Nchan vs Parse server

	Nchan	Parse server
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	5 / 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	Parse server guide: Gettings started Using push notifications in parse Deploying to Heroku and MongoDB Atlas
Documentation Reviewed by 3+ independent developers Explore Ably's documentation for our pub/sub messaging platform	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.	4.33 / 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 P: “Documentation is detailed, with many examples and tutorials from how to set up the parse server, connect clients to it, using different databases and hosting on different platforms”. O: “The documentation is extensive and at the same time offers higher level explanations for the more detailed sections.” W: “While the documentation offers a lot of information, examples and tutorials it could have been organized in a more clear manner and made more readable.”
Dashboard or dev console Reviewed by 3+ independent developers Sign up for free and explore Ably's pub/sub messaging platform	1 / 5 Ease of use / 5 Stats and reports / 5 Functionality / 5 N/A	4 / 5 Ease of use / 5 Stats and reports / 5 Functionality / 5 P: “The dashboard is easy to set up. You get a good overview of the stored data, so you can easily manage the database. Features such as webhooks, jobs, logs, API console and push notifications are easily accessible. Lack of performance metrics is a downside.” O: “The dashboard has a clean and simple UI with management sections for the webhooks, jobs, logs, configs and API console. It also includes a browsing view.” W: “The dashboard UI is easy to understand and self-explanatory. On the downside there is no informative metrics available but on the upside there is a lot of functionality and configurations options and the API console where you can send HTTP and GraphQL queries is a nice feature.”
SDKs Note: Only official SDKs were taken into account. Explore Ably's 25+ SDKs for our pub/sub messaging platform	1 SDK Javascript	13 SDKs Including: Javascript REST Android
API structure Reviewed by 3+ independent developers	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.”	4.50 / 5 API consistency across SDKs / 5 Well structured / 5 Intuitive / 5 Simple / 5 P: "The API across SDKs are mostly consistent, but support for Pub/sub is not available on all SDKs. Plenty of code examples of how to perform various operations”. O: “Most SDKs are well structured, simple and consistent. Although some are missing an API reference.” W: “The SDKs are intuitive and well structured for the most part. The SDKs could however have been more consistent.”

Nchan

Parse server

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

5 / 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

Parse server guide: Gettings started

Using push notifications in parse

Deploying to Heroku and MongoDB Atlas

Documentation

Reviewed by 3+ independent developers

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

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.

4.33 / 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

P: “Documentation is detailed, with many examples and tutorials from how to set up the parse server, connect clients to it, using different databases and hosting on different platforms”.

O: “The documentation is extensive and at the same time offers higher level explanations for the more detailed sections.”

W: “While the documentation offers a lot of information, examples and tutorials it could have been organized in a more clear manner and made more readable.”

Dashboard or dev console

Reviewed by 3+ independent developers

1 / 5

Ease of use / 5

Stats and reports / 5

Functionality / 5

N/A

4 / 5

Ease of use / 5

Stats and reports / 5

Functionality / 5

P: “The dashboard is easy to set up. You get a good overview of the stored data, so you can easily manage the database. Features such as webhooks, jobs, logs, API console and push notifications are easily accessible. Lack of performance metrics is a downside.”

O: “The dashboard has a clean and simple UI with management sections for the webhooks, jobs, logs, configs and API console. It also includes a browsing view.”

W: “The dashboard UI is easy to understand and self-explanatory. On the downside there is no informative metrics available but on the upside there is a lot of functionality and configurations options and the API console where you can send HTTP and GraphQL queries is a nice feature.”

SDKs

Note: Only official SDKs were taken into account.

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

1 SDK

Javascript

13 SDKs

Including:

Javascript
REST
Android

API structure

Reviewed by 3+ independent developers

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.”

4.50 / 5

API consistency across SDKs / 5

Well structured / 5

Intuitive / 5

Simple / 5

P: "The API across SDKs are mostly consistent, but support for Pub/sub is not available on all SDKs. Plenty of code examples of how to perform various operations”.

O: “Most SDKs are well structured, simple and consistent. Although some are missing an API reference.”

W: “The SDKs are intuitive and well structured for the most part. The SDKs could however have been more consistent.”

Nchan	Parse server
`// 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`	// START SERVER CODE var express = require("express"); var ParseServer = require("parse-server").ParseServer; var app = express(); var api = new ParseServer({ databaseURI: "mongodb://localhost:27017/dev", // Connection string for your MongoDB database cloud: "./cloud/main.js", // Path to your Cloud Code appId: "myAppId", masterKey: "myMasterKey", // Keep this key secret! fileKey: "optionalFileKey", serverURL: "http://localhost:1337/parse", // Don't forget to change to https if needed }); // Serve the Parse API on the /parse URL prefix app.use("/parse", api); app.listen(1337, function() { console.log("parse-server-example running on port 1337."); }); // NODE CLIENT CODE const Parse = require("parse/node"); Parse.initialize("myAppId"); Parse.serverURL = "http://localhost:1337/parse"; // Simple syntax to create a new subclass of Parse.Object. const Message = Parse.Object.extend("Message"); // Create a new instance of that class. const msg = new Message(); msg.set("value", "Hello World"); (async () => { const id = await new Promise(async (resolve, reject) => { msg.save().then( (msg) => resolve(msg.id), (error) => reject(error) ); }); const query = new Parse.Query(Message); const res = await new Promise(async (resolve, reject) => { query.get(id).then( (msg) => resolve(msg), (error) => reject(error) ); }); const { value } = res.attributes; console.log(value); // logs Hello World })();

Nchan

Parse server

"Hello world" code example

// 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

// START SERVER CODE
var express = require("express");
var ParseServer = require("parse-server").ParseServer;
var app = express();
 
var api = new ParseServer({
 databaseURI: "mongodb://localhost:27017/dev", // Connection string for your MongoDB database
 cloud: "./cloud/main.js", // Path to your Cloud Code
 appId: "myAppId",
 masterKey: "myMasterKey", // Keep this key secret!
 fileKey: "optionalFileKey",
 serverURL: "http://localhost:1337/parse", // Don't forget to change to https if needed
});
 
// Serve the Parse API on the /parse URL prefix
app.use("/parse", api);
 
app.listen(1337, function() {
 console.log("parse-server-example running on port 1337.");
});
 
// NODE CLIENT CODE
 
const Parse = require("parse/node");
 
Parse.initialize("myAppId");
Parse.serverURL = "http://localhost:1337/parse";
 
// Simple syntax to create a new subclass of Parse.Object.
const Message = Parse.Object.extend("Message");
 
// Create a new instance of that class.
const msg = new Message();
 
msg.set("value", "Hello World");
 
(async () => {
 const id = await new Promise(async (resolve, reject) => {
   msg.save().then(
     (msg) => resolve(msg.id),
     (error) => reject(error)
   );
 });
 const query = new Parse.Query(Message);
 const res = await new Promise(async (resolve, reject) => {
   query.get(id).then(
     (msg) => resolve(msg),
     (error) => reject(error)
   );
 });
 const { value } = res.attributes;
 console.log(value); // logs Hello World
})();

	Nchan	Parse server
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 There is support for pub/sub messaging using LiveQueries in the Javascript SDK, which uses WebSockets to subscribe & publish to channels. But LiveQueries is limited to the Javascript SDK.
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		Limited One could keep track of online clients by using the LiveQuery triggers to know whether or not a client is connected. But there is no built functionality for this.
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
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 Idempodency enforcement exists, as an experimental feature that may not be appropriate for production.
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 Cloud functions are used in parse server to run single-prupose piece of code. But is up to you to host the parse server, where the cloud functions are invoked from. The pricing model is different, since you are hosting the parse server yourself, you can invoke the cloud function for as many times as you like. Services like AWS Lambda charges you for the number of requests made and the duration of those requests.
Built-in integrations Which popular services & systems are Nchan and Parse server 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 Unknown Maximum number of topics Unknown Maximum number of connections 300,000 concurrent connections	Publisher throughput N/A Maximum message size N/A Maximum number of topics N/A Maximum number of connections N/A

Supported development platforms, languages, open protocols and cloud models
Development platforms & operating systems Which popular development platforms and operating systems do Nchan and Parse server 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 Nchan and Parse server 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 Nchan and Parse server 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 Nchan and Parse server 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	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	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/	N/A	N/A
Quality of Service What QoS guarantees do Nchan and Parse server 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 Nchan and Parse server 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 Nchan and Parse server 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 Nchan and Parse server 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 Nchan and Parse server 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 Nchan and Parse server consist of? Explore Ably's free package for our pub/sub messaging platform	N/A	N/A
Pricing model How are the Nchan and Parse server pricing models calculated? Explore Ably's pricing model for our pub/sub messaging platform	N/A	N/A
Enterprise package What benefits do the Nchan and Parse server enterprise packages offer? Explore Ably's enterprise package for our pub/sub messaging platform	N/A	N/A
Community Reviewed by 3+ independent developers Explore Ably's community support channel for our pub/sub messaging platform	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“	4 / 5 Presence on multiple channels / 5 Size and activity / 5 P: “Parse platform has 18k stars on github and 18k questions on Stack Overflow. It’s safe to say there is a solid community. There exist plenty of SDKs developed by the community.” O: “Parse platform has an extensive community with a lot of activity on both Github and StackOverflow, it also has a presence on Twitter.” W: “Parse has an active community with 18k stars on GitHub and there is also a substantial amount of questions about Parse Server on StackOverflow. There is a gitter for ParsePlatform but it doesn't seem quite as active.”
Support What types of support options and response times do Nchan and Parse server offer? Explore Ably's support options for our pub/sub messaging platform	N/A	N/A

Disclaimer: The information presented for Nchan was last updated on 2 September 2020 and on 28 February 2021 for Parse server. 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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