Centrifugal Centrifugo by centrifugal
Scalable real-time messaging server in a language-agnostic way. Self-hosted alternative to Pubnub, Pusher, Ably, socket.io, Phoenix.PubSub, SignalR. Set up once and forever.
About Centrifugal Centrifugo
From the project's README at github.com/centrifugal/centrifugo. Lightly cleaned for readability; for the full source see the upstream repo.
Centrifugo is an open-source scalable real-time messaging server. Centrifugo can instantly deliver messages to application online users connected over supported transports (WebSocket, HTTP-streaming, Server-Sent Events (aka EventSource), GRPC, WebTransport). Centrifugo has the concept of channel subscriptions - so it's a user-facing PUB/SUB server.
Centrifugo is language-agnostic and can be used to build chat apps, live comments, multiplayer games, real-time data visualizations, collaborative tools, etc. in combination with any backend. It is well suited for modern architectures and allows decoupling the business logic from the real-time transport layer.
Several official client SDKs for browser and mobile development wrap the bidirectional protocol. In addition, Centrifugo supports a unidirectional approach for simple use cases with no SDK dependency. Documentation
Centrifugo official documentation site Installation instructions Getting started tutorial Design overview and idiomatic usage Build a WebSocket chat/messenger app with Centrifugo tutorial Centrifugal blog FAQ Join community
Health score breakdown
6-dimension composite. See methodology for formula and weights.
Adoption signals
Real-world usage data, pulled from each registry. The bigger the numbers, the more battle-tested the project.
| Signal | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | 10k | github.com/centrifugal/centrifugo |
| GitHub forks | 698 | github.com/centrifugal/centrifugo |
Release & maintenance
Is this project actively maintained, or about to die? Check the recency of last commit and last release.
| Project age | 11.1 years | since Mar 2015 |
| Last commit | 5 days ago | May 2, 2026 |
| Releases shipped | 146 | last: 14 days ago |
| Security policy | SECURITY.md | declared by maintainers |
| Funding links | 1 | declared by maintainers |
Self-hosting cost across providers
Detected requirements: 4GB RAM, 40GB disk minimum. Cheapest plan per provider that meets the requirement.
| Provider | Plan | Specs | Monthly | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| hetzner | CAX11 | 2c · 4GB · 40GB | $4.13 USD | Deploy → |
| vultr | VC2 | 1c · 1GB · 25GB | $5 USD | Deploy → |
| linode | Nanode 1GB | 1c · 1GB · 25GB | $5.12 USD | Deploy → |
| digitalocean | Basic Regular 1GB | 1c · 1GB · 25GB | $6 USD | Deploy → |
Security advisories
CVE-2026-32301. What people say on Hacker News
- China tests hypergravity centrifuge that compresses time and space
- Centrifuge Launches Tokenized S&P 500 Index Fund on Coinbase's Base Network
- The Universe of Discourse: A puzzle about balancing test tubes in a centrifuge
- China Built an Underground Hypergravity Machine
- Apparatus for facilitating the birth of a child by centrifugal force
Ready to self-host Centrifugal Centrifugo?
Spin up a hetzner CAX11 (4GB RAM, 40GB disk) for $4.13/mo and follow the project's official install docs.
Data last refreshed May 7, 2026.
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