Staxly

Pusher vs Fly.io

Realtime pub/sub WebSocket Channels + programmatic push (Beams)
vs. Run your app close to users, globally

Pusher websiteFly.io website

Pricing tiers

Pusher

Beams: Sandbox
Free. 1K subscribers.
$0 base (usage-based)
Channels: Sandbox
Free. 100 concurrent conns, 200K msg/day.
$0 base (usage-based)
Beams: Startup
$29/mo. 10K subscribers.
$29/mo
Channels: Startup
$49/mo. 500 concurrent conns, 1M msg/day.
$49/mo
Channels: Pro
$99/mo. 2K concurrent conns, 4M msg/day.
$99/mo
Beams: Pro
$99/mo. 50K subscribers.
$99/mo
Beams: Business
$199/mo. 115K subscribers.
$199/mo
Channels: Business
$299/mo. 5K concurrent, 10M msg/day.
$299/mo
Beams: Premium
$399/mo. 250K subscribers.
$399/mo
Channels: Premium
$499/mo. 10K concurrent, 20M msg/day.
$499/mo
Channels: Growth
$699/mo. 15K concurrent, 40M msg/day.
$699/mo
Channels: Plus
$899/mo. 20K concurrent, 60M msg/day.
$899/mo
Channels: Growth Plus
$1,199/mo. 30K concurrent, 90M msg/day.
$1199/mo
Channels: Enterprise
Custom. 10M+ concurrent, 100B+ msg/day. SLA, dedicated support.
Custom
Pusher website

Fly.io

Pay-as-you-go
No monthly fee. Machines billed per second. Free allocations: ~3 small shared machines + 3 GB volumes.
$0 base (usage-based)
Shared CPU 1x — 256 MB
Entry VM. 1 shared vCPU, 256 MB RAM. ~$2.02/month continuously on.
$2/mo
Performance 1x — 2 GB
Dedicated 1 vCPU, 2 GB RAM.
$32/mo
Reservation — Shared (1 yr)
$36/year for $5/mo credit (40% savings).
$36/mo
Shared CPU 8x — 16 GB
8 shared vCPU, 16 GB RAM.
$89/mo
Performance 16x — 128 GB
Dedicated 16 vCPU, 128 GB RAM.
$1014/mo
Enterprise
Custom. Dedicated capacity, SLA.
Custom
Fly.io website

Free-tier quotas head-to-head

Comparing be-sandbox on Pusher vs pay-as-you-go on Fly.io.

MetricPusherFly.io
subscribers1000 subscribers

Features

Pusher · 11 features

  • BeamsPush notifications for iOS/Android/Web with device interest groups.
  • Beams Authenticated UsersTarget users by auth user ID across devices.
  • ChannelsWebSocket pub/sub — realtime events, live updates, notifications.
  • Channels WebhooksReceive server-side notifications of channel activity.
  • Client EventsPublish events from clients directly (triggered from browser).
  • Debug ConsoleLive channel debugging dashboard.
  • Encrypted ChannelsEnd-to-end encrypted messages.
  • Global ClustersUS, EU, AP-Southeast, etc. Pick nearest region.
  • Presence ChannelsTrack who is online in a channel.
  • Private ChannelsAuth-required channels with server-signed tokens.
  • StatsConnection / message dashboards.

Fly.io · 14 features

  • Auto Stop/StartMachines auto-stop when idle, start on request (like scale-to-zero).
  • CertsLet's Encrypt + wildcard certs managed.
  • Fly GPUA100/L40S/A10 on-demand GPU machines.
  • Fly Kubernetes (FKS)Managed Kubernetes on Fly machines.
  • Fly MachinesFirecracker microVMs. Start in <1s. Run any Docker image.
  • Fly PostgresManaged Postgres via Supabase partnership (2024). Also legacy self-run Postgres
  • fly-replay headersRoute request to another region at app level.
  • Fly VolumesPersistent SSD attached to a Machine. Encrypted at rest.
  • Global AnycastSingle IP routes to the closest region automatically.
  • LiteFSDistributed SQLite with primary/replica across regions.
  • Private Networks6PN WireGuard mesh. Connect machines across regions privately.
  • SecretsEncrypted env vars propagated to all regions.
  • Tigris (partner)S3-compatible storage for Fly apps. By partner.
  • Upstash Redis (partner)Managed Redis via Upstash.

Developer interfaces

KindPusherFly.io
CLIflyctl CLI
SDKPusher Beams Android, Pusher Beams iOS, Pusher Beams Web SDK, pusher-http-go, pusher-http-java, pusher-http-php, pusher-js (client), pusher (Node), pusher (Python), pusher (Ruby), PusherSwift, pusher-websocket-java (Android)
RESTBeams Publish API, Pusher HTTP APIMachines API
GRAPHQLFly GraphQL API
OTHERChannels Webhooks, Pusher WebSocketFly Postgres (wire)
Staxly is an independent catalog of developer platforms. Some links to Pusher and Fly.io may be affiliate links — Staxly may earn a commission if you sign up through them, at no extra cost to you. Pricing is verified against vendor pages at publication time — reconfirm before buying.

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