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Fanout vs Socket.IO: What are the differences?
Introduction: Fanout and Socket.IO are popular real-time messaging technologies used for communication between clients and servers in web applications.
Protocol Support: Fanout uses the WebSocket protocol for real-time communication, providing a full-duplex communication channel over a single, long-lived connection. In contrast, Socket.IO is a real-time library that abstracts the implementation details and provides fallback options such as polling and long-polling in cases where WebSockets are not supported.
Scalability: Fanout is designed to be highly scalable out of the box, allowing for horizontal scaling through the use of numerous instances and a load balancer. On the other hand, Socket.IO's scalability is more limited as it may require additional configurations and strategies for handling a high volume of concurrent connections.
Customization: Fanout is more focused on providing a simple and efficient real-time messaging solution, with fewer customization options. Socket.IO, on the other hand, offers more flexibility and customization capabilities through its various configuration options and plugins.
Real-time Features: Fanout emphasizes real-time messaging features such as message delivery guarantees, message expiration, and message deduplication. Socket.IO also offers real-time messaging capabilities, but may require additional modules or custom implementations for advanced features.
Client Compatibility: Fanout provides client libraries for various platforms and languages, making it easy to integrate with different client applications. Socket.IO also offers client libraries for popular platforms like JavaScript, but may require some additional work for compatibility with certain environments or languages.
Community and Support: Socket.IO has a larger community of developers and more extensive documentation, making it easier to find resources and support when working with the technology. Fanout, while still well-supported, may have fewer resources available in comparison.
In Summary, Fanout and Socket.IO have distinct differences in terms of protocol support, scalability, customization, real-time features, client compatibility, and community support.
We (my team) are building an App where we want to have Bi-directional texting, Single Directional Picture, and audio transfer.
We are building all this using Flutter.
There will essentially be 3 apps, 2 Mobile-based (Android and iOS) and 1 Microsoft Based. We've built up most of the code already, and made a few major mistakes but fixed it(namely had no proper state management).
How things will work:
Person A has a Mobile app 1, Person A presses a button that sends a "communication request" into a Pool of requests. Person B on Desktop App chooses a "communication request" from the pool, and engages in Bi-directional texting with Person A. Person B also opens communication with Person C who is on Mobile app 2, and they engage in Bi-directional texting. Person C will be notified of communication requests through Push Notifications.
So far we've been using Socket.IO, however, I'm starting to think that's not the best.
A problem we've encountered so far is that Person A(Mobile App 1 User), is the person who sends a "communication request" into the "Communication Pool". The Mobile App 1 User, can "cancel" the communication at any point in time. When they do that, I would like for a notification to be sent to Person B, the Desktop User, For them to pick up another communication request.
I am not sure how this should be done however, should it be done in the Back-end, then how does the Front-end get notified of the change?
Any advice on which to choose?
It's so simple when you use Firebase to manage the requests just make new field to the request for example callstate with values like "requesting" "incall" "cancelled" and both A and B can update this field.
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.
I would recommend looking hard into Firebase for this project, especially if you do not have dedicated full-stack or backend members on your team.
The real time database, as you mentioned, is a great option, but I would also look into Firestore. Similar to RTDB, it adds more functions and some cool methods as well. Also, another great thing about Firebase is you have easy access to storage and dead simple auth as well.
Node.js Express MongoDB Socket.IO and Apollo are great technologies as well, and may be the better option if you do not wish to cede as much control to third parties in your application.
Overall, I say if you wish to focus more time developing your React application instead of other parts of your stack, Firebase is a great way to do that.
Hello Noam 👋,
I suggest taking a look at Ably, it has all the realtime features you need and the platform is designed to guarantee critical functionality at scale.
Here is an in depth comparison between Ably and Firebase
Hey Noam,
I would recommend you to take a look into 8base. It has features you've requested, also relation database and GraphQL API which will help you to develop rapidly.
Thanks, Ilya
Pros of Fanout
Pros of Socket.IO
- Real-time219
- Node.js143
- Event-based communication141
- Open source102
- WebSockets102
- Binary streaming26
- No internet dependency21
- Large community10
- Push notification6
- Ease of access and setup5
- Test1
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Cons of Fanout
Cons of Socket.IO
- Bad documentation12
- Githubs that complement it are mostly deprecated4
- Doesn't work on React Native3
- Small community2
- Websocket Errors2
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