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

NATS vs PubNub

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

PubNub
PubNub
Stacks249
Followers458
Votes238
NATS
NATS
Stacks393
Followers498
Votes60

NATS vs PubNub: What are the differences?

Introduction:

NATS and PubNub are both messaging systems commonly used in modern web applications. While they may appear similar at first glance, there are key differences that set them apart.

  1. Message Protocol: NATS uses a simple and lightweight protocol for communication between clients and servers, providing efficiency and low latency for messaging. On the other hand, PubNub's protocol is more feature-rich, with support for bidirectional communication, message history, and message acknowledgments, making it a more comprehensive messaging solution for complex applications.

  2. Scalability: NATS is designed for high performance and scalability, with clustering capabilities that allow it to handle large volumes of messages and clients. In contrast, PubNub offers a globally distributed network of data centers that automatically scale to meet the demands of the application, making it a suitable choice for applications requiring worldwide reach and high availability.

  3. Security: NATS provides robust security features such as TLS encryption and authentication mechanisms to enforce access control and protect message integrity. PubNub offers similar security measures, including end-to-end encryption and access management, but also provides compliance with industry standards like HIPAA and GDPR, making it a more suitable choice for applications with strict regulatory requirements.

  4. Real-time Capabilities: PubNub is designed for real-time communication, offering features like presence detection, push notifications, and message timestamps out of the box. NATS, while capable of real-time messaging, may require additional customization or integration with other services to achieve similar real-time capabilities.

  5. Pricing Model: NATS is open-source and free to use, making it a cost-effective choice for budget-conscious projects. PubNub, however, operates on a usage-based pricing model, where customers pay based on the volume of messages sent and received, making it more suitable for projects with variable messaging needs or high scalability requirements.

  6. Community Support: NATS has a vibrant open-source community that actively contributes to its development, provides support, and offers various integrations with popular programming languages and frameworks. PubNub, while offering professional support services, may lack the same level of community-driven development and integration options as NATS.

In Summary, NATS and PubNub differ in terms of message protocol, scalability, security, real-time capabilities, pricing model, and community support, catering to different needs in the world of messaging systems.

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Advice on PubNub, NATS

tauschjl
tauschjl

Apr 22, 2021

Needs advice

I am building an IoT application that will utilize connected air quality sensors to provide real-time indoor air quality in offices. I want to be able to share this data with a few different databases, etc.

Wondering if anyone has any advice on which real-time streaming API would be best for this sort of application, or even how I should think about it?

38.1k views38.1k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

PubNub
PubNub
NATS
NATS

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.

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.

PubNub SDKs support over 50 of the most popular environments, including: iOS, Android, JavaScript, .NET, Java, Ruby, Python, PHP and many more.;Data Push - Establish and maintain persistent socket connections to any device (mobile, browser, desktop and server) and push data to global audiences in less than ¼ of a second;Presence - Automatically detect when users enter or leave your app and whether machines are online;Storage and Playback- Store your real-time data streams for future access, “playback” or re-publish;Mobile - Easily manage the complexity of real-time apps on mobile devices;Analytics - Simulate an audience of millions. See a live view of audience size, engagement and geography;Security - Protect your real-time data with easy to use enterprise-grade security
-
Statistics
Stacks
249
Stacks
393
Followers
458
Followers
498
Votes
238
Votes
60
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 36
    Massively scalable & easy to use
  • 25
    Easy setup
  • 20
    Reliable
  • 19
    Great support
  • 14
    Flexible to integrate to custom applications
Cons
  • 1
    Costly
Pros
  • 22
    Fastest pub-sub system out there
  • 16
    Rock solid
  • 12
    Easy to grasp
  • 4
    Easy, Fast, Secure
  • 4
    Light-weight
Cons
  • 2
    Persistence with Jetstream supported
  • 1
    No Order
  • 1
    No Persistence

What are some alternatives to PubNub, NATS?

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.

Pusher

Pusher

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

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.

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.

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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