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SocketCluster vs Socket.IO: What are the differences?
SocketCluster: An open, scalable realtime engine for Node.js. 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; Socket.IO: Realtime application framework (Node.JS server). Socket.IO enables real-time bidirectional event-based communication. It works on every platform, browser or device, focusing equally on reliability and speed.
SocketCluster and Socket.IO can be primarily classified as "Realtime Backend / API" tools.
Some of the features offered by SocketCluster are:
- Resilient on both the client and backend - Process crashes, lost connections and other failures are handled seamlessly.
- Scales linearly as you add more CPU cores and workers (assuming a decent OS) - Tested with up to 16 cores.
- Also designed to scale horizontally across multiple machines. See sc-redis sample.
On the other hand, Socket.IO provides the following key features:
- Real-time analytics - Push data to clients that gets represented as real-time counters, charts or logs.
- Binary streaming - Starting in 1.0, it's possible to send any blob back and forth: image, audio, video.
- Instant messaging and chat - Socket.IO's "Hello world" is a chat app in just a few lines of code.
"Cluster mode is awesome" is the primary reason why developers consider SocketCluster over the competitors, whereas "Real-time" was stated as the key factor in picking Socket.IO.
SocketCluster and Socket.IO are both open source tools. Socket.IO with 46.9K GitHub stars and 8.54K forks on GitHub appears to be more popular than SocketCluster with 5.35K GitHub stars and 283 GitHub forks.
Trello, MakerSquare, and Kobra.io are some of the popular companies that use Socket.IO, whereas SocketCluster is used by notthatbad technologies UG, Livevents, and StaffConnect. Socket.IO has a broader approval, being mentioned in 560 company stacks & 395 developers stacks; compared to SocketCluster, which is listed in 6 company stacks and 3 developer stacks.
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 Socket.IO
- Real-time217
- Node.js141
- Event-based communication141
- WebSockets102
- Open source101
- Binary streaming26
- No internet dependency21
- Large community10
- Fallback to polling if WebSockets not supported9
- Push notification6
- Ease of access and setup5
Pros of SocketCluster
- Cluster mode is awesome12
- WebSockets8
- Scalability7
- Security4
- Real-time4
- JWT based Authentication4
- Pub-Sub API3
- Open source3
- Client Libraries2
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Cons of Socket.IO
- Bad documentation11
- Githubs that complement it are mostly deprecated4
- Doesn't work on React Native3
- Small community2
- Websocket Errors2
Cons of SocketCluster
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