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Technology · head to head

Netlify vs Soketi

Netlify logo

Netlify

Technology

The fastest way to build the fastest sites

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: Netlify the free tier is an individual account with 300 credits; team members require the Pro plan at $20 a month; 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: Netlify covers Continuous deployment, Soketi covers Pusher protocol compatibility.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Netlify and Soketi actually diverge.

Attributes where Netlify and Soketi differ
AttributeNetlifySoketi
Pricing modelfreemiumOpen source, no licence fee
PlatformsWebLinux, macOS, Windows
CategoryTechnologyDeveloper Tools
Founded2014Unknown

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 Netlify

  • Continuous deployment
  • Instant rollbacks
  • Deploy previews
  • Split testing
  • Forms handling
  • Identity/Auth
  • Serverless functions
  • Edge handlers

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.

Netlify

  • Hosting static sites and frontend frameworks with global CDN deliverynot Soketi
  • Deploy previews on every pull requestnot Soketi
  • Serverless functions alongside a static sitenot Soketi
  • Netlify Database and Blob storage for small application statenot Soketi

Soketi

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

Where each one falls short

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

Netlify

  • The free tier is an individual account with 300 credits; team members require the Pro plan at $20 a month
  • Everything is metered in credits, so bandwidth at 20 credits per GB and production deploys at 15 credits each consume the allowance in ways a bandwidth figure alone would not show
  • Compute is billed at 10 credits per GB-hour, so server-rendered work costs more than static hosting
  • Running past the allowance means buying credit packs, at $5 for 500 on Personal and $10 for 1,500 on Pro
  • AI inference is priced by model rather than at a flat credit rate

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

Netlify

Free
  • Free PlanFree
    • 300 credit limit
    • Deploy previews, custom domains with SSL, functions, database storage
    • Global CDN access
  • Personal Plan$9/month
    • 1000 credits
    • Smart secret detection
    • Extended observability 1-day
  • Pro Plan$20/month
    • 3000 credits
    • Private repositories, shared environment variables
    • Concurrent builds 3 plus
  • Enterprise Plan$null/mo
    • Unlimited credits
    • 99.99 percent SLA guarantee
    • Enterprise networking, SSO/SCIM integration

Soketi

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

Which should you pick?

Choose Netlify if

  • You need continuous deployment.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You also want instant rollbacks.
Netlify 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 Netlify or Soketi better?
Neither clearly leads. Netlify 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, Netlify or Soketi?
Netlify starts at Free and Soketi at Free.
Does Netlify or Soketi run on more platforms?
Netlify runs on Web. Soketi runs on Linux, macOS, Windows.
Can I use Netlify for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Netlify best used for?
Netlify is most often used for hosting static sites and frontend frameworks with global cdn delivery, deploy previews on every pull request, serverless functions alongside a static site, netlify database and blob storage for small application state. Of those, hosting static sites and frontend frameworks with global cdn delivery and deploy previews on every pull request are not what Soketi is typically brought in for.
What can Netlify do that Soketi cannot?
Netlify covers Continuous deployment, Instant rollbacks, Deploy previews, Split testing. Soketi covers Pusher protocol compatibility, Presence and private channels, Horizontal scaling, App management backends.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Netlify: Is Netlify free?

Netlify offers a free tier with 300 credits per month, suitable for individual developers. It includes deploy previews, custom domains with SSL, functions, database storage, and global CDN 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.

Netlify: What is Netlify's pricing model?

Netlify charges based on credits. Production deployments cost 15 credits at 0.10 dollars each. Compute costs 10 credits per GB-hour at 0.07 dollars. Bandwidth costs 20 credits per GB at 0.13 dollars. Web requests cost 2 credits per 10000 requests at 0.01 dollars.

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.

Netlify: What does the Pro plan include?

The Pro Plan costs 20 dollars per month and includes 3000 credits, private repositories, shared environment variables, 3 plus concurrent builds, and 30-day analytics periods.

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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