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PubNub

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PubNub vs SocketCluster: What are the differences?

  1. PubNub: PubNub is a global Data Stream Network (DSN) and Real-time Infrastructures-as-a-Service (IaaS) platform that enables developers to build real-time applications. It provides a set of APIs and SDKs that allow developers to send messages across various platforms in real-time.
  2. SocketCluster: SocketCluster is a scalable real-time framework for building efficient and secure WebSocket applications. It provides a highly flexible and customizable platform for building real-time applications using the WebSocket protocol.

  3. Scalability and Performance: PubNub is designed to handle large-scale real-time applications with millions of concurrent connections. It has a network of global data centers that ensure low-latency communication and high availability. SocketCluster, on the other hand, is built to scale horizontally and can handle thousands of concurrent connections efficiently.

  4. Customization and Control: SocketCluster offers a high level of customization and control over the application's functionality. Developers can build custom middleware and plugins to extend the framework's capabilities. PubNub, while it provides a range of functionality out of the box, may have limited customization options.

  5. Security: SocketCluster emphasizes security and provides features like access control, authentication, and encryption out of the box. It allows developers to secure their real-time applications using various mechanisms. PubNub also offers security features, but the level of control and customization may vary across different plans.

  6. Development and Integration: PubNub provides a wide range of SDKs for various platforms and languages, making it easier for developers to integrate real-time functionality into their applications. SocketCluster also offers SDKs, but the availability may be limited compared to PubNub. It requires more manual configuration and setup.

In Summary, PubNub is a global Data Stream Network platform with extensive SDK support, while SocketCluster is a scalable real-time framework with high customization and security features.

Advice on PubNub and SocketCluster
Needs advice
on
AblyAblyPubNubPubNub
and
PusherPusher

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?

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Replies (2)
Ben Gamble
Recommends
on
AblyAbly

For IoT, we support MQTT along with websockets and SSE. The pattern you're suggesting that involves harvesting data from devices and soaking into a database is easy to achieve with one of the Ably integrations (Serverless functions/webhook) . Here are some tutorials to do things like this: https://ably.com/tutorials/reactor-event-zapier#step2-mqtt-ably

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Philip Rossen
Recommends
on
PusherPusher
at

We use Pusher at www.justlearn.com. It works fine. When you reach more users, Pusher gets expensive. We use Pusher for live chat between users. Their software is easy to use. We have had issues with auth on Pusher.

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Pros of PubNub
Pros of SocketCluster
  • 36
    Massively scalable & easy to use
  • 25
    Easy setup
  • 20
    Reliable
  • 19
    Great support
  • 14
    Flexible to integrate to custom applications
  • 13
    Sockets at Scale
  • 13
    99.999% availability guarantees
  • 13
    High-Performance
  • 12
    High-Reliability
  • 12
    Multiplexing
  • 7
    Scalability
  • 5
    High-Availability
  • 5
    70+ SDKs
  • 4
    Security
  • 4
    Azure Add-on
  • 3
    Heroku Add-on
  • 3
    Presence
  • 3
    Flexible
  • 3
    Easy to setup
  • 2
    Data Streams
  • 2
    Free Plan
  • 2
    Server-Side Cache
  • 2
    PhoneGap Plugin
  • 2
    AngularJS Adapter
  • 2
    Data Sync
  • 2
    Analytics
  • 2
    Support
  • 1
    Easy setup and very reliable
  • 1
    High cost, going up more in Summer '15
  • 1
    Cool
  • 1
    Angular 2+ integration
  • 1
    Documentation, easy to use, great people/service
  • 1
    CTO stephen also is A++++++
  • 1
    Real time and easy to use.
  • 1
    Easy integration with iOS apps
  • 12
    Cluster mode is awesome
  • 8
    WebSockets
  • 7
    Scalability
  • 4
    Security
  • 4
    Real-time
  • 4
    JWT based Authentication
  • 3
    Pub-Sub API
  • 3
    Open source
  • 2
    Client Libraries

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Cons of PubNub
Cons of SocketCluster
  • 1
    Costly
    Be the first to leave a con

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    - No public GitHub repository available -

    What is 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.

    What is 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.

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    What are some alternatives to PubNub and SocketCluster?
    Pusher
    Pusher is the category leader in delightful APIs for app developers building communication and collaboration features.
    Socket.IO
    It enables real-time bidirectional event-based communication. It works on every platform, browser or device, focusing equally on reliability and speed.
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    SendBird is a Messaging SDK, Chat API, and fully managed chat infrastructure for your mobile apps and websites. Embeddable chat for iOS, Android, JavaScript, Unity, .NET.
    Stream
    Stream allows you to build scalable feeds, activity streams, and chat. Stream’s simple, yet powerful API’s and SDKs are used by some of the largest and most popular applications for feeds and chat. SDKs available for most popular languages.
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    Kafka is a distributed, partitioned, replicated commit log service. It provides the functionality of a messaging system, but with a unique design.
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