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Centrifugo

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Scalable real-time messaging server for interactive applications, designed for high performance and easy integration.

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Reviews onG2CapterraSourceForge
89 reviews tracked

The Bottom Line

Entry price

Free, no paid tier

Biggest pro

High performance and scalability, proven to handle millions of connections.

Biggest con

Self-hosted nature requires deployment and maintenance effort.

TL;DR - Centrifugo

  • Self-hosted, language-agnostic real-time messaging server.
  • Handles persistent connections over various transports (WebSocket, SSE, etc.).
  • Offers high performance, scalability, and rich features for interactive applications.
Pricing: Free forever
Best for: Individuals & startups
4.3/5 across review platforms

What is Centrifugo?

Editorial review
Centrifugo is a self-hosted, language-agnostic real-time messaging server built in Go, designed to handle persistent connections over various transports like WebSocket, HTTP-streaming, SSE, WebTransport, and GRPC. It provides a simple publishing API, allowing applications to introduce real-time updates without altering their existing architecture. Centrifugo excels at broadcasting messages to many subscribers simultaneously, making it ideal for applications requiring instant updates to large audiences, such as chat apps, live comments, multiplayer games, real-time data visualizations, collaborative tools, and AI streaming responses. The server offers robust features including flexible authentication, various subscription types, channel history, online presence, delta updates, and the ability to proxy connection events to a backend. It supports out-of-the-box scalability through integrations with efficient brokers like Redis (and compatible storages) and Nats. Centrifugo is battle-tested, having been used in production for a decade by numerous companies. A PRO version is also available, offering advanced features like analytics with ClickHouse, real-time tracing, performance optimizations, push notification API, and SSO integrations for corporate and enterprise environments. Centrifugo is for developers and organizations looking to build highly interactive and real-time applications that require efficient, scalable, and reliable message delivery to a large number of connected users. Its focus on performance, scalability, and ease of integration makes it suitable for a wide range of use cases from small projects to enterprise-level deployments.

Available on: Web, Linux

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • High performance and scalability, proven to handle millions of connections.
  • Easy integration with existing application architectures.
  • Battle-tested and mature software used by many companies.
  • Supports a wide range of real-time use cases.
  • Offers a PRO version with advanced enterprise features.

Cons

  • Self-hosted nature requires deployment and maintenance effort.
  • Advanced features are locked behind the PRO version.

Ratings Across the Web

4.3(89 reviews)

Ratings aggregated from independent review platforms. Learn more

Key Features

Language-agnosticSelf-hosted serviceSupports WebSocket, HTTP-streaming, SSE, WebTransport, GRPC transportsSimple publishing APIFlexible authenticationVarious subscription typesChannel historyOnline presence

Pricing Plans

Centrifugo PRO

Contact us

  • analytics with ClickHouse
  • real-time tracing
  • performance optimizations
  • push notification API
  • SSO integrations for web UI
  • additional APIs
  • enhanced performance

Reviews

4.3/5

Across 89 verified user reviews on SourceForge, Capterra, G2

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Centrifugo FAQ

What is Centrifugo?

Centrifugo is a self-hosted, language-agnostic real-time messaging server written in Go. It handles persistent connections over various transports like WebSocket, HTTP-streaming, SSE, WebTransport, and GRPC, providing a simple API for publishing real-time updates to connected clients. It's designed for high performance and scalability in interactive applications.

How much does Centrifugo cost?

Centrifugo offers a free open-source version. There is also a Centrifugo PRO version available from Centrifugal Labs that includes unique features, additional APIs, and enhanced performance, which is a paid offering. Specific pricing for the PRO version is not detailed on the provided pages.

Is Centrifugo free?

Yes, Centrifugo has a free open-source version. There is also a Centrifugo PRO version with additional features that is a paid product.

Who is Centrifugo for?

Centrifugo is for developers and organizations looking to build interactive real-time applications such as chat apps, live comments, multiplayer games, real-time data visualizations, collaborative tools, and AI streaming responses. It's suitable for anyone needing a scalable, high-performance, and reliable real-time messaging system, from small projects to large enterprise deployments.

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