Dev tools · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to An extensible pub/sub messaging server for edge applications

hi there! i’ve been working on a project called Narwhal, and I wanted to share it with the community to get some valuable feedback. what is it? Narwhal is a lightweight Pub/Sub server and protocol designed specifically for edge applications. while there are great tools out there like NATS or MQTT, i wanted to build something that prioritizes customization and extensibility. my goal was to create a system where developers can easily adapt the routing logic or message handling pipeline to fit specific edge use cases, without fighting the server's defaults. why Rust? i chose Rust because i…

Narwhal is a lightweight pub/sub messaging server built in Rust for edge applications like Raspberry Pis and small gateways. It handles basic pub/sub messaging patterns with a focus on customization and extensibility… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes.

1. 1
   SocketCluster.io – flexible open-source real-time server with pub/sub▲217

   Scalable open source pub/sub SDK with support for RPC, JWT authentication and Kubernetes — optimized for async/await

   2016 · socketcluster.io · its alternatives →

2. 2
   LocalGPT – A local-first AI assistant in Rust with persistent memory▲331

   I built LocalGPT over 4 nights as a Rust reimagining of the OpenClaw assistant pattern (markdown-based persistent memory, autonomous heartbeat tasks, skills system). It compiles to a single ~27MB binary — no Node.js, Docker, or Python required. Key features: - Persistent memory via markdown files (MEMORY, HEARTBEAT, SOUL markdown files) — compatible with OpenClaw's format - Full-text search (SQLite FTS5) + semantic search (local embeddings, no API key needed) - Autonomous heartbeat runner that checks tasks on a configurable interval - CLI + web interface + desktop GUI - Multi-provider:…

   Feb 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

3. 3
   Low-Level Academy, an explorable systems programming course▲419

   Introduction to UDP: sockets, frames, and data encoding. We build a Rust client for a simple name server that converts domain names into IP addresses.

   2020 · lowlvl.org · its alternatives →

4. 4NA
   Nchan – a pub/sub server as an Nginx module▲149

   2015 · nchan.slact.net · its alternatives →

5. 5PP
   patchbay.pub – Poor man's ngrok/IFTTT/serverless▲362

   2019 · patchbay.pub · its alternatives →

6. 6
   30ms latency screen sharing in Rust▲353

   CLI Native WebRTC Agent in Rust. Contribute to bitwhip/bitwhip development by creating an account on GitHub.

   2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

7. 7
   Portr – open-source ngrok alternative designed for teams▲172

   Expose local http, tcp or websocket connections to the public internet - amalshaji/portr

   2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

8. 8
   Ayder – HTTP-native durable event log written in C (curl as client)▲56

   Hi HN, I built Ayder — a single-binary, HTTP-native durable event log written in C. The wedge is simple: curl is the client (no JVM, no ZooKeeper, no thick client libs). There’s a 2-minute demo that starts with an unclean SIGKILL, then restarts and verifies offsets + data are still there. Numbers (3-node Raft, real network, sync-majority writes, 64B payload): ~50K msg/s sustained (wrk2 @ 50K req/s), client P99 ~3.46ms. Crash recovery after SIGKILL is ~40–50s with ~8M offsets. Repo link has the video, benchmarks, and quick start. I’m looking for a few early design partners (any…

   Jan 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

9. 9
   Ht – HTTPie Clone in Rust▲251

   Friendly and fast tool for sending HTTP requests. Contribute to ducaale/xh development by creating an account on GitHub.

   2021 · github.com · its alternatives →

10. 10
    ArchGW – An intelligent edge and service proxy for agents▲118

    Hey HN! This is Adil, Salman and Jose and and we’re behind archgw [1]. An intelligent proxy server designed as an edge and AI gateway for agents - one that natively know how to handle prompts, not just network traffic. We’ve made several sweeping changes so sharing the project again. A bit of background on why we’ve built this project. Building AI agent demos is easy, but to create something production-ready there is a lot of repeat low-level plumbing work that everyone is doing. You’re applying guardrails to make sure unsafe or off-topic requests don’t get through. You’re clarifying vague…

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

11. 11
    Distributed JMAP and IMAP Servers in Rust▲190

    I am happy to announce Stalwart JMAP [1], an open-source JSON Meta Application Protocol server that aims to be scalable, robust and secure. Some of its key features are: - JMAP Core, JMAP Mail and JMAP over WebSocket full compliance. - IMAP4 rev2/1 support via Stalwart IMAP, an imap-to-jmap proxy [2]. - Scalable and fault tolerant: consensus over Raft, node autodiscovery over gossip and read-only replicas. - RocksDB backend with full-text search support in 17 languages. - OAuth 2.0 authorization code and device authorization flows. - Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM) message signing. -…

    2022 · github.com · its alternatives →

12. 12
    An Elliptic Curve-Based Secure Chat, Written Using Rust and Protobuf▲66

    This is a project I made to learn more about crypto. I've also written a [post](https://vaktibabat.github.io/posts/ecurvechat/) that explains all the crypto concepts and algorithms used in the project, and how I implemented them. I'd be very glad for any feedback about both the code and the post :)

    2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

13. 13
    Developed from my Prison cell: A Libcurl TUI HTTP Client in Rust.▲47

    HTTP client/libcurl TUI front end in Rust, with request + key storage - PThorpe92/CuTE

    2023 · github.com · its alternatives →

14. 14BT
    BusterMQ, Thread-per-core NATS server in Zig with io_uring▲134

    Jan 2026 · bustermq.sh · its alternatives →

15. 15
    Second State Serverless FaaS▲92

    High-performance serverless functions for Rust & WebAssembly

    2020 · secondstate.io · its alternatives →

16. 16
    Karve▲71

    Not much to say. I work on windows, I hate postman, I need to manage bunch of .http files across multiple repositories. So I built a fast and native tool for myself and published it if you want to try it too. Any feedback would be nice, I really want it to be The obvious native Windows home for .http files

    Aug 2026 · karve.dev · its alternatives →

17. 17
    An example GraphQL server written in Rust▲74

    An example GraphQL server written in Rust. Contribute to lucperkins/rust-graphql-juniper-actix-diesel-postgres development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2020 · github.com · its alternatives →

18. 18
    Cant – Library written in Rust that provides PyTorch-like functionality▲50

    Hey! This is something i have been working on. A tiny neural networking lib to learn how something like pytorch works, and to improve my own coding standards.

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

19. 19
    A minimal working Rust / SDL2 / WASM browser game▲82

    "Game" is a stretch, but I put together this repo containing a pure Rust app which uses SDL2 and compiles to WASM (and can be run in a browser). Older resources were a bit out of date and a bit too verbose for my purposes, so here's a minimal working example.

    2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

20. 20
    Rqbit – bittorent CLI and desktop app written in Rust▲78

    A bittorrent client in Rust. Contribute to ikatson/rqbit development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2023 · github.com · its alternatives →

21. 21
    Cap'n-rs – Rust implementation of Cloudflare's Cap'n Web protocol▲52

    Last week Cloudflare released Cap'n Web [1], a schema-free capability-based RPC protocol. I built capn-rs this week - a Rust implementation with full wire protocol compatibility. Links: GitHub: https://github.com/currentspace/capn-rs Crates: https://crates.io/crates/capnweb-server API docs: https://docs.rs/capnweb-server What's working: Wire compatibility verified via integration tests against TypeScript reference Multi-transport: HTTP batch, WebSocket, WebTransport (HTTP/3) Complete IL (intermediate language) expression evaluator…

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

22. 22
    Danube Messaging▲3

    Open-source pub/sub and streaming platform.

    Jun 2026 · danube-messaging.com · its alternatives →

23. 23
    Blitzping – A far faster nping/hping3 SYN-flood alternative with CIDR▲44

    I found hping3 and nmap's nping to be far too slow in terms of sending individual, bare-minimum (40-byte) TCP SYN packets; other than inefficient socket I/O, they were also attempting to do far too much unnecessary processing in what should have otherwise been a tight execution loop. Furthermore, none of them were able to handle CIDR notations (i.e., a range of IP addresses) as their source IP parameter. Being intended for embedded devices (e.g., low-power MIPS/Arm-based routers), Blitzping only depends on standard POSIX headers and C11's libc (whether musl or gnu). To that end,…

    2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

24. 24
    Netty-rs – Rust library to easily write server/client network protocols▲22

    Netty-rs is a networking library written in Rust that is meant to help create stateful and p2p application level protocols.

    2021 · gitlab.com · its alternatives →

Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →