Soketi — Self-Hosted WebSocket Server Compatible with Pusher

Introduction

Soketi is a self-hosted, open-source WebSocket server that fully implements the Pusher Channels protocol. If you already use Pusher client libraries, Soketi works as a drop-in backend replacement, giving you real-time messaging under your own control.

What Soketi Does

• Implements the Pusher Channels protocol for WebSocket connections
• Handles presence channels, private channels, and public channels
• Supports horizontal scaling via Redis or NATS for multi-node deployments
• Provides a REST API for triggering events from your backend
• Works with existing Pusher client SDKs across all platforms

Architecture Overview

Soketi is built with Node.js and uses the uWebSockets.js library for high-performance WebSocket handling. It manages app credentials, channel subscriptions, and message routing in-process. For multi-server deployments, Redis or NATS acts as the message broker to synchronize channel state. The REST API accepts event payloads and broadcasts them to subscribed WebSocket clients.

Self-Hosting & Configuration

• Run with soketi start or via Docker for containerized deployments
• Configure apps, rate limits, and adapter settings in a JSON config file
• Set SOKETI_DB_REDIS_HOST to enable Redis-based horizontal scaling
• Use environment variables for port, SSL certificates, and debug mode
• Deploy on Kubernetes with the official Helm chart for production workloads

Key Features

• Full Pusher protocol compatibility with existing client SDKs
• Built on uWebSockets.js for low-latency, high-throughput connections
• Horizontal scaling via Redis or NATS adapters
• Webhook support for channel occupation and member events
• Rate limiting per app with configurable thresholds

Comparison with Similar Tools

• Pusher — managed SaaS; Soketi is self-hosted with no per-message billing
• Centrifugo — custom protocol server; Soketi uses the Pusher protocol for broader SDK compatibility
• Socket.IO — library-based; Soketi is a standalone server with a REST trigger API
• Mercure — SSE-based; Soketi uses WebSockets for bidirectional communication

FAQ

Q: Can I use existing Pusher client libraries? A: Yes. Point your Pusher SDK's host setting to your Soketi server and it works without code changes.

Q: How many concurrent connections can Soketi handle? A: Performance depends on hardware, but Soketi handles tens of thousands of connections per node thanks to uWebSockets.js.

Q: Does Soketi support SSL? A: Yes. Configure SSL certificate paths in the config file or terminate TLS at your reverse proxy.

Q: Is Soketi suitable for production? A: Yes. Use Redis or NATS for multi-node deployments and deploy behind a load balancer for high availability.

Sources

• https://github.com/soketi/soketi
• https://docs.soketi.app/