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Cybersecurity · head to head

Hanwha Vision vs Soketi

Hanwha Vision logo

Hanwha Vision

Cybersecurity

Korean camera maker whose Wisenet WAVE VMS licences are perpetual per channel with no annual renewal

From
On request
Free plan
No
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

  • Only Soketi has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Hanwha Vision nDAA compliance is confirmed per model and per bill of materials rather than across the brand, and TAA status depends on whether a specific unit was made in Korea or Vietnam, so a buyer with procurement obligations must get both stated on the quote rather than relying on a brand-level claim.; 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: Hanwha Vision covers Wisenet WAVE VMS, Soketi covers Pusher protocol compatibility.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Hanwha Vision and Soketi actually diverge.

Attributes where Hanwha Vision and Soketi differ
AttributeHanwha VisionSoketi
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelOne-time purchaseOpen source, no licence fee
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWindows, Linux, Web, iOS, AndroidLinux, macOS, Windows
CategoryCybersecurityDeveloper Tools

Identical on both: 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 Hanwha Vision

  • Wisenet WAVE VMS
  • On-camera AI
  • NDAA and TAA positioning
  • Multi-site management
  • Open platform
  • Wisenet cameras and recorders
  • Cybersecurity hardening
  • Integration licences

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.

Hanwha Vision

  • A federal agency or federal contractor whose procurement rules exclude Section 889 covered manufacturersnot Soketi
  • A school district that wants a fixed one-time software cost rather than a per-camera monthly subscriptionnot Soketi
  • A site running 200 cameras for a decade where a cloud subscription would cost several times a perpetual licencenot Soketi
  • An integrator standardising on one manufacturer for cameras, recorders and VMS to simplify supportnot Soketi

Soketi

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

Where each one falls short

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

Hanwha Vision

  • NDAA compliance is confirmed per model and per bill of materials rather than across the brand, and TAA status depends on whether a specific unit was made in Korea or Vietnam, so a buyer with procurement obligations must get both stated on the quote rather than relying on a brand-level claim.
  • Perpetual licences mean you own the servers, storage and patching, so the cost avoided on subscription reappears as IT labour and a hardware refresh every five to seven years.
  • Hanwha publishes no list pricing and sells through distributors, so the perpetual-versus-subscription comparison it wins on paper still requires a distributor quote to verify.
  • Wisenet WAVE is a solid mid-market VMS but does not match Genetec or Milestone on enterprise features such as federation across independently owned systems, scripted operator procedures or deep access control unification.
  • Hanwha Vision is part of Hanwha Group, a large Korean conglomerate spanning defence, chemicals and finance, so the video business is one line among many and roadmap priority is set at a corporate level well above the security division.

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

Hanwha Vision

On request
  • Wisenet WAVE channel licence$undefined/year
    • Perpetual per-channel licence that does not expire once activated
    • No annual renewal fee to keep the system running
    • Sold singly and in 4, 8, 16, 24 and 48 channel bundles

Soketi

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

Which should you pick?

Choose Hanwha Vision if

  • You need wisenet wave vms.
  • You work on Windows, Linux, Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want on-camera ai.
Hanwha Vision 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 Hanwha Vision or Soketi better?
Neither clearly leads. Hanwha Vision starts at On request and Soketi at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Hanwha Vision or Soketi?
Soketi has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Hanwha Vision and Free for Soketi.
Does Hanwha Vision or Soketi run on more platforms?
Hanwha Vision runs on Windows, Linux, Web, iOS, Android. Soketi runs on Linux, macOS, Windows.
Can I use Soketi for free?
Yes. Soketi has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Hanwha Vision starts at On request.
What is Hanwha Vision best used for?
Hanwha Vision is most often used for a federal agency or federal contractor whose procurement rules exclude section 889 covered manufacturers, a school district that wants a fixed one-time software cost rather than a per-camera monthly subscription, a site running 200 cameras for a decade where a cloud subscription would cost several times a perpetual licence, an integrator standardising on one manufacturer for cameras, recorders and vms to simplify support. Of those, a federal agency or federal contractor whose procurement rules exclude section 889 covered manufacturers and a school district that wants a fixed one-time software cost rather than a per-camera monthly subscription are not what Soketi is typically brought in for.
What can Hanwha Vision do that Soketi cannot?
Hanwha Vision covers Wisenet WAVE VMS, On-camera AI, NDAA and TAA positioning, Multi-site management. Soketi covers Pusher protocol compatibility, Presence and private channels, Horizontal scaling, App management backends.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Hanwha Vision: Is Hanwha Vision NDAA compliant?

Hanwha is a South Korean manufacturer and is not among the Section 889 covered entities, which are Hikvision, Dahua, Huawei, ZTE and Hytera, and its cameras do not use banned Chinese system-on-chip processors. Confirm compliance per model on the quote.

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.

Hanwha Vision: Are Wisenet WAVE licences subscriptions?

No. Channel licences are perpetual and do not expire once activated, with no annual renewal fee.

Soketi: Do I need to change my client code?

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

Hanwha Vision: Is Wisenet WAVE the same as Nx Witness?

It is built on the Network Optix platform, so the two share a common core, with Hanwha adding its own camera integration and support.

Soketi: What does it cost?

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

Hanwha Vision: Is Hanwha TAA compliant?

Many models are, manufactured in South Korea and Vietnam, but TAA is a per-unit question tied to manufacturing origin, so it must be verified model by model.

Soketi: What are people moving to?

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

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