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Cloud · head to head

Cilium vs Soketi

Cilium logo

Cilium

Cloud

eBPF-based networking, observability and security for Kubernetes

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Soketi logo

Soketi

Developer Tools

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

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Cilium requires a recent Linux kernel, which rules out older distributions and some managed environments; 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: Cilium covers eBPF datapath, Soketi covers Pusher protocol compatibility.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Cilium and Soketi actually diverge.

Attributes where Cilium and Soketi differ
AttributeCiliumSoketi
PlatformsKubernetes, LinuxLinux, macOS, Windows
CategoryCloudDeveloper Tools

Identical on both: starting price (Free), pricing model (Open source, no licence fee), 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 Cilium

  • eBPF datapath
  • Identity-based policy
  • Hubble observability
  • Sidecar-free mesh

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.

Cilium

  • Kubernetes networking at a scale where iptables-based CNI performance degradesnot Soketi
  • Network policy expressed on workload identity rather than fragile IP rulesnot Soketi
  • Seeing which services actually talk to each other, and what policy is droppingnot Soketi

Soketi

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

Where each one falls short

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

Cilium

  • Requires a recent Linux kernel, which rules out older distributions and some managed environments
  • eBPF is genuinely hard to debug when it misbehaves, and the skill is rare on most teams
  • Broad scope — CNI, policy, mesh, observability — means the learning curve covers several domains at once

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

Cilium

Free
  • CiliumFree
    • Full functionality
    • No usage limits
    • Community support

Soketi

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

Which should you pick?

Choose Cilium if

  • You need ebpf datapath.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Kubernetes, Linux.
  • You also want identity-based policy.
Cilium 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 Cilium or Soketi better?
Neither clearly leads. Cilium 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, Cilium or Soketi?
Cilium starts at Free and Soketi at Free.
Does Cilium or Soketi run on more platforms?
Cilium runs on Kubernetes, Linux. Soketi runs on Linux, macOS, Windows.
Can I use Cilium for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Cilium best used for?
Cilium is most often used for kubernetes networking at a scale where iptables-based cni performance degrades, network policy expressed on workload identity rather than fragile ip rules, seeing which services actually talk to each other, and what policy is dropping. Of those, kubernetes networking at a scale where iptables-based cni performance degrades and network policy expressed on workload identity rather than fragile ip rules are not what Soketi is typically brought in for.
What can Cilium do that Soketi cannot?
Cilium covers eBPF datapath, Identity-based policy, Hubble observability, Sidecar-free mesh. Soketi covers Pusher protocol compatibility, Presence and private channels, Horizontal scaling, App management backends.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Cilium: Is Cilium free?

Yes, open source and CNCF-graduated. Isovalent sells an enterprise distribution and support.

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.

Cilium: What does eBPF change?

It lets Cilium run packet-processing programs inside the kernel instead of relying on iptables rule chains, which behave poorly as the number of services grows.

Soketi: Do I need to change my client code?

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

Cilium: Does Cilium replace a service mesh?

It can cover much of what a mesh does without sidecars, though full mesh feature sets still favour Istio or Linkerd.

Soketi: What does it cost?

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

Soketi: What are people moving to?

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

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