Pusher vs Pushpin: What are the differences?

# Introduction

1. **Real-time Communication Protocol**: Pusher uses WebSockets as its primary real-time communication protocol, providing low-latency, bi-directional communication between clients and servers. In contrast, Pushpin employs the HTTP protocol with long polling, streaming, and WebSockets, offering more flexibility in communication methods.
2. **Hosting and Scalability**: Pusher is a hosted service, which means it handles the infrastructure and scalability for you, allowing for ease of use. On the other hand, Pushpin requires self-hosting, giving users more control over their infrastructure but requiring more effort to set up and maintain.
3. **Server-Sent Events Support**: Pusher supports Server-Sent Events, enabling real-time updates from the server to the client over a single HTTP connection. Pushpin, however, lacks native support for Server-Sent Events but can be configured to work with additional middleware to achieve similar functionality.
4. **Client Compatibility**: Pusher provides libraries and SDKs for a wide range of client platforms, making it easier for developers to integrate real-time functionality into their applications. In contrast, Pushpin's client compatibility may vary depending on the specific setup and configuration.
5. **Authentication and Authorization**: Pusher offers built-in authentication and authorization mechanisms to control access to real-time channels, simplifying the implementation of security features. Pushpin, on the other hand, may require additional customization to add robust authentication and authorization capabilities.
6. **Message Queueing**: Pusher includes built-in message queueing to handle spikes in traffic and prevent message loss during network interruptions, ensuring reliable real-time communication. Pushpin lacks built-in message queueing and may require external solutions to achieve similar levels of reliability.

In Summary, Pusher and Pushpin differ in their communication protocol, hosting approach, support for Server-Sent Events, client compatibility, authentication mechanisms, and message queueing capabilities.