Yjs VS Automerge

Compare Yjs VS Automerge and see what are their differences

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Yjs

A CRDT framework with a powerful abstraction of shared data, Shared data types for building collaborative software

Automerge

A JSON-like data structure (a CRDT) that can be modified concurrently by different users, and merged again automatically.

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2023-09-01

Landing page //
2023-06-02

Yjs

Website: github.com
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Automerge

Website: automerge.org
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Yjs features and specs

Real-time Collaboration
Yjs enables real-time collaborative editing, allowing multiple users to work on the same document simultaneously without conflicts.
Conflict-free Replicated Data Type (CRDT)
Yjs employs CRDTs to automatically resolve changes and conflicts, eliminating the need for complex merging algorithms.
Scalability
The framework is designed to efficiently handle a large number of users, making it suitable for large-scale collaborative applications.
Offline Editing
Yjs supports offline editing, allowing users to make changes while disconnected from the network and synchronizing them once back online.
Language Agnostic
Yjs can be integrated with different programming languages, making it flexible for various tech stacks.
Open Source
As an open-source library, Yjs provides full transparency of its codebase and fosters a supportive community for continuous improvement.

Possible disadvantages of Yjs

Complexity of CRDTs
While powerful, CRDTs introduce a level of complexity that might be challenging for developers unfamiliar with distributed systems.
Learning Curve
Developers may need time to understand and effectively implement Yjs, especially if they are new to real-time collaboration frameworks.
Integration Overhead
Adding Yjs to an existing application might require significant changes in the architecture, particularly if the app wasn't initially designed for real-time collaboration.
Performance Overhead
Handling a large amount of operational transformations in real-time can introduce performance overhead, especially in less optimized implementations.

Automerge features and specs

Conflict Resolution
Automerge uses CRDTs to offer automatic conflict resolution, allowing concurrent edits without manual merging.
Offline Support
Automerge enables applications to work offline by keeping track of changes locally and syncing when back online.
Ease of Use
The library provides a simple API that makes it easy to integrate into applications that require real-time collaboration.
No Central Server Requirement
Automerge allows peer-to-peer communication, which can reduce the need for a centralized server to handle document changes.
Version Control
Automatically keeps track of document history and changes, which can be useful for version control and auditing purposes.

Possible disadvantages of Automerge

Performance
Automerge can consume significant memory and processing power, particularly in large documents or with frequent updates.
Complexity of CRDTs
For developers unfamiliar with Conflict-free Replicated Data Types, understanding and implementing them can present a steep learning curve.
Limited Ecosystem
As a relatively niche tool, Automerge has a smaller community and fewer available third-party integrations compared to more established libraries.
Data Structure Limitations
Automerge supports a limited set of data structures, which can constrain the kinds of applications for which it is suitable.
Network Overhead
The peer-to-peer and CRDT nature of Automerge may lead to increased network traffic, which can be problematic in bandwidth-constrained environments.

Yjs videos

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Automerge videos

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Automerge: a new foundation for collaboration software

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Yjs and Automerge)

Automerge

Databases

57 57%

Databases

43% 43

Developer Tools

55 55%

Developer Tools

45% 45

NoSQL Databases

45 45%

NoSQL Databases

55% 55

Project Management

100 100%

Project Management

0% 0

User comments

Share your experience with using Yjs and Automerge. For example, how are they different and which one is better?

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Yjs should be more popular than Automerge. It has been mentiond 19 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.

Yjs mentions (19)

Multi-player Mode is Everywhere, Even in Dev Tools
Of course, you don’t have to code this functionality from scratch! You can also look at open-source software like Yjs, text-crdt, Automerge and so many more. Alternatively, you can check out tools like Liveblocks, Ably, etc. Which enable collaborative multi-player features. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
Show HN: JuntOS – A shared Pomodoro and focus tools
I've built this app some time ago but only shared with close friends. It has been useful for me so I decided to share here. It works by sharing state with yjs [1], as long as you are in the same session, i.e. The same path. https://github.com/yjs/yjs. - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
Oops.js
I write undo/redo/history in web/JS extensively. This the best lib out there for such tasks IMHO: https://github.com/yjs/yjs And you're right. You don't want undo/redo only in multi-user apps. You want to have each user have their own local undo/redo events that they can apply and unapply from the shared state which has its own events apart from each user. Everyone... - Source: Hacker News / 10 months ago
Oops.js
After reviewing the ~600 lines of code, I have to ask what about this undo/redo manager is "advanced"? This seems like a naive implementation of a snapshot collection that is selected via array index. It's not event sourcing, OT or CRDT. With every event, the entire object is serialized and put into the heap. I can't even imagine what this does for performance when you deal with any object of significant size.... - Source: Hacker News / 10 months ago
An Interactive Intro to CRDTs
I've seen it come up often in collaborative text editors. Also see: https://github.com/yjs/yjs. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago

Automerge mentions (5)

Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (October 2024)
A sqlite extension that provides a virtual table backed by an Automerge document (https://automerge.org/). I believe that there are plenty of applications that could benefit from the collaboration or sync-ability that CRDTs provide, but that don't need to manage the CRDTs directly. Moving the CRDT management into the database seems like a natural fit. It's very early, and not public anywhere, but I'd be happy to... - Source: Hacker News / 7 months ago
Comparing local-first frameworks and approaches
Ink & Switch released automerge to automatically achieve this merge. If you have two documents you are collaboratively editing, you can use automerge to make concurrent changes. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
5000x Faster CRDTs
> The most popular, highly ergonomic, best implementations of CRDTs actually break the academic rules of CRDTs. There's a popular, highly ergonomic implementation called Automerge[0] that would beg to disagree with you. [0]: https://automerge.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
Using CRDTs to build collaborative Rust web applications
If you plan to build production-grade CRDT-based software and don’t want to build every piece of it by hand, I recommend Automerge as a library for handling all your CRDT needs, but it’s always good to look under the hood to build intuition and understanding for the underlying concepts. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
Figma Is a File Editor
Take a look at https://automerge.org/ and the stack those folks are building. You're exactly right that it's a difficult balance (specifically the trick is proving commutativity for the domain-specific data of your application). But automerge (and then https://github.com/inkandswitch/peritext) show it's at least possible. Good stuff. - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Yjs and Automerge, you can also consider the following products

Thymer - Web-based Project management and task planning for people who hate project management and task planning. For individuals, teams and small businesses.

PouchDB - Open-source JavaScript database inspired by Apache CouchDB that's designed to run well within the browser

GUN - Self-hosted Firebase.

RxDB - A fast, offline-first, reactive Database for JavaScript Applications

ShareDB - Realtime database backend based on Operational Transformation (OT)

DriftDB - GitHub Repo stars