Which websocket library to use with Node js

Question

Currently there is a plethora of websocket libraries for node js  the most popular seem to be    https   github com Worlize WebSocket-Node https   github com einaros ws https   github com LearnBoost engine io https   github com learnboost socket io https   github com sockjs   However I can t find any solid concrete comparisons between any of them    Apparently Socket io was awesome  but has become quite dated and has failing builds  Both ws and websocket-node claim they are the fastest  And engine io seems new  but a lot heavier than the lighter aletarntives   It would be amazing if we or someone could put together an answer that serves as a guide on which socket library to use and when  as well as a comparison between them

User · Accepted Answer

Getting the ball rolling with this community wiki answer. Feel free to edit me with your improvements.

ws WebSocket server and client for node.js. One of the fastest libraries if not the fastest one.
websocket-node WebSocket server and client for node.js
websocket-driver-node WebSocket server and client protocol parser node.js - used in faye-websocket-node
faye-websocket-node WebSocket server and client for node.js - used in faye and sockjs
socket.io WebSocket server and client for node.js + client for browsers + (v0 has newest to oldest fallbacks, v1 of Socket.io uses engine.io) + channels - used in stack.io. Client library tries to reconnect upon disconnection.
sockjs WebSocket server and client for node.js and others + client for browsers + newest to oldest fallbacks
faye WebSocket server and client for node.js and others + client for browsers + fallbacks + support for other server-side languages
deepstream.io clusterable realtime server that handles WebSockets & TCP connections and provides data-sync, pub/sub and request/response
socketcluster WebSocket server cluster which makes use of all CPU cores on your machine. For example, if you were to use an xlarge Amazon EC2 instance with 32 cores, you would be able to handle almost 32 times the traffic on a single instance.
primus Provides a common API for most of the libraries above for easy switching + stability improvements for all of them.

When to use:

use the basic WebSocket servers when you want to use the native WebSocket implementations on the clientside, beware of the browser incompatabilities
use the fallback libraries when you care about browser fallbacks
use the full featured libraries when you care about channels
use primus when you have no idea about what to use, are not in the mood for rewriting your application when you need to switch frameworks because of changing project requirements or need additional connection stability.

Where to test:

Firecamp is a GUI testing environment for SocketIO, WS and all major real-time technology. Debug the real-time events while you're developing it.

User · Answer

Update  This answer is outdated as newer versions of libraries mentioned are released since then      Socket IO v0 9 is outdated and a bit buggy  and Engine IO is the   interim successor  Socket IO v1 0  which will be released soon  will   use Engine IO and be much better than v0 9  I d recommend you to use   Engine IO until Socket IO v1 0 is released        ws  does not support fallback  so if the client browser does not   support websockets  it won t work  unlike Socket IO and Engine IO   which uses long-polling etc if websockets are not available  However     ws  seems like the fastest library at the moment       See my article comparing Socket IO  Engine IO and Primus    https   medium com p b63bfca0539

User · Answer

npm ws was the answer for me  I found it less intrusive and more straight forward  With it was also trivial to mix websockets with rest services  Shared simple code on this post   var WebSocketServer   require  ws   Server  var http   require  http    var express   require  express    var port   process env PORT    5000   var app   express        app use express static   dirname                app get   someGetRequest   function req  res  next           console log  receiving get request                app post   somePostRequest   function req  res  next           console log  receiving post request                app listen 80     port 80 need to run as root      console log  app listening on  d    80    var server   http createServer app       server listen port    console log  http server listening on  d   port    var userId  var wss   new WebSocketServer  server  server        wss on  connection   function  ws         console info  websocket connection open         var timestamp   new Date   getTime        userId   timestamp       ws send JSON stringify  msgType  onOpenConnection   msg  connectionId timestamp            ws on  message   function  data  flags            console log  websocket received a message            var clientMsg   data           ws send JSON stringify  msg  connectionId userId                     ws on  close   function              console log  websocket connection close                console log  websocket server created

[node.js] Which websocket library to use with Node.js?

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