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Socket.IO vs ws: 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, ws is detailed as "A Node.js WebSocket library". It is a simple to use, blazing fast, and thoroughly tested WebSocket client and server implementation.
Socket.IO and ws belong to "Realtime Backend / API" category of the tech stack.
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, ws provides the following key features:
- Simple to use
- Blazing fast
- WebSocket client and server for Node.js
Socket.IO and ws are both open source tools. It seems that Socket.IO with 47.7K GitHub stars and 8.68K forks on GitHub has more adoption than ws with 12.4K GitHub stars and 1.6K 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.
FirebaseI 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.
AblyHello 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
Pros of Socket.IO
- Real-time214
- Event-based communication143
- Node.js142
- Open source102
- WebSockets102
- Binary streaming26
- No internet dependency22
- Fallback to polling if WebSockets not supported9
- Large community8
- Ease of access and setup5
- Push notification4
Pros of ws
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Cons of Socket.IO
- Bad documentation11
- Githubs that complement it are mostly deprecated4
- Doesn't work on React Native3
- Websocket Errors2
- Small community2
Cons of ws
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What is Socket.IO?
What is ws?
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