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

PubNub vs SignalR

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

PubNub
PubNub
Stacks249
Followers458
Votes238
SignalR
SignalR
Stacks656
Followers1.2K
Votes146
GitHub Stars9.3K
Forks2.3K

PubNub vs SignalR: What are the differences?

Introduction:

PubNub and SignalR are both real-time communication technologies used for building interactive and responsive web applications. While they share the same purpose, there are several key differences between the two.

  1. Scalability: PubNub is a global Data Stream Network (DSN) that provides a highly scalable infrastructure for real-time messaging. It offers a distributed publish/subscribe model that allows unlimited concurrent connections, making it ideal for applications that require massive scalability. On the other hand, SignalR is a real-time web framework for ASP.NET applications, which means it relies on the underlying scalability of the hosting platform. While SignalR can scale by adding more servers, it may not be as scalable as PubNub for extremely large-scale applications.

  2. Platform and Language Support: PubNub provides excellent support for a wide range of platforms and languages, including web, mobile, and IoT devices. It offers SDKs for popular languages such as JavaScript, Python, Java, iOS, and Android. SignalR, on the other hand, is primarily focused on the .NET ecosystem and is built specifically for ASP.NET applications. While there are community efforts to provide SignalR client libraries for other platforms, its support outside of the .NET ecosystem may not be as extensive as PubNub.

  3. Ease of Use and Integration: PubNub offers a developer-friendly API that is straightforward to use and integrate into any application. It provides robust client libraries and a RESTful HTTP API for publishing and subscribing to real-time messages. SignalR is tightly integrated with the ASP.NET framework, making it easy to use within ASP.NET applications. However, integrating SignalR into non-ASP.NET applications may require additional effort and dependencies.

  4. Real-Time Features: PubNub is designed specifically for real-time communication and provides a rich set of features out of the box, such as presence detection, chat history, and channel multiplexing. It also offers additional capabilities like IoT device communication, geolocation-based messaging, and streaming data analytics. SignalR, while capable of real-time communication, doesn't come with built-in features like presence detection or chat history. These features need to be implemented manually or through additional libraries.

  5. Flexibility and Customization: PubNub provides a high degree of flexibility and customization options. It allows developers to define their own message formats, implement custom security rules, and build complex message routing logic. SignalR, being a framework, provides a certain level of customization but may have limitations compared to PubNub in terms of message format and routing flexibility.

  6. Reliability and Fault Tolerance: PubNub has a global infrastructure with multiple data centers, ensuring high availability and fault tolerance. It automatically handles network issues, message retries, and fallback options when connectivity is temporarily lost. SignalR relies on the hosting server's reliability and network infrastructure, which may vary depending on the deployment environment. While SignalR can be made reliable and fault-tolerant by employing strategies such as server clustering, it requires additional configuration and infrastructure setup.

In summary, PubNub offers unparalleled scalability, broad platform/language support, and a rich set of features out of the box. It is a global Data Stream Network designed for real-time communication. SignalR, on the other hand, is a real-time web framework primarily focused on the .NET ecosystem, offering good integration with ASP.NET applications but may have limitations in terms of scalability and platform/language support.

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Advice on PubNub, SignalR

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
SignalR
SignalR

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.

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.

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
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Stars
9.3K
GitHub Forks
-
GitHub Forks
2.3K
Stacks
249
Stacks
656
Followers
458
Followers
1.2K
Votes
238
Votes
146
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
  • 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 PubNub, SignalR?

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.

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.

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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