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Safari vs Soketi

Safari logo

Safari

Technology

Apple's WebKit browser, available only on Apple operating systems and updated only with them.

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite
Soketi logo

Soketi

Developer Tools

Self-hosted, Pusher-compatible WebSockets server with a stalled maintenance record

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Safari it runs only on Apple operating systems; there has been no Windows build since 2012 and none for Linux or Android, so any team that must verify Safari behaviour has to buy Mac hardware or rent it from a device cloud, which is a line item Chrome and Firefox do not create.; Soketi maintenance has effectively stalled: the maintainer has said time is severely limited, releases are infrequent, and the community has been discussing whether the project is abandoned, which means security fixes may not arrive.
  • They diverge on capability: Safari covers WebKit engine, Soketi covers Pusher protocol compatibility.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Safari and Soketi actually diverge.

Attributes where Safari and Soketi differ
AttributeSafariSoketi
Pricing modelfreeOpen source, no licence fee
PlatformsWebLinux, macOS, Windows
CategoryTechnologyDeveloper Tools

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Safari

  • WebKit engine
  • Intelligent Tracking Prevention
  • Energy optimisation
  • iCloud Private Relay
  • Passkeys in iCloud Keychain
  • Handoff and tab sync
  • Profiles and Tab Groups
  • Web Inspector

Only in Soketi

  • Pusher protocol compatibility
  • Presence and private channels
  • Horizontal scaling
  • App management backends
  • Webhooks
  • Prometheus metrics

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Safari

  • Getting the longest battery life out of a MacBook, where the difference against Chromium browsers is hours rather than minutesnot Soketi
  • Debugging a site on a real iPhone or iPad, which requires Safari's Web Inspector connected over USB from a Macnot Soketi
  • An all-Apple household or team that wants tabs, passwords and passkeys to follow them across devices without a third-party accountnot Soketi
  • Privacy-conscious users on iCloud+ who want tracking protection and Private Relay working by default rather than through extensionsnot Soketi

Soketi

  • A Laravel application that already uses Echo and wants to stop paying a hosted realtime providernot Safari
  • Realtime notifications or presence indicators where data must not leave your own infrastructure for compliance reasonsnot Safari
  • A local or CI environment that needs a Pusher-compatible server without hitting a paid accountnot Safari
  • A high-connection-count application where hosted per-connection pricing has become the largest line in the infrastructure billnot Safari

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Safari

  • It runs only on Apple operating systems; there has been no Windows build since 2012 and none for Linux or Android, so any team that must verify Safari behaviour has to buy Mac hardware or rent it from a device cloud, which is a line item Chrome and Firefox do not create.
  • Safari's version is bound to the operating system's version, so a Mac that has fallen off the supported macOS list stops receiving Safari updates altogether; the browser's security life is the machine's OS life, roughly three years of updates after the last major release it can run.
  • Distributing an extension means packaging it inside a signed macOS application and shipping it through the App Store with a paid Apple Developer Program membership, which makes a small internal or single-team extension impractical.
  • Automated testing uses safaridriver, which runs on macOS only, has no headless mode and permits one session per machine, so Safari coverage in CI means real Macs in the pipeline rather than containers, and it does not parallelise the way Chromium does.
  • Web platform features generally land in WebKit later than in Blink and Gecko, so Safari's current support is in practice the compatibility floor for any project, and a feature you can use everywhere else may be a year away here.
  • Enterprise management is thin: configuration profiles cover a modest set of settings with nothing comparable to the several hundred administrative policies Chrome and Edge expose, so a managed fleet cannot control Safari to the same degree.

Soketi

  • Maintenance has effectively stalled: the maintainer has said time is severely limited, releases are infrequent, and the community has been discussing whether the project is abandoned, which means security fixes may not arrive.
  • Dependency drift on Node and uWebSockets.js will eventually force you to fork or migrate, and that cost is unbudgeted at the point you adopt it.
  • There is no commercial support to buy, so a production incident at three in the morning is entirely your problem with no escalation path.
  • Scaling beyond a single node needs Redis and careful configuration, and getting presence channels correct across nodes is a genuine source of subtle bugs.
  • It implements the Pusher protocol rather than tracking it, so any protocol feature Pusher adds later will not appear, and the compatibility guarantee slowly decays.

Pricing, plan by plan

Safari

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Safari review.

Soketi

Free
  • SoketiFree
    • MIT licensed
    • Unlimited connections subject to your own hardware
    • No vendor billing

Which should you pick?

Choose Safari if

  • You need webkit engine.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You also want intelligent tracking prevention.
Safari review

Choose Soketi if

  • You need pusher protocol compatibility.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Windows.
  • You also want presence and private channels.
Soketi review

Questions people ask

Is Safari or Soketi better?
Neither clearly leads. Safari starts at Free and Soketi at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Safari or Soketi?
Safari starts at Free and Soketi at Free.
Does Safari or Soketi run on more platforms?
Safari runs on Web. Soketi runs on Linux, macOS, Windows.
Can I use Safari for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Safari best used for?
Safari is most often used for getting the longest battery life out of a macbook, where the difference against chromium browsers is hours rather than minutes, debugging a site on a real iphone or ipad, which requires safari's web inspector connected over usb from a mac, an all-apple household or team that wants tabs, passwords and passkeys to follow them across devices without a third-party account, privacy-conscious users on icloud+ who want tracking protection and private relay working by default rather than through extensions. Of those, getting the longest battery life out of a macbook, where the difference against chromium browsers is hours rather than minutes and debugging a site on a real iphone or ipad, which requires safari's web inspector connected over usb from a mac are not what Soketi is typically brought in for.
What can Safari do that Soketi cannot?
Safari covers WebKit engine, Intelligent Tracking Prevention, Energy optimisation, iCloud Private Relay. Soketi covers Pusher protocol compatibility, Presence and private channels, Horizontal scaling, App management backends.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Safari: Can I run Safari on Windows or Linux?

No. The last Windows version was Safari 5.1.7 in 2012 and it is long unsupported. There has never been a Linux build. Testing Safari requires macOS, either your own or a rented cloud device.

Soketi: Is Soketi still maintained?

Barely. The maintainer has stated that available time is very limited and releases have been sparse; treat it as community-maintained.

Safari: How do I test my site in Safari without a Mac?

Through a cloud device farm such as BrowserStack, Sauce Labs or LambdaTest, which run real macOS and iOS instances. There is no reliable local emulation, because other browsers on Windows and Linux do not use WebKit.

Soketi: Do I need to change my client code?

No. Pusher client SDKs and Laravel Echo work by changing the host, port and credentials.

Safari: Are other iPhone browsers really different from Safari?

Historically no: Apple required all iOS browsers to use WebKit, so Chrome and Firefox on iPhone were interface shells around Safari's engine. The EU's Digital Markets Act now permits alternative engines, but adoption is limited, so in practice iOS testing still means WebKit.

Soketi: What does it cost?

Nothing in licence fees. It is MIT licensed; you pay for the server it runs on.

Safari: Why does Safari not get a new version on my old Mac?

Safari ships with the operating system. When a Mac can no longer run a macOS version that Apple still updates, Safari stops updating too, including its security fixes.

Soketi: What are people moving to?

Laravel Reverb for Laravel applications, and Sockudo, a Rust reimplementation, for others.

Safari: What does it cost?

Nothing. It is included with Apple operating systems. Private Relay requires an iCloud+ subscription, and publishing an extension requires a paid Apple Developer Program membership.

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