What is Pusher used for?

Pusher provides hosted WebSocket channels and push notifications so developers can add realtime updates to web and mobile apps without running their own servers. It is a good fit for live notifications and activity feeds, and collaborative or live-updating interfaces.

Is Pusher open source?

No. Pusher is proprietary (closed-source) software and can't be self-hosted. Open-source alternatives to Pusher include Mercure, Centrifugo and Deepstream.io.

What are some alternatives to Pusher?

Pusher competes with Ably, PubNub and Liveblocks. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source Pusher alternatives.

Pusher: features, pricing and alternatives

About Pusher

Pusher is a commercial hosted service for adding realtime behavior to applications. Its Channels product handles WebSocket connections and publish-subscribe messaging, so a server can broadcast events to many connected browsers or mobile apps without the developer operating that infrastructure.

Channels supports public, private and presence channels, which allows apps to restrict who can listen and to show who is currently online. A separate push notification product covers messages to mobile devices. Client and server libraries are available for many languages and frameworks, and the service is popular for features such as live feeds, notifications and collaborative interfaces. It is delivered only as a hosted service.

Key features

Hosted WebSocket publish-subscribe channels
Private channels with server-side authorization
Presence channels showing connected users
Mobile push notification delivery
Client and server libraries for many languages

Good fit for

→Live notifications and activity feeds
→Collaborative or live-updating interfaces

Tags: websockets; realtime; pub-sub; push-notifications; messaging; api; backend

Pusher: questions and answers

What is Pusher used for?: Pusher provides hosted WebSocket channels and push notifications so developers can add realtime updates to web and mobile apps without running their own servers. It is a good fit for live notifications and activity feeds, and collaborative or live-updating interfaces.
Is Pusher free?: Yes. Pusher has a free plan.
Is Pusher open source?: No. Pusher is proprietary (closed-source) software and can't be self-hosted. Open-source alternatives to Pusher include Mercure, Centrifugo and Deepstream.io.
What are some alternatives to Pusher?: Pusher competes with Ably, PubNub and Liveblocks. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source Pusher alternatives.