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Cybersecurity · head to head

Shufti Pro vs Soketi

Shufti Pro logo

Shufti Pro

Cybersecurity

Identity verification and AML screening at the low cost end of the market

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: Shufti Pro rates are not published despite the pay as you go framing, so the cost advantage over premium vendors has to be established through a quote rather than a price list.; 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: Shufti Pro covers Document verification, Soketi covers Pusher protocol compatibility.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Shufti Pro and Soketi actually diverge.

Attributes where Shufti Pro and Soketi differ
AttributeShufti ProSoketi
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelquoteOpen source, no licence fee
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, 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 Shufti Pro

  • Document verification
  • Facial biometrics
  • AML screening
  • KYB verification
  • Address verification
  • Age verification
  • Pay as you go option

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.

Shufti Pro

  • A crypto exchange onboarding users in markets where premium vendors have poor document coveragenot Soketi
  • A gambling operator needing age assurance at high volume where per-check cost dominates the unit economicsnot Soketi
  • A gig economy platform verifying couriers whose documents are photographed on low end phonesnot Soketi
  • A startup that needs verification without signing an annual volume commitment before it knows its volumenot Soketi

Soketi

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

Where each one falls short

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

Shufti Pro

  • Rates are not published despite the pay as you go framing, so the cost advantage over premium vendors has to be established through a quote rather than a price list.
  • Accuracy on difficult document types trails the premium vendors, and the saving per check is often consumed by the manual review headcount handling the additional referrals.
  • The enterprise assurance profile is thinner than that of larger competitors, so regulated bank procurement teams frequently rule it out at the vendor risk stage rather than on capability.
  • Support responsiveness scales with contract size, and pay as you go customers have limited recourse when a document type suddenly starts failing in one market.
  • Country coverage is broad but uneven in depth, meaning the same product can perform very differently across two markets you are launching in simultaneously.

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

Shufti Pro

On request
  • Pay as you go$undefined/month
    • Consumption billing with no annual commitment
    • Rate quoted by sales, not published
    • Resubmission sessions stated as not billable
  • Monthly commitment$undefined/month
    • Lower per-verification rate against a volume commitment
    • AML screening and KYB priced as add-ons
    • Free trial available before contracting

Soketi

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

Which should you pick?

Choose Shufti Pro if

  • You need document verification.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want facial biometrics.
Shufti Pro 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 Shufti Pro or Soketi better?
Neither clearly leads. Shufti Pro 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, Shufti Pro or Soketi?
Soketi has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Shufti Pro and Free for Soketi.
Does Shufti Pro or Soketi run on more platforms?
Shufti Pro runs on 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. Shufti Pro starts at On request.
What is Shufti Pro best used for?
Shufti Pro is most often used for a crypto exchange onboarding users in markets where premium vendors have poor document coverage, a gambling operator needing age assurance at high volume where per-check cost dominates the unit economics, a gig economy platform verifying couriers whose documents are photographed on low end phones, a startup that needs verification without signing an annual volume commitment before it knows its volume. Of those, a crypto exchange onboarding users in markets where premium vendors have poor document coverage and a gambling operator needing age assurance at high volume where per-check cost dominates the unit economics are not what Soketi is typically brought in for.
What can Shufti Pro do that Soketi cannot?
Shufti Pro covers Document verification, Facial biometrics, AML screening, KYB verification. Soketi covers Pusher protocol compatibility, Presence and private channels, Horizontal scaling, App management backends.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Shufti Pro: Are failed attempts charged?

Shufti states that resubmission sessions are not charged and that billing follows successful verification attempts. Get that written into the contract, because it materially changes total cost.

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.

Shufti Pro: Is there a published price?

No. Plan structures are published but rates are quoted. Third party estimates put effective cost well below premium vendors.

Soketi: Do I need to change my client code?

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

Shufti Pro: Can we start without a commitment?

Yes. A pay as you go option exists, which is unusual in this category and useful for early stage volume.

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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