Developer Tools · head to head
Frappe vs Soketi
Frappe
Developer Tools
The Python web framework behind ERPNext, sold as managed hosting through Frappe Cloud
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
Soketi
Developer Tools
Self-hosted, Pusher-compatible WebSockets server with a stalled maintenance record
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Frappe the framework is strongly opinionated: its own ORM, templating and job queue mean general Python and Django experience transfers only partly, and onboarding a new developer takes weeks rather than days.; 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: Frappe covers DocType modelling, Soketi covers Pusher protocol compatibility.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Frappe and Soketi actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Developer Tools).
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 Frappe
- DocType modelling
- Role and field permissions
- Built-in REST API
- Background jobs
- Bench CLI
- Frappe Cloud hosting
- App marketplace
- Multi-tenancy
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.
Frappe
- A team building an internal business application that needs permissions, audit trail and an API on day one rather than in month threenot Soketi
- An ERPNext user who wants managed hosting, automatic updates and offsite backups without hiring a systems administratornot Soketi
- An Indian or emerging-market business that wants to pay for application hosting in local currency at local price pointsnot Soketi
- A consultancy shipping custom vertical apps to clients on a shared framework with per-client site isolationnot Soketi
Soketi
- A Laravel application that already uses Echo and wants to stop paying a hosted realtime providernot Frappe
- Realtime notifications or presence indicators where data must not leave your own infrastructure for compliance reasonsnot Frappe
- A local or CI environment that needs a Pusher-compatible server without hitting a paid accountnot Frappe
- A high-connection-count application where hosted per-connection pricing has become the largest line in the infrastructure billnot Frappe
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Frappe
- The framework is strongly opinionated: its own ORM, templating and job queue mean general Python and Django experience transfers only partly, and onboarding a new developer takes weeks rather than days.
- The developer pool is small and heavily concentrated in India, so hiring Frappe experience elsewhere is slow and expensive relative to mainstream stacks.
- Documentation is uneven in depth and lags behind releases in places, so real answers often come from reading the source or the community forum.
- Major version upgrades of the framework have historically broken custom apps that reach past the DocType layer, so bespoke code carries a recurring maintenance cost at each upgrade.
- Frappe Cloud recommends against its cheapest Hetzner-backed option for mission-critical production, so the headline $5 entry price is not the price of a production-grade deployment.
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
Frappe
Free- Framework, self-hostedFree
- MIT licensed, no licence fee
- Install with bench on your own Linux servers
- You carry updates, backups and security patching
- Frappe Cloud Sites$5/month
- Also listed at ₹410 per month
- Shared servers with 150+ installable apps
- Automatic updates and offsite backups
- Frappe Cloud Servers$40/month
- Also listed at ₹3,600 per month
- Dedicated or shared virtual machines
- Unlimited sites on your server
Soketi
Free- SoketiFree
- MIT licensed
- Unlimited connections subject to your own hardware
- No vendor billing
Which should you pick?
Choose Frappe if
- You need doctype modelling.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, Linux, Docker.
- You also want role and field permissions.
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.
Questions people ask
- Is Frappe or Soketi better?
- Neither clearly leads. Frappe 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, Frappe or Soketi?
- Frappe starts at Free and Soketi at Free.
- Does Frappe or Soketi run on more platforms?
- Frappe runs on Web, Linux, Docker. Soketi runs on Linux, macOS, Windows.
- Can I use Frappe for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What is Frappe best used for?
- Frappe is most often used for a team building an internal business application that needs permissions, audit trail and an api on day one rather than in month three, an erpnext user who wants managed hosting, automatic updates and offsite backups without hiring a systems administrator, an indian or emerging-market business that wants to pay for application hosting in local currency at local price points, a consultancy shipping custom vertical apps to clients on a shared framework with per-client site isolation. Of those, a team building an internal business application that needs permissions, audit trail and an api on day one rather than in month three and an erpnext user who wants managed hosting, automatic updates and offsite backups without hiring a systems administrator are not what Soketi is typically brought in for.
- What can Frappe do that Soketi cannot?
- Frappe covers DocType modelling, Role and field permissions, Built-in REST API, Background jobs. Soketi covers Pusher protocol compatibility, Presence and private channels, Horizontal scaling, App management backends.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Frappe: Is Frappe the same as ERPNext?
No. Frappe is the framework; ERPNext is the ERP application written on it. You can run Frappe without ERPNext to build your own applications.
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.
Frappe: What licence is the framework under?
MIT, which is permissive and imposes no obligation to publish your changes, unlike the AGPL used by several open source ERP rivals.
Soketi: Do I need to change my client code?
No. Pusher client SDKs and Laravel Echo work by changing the host, port and credentials.
Frappe: Can I pay in rupees?
Yes. Frappe Cloud publishes the same plans in Indian rupees, ₹410 a month for sites and ₹3,600 for servers, rather than converting a dollar price at checkout.
Soketi: What does it cost?
Nothing in licence fees. It is MIT licensed; you pay for the server it runs on.
Frappe: Do I have to use Frappe Cloud?
No, self-hosting with bench or Docker is fully supported and free. Frappe Cloud is a convenience purchase, and it funds the open source work.
Soketi: What are people moving to?
Laravel Reverb for Laravel applications, and Sockudo, a Rust reimplementation, for others.
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