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Socket.IO vs uWebSockets: What are the differences?
Developers describe Socket.IO as "Realtime application framework (Node.JS server)". It enables real-time bidirectional event-based communication. It works on every platform, browser or device, focusing equally on reliability and speed. On the other hand, uWebSockets is detailed as "Simple, secure & standards compliant web I/O for the most demanding of applications". It is a simple to use yet thoroughly optimized implementation of HTTP and WebSockets. It comes with built-in pub/sub support, HTTP routing, TLS 1.3, IPv6, permessage-deflate and is battle tested as one of the most popular implementations, reaching many end-users daily.
Socket.IO and uWebSockets can be primarily classified as "Realtime Backend / API" tools.
Some of the features offered by Socket.IO are:
- 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.
On the other hand, uWebSockets provides the following key features:
- HTTP and Websockets
- Built-in pub/sub support
- HTTP routing
Socket.IO and uWebSockets are both open source tools. Socket.IO with 47.7K GitHub stars and 8.68K forks on GitHub appears to be more popular than uWebSockets with 10.9K GitHub stars and 1.07K GitHub forks.
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 uWebSockets
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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 uWebSockets
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