Open source pusher alternative
In today’s digital world the need for real-time communication between systems is becoming increasingly important. Unfortunately many businesses find themselves unable to keep up with the demands of the ever-evolving technology landscape. With the cost of proprietary solutions often too high for many companies the need for an open source alternative is becoming increasingly apparent.
Apache Kafka
Apache Kafka is an open source distributed streaming platform designed to provide a unified high-throughput low-latency platform for handling real-time data feeds. It is a powerful tool for building real-time data pipelines and streaming applications. Kafka has become a popular choice for many businesses as it allows them to quickly and easily build distributed streaming applications that can scale with their needs. It is also highly reliable as it replicates data across multiple nodes for redundancy.
Amazon Kinesis
Encompassing the most extensive and global reach of any pusher alternative Amazon Kinesis exists on the powerful cloud platform of Amazon Web Services (AWS). Kinesis streams data from a variety of sources allowing for real-time analysis and monitoring of all events. Its horizontal scalability ensures that no matter the volume of incoming data source Kinesis can rapidly process and reliably serve up the data.
Yet one of the major drawbacks of Kinesis is the cost. While the service often comes with integrated discounts the pricing of Kinesis is infamously higher than that of most open-source alternatives. Another potential downside is complexity. Kinesis also comes with an intricate web of services and features that many development teams find overwhelming especially those with limited cloud knowledge.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Global reach | Higher cost than open-source alternatives |
| Horizontal scalability | Complex web of services and features |
RabbitMQ
Enterprising tech developers looking for an open source alternative to Pusher can take a look at RabbitMQ. Founded in 2007 RabbitMQ is an open source message broker software that enables developers to specify a flexible messaging protocol between different applications. It works by breaking down tasks into a message queue that is then processed by the RabbitMQ server.
RabbitMQ is easy to set up and use making it great for new tech developers or teams looking to expand their capabilities. The message broker software is written in the Erlang programming language allowing for scalability and fast message queuing speeds. Accessibility is also one of its strong suits as it can be run on OS X Windows and Linux without issue.
However RabbitMQ does have some drawbacks for those seeking an alternative to Pusher. For example RabbitMQ does not support websocket technology meaning it cannot be used for realtime applications. Additionally it does not have the facility to send messages from web browser clients.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Easy to set up and use | Does not support websockets |
| Scalable and fast queuing speeds | No facility to send messages from web browser clients |
| Runs on OS X Windows and Linux | None |
PubNub
Driving the open source push messaging revolution is PubNub an alternative to Pusher. PubNub is a real-time communication software and messaging system designed to deliver data across devices and networks allowing for bi-directional communication. Much like Pusher the PubNub infrastructure is cloud-hosted and utilizes a distributed compute network.
At its core PubNub provides two way data streaming which allows users to send and receive data in real-time from anywhere in the world. This includes chat messaging and game notifications. PubNub also offers mobile SDKs and libraries for developers to use in their applications.
The platform comes with a publish/subscribe messaging system which means user-generated data is sent to devices and systems for applications to receive. PubNub also provides authentication capabilities so users can determine who is able to access their data and what actions they can take.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Scalable API | Limited security features |
| Real-time communication | Pricing is not transparent |
| Flexible Data-storage options | Limited customer service options |
PubNub is a popular open source alternative to Pusher and provides a great option for developers looking for more control over the messaging and data structure. With its scalability real-time communication and flexible data-storage options PubNub provides a powerful platform for developers to harness. However it may be lacking in certain security features as well as its pricing being somewhat opaque which could detract from its appeal.
GCP PubSub
Utilizing Google’s Cloud Platform GCP PubSub is an open source messaging system that provides developers with an asynchronous and reliable way to send published messages to subscribers. It allows publishers to broadcast messages to one or more subscribers and supports the use of push notifications to help users receive the messages they need. GCP Pubsub also offers integrated authentication and authorization features that ensure that only authorized users receive certain messages.
GCP Pubsub provides a few features that make it different from other open source pusher alternatives. First GCP Pubsub’s reliability helps ensure that messages are sent and received in a timely manner. Additionally the platform enables developers to trigger events and issue calls when messages are received allowing them to create applications that can react to and take action from the data coming in. Finally GCP Pubsub is easy to scale allowing developers to quickly increase their messaging capacity to accommodate the needs of their applications.
However GCP Pubsub does come with some limitations. For example it does not support multicast or broadcast messaging meaning that publishers must specifically list each individual subscriber when sending a message. Additionally because of its high throughput GCP Pubsub can be costly when sending a large number of messages.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Reliable | Costly with large message volumes |
| Enable applications to react to data | Does not support multicast or broadcast messaging |
| Easy to scale | High through-put |