Colyseus vs Faye
Colyseus
colyseus.ioFaye
faye.jcoglan.comSide by side
| Figure | Colyseus | Faye |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $15/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 1 |
| Spec score · WebSocket Tools | 9.3 (#1) | 8.8 (#3) |
| License | The repository is released under the MIT license, permitting commercial use, modification and redistribution with notices retained. | Faye is open-source software released under the Apache 2.0 license. |
| Scaling | The project describes scaling from about 10 to more than 10,000 concurrent users using vertical or horizontal scaling with Redis and load balancers. | The default in-process engine cannot run one Faye service across multiple front-end web servers; separate Redis and Couchbase engines are documented for distributed deployments. |
| What it does | Colyseus is an open-source Node.js framework for authoritative multiplayer game servers with real-time synchronization and matchmaking. | Faye is a publish-subscribe messaging system based on the Bayeux protocol. |
Plans
In their own words
Colyseus
Colyseus is an open-source Node.js framework for building real-time multiplayer games, with built-in matchmaking and state synchronization. Its authoritative server design has clients send inputs while the server decides game outcomes. Developers define game state on the server, and Colyseus synchronizes it to clients without manual serialization. The framework creates rooms and matches players automatically; rooms can be distributed across processes or machines. The site says this can scale from 10 to 10,000+ concurrent users. SDKs or integrations are listed for JavaScript, Unity, Godot, GameMaker, Defold, Haxe, C, and Construct 3. The MIT-licensed framework is free for commercial games and can be self-hosted as a standard Node.js application on cloud services or bare metal. Colyseus Cloud provides deployment, scaling, and monitoring across 32 global locations. Its Cloud plan starts at $15/mo and includes email support, while the free Open Source plan includes community support. Cloud has no free tier or automatic scaling; heavier workloads require upgrading deployment resources through the dashboard.
Faye
Faye is a publish-subscribe messaging system that uses the Bayeux protocol. It provides message servers for Node.js and Ruby, plus clients for servers and major web browsers. Browser clients rely on a Faye server to relay messages; they can retry after a lost connection and redeliver dropped messages. Transport adapters cover WebSocket, HTTP long-polling, Cross Origin Resource Sharing, and JSON-P callback-polling. Server and client extensions can intercept or modify messages, including to add subscription authentication. The monitoring API reports handshakes, subscriptions, unsubscriptions, publishes, and disconnections. Faye runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows, and can be self-hosted. Its default in-process engine cannot span multiple front-end web servers, but Redis and Couchbase engines are documented for distributed deployments. Faye is free and open source under the Apache 2.0 license; the listed plan is free. Install the Node.js server through npm or the Ruby server through RubyGems.