Azure Web PubSub vs Nchan

	Azure Web PubSub	Nchan
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.	3 / 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	Chat app tutorial Whiteboard demo Serverless notification app tutorial	Nchan getting started guide Nchan – A Concurrent Queuing PubSub Server Module for NGINX Realtime Web Apps with Nginx Nchan and Python
Documentation Reviewed by 3+ independent developers Explore Ably's documentation for our pub/sub messaging platform	3.50 / 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 “Good quick starts and how-to guides, but the information architecture could be better - sometimes you have to do a bit of digging to find what you need (e.g. how to do pub/sub messaging). The API reference is clear, and the readability and docs design are decent. The quality of sample code provided is not great, and you often have to search for external examples. More tutorials would have been good, and more diverse (most of the existing ones focus on chat).”	4.17 / 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 W: “The documentation is extensive in details, easy to read and to navigate. There could perhaps be a tutorial putting it all together or more examples to follow.”. O: “The documentation is very detailed and rich in information, which is good but also leaves room for a more high level part as a first presentation”. P: “The getting started guide is easy to follow, once nchan and nginx have been installed. The underlying architecture and principles are well documented. It's easy to navigate between various content in the documentation, and examples are provided.
Dashboard or dev console Reviewed by 3+ independent developers Sign up for free and explore Ably's pub/sub messaging platform	4 / 5 Ease of use / 5 Stats and reports / 5 Functionality / 5 “Azure Portal allows you to configure and manage your Web PubSub deployment, e.g. creating a service instance, setting up endpoints and connections to the service, scaling connections, etc. All is pretty well explained, with plenty of tooltips and instructions in the UI. You can also monitor various stats such as the number of concurrent connections and how it evolves over time. There’s a live trace tool that makes it easy to capture and troubleshoot issues in realtime.”	1 / 5 Ease of use / 5 Stats and reports / 5 Functionality / 5 N/A
SDKs Note: Only official SDKs were taken into account. Explore Ably's 25+ SDKs for our pub/sub messaging platform	4 server SDKs Including: C# / .NET Java JavaScript You can build/use standard WebSocket clients in different programming languages and connect them to Azure Web PubSub.	1 SDK Javascript
API structure Reviewed by 3+ independent developers	3.75 / 5 API consistency across SDKs / 5 Well structured / 5 Intuitive / 5 Simple / 5 “The API seems to be consistent across all the server SDKs, with few differences between languages. Parameters, methods, etc are pretty intuitively named. It’s not necessarily the most straightforward API to use, as it has many interfaces; plus, you will often find you need to do some data massaging.”	4.25 / 5 API consistency across SDKs / 5 Well structured / 5 Intuitive / 5 Simple / 5 W: “There is only one SDK, and it only contains documentation in the form of comments in the code. However the API for Publishing/Subscribing to channels is very straightforward.” O: “The only SDK has a good structure and simple API but could include more information.”. P: “Subscribing to messages via Websockets, EventSource, Long-polling, Interval-poll is supported. Publishing messages is done via HTTP requests. Therefore it’s compatible with many platforms and languages. An npm package for node based applications exists.”

Azure Web PubSub

Nchan

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.

3 / 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

Nchan getting started guide

Nchan – A Concurrent Queuing PubSub Server Module for NGINX

Realtime Web Apps with Nginx Nchan and Python

Documentation

Reviewed by 3+ independent developers

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

3.50 / 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

“Good quick starts and how-to guides, but the information architecture could be better - sometimes you have to do a bit of digging to find what you need (e.g. how to do pub/sub messaging). The API reference is clear, and the readability and docs design are decent. The quality of sample code provided is not great, and you often have to search for external examples. More tutorials would have been good, and more diverse (most of the existing ones focus on chat).”

4.17 / 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

W: “The documentation is extensive in details, easy to read and to navigate. There could perhaps be a tutorial putting it all together or more examples to follow.”.

O: “The documentation is very detailed and rich in information, which is good but also leaves room for a more high level part as a first presentation”.

P: “The getting started guide is easy to follow, once nchan and nginx have been installed. The underlying architecture and principles are well documented. It's easy to navigate between various content in the documentation, and examples are provided.

Dashboard or dev console

Reviewed by 3+ independent developers

4 / 5

Ease of use / 5

Stats and reports / 5

Functionality / 5

“Azure Portal allows you to configure and manage your Web PubSub deployment, e.g. creating a service instance, setting up endpoints and connections to the service, scaling connections, etc. All is pretty well explained, with plenty of tooltips and instructions in the UI. You can also monitor various stats such as the number of concurrent connections and how it evolves over time. There’s a live trace tool that makes it easy to capture and troubleshoot issues in realtime.”

1 / 5

Ease of use / 5

Stats and reports / 5

Functionality / 5

N/A

SDKs

Note: Only official SDKs were taken into account.

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

4 server SDKs

Including:

C# / .NET
Java
JavaScript

You can build/use standard WebSocket clients in different programming languages and connect them to Azure Web PubSub.

1 SDK

Javascript

API structure

Reviewed by 3+ independent developers

3.75 / 5

API consistency across SDKs / 5

Well structured / 5

Intuitive / 5

Simple / 5

“The API seems to be consistent across all the server SDKs, with few differences between languages. Parameters, methods, etc are pretty intuitively named. It’s not necessarily the most straightforward API to use, as it has many interfaces; plus, you will often find you need to do some data massaging.”

4.25 / 5

API consistency across SDKs / 5

Well structured / 5

Intuitive / 5

Simple / 5

W: “There is only one SDK, and it only contains documentation in the form of comments in the code. However the API for Publishing/Subscribing to channels is very straightforward.”

O: “The only SDK has a good structure and simple API but could include more information.”.

P: “Subscribing to messages via Websockets, EventSource, Long-polling, Interval-poll is supported. Publishing messages is done via HTTP requests. Therefore it’s compatible with many platforms and languages. An npm package for node based applications exists.”

Azure Web PubSub	Nchan
// set up the subscriber const WebSocket = require('ws'); const { WebPubSubServiceClient } = require('@azure/web-pubsub'); async function main() { const hub = "pubsub"; let service = new WebPubSubServiceClient(process.env.WebPubSubConnectionString, hub); let token = await service.getClientAccessToken(); let ws = new WebSocket(token.url); ws.on('open', () => console.log('connected')); ws.on('message', data => console.log('Message received: %s', data)); } main(); // publish a message to the service const { WebPubSubServiceClient } = require('@azure/web-pubsub'); const hub = "pubsub"; let service = new WebPubSubServiceClient(process.env.WebPubSubConnectionString, hub); // by default it uses `application/json`, specify contentType as `text/plain` if you want plain-text service.sendToAll(process.argv[2], { contentType: "text/plain" });	`// create subscriber require('browser-env')(); let NchanSubscriber = require("nchan"); var sub = new NchanSubscriber('ws://localhost/sub', { subscriber: 'websocket' }); sub.on("message", function(message) { console.log(message); }); sub.start(); //No SDK for publishing. //Using cURL: curl --request POST --data "Hello world" http:/localhost/pub`

Azure Web PubSub

Nchan

"Hello world" code example

// set up the subscriber
const WebSocket = require('ws');
const { WebPubSubServiceClient } = require('@azure/web-pubsub');

async function main() {
  const hub = "pubsub";
  let service = new WebPubSubServiceClient(process.env.WebPubSubConnectionString, hub);
  let token = await service.getClientAccessToken();
  let ws = new WebSocket(token.url);
  ws.on('open', () => console.log('connected'));
  ws.on('message', data => console.log('Message received: %s', data));
}

main();

// publish a message to the service
const { WebPubSubServiceClient } = require('@azure/web-pubsub');

const hub = "pubsub";
let service = new WebPubSubServiceClient(process.env.WebPubSubConnectionString, hub);

// by default it uses `application/json`, specify contentType as `text/plain` if you want plain-text
service.sendToAll(process.argv[2], { contentType: "text/plain" });

// create subscriber
require('browser-env')();
let NchanSubscriber = require("nchan");

var sub = new NchanSubscriber('ws://localhost/sub', { subscriber: 'websocket' });

sub.on("message", function(message) {
 console.log(message);
});

sub.start();

//No SDK for publishing.
//Using cURL:

curl --request POST --data "Hello world" http:/localhost/pub

	Azure Web PubSub	Nchan
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
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
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	Limited Connection recovery with continuity is possible only when reliable JSON WebSocket or Reliable Protobuf WebSocket subprotocols are used. Note that these reliable subprotocols are currently in preview, and some changes are expected in the future.
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	Limited Message ordering is possible only when reliable JSON WebSocket or Reliable Protobuf WebSocket subprotocols are used. Note that these reliable subprotocols are currently in preview, and some changes are expected in the future.
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 Exactly-once delivery is possible only when reliable JSON WebSocket or Reliable Protobuf WebSocket subprotocols are used. Note that these reliable subprotocols are currently in preview, and some changes are expected in the future.
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
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 Only integrates with Azure Functions. Azure Web PubSub 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 Web PubSub and Nchan 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	Publisher throughput: Outbound bandwidth per unit: maximum 8 MBps Maximum message size: 1 MB Maximum number of units: 100 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 300,000 concurrent connections

Supported development platforms, languages, open protocols and cloud models
Development platforms & operating systems Which popular development platforms and operating systems do Azure Web PubSub and Nchan 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 Web PubSub and Nchan 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 Web PubSub and Nchan 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 Web PubSub and Nchan 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		N/A
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		N/A
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/	99.9%	N/A
Quality of Service What QoS guarantees do Azure Web PubSub and Nchan 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 Web PubSub and Nchan 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 Web PubSub and Nchan 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 Web PubSub and Nchan 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 Web PubSub and Nchan 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 Web PubSub and Nchan consist of? Explore Ably's free package for our pub/sub messaging platform	You can only use one unit, with a maximum of 20 concurrent connections. You have a max quota of 20.000 messages per day.	N/A
Pricing model How are the Azure Web PubSub and Nchan pricing models calculated? Explore Ably's pricing model for our pub/sub messaging platform	In addition to the free tier, Azure Web PubSub provides a standard tier, which gives you 1 million messages for free; additional messages cost $1 per million. You can use a maximum of 100 units, with the price being $1.61 per unit per day.	N/A
Enterprise package What benefits do the Azure Web PubSub and Nchan enterprise packages offer? Explore Ably's enterprise package for our pub/sub messaging platform	There is no enterprise package with additional benefits / features for Azure Web PubSub - only the free and standard tiers mentioned above.	N/A
Community Reviewed by 3+ independent developers Explore Ably's community support channel for our pub/sub messaging platform	1 / 5 Presence on multiple channels / 5 Size and activity / 5 “Azure Web PubSub is a new service, and its community is basically non-existent. You can barely find any blog posts or demos built by the community.”	2.50 / 5 Presence on multiple channels / 5 Size and activity / 5 “Nchan has 2.7k stars on GitHub and seems to be somewhat active. Nchan is listed as an NGINX module on the NGINX website. ” O: “The community is quite active on GitHub and there are a few related questions on StackOverflow. I could not find any other channels.” P: “The community mostly lives on GitHub, where it has 2.7k stars. Latest release was in March 2020. There seems to be limited development of the project currently. Some activity exists in the GitHub issues page“
Support What types of support options and response times do Azure Web PubSub and Nchan 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 Web PubSub and Nchan consist of?

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

You can only use one unit, with a maximum of 20 concurrent connections. You have a max quota of 20.000 messages per day.

N/A

Pricing model

How are the Azure Web PubSub and Nchan pricing models calculated?

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

In addition to the free tier, Azure Web PubSub provides a standard tier, which gives you 1 million messages for free; additional messages cost $1 per million.

You can use a maximum of 100 units, with the price being $1.61 per unit per day.

N/A

Enterprise package

What benefits do the Azure Web PubSub and Nchan enterprise packages offer?

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

There is no enterprise package with additional benefits / features for Azure Web PubSub - only the free and standard tiers mentioned above.

N/A

Community

Reviewed by 3+ independent developers

Explore Ably's community support channel for our pub/sub messaging platform

1 / 5

Presence on multiple channels / 5

Size and activity / 5

“Azure Web PubSub is a new service, and its community is basically non-existent. You can barely find any blog posts or demos built by the community.”

2.50 / 5

Presence on multiple channels / 5

Size and activity / 5

“Nchan has 2.7k stars on GitHub and seems to be somewhat active. Nchan is listed as an NGINX module on the NGINX website. ”

O: “The community is quite active on GitHub and there are a few related questions on StackOverflow. I could not find any other channels.”

P: “The community mostly lives on GitHub, where it has 2.7k stars. Latest release was in March 2020. There seems to be limited development of the project currently. Some activity exists in the GitHub issues page“

Support

What types of support options and response times do Azure Web PubSub and Nchan 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

Disclaimer: The information presented for Azure Web PubSub was last updated on 25 August 2022 and on 2 September 2020 for Nchan. 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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