# Centrifugo vs Pusher Channels (slim)

> Centrifugo scores 63.1 (B) to Pusher Channels's 51.9 (D) for realtime events. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/centrifugo-vs-pusher-channels.md (~2,350 tokens) · this version ~780 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/centrifugo-vs-pusher-channels.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/centrifugo-vs-pusher-channels
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-09

Centrifugo scores 63.1 (B) on agent readiness against Pusher Channels's 51.9 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Pusher Channels leads on security & auth and transparency & trust. Both do realtime events.

- Centrifugo: B 63.1, rank #407 of 950 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/centrifugo.min.md
- Pusher Channels: D 51.9, rank #744 of 950 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pusher-channels.min.md
- Centrifugo, good for A team that wants to run its own realtime channel server and publish to browsers and apps from any backend, with history, recovery and presence. Ahead on Reliability, 86 against 63; Schema & documentation, 81 against 35; Agent ergonomics, 76 against 45; Payments & pricing, 60 against 30; Maintenance & community, 86 against 76. Also Open source.
- Pusher Channels, good for Pushing live updates from a server to browsers and mobile apps, with presence and server-signed private channels. Ahead on Security & auth, 52 against 37; Transparency & trust, 78 against 56. Also A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install; Free to start without a card; No incidents deducted, where Centrifugo loses 6 points for them.

| Category | Centrifugo | Pusher Channels |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 86 | 63 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 81 | 35 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 76 | 45 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 37 | 52 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 30 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 86 | 76 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 56 | 78 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Centrifugo | Pusher Channels |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Centrifugal Labs LTD | Pusher Ltd (a Bird company) |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api-<cluster>.pusher.com` |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 for the open-source server. Centrifugo PRO is a closed commercial build under the Centrifugo PRO Licence Agreement | Proprietary service under Bird's general terms and product specific terms. The client and server libraries on GitHub are MIT |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-09-28 | 2026-10-02 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2024-11-21 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-08-31 |
| Customer content may train models |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | yes |
| Popularity | 11k stars | 2.2k stars, 1.4M npm/wk, 638k PyPI/wk |