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Cybersecurity · head to head

Keygen vs Soketi

Keygen logo

Keygen

Cybersecurity

Open, source-available software licensing API

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: Keygen specific Active Licensed User (ALU) pricing not listed; requires interactive pricing calculator; 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 Keygen and Soketi actually diverge.

Attributes where Keygen and Soketi differ
AttributeKeygenSoketi
Pricing modelusage-basedOpen source, no licence fee
PlatformsWebLinux, macOS, Windows
CategoryCybersecurityDeveloper 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 Keygen

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.

Keygen

  • Software licensing and distributionnot Soketi
  • Product release managementnot Soketi
  • API-based license verificationnot Soketi

Soketi

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

Where each one falls short

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

Keygen

  • Specific Active Licensed User (ALU) pricing not listed; requires interactive pricing calculator
  • Whitelabel API add-on costs $995/year per domain

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

Keygen

Free
  • DevFree
    • Up to 100 Active Licensed Users
    • 10 product releases
    • Core licensing API only
  • Std$null/month
    • Scaling with licensing volume
    • Distribution API (OCI/Docker, npm, Rubygems, PyPI, Tauri)
    • Flat monthly/yearly fees
  • Enterprise$null/month
    • Audit logs
    • SAML/SSO
    • IP filtering

Soketi

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

Which should you pick?

Choose Keygen if

  • You want to start without paying.
Keygen 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 Keygen or Soketi better?
Neither clearly leads. Keygen 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, Keygen or Soketi?
Keygen starts at Free and Soketi at Free.
Does Keygen or Soketi run on more platforms?
Keygen runs on Web. Soketi runs on Linux, macOS, Windows.
Can I use Keygen for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Keygen best used for?
Keygen is most often used for software licensing and distribution, product release management, api-based license verification. Of those, software licensing and distribution and product release management are not what Soketi is typically brought in for.
What can Keygen do that Soketi cannot?
Soketi covers Pusher protocol compatibility, Presence and private channels, Horizontal scaling, App management backends.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Keygen: Does Keygen have a free tier?

Yes, the Dev tier is free and supports up to 100 Active Licensed Users with 10 product releases and core licensing API access.

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.

Keygen: How is Keygen pricing calculated?

Keygen uses scalable, flat monthly or yearly fees based on your licensing volume (Active Licensed Users). No revenue share or transaction fees are charged.

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.

Keygen: Does Keygen charge for additional features like SSO?

SAML/SSO is included in Enterprise tiers. Whitelabel API support costs $995/year per domain. Premium Support SLA is $995/month for Enterprise.

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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