Is curl or Soketi better?

Neither clearly leads. curl 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, curl or Soketi?

curl starts at Free and Soketi at Free.

Does curl or Soketi run on more platforms?

curl runs on Linux, MacOS, Windows, Unix, Mobile. Soketi runs on Linux, macOS, Windows.

Can I use curl for free?

Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.

What is curl best used for?

curl is most often used for api development, api gateway, api testing, api documentation. Of those, api development and api gateway are not what Soketi is typically brought in for.

What can curl do that Soketi cannot?

curl covers HTTP/HTTPS, FTP, Multiple protocols, Universal compatibility. Soketi covers Pusher protocol compatibility, Presence and private channels, Horizontal scaling, App management backends.

APIs · head to head

curl vs Soketi

curl

APIs

Command-line tool for transferring data using URLs with wide protocol support

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

Soketi

Developer Tools

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

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Each has a real cost: curl open-source with no vendor pricing: curl is free and open-source under GPL 3.0; no subscription or licensing costs apply; 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: curl covers HTTP/HTTPS, Soketi covers Pusher protocol compatibility.
Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which curl and Soketi actually diverge.

Attributes where curl and Soketi differ
Attribute	curl	Soketi
Pricing model	open-source	Open source, no licence fee
Platforms	Linux, MacOS, Windows, Unix, Mobile	Linux, macOS, Windows
Category	APIs	Developer Tools
Founded	1997	Unknown

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 curl

HTTP/HTTPS
FTP
Multiple protocols
Universal compatibility
Scripting tools
Linux support
MacOS support
Windows support

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.

curl

API Developmentnot Soketi
API Gatewaynot Soketi
API Testingnot Soketi
API Documentationnot Soketi
Microservicesnot Soketi

Soketi

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

Where each one falls short

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

curl

Open-source with no vendor pricing: curl is free and open-source under GPL 3.0; no subscription or licensing costs apply
Commercial support costs hidden: site references 'commercial support available' but pricing is not detailed or accessible from homepage
No SaaS model: curl is a command-line tool and library; costs are limited to optional commercial support contracts (pricing unknown)
Self-support burden: free software means customers rely on community forums or undisclosed commercial support pricing

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

curl

Free

Open SourceFree
- Full curl functionality
- Community support

Soketi

Free

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

Which should you pick?

Choose curl if

You need http/https.
You want to start without paying.
You work on Linux, MacOS, Windows, Unix, Mobile.
You also want ftp.

curl 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 curl or Soketi better?: Neither clearly leads. curl 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, curl or Soketi?: curl starts at Free and Soketi at Free.
Does curl or Soketi run on more platforms?: curl runs on Linux, MacOS, Windows, Unix, Mobile. Soketi runs on Linux, macOS, Windows.
Can I use curl for free?: Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is curl best used for?: curl is most often used for api development, api gateway, api testing, api documentation. Of those, api development and api gateway are not what Soketi is typically brought in for.
What can curl do that Soketi cannot?: curl covers HTTP/HTTPS, FTP, Multiple protocols, Universal compatibility. Soketi covers Pusher protocol compatibility, Presence and private channels, Horizontal scaling, App management backends.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

curl: How much does curl cost?

curl is free and open-source software under the GPL 3.0 license. There is no cost to download, use, or modify the software.

Source

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.

curl: Is commercial support available for curl?

Yes. The curl website references 'commercial support available,' but pricing and details are not disclosed on the homepage and require visiting the support page.

Source

Soketi: Do I need to change my client code?

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

curl: Can I sponsor curl financially?

Yes. The curl website offers an option to 'Sponsor curl financially.' Visitors can donate to support curl development, but the donation link must be accessed through the site's support section.

Source

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.

curl vs Soketi

curl

Soketi

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in curl

Only in Soketi

What people use each for

curl

Soketi

Where each one falls short

curl

Soketi

Pricing, plan by plan

curl

Soketi

Which should you pick?

Choose curl if

Choose Soketi if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on curl

More on Soketi

Keep looking

Other head to heads