Socket.IO
Apache Pulsar
Apache Pulsar

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

Apache Pulsar is a distributed messaging solution developed and released to open source at Yahoo. Pulsar supports both pub-sub messaging and queuing in a platform designed for performance, scalability, and ease of development and operation.

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.
Unified model supporting pub-sub messaging and queuing; Easy scalability to millions of topics; Native multi-datacenter replication; Multi-language client API; Guaranteed data durability; Scalable distributed storage leveraging Apache BookKeeper
Statistics
Stacks
13.6K
Stacks
118
Followers
11.0K
Followers
199
Votes
776
Votes
24
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 219
    Real-time
  • 143
    Node.js
  • 141
    Event-based communication
  • 102
    WebSockets
  • 102
    Open source
Cons
  • 12
    Bad documentation
  • 4
    Githubs that complement it are mostly deprecated
  • 3
    Doesn't work on React Native
  • 2
    Websocket Errors
  • 2
    Small community
Pros
  • 7
    Simple
  • 4
    Scalable
  • 3
    High-throughput
  • 2
    Multi-tenancy
  • 2
    Geo-replication
Cons
  • 1
    No guaranteed dliefvery
  • 1
    Not jms compliant
  • 1
    Only Supports Topics
  • 1
    Very few commercial vendors for support
  • 1
    LImited Language support(6)
Integrations
Auth0
Auth0
Gatsby
Gatsby
Flutter
Flutter
React
React
Backbone.js
Backbone.js
Cloud Firestore
Cloud Firestore
Outbrain
Outbrain
No integrations available

What are some alternatives to Socket.IO, Apache Pulsar?

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.

Kafka

Kafka

Kafka is a distributed, partitioned, replicated commit log service. It provides the functionality of a messaging system, but with a unique design.

RabbitMQ

RabbitMQ

RabbitMQ gives your applications a common platform to send and receive messages, and your messages a safe place to live until received.

Celery

Celery

Celery is an asynchronous task queue/job queue based on distributed message passing. It is focused on real-time operation, but supports scheduling as well.

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.

Amazon SQS

Amazon SQS

Transmit any volume of data, at any level of throughput, without losing messages or requiring other services to be always available. With SQS, you can offload the administrative burden of operating and scaling a highly available messaging cluster, while paying a low price for only what you use.

NSQ

NSQ

NSQ is a realtime distributed messaging platform designed to operate at scale, handling billions of messages per day. It promotes distributed and decentralized topologies without single points of failure, enabling fault tolerance and high availability coupled with a reliable message delivery guarantee. See features & guarantees.

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.

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