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Developer Tools · head to head

Harness vs Soketi

Harness logo

Harness

Developer Tools

Software delivery platform across CI, CD, security testing and cost management

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: Harness essentials and Enterprise pricing requires sales contact; no published rates; 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.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Harness and Soketi actually diverge.

Attributes where Harness and Soketi differ
AttributeHarnessSoketi
Pricing modelfreemiumOpen source, no licence fee
PlatformsWebLinux, macOS, Windows

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

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 Harness

Nothing recorded that Soketi does not also cover.

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.

Harness

  • Deploying apps to AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud with rollbacksnot Soketi
  • Integrating security scanners throughout build pipelines before productionnot Soketi
  • Automating cloud cost reduction and tracking unit-level expensesnot Soketi
  • Enabling developers to provision infrastructure without operations bottlenecksnot Soketi
  • Assessing deployment frequency and lead time productivity metricsnot Soketi

Soketi

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

Where each one falls short

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

Harness

  • Essentials and Enterprise pricing requires sales contact; no published rates
  • DevOps Essentials has no on-premises deployment option
  • Internal Developer Portal requires minimum 20 developer licenses
  • Pipeline execution history retention 6 months (Essentials) vs 25 months as add-on (Enterprise)

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

Harness

Free
  • FreeFree
    • Starter platform for software delivery lifecycle
    • Open source options available (Harness Open Source, Litmus Chaos)
  • Essentials$null/month
    • Growing organizations with small to mid-size teams
    • Packaged DevOps Essentials bundle
    • Continuous software delivery capabilities
  • Enterprise$null/month
    • Large-scale organizations
    • Pick any modules based on needs
    • Advanced features

Soketi

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

Which should you pick?

Choose Harness if

  • You want to start without paying.
Harness 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 Harness or Soketi better?
Neither clearly leads. Harness 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, Harness or Soketi?
Harness starts at Free and Soketi at Free.
Does Harness or Soketi run on more platforms?
Harness runs on Web. Soketi runs on Linux, macOS, Windows.
Can I use Harness for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Harness best used for?
Harness is most often used for deploying apps to aws, azure, and google cloud with rollbacks, integrating security scanners throughout build pipelines before production, automating cloud cost reduction and tracking unit-level expenses, enabling developers to provision infrastructure without operations bottlenecks. Of those, deploying apps to aws, azure, and google cloud with rollbacks and integrating security scanners throughout build pipelines before production are not what Soketi is typically brought in for.
What can Harness do that Soketi cannot?
Soketi covers Pusher protocol compatibility, Presence and private channels, Horizontal scaling, App management backends.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Harness: Is there a free Harness plan?

Yes, Harness offers a free plan for individual developers and small teams with open source options including Harness Open Source and Litmus Chaos.

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.

Harness: What are Harness's paid pricing tiers?

Harness offers Essentials for growing teams and Enterprise for large-scale organizations. Both require contacting sales for custom pricing. Pricing is based on modules and features selected.

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.

Harness: Can Harness be deployed on-premises?

Enterprise plans include self-managed platform deployment option. DevOps Essentials bundle does not offer on-premises deployment.

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.

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