Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

websocketd VS Ratchet

Compare websocketd VS Ratchet and see what are their differences

websocketd logo websocketd

Turn any program that uses STDIN/STDOUT into a WebSocket server. Like inetd, but for WebSockets.

Ratchet logo Ratchet

Build mobile apps with simple HTML, CSS, and JS components.
  • websocketd Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-12-27
  • Ratchet Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-06-12

websocketd features and specs

  • Simplicity
    Websocketd is straightforward to use, turning any local executable into a WebSocket server. It requires minimal configuration and setup, making it accessible for beginners.
  • Language Agnostic
    Since websocketd can wrap any executable, developers can use it with any programming language they prefer, allowing for flexibility in choosing the right tools for their projects.
  • Lightweight
    Websocketd is a lightweight tool with minimal overhead, making it ideal for projects that require efficient WebSocket communication without the need for a full-featured server.
  • Rapid Prototyping
    The ease of setting up websocketd allows developers to quickly prototype WebSocket applications and test new ideas without significant investment in infrastructure.
  • Open Source
    As an open-source project, websocketd benefits from community contributions and transparency, ensuring continuous improvement and trustworthiness of the software.

Possible disadvantages of websocketd

  • Limited Features
    While its simplicity is an advantage, websocketd's feature set is minimal. It does not provide advanced capabilities such as authentication, performance monitoring, or compression.
  • Lack of Built-in Scalability
    Websocketd doesn't come with built-in support for high scalability or distributed systems, which can be a limitation for applications needing to handle a large number of simultaneous connections.
  • No Native HTTP Support
    Websocketd is focused solely on WebSockets, so it lacks native support for serving regular HTTP endpoints, which may necessitate additional infrastructure for projects requiring mixed communication.
  • Manual Process Management
    Developers have to handle process management manually, which includes ensuring the stability of wrapped programs and addressing issues that arise from resource limits.
  • Community Size
    Compared to more established tools, websocketd has a smaller community, which can lead to fewer resources in terms of documentation, tutorials, and community support.

Ratchet features and specs

  • Real-Time Capabilities
    Ratchet enables real-time bi-directional communication between clients and servers, making it ideal for applications like chat applications, live notifications, and collaborative tools.
  • WebSocket Protocol Support
    It leverages the WebSocket protocol, which is designed for full-duplex communication channels over a single TCP connection, ensuring efficient data exchange.
  • Easy Integration
    Ratchet is straightforward to integrate into existing PHP applications, making it a good choice for developers already familiar with the PHP ecosystem.
  • Open Source
    Being an open-source project, Ratchet encourages community contributions and allows developers to modify the source code to fit their specific needs.
  • Active Community
    Ratchet has an active community, offering a wealth of community-written tutorials, documentation, and support, making it easier for newcomers to get started.

Possible disadvantages of Ratchet

  • PHP-Based
    Since Ratchet is based on PHP, it might not be the best choice for environments or developers who prefer languages more commonly associated with real-time applications, like Node.js.
  • Limited to WebSockets
    Ratchet is specifically designed for WebSocket communication, so it may not be suitable for projects that require other real-time communication protocols.
  • Scalability Challenges
    Scaling a WebSocket-based application using Ratchet might require additional infrastructure considerations, such as load balancing or horizontal scaling solutions.
  • Performance Overhead
    As a PHP library, Ratchet could have more performance overhead compared to real-time systems written in lower-level languages, particularly for high-throughput applications.
  • Continuous Maintenance
    Developers need to actively maintain and update Ratchet implementations to stay compatible with the latest WebSocket protocol changes and security patches.

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to websocketd and Ratchet)
Developer Tools
59 59%
41% 41
APIs
100 100%
0% 0
JavaScript Framework
0 0%
100% 100
Project Management
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare websocketd and Ratchet

websocketd Reviews

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Ratchet Reviews

9 Top JavaScript Mobile Frameworks To Know In 2020
Ratchet is another essential element in the top JavaScript frameworks for mobile development list. It aims to provide developers & designers with a framework for building mobile applications and web applications. The framework is created by the same team that brought the popular Bootstrap framework to you, which assures the high quality of Ratchet. Whether you want to target...

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Ratchet should be more popular than websocketd. It has been mentiond 8 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

websocketd mentions (4)

  • ht: Headless Terminal
    Reminds me quite a bit of websocketd as well, which converts a stdin/stdout program to a websocket: http://websocketd.com/. - Source: Hacker News / 11 months ago
  • Structured Logging with Slog
    I hadn't even considered collecting traces/spans in this way yet, and have taken the approach of "stuff outputting logs in JSON format to stderr/local file". I usually end up writing a (temporary, structured) log message with the relevant span tags, but wouldn't it would be much better to run the actual trace/span code and be able to verify it locally without the ad-hoc log message? The prototype I built is a web... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • WebSocket to TCP bridge for game servers? Alternative to websockify?
    I also used to use this (http://websocketd.com/) along with netcat(1) before just biting the bullet and writing my own websocket library for our server as we needed to scale up slightly. Source: about 2 years ago
  • C or C++ as web app backend?
    Http://websocketd.com/ (Runs command line C or C++ programs as websocket programs, similar to inetd / CGI). Source: over 3 years ago

Ratchet mentions (8)

  • Connecting to PHP using Apache's mod_proxy_wstunnel without using 3rd Party APIs
    1) Do we must need to use some 3rd Party APIs or Libraries like Ratchet, PHP-Push-WebSocket or PHP WebSocket to enable PHP to communicate over WebSocket protocol? Source: almost 2 years ago
  • I made a simple chat socket server
    I am using http://socketo.me/ to create the socket server. Source: about 2 years ago
  • How good does ajax long polling work in PHP?
    Have you considered using web sockets? Check out Ratchet PHP http://socketo.me/. Once the client and server make a connection your server can send notifications to the client while that connection is open. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Chatmosphere - a chat app I made a few weeks ago. Let me know what ya think!
    Nice work. I have something similar I built on Ratchet, I looked at Socket.io in the early days but shelved plans to run a Node backend. Your front end looks a lot more appealing than mine does. ;). Source: about 3 years ago
  • Converting a custom chat to use serverless AWS for it's backend (Part 1: The Setup)
    However, the websockets server is based on a php package http://socketo.me/ , and sometimes that mini-app goes down without warning, leaving the chat to fallback to an old-school chat-archive. Even monitoring and being certain that the chat websocket server is -up- isn't obvious. - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing websocketd and Ratchet, you can also consider the following products

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Oatpp - Zero-dependency, performance oriented Web Framework for Rapid development in C++

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