head to head · open source
nats-server vs Soketi
nats-server has 20,989 GitHub stars, 2,025 forks, 472 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Soketi has 5,633 stars, 364 forks, 142 open issues and last shipped 1.7 years ago. nats-server leads on adoption by 273% (20,989 vs 5,633 stars). nats-server is written in Go under Apache-2.0; Soketi is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. nats-server has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Soketi 6%. nats-server was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| nats-server | Soketi | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 21K | ★ 5.6K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2025-03-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.0K | ⑂ 364 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick nats-server if
- You weight community size — 21K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Soketi if
- You want the Soketi feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Soketi fits your workflow better
About nats-server
NATS is a simple, secure and performant communications system for digital systems, services and devices. NATS is part of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). NATS has over 40 client language implementations, and its server can run on premise, in the cloud, at the edge, and even on a Raspberry Pi. NATS can secure and simplify design and operation of modern distributed systems. [![License][License Image]][License Url] [![Build][Build Status Image]][Build Status Url] [![Release][Release Image]][Release Url] [![Slack][Slack Image]][Slack Url] [![Coverage][Coverage Image]][Coverage Url] [![Docker…
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About Soketi
soketi Next gen, Pusher compatible, open source WebSockets server. Simple, fast, and resilient. 📣 🤝 Supporting Soketi is meant to be open source, forever and ever. It solves issues that many developers face the one of wanting to be limitless while testing locally or performing benchmarks. More than that, itt is also suited for production usage, either it is public for your frontend applications or internal to your team. The frequency of releases and maintenance is based on the available time, which is tight as hell. Recently, there were issues with the maintenance and this caused infrequent updates, as well as…
read the full Soketi overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is nats-server or Soketi more popular?
nats-server has 20,989 GitHub stars and Soketi has 5,633. nats-server has the larger community by that measure.
Are nats-server and Soketi free?
Both are open source. nats-server is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Soketi under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between nats-server and Soketi?
nats-server is written in Go and Soketi in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, nats-server or Soketi?
Choose nats-server if you want the larger community (20,989 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Soketi if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.