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Cloud · head to head

Nomad vs Soketi

Nomad logo

Nomad

Cloud

Flexible workload orchestration

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: Nomad nomad 1.7.0 and later is licensed under the Business Source License 1.1 with IBM Corporation as licensor, not an OSI open source licence; 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: Nomad covers Container orchestration, Soketi covers Pusher protocol compatibility.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Nomad and Soketi actually diverge.

Attributes where Nomad and Soketi differ
AttributeNomadSoketi
Pricing modelopen-sourceOpen source, no licence fee
PlatformsLinux, Windows, Mac, CloudLinux, macOS, Windows
CategoryCloudDeveloper Tools
Founded2015Unknown

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 Nomad

  • Container orchestration
  • Job scheduling
  • Multi-cloud support
  • Auto-scaling
  • Service discovery
  • Rolling deployments
  • Monitoring integration
  • High availability

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.

Nomad

  • Container and workload orchestration across infrastructurenot Soketi
  • Multi-region application deploymentnot Soketi
  • Flexible scheduling for batch jobs and servicesnot Soketi

Soketi

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

Where each one falls short

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

Nomad

  • Nomad 1.7.0 and later is licensed under the Business Source License 1.1 with IBM Corporation as licensor, not an OSI open source licence
  • The Additional Use Grant forbids offering Nomad to third parties on a hosted or embedded basis in a paid product that competes with IBM's paid versions
  • Each version converts to MPL 2.0 only four years after that version is published
  • Resource quotas, Sentinel policies and audit logging sit in a Governance and Policy add-on module that is separate from the Enterprise base platform package
  • Multi-region deployments, multiple Vault namespaces and Nomad Autopilot advanced server management require Nomad 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

Nomad

Free
  • Open SourceFree
    • Workload orchestration
    • Multi-cloud
    • Flexible scheduling

Soketi

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

Which should you pick?

Choose Nomad if

  • You need container orchestration.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Windows, Mac, Cloud.
  • You also want job scheduling.
Nomad 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 Nomad or Soketi better?
Neither clearly leads. Nomad 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, Nomad or Soketi?
Nomad starts at Free and Soketi at Free.
Does Nomad or Soketi run on more platforms?
Nomad runs on Linux, Windows, Mac, Cloud. Soketi runs on Linux, macOS, Windows.
Can I use Nomad for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Nomad best used for?
Nomad is most often used for container and workload orchestration across infrastructure, multi-region application deployment, flexible scheduling for batch jobs and services. Of those, container and workload orchestration across infrastructure and multi-region application deployment are not what Soketi is typically brought in for.
What can Nomad do that Soketi cannot?
Nomad covers Container orchestration, Job scheduling, Multi-cloud support, Auto-scaling. Soketi covers Pusher protocol compatibility, Presence and private channels, Horizontal scaling, App management backends.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Nomad: Is HashiCorp Nomad free?

HashiCorp Nomad is open source and free to use. Commercial enterprise support and hosting options may be available through HashiCorp, but the core product is free.

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.

Nomad: Does HashiCorp Nomad have a pricing model?

Nomad is open source software with no published pricing tiers. HashiCorp offers commercial hosting and support for their products on a usage-based or custom pricing model, but Nomad itself is free to download and deploy.

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.

Nomad: What is HashiCorp's pricing model for enterprise Nomad?

HashiCorp offers flexible pricing for enterprise Nomad support including pay-as-you-go (PAYG) billing with no long-term commitment, flex plans with preferred pricing, and enterprise self-managed plans. Contact HashiCorp sales for custom quotes.

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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