Azure SignalR Service vs NSQ

	Azure SignalR Service	NSQ
Time to "hello world" Reviewed by 3+ independent developers Ratings were given based on the average amount of time it takes to sign up to a new account and publish the first message.	4 / 5 5 = <30 min 4 = 30 min - 1 h 3 = 1-2 h 2 = 2-4 h 1 = 4+ h View code example	4 / 5 5 = <30 min 4 = 30 min - 1 h 3 = 1-2 h 2 = 2-4 h 1 = 4+ h View code example
Demos / Tutorials A selection of online demos and tutorials so you can test and see the code in action. Explore Ably's tutorials for our pub/sub messaging platform	Build a serverless realtime app with authentication Build a Blazor Server chat app Use JavaScript to create a chat room with Azure Functions and SignalR Service	NSQ Docs 1.2.0 - Installing NSQ Docs 1.2.0 - Quick Start NSQ - NYC Golang Meetup
Documentation Reviewed by 3+ independent developers Explore Ably's documentation for our pub/sub messaging platform	3.67 / 5 Getting started guides / 5 Information architecture and developer journey / 5 API reference documentation / 5 Readability, design and navigation / 5 Quality of code / 5 Breadth and quality of tutorials / 5 “The existing documentation is largely OK, most things are explained clearly, and the information is structured logically. Sometimes you may come across pages that were clearly written fast, so the quality of writing may not always be great. There are quickstarts in about seven languages, which is always nice to see, and there’s a diversity of handy how-to guides. Now, for the less positive things. First of all, the API reference seems to be a relatively short page on GitHub and nothing more. Secondly, there are only two tutorials embedded in the docs - and they both focus on building a chat room. More tutorials and more use cases, please! The UI is minimalistic. While sometimes this is a good thing, in this case, it just makes the SignalR documentation (and indeed the product) look and feel like an unimportant or second-hand solution.”	3.67 / 5 Getting started guides / 5 Information architecture and developer journey / 5 API reference documentation / 5 Readability, design and navigation / 5 Quality of code / 5 Breadth and quality of tutorials / 5 O: “Documentation is detailed and clear, the start up guide is simple to follow. There could be more examples of usages added.”. W: “There is a lot of information available and the documentation is easy to navigate. However i think there could be some more detailed tutorials and a more informative introduction.”. P: “The quick start is easy to follow and understand. The architecture documentation is thorough. There could be more tutorials.”
Dashboard or dev console Reviewed by 3+ independent developers Sign up for free and explore Ably's pub/sub messaging platform	4.33 / 5 Ease of use / 5 Stats and reports / 5 Functionality / 5 “The Azure portal is intuitive and pretty easy to use. It provides diverse functionality that allows you to view, create, and manage all the resources you need, such as SingalR instances and connection keys. Among other things, you can also control IAM roles, set up integrations and alerts, and view various logs and metrics, such as the number of connections. More contextual help such as tooltips would be nice, as it’s sometimes unclear what some settings can do."	3.67 / 5 Ease of use / 5 Stats and reports / 5 Functionality / 5 O: “The admin dashboard allows you to manage and configure your topics. It has a clear interface and offers the ability to list information about each topic as well as perform a list of actions on them.”. W: “The admin dashboard is intuitive and it gives you the ability to manage your channels and queues and also see statistics for them. The dashboard looks a little basic but it’s easy to use and covers what you need.” P: “The dashboard gives you an overview over your topics, streams, nodes and metrics. It lets you manage your queues and topics. Gives you metrics on the number of messages a node has handled.”
SDKs Note: Only official SDKs were taken into account. Explore Ably's 25+ SDKs for our pub/sub messaging platform	4 SDKs Including: .NET Java JavaScript	40 SDKs Including: Go Python Javascript
API structure Reviewed by 3+ independent developers	4 / 5 API consistency across SDKs / 5 Well structured / 5 Intuitive / 5 Simple / 5 “The API structure is decently consistent, intuitive, and simple across most SDKs. The Python SDK is a bit obscure, especially when you want to make use of Azure Functions. The entire API reference documentation seems to be available only on GitHub (perhaps not the best platform), and there’s not much API documentation in general. There is a Swagger spec, though, which makes testing the API easier.”	4.50 / 5 API consistency across SDKs / 5 Well structured / 5 Intuitive / 5 Simple / 5 O: The API is straightforward. It is consistent for the official SDKs. However, some of the unofficial SDKs are missing support for pub/sub”. W: “The API is fairly consistent between the SDKs and it is structured in an intuitive way. The API endpoints are mostly self-explanatory and it is easy to understand what they will accomplish.”. P: “There exists a vast amount of SDKs. The official client libraries are consistent, but in the unofficial libraries, there are inconsistencies between features. The naming conventions in the SDKs are intuitive and easy to follow.”

Azure SignalR Service

NSQ

Getting started and developer experience

Time to "hello world"

Reviewed by 3+ independent developers

Ratings were given based on the average amount of time it takes to sign up to a new account and publish the first message.

4 / 5

5 = <30 min
4 = 30 min - 1 h
3 = 1-2 h
2 = 2-4 h
1 = 4+ h

View code example

4 / 5

5 = <30 min
4 = 30 min - 1 h
3 = 1-2 h
2 = 2-4 h
1 = 4+ h

View code example

Demos / Tutorials

A selection of online demos and tutorials so you can test and see the code in action.

Explore Ably's tutorials for our pub/sub messaging platform

Documentation

Reviewed by 3+ independent developers

Explore Ably's documentation for our pub/sub messaging platform

3.67 / 5

Getting started guides / 5

Information architecture and developer journey / 5

API reference documentation / 5

Readability, design and navigation / 5

Quality of code / 5

Breadth and quality of tutorials / 5

“The existing documentation is largely OK, most things are explained clearly, and the information is structured logically. Sometimes you may come across pages that were clearly written fast, so the quality of writing may not always be great. There are quickstarts in about seven languages, which is always nice to see, and there’s a diversity of handy how-to guides. Now, for the less positive things. First of all, the API reference seems to be a relatively short page on GitHub and nothing more. Secondly, there are only two tutorials embedded in the docs - and they both focus on building a chat room. More tutorials and more use cases, please! The UI is minimalistic. While sometimes this is a good thing, in this case, it just makes the SignalR documentation (and indeed the product) look and feel like an unimportant or second-hand solution.”

3.67 / 5

Getting started guides / 5

Information architecture and developer journey / 5

API reference documentation / 5

Readability, design and navigation / 5

Quality of code / 5

Breadth and quality of tutorials / 5

O: “Documentation is detailed and clear, the start up guide is simple to follow. There could be more examples of usages added.”.

W: “There is a lot of information available and the documentation is easy to navigate. However i think there could be some more detailed tutorials and a more informative introduction.”.

P: “The quick start is easy to follow and understand. The architecture documentation is thorough. There could be more tutorials.”

Dashboard or dev console

Reviewed by 3+ independent developers

4.33 / 5

Ease of use / 5

Stats and reports / 5

Functionality / 5

“The Azure portal is intuitive and pretty easy to use. It provides diverse functionality that allows you to view, create, and manage all the resources you need, such as SingalR instances and connection keys. Among other things, you can also control IAM roles, set up integrations and alerts, and view various logs and metrics, such as the number of connections. More contextual help such as tooltips would be nice, as it’s sometimes unclear what some settings can do."

3.67 / 5

Ease of use / 5

Stats and reports / 5

Functionality / 5

O: “The admin dashboard allows you to manage and configure your topics. It has a clear interface and offers the ability to list information about each topic as well as perform a list of actions on them.”.

W: “The admin dashboard is intuitive and it gives you the ability to manage your channels and queues and also see statistics for them. The dashboard looks a little basic but it’s easy to use and covers what you need.”

P: “The dashboard gives you an overview over your topics, streams, nodes and metrics. It lets you manage your queues and topics. Gives you metrics on the number of messages a node has handled.”

SDKs

Note: Only official SDKs were taken into account.

Explore Ably's 25+ SDKs for our pub/sub messaging platform

4 SDKs

Including:

.NET
Java
JavaScript

40 SDKs

Including:

Go
Python
Javascript

API structure

Reviewed by 3+ independent developers

4 / 5

API consistency across SDKs / 5

Well structured / 5

Intuitive / 5

Simple / 5

“The API structure is decently consistent, intuitive, and simple across most SDKs. The Python SDK is a bit obscure, especially when you want to make use of Azure Functions. The entire API reference documentation seems to be available only on GitHub (perhaps not the best platform), and there’s not much API documentation in general. There is a Swagger spec, though, which makes testing the API easier.”

4.50 / 5

API consistency across SDKs / 5

Well structured / 5

Intuitive / 5

Simple / 5

O: The API is straightforward. It is consistent for the official SDKs. However, some of the unofficial SDKs are missing support for pub/sub”.

W: “The API is fairly consistent between the SDKs and it is structured in an intuitive way. The API endpoints are mostly self-explanatory and it is easy to understand what they will accomplish.”.

P: “There exists a vast amount of SDKs. The official client libraries are consistent, but in the unofficial libraries, there are inconsistencies between features. The naming conventions in the SDKs are intuitive and easy to follow.”

Azure SignalR Service	NSQ
// CREATE A HUB public class ChatHub : Hub { public Task SendMessage(string user, string message) { return Clients.All.SendAsync("ReceiveMessage", user, message); } } // SEND MESSAGES TO CLIENTS public Task SendMessage(string user, string message) { return Clients.All.SendAsync("ReceiveMessage", user, message); } public Task SendMessageToCaller(string user, string message) { return Clients.Caller.SendAsync("ReceiveMessage", user, message); } public Task SendMessageToGroup(string user, string message) { return Clients.Group("SignalR Users").SendAsync("ReceiveMessage", user, message); } // CLIENT CONNECTING TO HUB using System; using System.Threading.Tasks; using System.Windows; using Microsoft.AspNetCore.SignalR.Client; namespace SignalRChatClient { public partial class MainWindow : Window { HubConnection connection; public MainWindow() { InitializeComponent(); connection = new HubConnectionBuilder() .WithUrl("http://localhost:53353/ChatHub") .Build(); connection.Closed += async (error) => { await Task.Delay(new Random().Next(0,5) * 1000); await connection.StartAsync(); }; } private async void connectButton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) { connection.On<string, string>("ReceiveMessage", (user, message) => { this.Dispatcher.Invoke(() => { var newMessage = $"{user}: {message}"; messagesList.Items.Add(newMessage); }); }); try { await connection.StartAsync(); messagesList.Items.Add("Connection started"); connectButton.IsEnabled = false; sendButton.IsEnabled = true; } catch (Exception ex) { messagesList.Items.Add(ex.Message); } } private async void sendButton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) { try { await connection.InvokeAsync("SendMessage", userTextBox.Text, messageTextBox.Text); } catch (Exception ex) { messagesList.Items.Add(ex.Message); } } } } // RECEIVE MESSAGES FROM HUB connection.On<string, string>("ReceiveMessage", (user, message) => { this.Dispatcher.Invoke(() => { var newMessage = $"{user}: {message}"; messagesList.Items.Add(newMessage); }); });	// Create reader const nsq = require('nsqjs') const reader = new nsq.Reader('sample_topic', 'test_channel', { lookupdHTTPAddresses: '127.0.0.1:4161' }) reader.connect() reader.on('message', msg => { console.log('Received message [%s]: %s', msg.id, msg.body.toString()) msg.finish() }) // Create writer const nsq = require('nsqjs') const w = new nsq.Writer('127.0.0.1', 55004) w.connect() w.on('ready', () => { w.publish('sample_topic', 'Test message') }) w.on('closed', () => { console.log('Writer closed') })

Azure SignalR Service

NSQ

"Hello world" code example

// CREATE A HUB

public class ChatHub : Hub
{
    public Task SendMessage(string user, string message)
    {
        return Clients.All.SendAsync("ReceiveMessage", user, message);
    }
}

// SEND MESSAGES TO CLIENTS

public Task SendMessage(string user, string message)
{
    return Clients.All.SendAsync("ReceiveMessage", user, message);
}

public Task SendMessageToCaller(string user, string message)
{
    return Clients.Caller.SendAsync("ReceiveMessage", user, message);
}

public Task SendMessageToGroup(string user, string message)
{
    return Clients.Group("SignalR Users").SendAsync("ReceiveMessage", user, message);
}

// CLIENT CONNECTING TO HUB

using System;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Windows;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.SignalR.Client;

namespace SignalRChatClient
{
    public partial class MainWindow : Window
    {
        HubConnection connection;
        public MainWindow()
        {
            InitializeComponent();

            connection = new HubConnectionBuilder()
                .WithUrl("http://localhost:53353/ChatHub")
                .Build();

            connection.Closed += async (error) =>
            {
                await Task.Delay(new Random().Next(0,5) * 1000);
                await connection.StartAsync();
            };
        }

        private async void connectButton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            connection.On<string, string>("ReceiveMessage", (user, message) =>
            {
                this.Dispatcher.Invoke(() =>
                {
                   var newMessage = $"{user}: {message}";
                   messagesList.Items.Add(newMessage);
                });
            });

            try
            {
                await connection.StartAsync();
                messagesList.Items.Add("Connection started");
                connectButton.IsEnabled = false;
                sendButton.IsEnabled = true;
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                messagesList.Items.Add(ex.Message);
            }
        }

        private async void sendButton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            try
            {
                await connection.InvokeAsync("SendMessage", 
                    userTextBox.Text, messageTextBox.Text);
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {                
                messagesList.Items.Add(ex.Message);                
            }
        }
    }
}

// RECEIVE MESSAGES FROM HUB

connection.On<string, string>("ReceiveMessage", (user, message) =>
{
    this.Dispatcher.Invoke(() =>
    {
       var newMessage = $"{user}: {message}";
       messagesList.Items.Add(newMessage);
    });
});

// Create reader
const nsq = require('nsqjs')

const reader = new nsq.Reader('sample_topic', 'test_channel', {
  lookupdHTTPAddresses: '127.0.0.1:4161'
})

reader.connect()

reader.on('message', msg => {
  console.log('Received message [%s]: %s', msg.id, msg.body.toString())
  msg.finish()
})

// Create writer
const nsq = require('nsqjs')
const w = new nsq.Writer('127.0.0.1', 55004)

w.connect()

w.on('ready', () => {
  w.publish('sample_topic', 'Test message')
})

w.on('closed', () => {
  console.log('Writer closed')
})

	Azure SignalR Service	NSQ
Pub/Sub messaging Pub/Sub is a design pattern that lets any number of publishers (producers) push messages to channels (also known as topics). Multiple subscribers (consumers) can subscribe to a channel to consume published messages. Explore Ably's pub/sub messaging implementation	Limited You can use Azure SignalR in combination with backplanes such as Redis or Event Grid, which support the pub/sub model. Azure SignalR service is essentially a proxy for client-server communication and does not provide pub/sub capabilities by itself.
Message queues A message queue is a form of asynchronous service-to-service communication. Messages are stored on a queue until they are processed. Note that each message is only consumed by one subscriber (consumer). Explore Ably's message queues implementation
Presence Presence enables you to track the online and offline status of devices and end-users in real time and to store their state. Essential for chat apps and multiplayer games. Explore Ably's presence implementation
Message history Message history provides a means to retrieve previously published messages. For this to be possible, message data must be stored (persisted) somewhere. Explore Ably's message history implementation		Limited The --mem-queue-size can be increased and messages can be written to disk; however, this is mainly an in-memory messaging platform.
Connection state recovery (stream resume) In the case of unreliable network conditions, clients may suddenly disconnect.Connection state recovery ensures that when they reconnect, the data stream resumes exactly where it left off. Explore Ably' s connection state recovery implementation
Guaranteed message ordering Ordering ensures that messages are delivered to consumers in the same order that producers publish them. Explore Ably' s guaranteed message ordering implementation
Exactly-once semantics Exactly-once is a system-wide data integrity guarantee that ensures each message is delivered to consumers exactly-once. Explore Ably' s idempotent publishing implementation		Limited The only guarantee is that messages will be delivered at least once. However, it is possible to obtain idempotency with some client configuration.
Message delta compression Message delta compression enables you to only send the changes from the previous message to subscribers each time there’s an update, instead of the entire message. Useful for use cases where there is a significant degree of similarity between successive messages. Explore Ably' s message delta compression implementation
Native push notifications Native push notifications can be used to deliver messages even when clients are offline. Useful for geolocation updates or news alerts. Explore Ably's push notifications implementation
Webhooks Webhooks provide a mechanism to get messages and other types of events (such as clients entering or leaving channels) pushed to your servers over HTTP. Explore Ably's webhooks implementation	Limited You can send webhooks to Azure SignalR Service via bindings for Azure Functions. However, SignalR Service can only consume webhooks, but it cannot send webhooks to other systems.
Serverless functions A serverless function is essentially an isolated, single-purpose piece of code that is only executed when it’ triggered by an event. For example, you can use serverless functions to send a welcome message to clients when they become present on chat channels. Note that serverless functions are usually fully managed by cloud vendors. Explore Ably's serverless functions implementation	Limited Can only trigger Azure Functions. Azure SignalR Service doesn’t have in-built support for other serverless platforms, such as AWS Lambda or Google Cloud Functions.
Built-in integrations Which popular services & systems are Azure SignalR Service and NSQ integrated with? Explore Ably's library of integrations	Webhooks Custom IFTTT Zapier Serverless functions AWS Lambda Cloudflare Workers Google Cloud Functions Microsoft Azure Functions Streaming Apache Kafka Apache Pulsar Amazon Kinesis Amazon SQS RabbitMQ AMQP	Webhooks Custom IFTTT Zapier Serverless functions AWS Lambda Cloudflare Workers Google Cloud Functions Microsoft Azure Functions Streaming Apache Kafka Apache Pulsar Amazon Kinesis Amazon SQS RabbitMQ AMQP
Known limits and constraints Find out practical limits, such as the maximum message size, or the maximum number of concurrent connections. Explore the practical limits of the Ably pub/sub messaging platform	Throughput Unknown Maximum message size No size limit. Large messages are split into smaller chunks (max 2 KB), transmitted separately, and reassembled on the consumer side. Maximum number of units 100 SignalR Service units (sub-instances) per instance (applies to the Standard tier). Maximum number of concurrent connections 1000/unit (applies to the Standard tier)	Publisher throughput Unknown Maximum message size Unknown Maximum number of topics Unknown Maximum number of connections Unknown

Azure SignalR Service

NSQ

Realtime features

Pub/Sub messaging

Pub/Sub is a design pattern that lets any number of publishers (producers) push messages to channels (also known as topics). Multiple subscribers (consumers) can subscribe to a channel to consume published messages.

Explore Ably's pub/sub messaging implementation

Limited

You can use Azure SignalR in combination with backplanes such as Redis or Event Grid, which support the pub/sub model. Azure SignalR service is essentially a proxy for client-server communication and does not provide pub/sub capabilities by itself.

Message queues

A message queue is a form of asynchronous service-to-service communication. Messages are stored on a queue until they are processed. Note that each message is only consumed by one subscriber (consumer).

Explore Ably's message queues implementation

Presence

Presence enables you to track the online and offline status of devices and end-users in real time and to store their state. Essential for chat apps and multiplayer games.

Explore Ably's presence implementation

Message history

Message history provides a means to retrieve previously published messages. For this to be possible, message data must be stored (persisted) somewhere.

Explore Ably's message history implementation

Limited

The --mem-queue-size can be increased and messages can be written to disk; however, this is mainly an in-memory messaging platform.

Connection state recovery (stream resume)

In the case of unreliable network conditions, clients may suddenly disconnect.Connection state recovery ensures that when they reconnect, the data stream resumes exactly where it left off.

Explore Ably' s connection state recovery implementation

Guaranteed message ordering

Ordering ensures that messages are delivered to consumers in the same order that producers publish them.

Explore Ably' s guaranteed message ordering implementation

Exactly-once semantics

Exactly-once is a system-wide data integrity guarantee that ensures each message is delivered to consumers exactly-once.

Explore Ably' s idempotent publishing implementation

Limited

The only guarantee is that messages will be delivered at least once. However, it is possible to obtain idempotency with some client configuration.

Message delta compression

Message delta compression enables you to only send the changes from the previous message to subscribers each time there’s an update, instead of the entire message. Useful for use cases where there is a significant degree of similarity between successive messages.

Explore Ably' s message delta compression implementation

Native push notifications

Native push notifications can be used to deliver messages even when clients are offline. Useful for geolocation updates or news alerts.

Explore Ably's push notifications implementation

Webhooks

Webhooks provide a mechanism to get messages and other types of events (such as clients entering or leaving channels) pushed to your servers over HTTP.

Explore Ably's webhooks implementation

Limited

You can send webhooks to Azure SignalR Service via bindings for Azure Functions. However, SignalR Service can only consume webhooks, but it cannot send webhooks to other systems.

Serverless functions

A serverless function is essentially an isolated, single-purpose piece of code that is only executed when it’ triggered by an event. For example, you can use serverless functions to send a welcome message to clients when they become present on chat channels.

Note that serverless functions are usually fully managed by cloud vendors.

Explore Ably's serverless functions implementation

Limited

Can only trigger Azure Functions. Azure SignalR Service doesn’t have in-built support for other serverless platforms, such as AWS Lambda or Google Cloud Functions.

Built-in integrations

Which popular services & systems are Azure SignalR Service and NSQ integrated with?

Explore Ably's library of integrations

Webhooks

Custom
IFTTT
Zapier

Serverless functions

AWS Lambda
Cloudflare Workers
Google Cloud Functions
Microsoft Azure Functions

Streaming

Apache Kafka
Apache Pulsar
Amazon Kinesis
Amazon SQS
RabbitMQ
AMQP

Webhooks

Custom
IFTTT
Zapier

Serverless functions

AWS Lambda
Cloudflare Workers
Google Cloud Functions
Microsoft Azure Functions

Streaming

Apache Kafka
Apache Pulsar
Amazon Kinesis
Amazon SQS
RabbitMQ
AMQP

Known limits and constraints

Find out practical limits, such as the maximum message size, or the maximum number of concurrent connections.

Explore the practical limits of the Ably pub/sub messaging platform

Throughput

Unknown

Maximum message size

No size limit. Large messages are split into smaller chunks (max 2 KB), transmitted separately, and reassembled on the consumer side.

Maximum number of units

100 SignalR Service units (sub-instances) per instance (applies to the Standard tier).

Maximum number of concurrent connections

1000/unit (applies to the Standard tier)

Publisher throughput

Unknown

Maximum message size

Unknown

Maximum number of topics

Unknown

Maximum number of connections

Unknown

Supported development platforms, languages, open protocols and cloud models
Development platforms & operating systems Which popular development platforms and operating systems do Azure SignalR Service and NSQ support via official SDKs? Explore the development platforms supported by Ably	Android Java / JVM iOS macOS iPadOS tvOS watchOS Mono .NET	Android Java / JVM iOS macOS iPadOS tvOS watchOS Mono .NET
Languages Which popular programming languages do Azure SignalR Service and NSQ support via offical SDKs? Explore the programming languages supported by Ably	JavaScript Node.js TypeScript Java Objective-C Swift Go PHP Python Ruby Flutter Clojure Scala	JavaScript Node.js TypeScript Java Objective-C Swift Go PHP Python Ruby Flutter Clojure Scala
Open protocols Which popular open protocols do Azure SignalR Service and NSQ support? Explore the open protocols supported by Ably	WebSocket HTTP AMQP MQTT STOMP SSE Webhooks	WebSocket HTTP AMQP MQTT STOMP SSE Webhooks
Cloud models Which popular cloud models do Azure SignalR Service and NSQ support?	Self-hosted Cloud-managed Serverless Globally-distributed	Self-hosted Cloud-managed Serverless Globally-distributed

Global and reliable edge service
Edge messaging network with latency-based routing Latency-based routing ensures that clients are always routed to the nearest datacenter and point of presence. Explore Ably's routing mechanism that mitigates network and DNS issues
Multi-region data replication (message durability) Multi-region data replication (storage) protects against single points of failure and ensures message data durability. Learn how Ably ensures message durability		Limited It is possible to set up redundant nsqd pairs that will receive the same portion of messages.
Uptime SLAs Here’s what the most common SLAs amount to in terms of downtime over a calendar year: 99.999% SLA = 5m 15s downtime per year 99.99% SLA = 52m 35s downtime per year 99.95% SLA = 4h 22m 58s downtime per year 99.9% SLA = 8h 45m 56s downtime per year 99% SLA = 3d 15h 39m 29s downtime per year Source: https://uptime.is/	99.95% for premium accounts 99.0% for non-premium accounts	N/A
Quality of Service What QoS guarantees do Azure SignalR Service and NSQ provide natively? Explore Ably's availability and uptime guarantees for our pub/sub messaging platform	Multi-region data replication (storage) Exactly-once semantics Guaranteed message ordering Connection state recovery (stream resume)	Multi-region data replication (storage) Exactly-once semantics Guaranteed message ordering Connection state recovery (stream resume)

Security
API key authentication The simplest way to authenticate. Involves using private API keys that you can usually create and edit via a dashboard. Recommended to be used server-side, as private API keys shouldn’t be shared with untrusted parties. Explore Ably's implementation of API key authentication		N/A
Token-based authentication Which popular token-based authentication mechanisms do Azure SignalR Service and NSQ support? Note that token-based authentication is usually the recommended strategy on the client-side as it provides more fine-grained access control and limits the risk of credentials being compromised. Explore Ably's implementation of token-based authentication	Ephemeral tokens JWTs	Ephemeral tokens JWTs
Configurable rules and permissions Which types of configurable rules and permissions do Azure SignalR Service and NSQ support? Explore Ably's configurable rules and permissions	API keys rules and permissions Operation rules and permissions Admin rights	API keys rules and permissions Operation rules and permissions Admin rights
Message encryption Which types of message encryption do Azure SignalR Service and NSQ support? Explore Ably's message encryption mechanisms	Encrypted at rest Encrypted in transit Message payload encryption	Encrypted at rest Encrypted in transit Message payload encryption
Formal certifications Which formal certifications are Azure SignalR Service and NSQ compliant with? Explore Ably's security and compliance for our pub/sub messaging platform	SOC 2 TYPE I SOC 2 Type II HIPAA EU GDPR	SOC 2 TYPE I SOC 2 Type II HIPAA EU GDPR

Pricing & Support
Free package What do the free packages offered by Azure SignalR Service and NSQ consist of? Explore Ably's free package for our pub/sub messaging platform	The Free plan includes one free Azure SignalR Service unit, which has a cap of 20.000 messages per day and can sustain 20 concurrent connections.	N/A
Pricing model How are the Azure SignalR Service and NSQ pricing models calculated? Explore Ably's pricing model for our pub/sub messaging platform	In addition to the Free plan mentioned above, Azure SignalR Service comes with a Standard plan that has the following costs: - $ 1.61 price per unit per day - $1 per million messages (first million free)	N/A
Enterprise package What benefits do the Azure SignalR Service and NSQ enterprise packages offer? Explore Ably's enterprise package for our pub/sub messaging platform	There is no Azure SignalR Service-specific enterprise package.	N/A
Community Reviewed by 3+ independent developers Explore Ably's community support channel for our pub/sub messaging platform	3.50 / 5 Presence on multiple channels / 5 Size and activity / 5 “Azure SignalR Service has community engagement on various different channels, such as Stack Overflow, Gitter, Microsoft & ASP .NET Forums, or GitHub. The community doesn’t seem to be very large. As an example, if you look at the ASP.NET SignalR forum, you will notice there aren’t all that many conversation threads. However, as a plus, most questions do have at least a reply. GitHub also seems to have some activity around troubleshooting issues.”	3.50 / 5 Presence on multiple channels / 5 Size and activity / 5 “Nsqio nsq has 19k stars on GitHub. It's where the community resides. Historically the community has been active, but decreasing lately. There are a lot of unofficial SDKs for different languages and over 200 questions on StackOverflow. The latest version was released in August of 2019, therefore it seems like the project is merely being maintained, with no active feature development."
Support What types of support options and response times do Azure SignalR Service and NSQ offer? Explore Ably's support options for our pub/sub messaging platform	General support options Email, support ticket, phone, technical documentation, community support (e.g. forums or StackOverflow). Enterprise support The Professional Direct (ProDirect) plan includes 24/7 support, a Support API (to create & manage support tickets programmatically), and operational & architectural guidance from delivery managers. Response time Within 8 business hours for Developer customers Between 1 and 8 hours initial response time (depending on severity) for Standard and ProDirect customers	N/A

Pricing & Support

Free package

What do the free packages offered by Azure SignalR Service and NSQ consist of?

Explore Ably's free package for our pub/sub messaging platform

The Free plan includes one free Azure SignalR Service unit, which has a cap of 20.000 messages per day and can sustain 20 concurrent connections.

N/A

Pricing model

How are the Azure SignalR Service and NSQ pricing models calculated?

Explore Ably's pricing model for our pub/sub messaging platform

In addition to the Free plan mentioned above, Azure SignalR Service comes with a Standard plan that has the following costs:

- $ 1.61 price per unit per day

- $1 per million messages (first million free)

N/A

Enterprise package

What benefits do the Azure SignalR Service and NSQ enterprise packages offer?

Explore Ably's enterprise package for our pub/sub messaging platform

There is no Azure SignalR Service-specific enterprise package.

N/A

Community

Reviewed by 3+ independent developers

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3.50 / 5

Presence on multiple channels / 5

Size and activity / 5

“Azure SignalR Service has community engagement on various different channels, such as Stack Overflow, Gitter, Microsoft & ASP .NET Forums, or GitHub. The community doesn’t seem to be very large. As an example, if you look at the ASP.NET SignalR forum, you will notice there aren’t all that many conversation threads. However, as a plus, most questions do have at least a reply. GitHub also seems to have some activity around troubleshooting issues.”

3.50 / 5

Presence on multiple channels / 5

Size and activity / 5

“Nsqio nsq has 19k stars on GitHub. It's where the community resides. Historically the community has been active, but decreasing lately. There are a lot of unofficial SDKs for different languages and over 200 questions on StackOverflow. The latest version was released in August of 2019, therefore it seems like the project is merely being maintained, with no active feature development."

Support

What types of support options and response times do Azure SignalR Service and NSQ offer?

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General support options

Email, support ticket, phone, technical documentation, community support (e.g. forums or StackOverflow).

Enterprise support

The Professional Direct (ProDirect) plan includes 24/7 support, a Support API (to create & manage support tickets programmatically), and operational & architectural guidance from delivery managers.

Response time

Within 8 business hours for Developer customers

Between 1 and 8 hours initial response time (depending on severity) for Standard and ProDirect customers

N/A

Disclaimer: The information presented for Azure SignalR Service was last updated on 7 June 2024 and on 28 February 2021 for NSQ. It is possible that some details may now be out of date. If you think that’s the case, please let us know so we can update them. In any case, you should not rely solely on the information presented here and must check with each provider before deciding to integrate or buy any of these two solutions.

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