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  1. Stackups
  2. Application & Data
  3. Platform as a Service
  4. Web Servers
  5. Cowboy vs SignalR

Cowboy vs SignalR

OverviewComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Cowboy
Cowboy
Stacks711
Followers72
Votes19
GitHub Stars7.4K
Forks1.2K
SignalR
SignalR
Stacks656
Followers1.2K
Votes146
GitHub Stars9.3K
Forks2.3K

Cowboy vs SignalR: What are the differences?

What is Cowboy? Small, fast, modular HTTP server written in Erlang. Cowboy aims to provide a complete HTTP stack in a small code base. It is optimized for low latency and low memory usage, in part because it uses binary strings. Cowboy provides routing capabilities, selectively dispatching requests to handlers written in Erlang.

What is SignalR? A new library for ASP.NET developers that makes developing real-time web functionality easy. 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.

Cowboy belongs to "Web Servers" category of the tech stack, while SignalR can be primarily classified under "Realtime Backend / API".

"Websockets integration" is the top reason why over 6 developers like Cowboy, while over 7 developers mention "Supports .NET server" as the leading cause for choosing SignalR.

Cowboy and SignalR are both open source tools. SignalR with 7.75K GitHub stars and 2.19K forks on GitHub appears to be more popular than Cowboy with 5.59K GitHub stars and 999 GitHub forks.

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Detailed Comparison

Cowboy
Cowboy
SignalR
SignalR

Cowboy aims to provide a complete HTTP stack in a small code base. It is optimized for low latency and low memory usage, in part because it uses binary strings. Cowboy provides routing capabilities, selectively dispatching requests to handlers written in Erlang.

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.

Statistics
GitHub Stars
7.4K
GitHub Stars
9.3K
GitHub Forks
1.2K
GitHub Forks
2.3K
Stacks
711
Stacks
656
Followers
72
Followers
1.2K
Votes
19
Votes
146
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 8
    Websockets integration
  • 6
    Cool name
  • 3
    Good to use with Erlang
  • 2
    Anime mascot
Pros
  • 32
    Supports .NET server
  • 25
    Real-time
  • 18
    Free
  • 16
    Fallback to SSE, forever frame, long polling
  • 15
    WebSockets
Cons
  • 2
    Expertise hard to get
  • 2
    Requires jQuery
  • 1
    Big differences between ASP.NET and Core versions
  • 1
    Weak iOS and Android support
Integrations
No integrations available
.NET
.NET

What are some alternatives to Cowboy, SignalR?

NGINX

NGINX

nginx [engine x] is an HTTP and reverse proxy server, as well as a mail proxy server, written by Igor Sysoev. According to Netcraft nginx served or proxied 30.46% of the top million busiest sites in Jan 2018.

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.

Apache HTTP Server

Apache HTTP Server

The Apache HTTP Server is a powerful and flexible HTTP/1.1 compliant web server. Originally designed as a replacement for the NCSA HTTP Server, it has grown to be the most popular web server on the Internet.

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.

Unicorn

Unicorn

Unicorn is an HTTP server for Rack applications designed to only serve fast clients on low-latency, high-bandwidth connections and take advantage of features in Unix/Unix-like kernels. Slow clients should only be served by placing a reverse proxy capable of fully buffering both the the request and response in between Unicorn and slow clients.

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.

Microsoft IIS

Microsoft IIS

Internet Information Services (IIS) for Windows Server is a flexible, secure and manageable Web server for hosting anything on the Web. From media streaming to web applications, IIS's scalable and open architecture is ready to handle the most demanding tasks.

Pusher

Pusher

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

Apache Tomcat

Apache Tomcat

Apache Tomcat powers numerous large-scale, mission-critical web applications across a diverse range of industries and organizations.

Passenger

Passenger

Phusion Passenger is a web server and application server, designed to be fast, robust and lightweight. It takes a lot of complexity out of deploying web apps, adds powerful enterprise-grade features that are useful in production, and makes administration much easier and less complex.

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