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Cloud · head to head

Skopeo vs Soketi

Skopeo logo

Skopeo

Cloud

Inspect, copy and sign container images without pulling them

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: Skopeo single-purpose: it neither builds nor runs images, so it is one tool in a chain rather than a solution; 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: Skopeo covers Remote inspection, Soketi covers Pusher protocol compatibility.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Skopeo and Soketi actually diverge.

Attributes where Skopeo and Soketi differ
AttributeSkopeoSoketi
PlatformsLinux, macOSLinux, macOS, Windows
CategoryCloudDeveloper Tools

Identical on both: starting price (Free), pricing model (Open source, no licence fee), 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 Skopeo

  • Remote inspection
  • Registry-to-registry copy
  • Format conversion
  • Image signing

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.

Skopeo

  • Promoting images between staging and production registries without a round tripnot Soketi
  • Inspecting an image’s contents before deciding to deploy itnot Soketi
  • Mirroring images into an air-gapped or internal registrynot Soketi

Soketi

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

Where each one falls short

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

Skopeo

  • Single-purpose: it neither builds nor runs images, so it is one tool in a chain rather than a solution
  • Command syntax with transport prefixes such as docker:// is unusual and trips people up initially
  • Documentation is sparse compared with the rest of the container ecosystem

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

Skopeo

Free
  • SkopeoFree
    • Full functionality
    • No usage limits
    • Community support

Soketi

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

Which should you pick?

Choose Skopeo if

  • You need remote inspection.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS.
  • You also want registry-to-registry copy.
Skopeo 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 Skopeo or Soketi better?
Neither clearly leads. Skopeo 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, Skopeo or Soketi?
Skopeo starts at Free and Soketi at Free.
Does Skopeo or Soketi run on more platforms?
Skopeo runs on Linux, macOS. Soketi runs on Linux, macOS, Windows.
Can I use Skopeo for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Skopeo best used for?
Skopeo is most often used for promoting images between staging and production registries without a round trip, inspecting an image’s contents before deciding to deploy it, mirroring images into an air-gapped or internal registry. Of those, promoting images between staging and production registries without a round trip and inspecting an image’s contents before deciding to deploy it are not what Soketi is typically brought in for.
What can Skopeo do that Soketi cannot?
Skopeo covers Remote inspection, Registry-to-registry copy, Format conversion, Image signing. Soketi covers Pusher protocol compatibility, Presence and private channels, Horizontal scaling, App management backends.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Skopeo: Is Skopeo free?

Yes, open source with no licence fee.

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.

Skopeo: Why copy images without pulling them?

A registry-to-registry copy avoids downloading and re-uploading gigabytes, which is faster and much cheaper on bandwidth in CI.

Soketi: Do I need to change my client code?

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

Skopeo: Can Skopeo run containers?

No. It only inspects, copies, signs and deletes images. Running them is Podman’s or Docker’s job.

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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