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Beebotte vs Nchan

This Beebotte vs Nchan comparison was created based on reviews from developers and our best attempts to perform analysis by looking at documentation and other publicly available resources.

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Beebotte

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.

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
4.50 / 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

Beebotte documentation provides a comprehensive set of tutorials and demos for different use cases. There's a quick start guide, an API playground, tutorials, demos, and libraries showing a detailed API reference for each SDK cross-linked to GitHub’s page for quick installation.

The information architecture and navigation experience are quite impressive, and most things are explained clearly in the documentation. The quality of the code is pretty great. The readability, design, and navigation are mostly good as well.

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
5 / 5

Ease of use / 5

Stats and reports / 5

Functionality / 5

Beebotte provides a console (an integrated development interface with a collection of tools) that is intuitive to use. It allows you to write, read, publish, and manage data. It’s very easy to use once you get the hang of it, but you need to successfully register with Beebotte and obtain your API and secret keys in your account setting page to get started. There’s a nice section on the dashboard called Beerules that allows you to create a rule to evaluate messages published into Beebotte. There’s a monthly usage section that displays your daily and monthly (in vs. out) message stats.

The console covers the core tools you need to configure, manage, and test your real-time data pipeline, allowing you to subscribe to a channel resource, and publish data. The account usage section provides stats and reports on message usages.

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

6 SDKs

Including:

  • JavaScript

  • Node.js

  • Python

1 SDK

  • Javascript

API structure

Reviewed by 3+ independent developers

5 / 5

API consistency across SDKs / 5

Well structured / 5

Intuitive / 5

Simple / 5

The Beebotte APIs are consistent and intuitive to use. The Beebotte REST APIs are available in many programming languages to help you get started, while a JavaScript client library (using WebSocket) allows you to integrate Beebotte with web application with ease. The APIs are well-structured and pretty easy to use once you take your time to go through the API reference.

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.”

Beebotte

Nchan

"Hello world" code example
// Copyright (c) 2013-2014 Beebotte <[email protected]>
// This program is published under the MIT License (http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT).
 
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// This code uses the Beebotte API, you must have an account.
// You can register here: http://beebotte.com/register
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

var mqtt = require('mqtt')

client =  mqtt.connect('mqtt://mqtt.beebotte.com',
  //Authenticate with your channel token, 
  {username: 'token:YOUR_CHANNEL_TOKEN', password: ''} 

  //alternatively, you can authenticate with your SECRET KEY 
  //{username: 'YOUR_SECRET_KEY', password: ''} 
);

client.on('message', function (topic, message) {
  console.log(topic + '   ' + message);
});

client.subscribe('mychannel/myresource');

setInterval(function() {
  client.publish('mychannel/myresource', 'Hello World');
}, 1000 /* 1 second */);
// 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

Beebotte

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

Limited

Beebotte only stores data of a persistent message into its resources database for future read requests. Beebotte will not store data related to transient messages.

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 

Message retention duration is limited to the Beebotte’s plan you choose.

The maximum message retention duration for the Beebotte’s XS (free) plan is 3 months, it’s 12 months for the Small plan, while the Medium and Large plans offer unlimited message history.

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

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

Limited

Beebotte only supports native push notifications via its BeeRule FCM Action

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 have to set a rule to perform this action (webhook) using Beebotte BeeRules

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 serverless functions on IFTTT. Does not support other platforms, such as Google Cloud Functions, AWS Lambda, or Microsoft Azure Functions.

Built-in integrations

Which popular services & systems are Beebotte 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  

Unknown

Maximum message size

16 KB for Inbound Messages 

Maximum number of channels

Unlimited

Maximum number of topics

Unknown

Maximum number of connections

Unknown

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 Beebotte 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 Beebotte 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 Beebotte 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 Beebotte 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

Unknown

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% uptime

N/A

Quality of Service

What QoS guarantees do Beebotte 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 Beebotte 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 Beebotte 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 Beebotte 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 Beebotte 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 Beebotte and Nchan consist of?

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

Not bad 

The free plan includes 50,000 daily messages, 5,000 persistent messages per day, unlimited channels, 3 months message history, access to all major features and basic supports, and SSL encryption. 

N/A

Pricing model

How are the Beebotte and Nchan pricing models calculated?

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

Beebotte pricing model is plan-based and calculated per month. There are three different paid plans:

- $10/month for the Small plan: this covers unlimited channels, 200,000 messages per day, 15,000 persistent messages per day, 12 months history, and SSL encryption.

- $30/month for the Medium plan: this covers unlimited channels, 1,000,000 messages per day, 50,000 persistent messages per day, unlimited history, and SSL encryption.

- $120/month for the Large plan: this covers unlimited channels, 5,000,000 messages per day, 200,000 persistent messages per day, unlimited history, and SSL encryption.

Find out more about Beebotte pricing

N/A

Enterprise package

What benefits do the Beebotte and Nchan enterprise packages offer?

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

There is no specific Beebotte enterprise package.

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

Beebotte community is essentially non-existent. There’s a very small number of posts and only one follower on GitHub. The number of repos is very small as is the number of forks and stars. No presence on Slack, Discource, StackOverflow, or Gitter, either.

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 Beebotte and Nchan offer?

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

General Support Options

Email, technical documentation, Community support (LinkedIn or Twitter) 

Response time

< 24 hours for general queries

N/A

Disclaimer: The information presented for Beebotte was last updated on 28 February 2021 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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