[V1]

You could also just use Primus which exposes a Stream compatible wrapper by default for the client and server.

https://github.com/primus/primus

(Primus uses engine.io,sockjs,browserchannel,websockets internally so you're no longer locked into a specific framework)

[EGreg]

someone should do primus vs socket.io

why would I need engine.io,websockets for example when engine.io already uses websockets if it can upgrade the connection to them?

[lpinca]

You can't use both. In Primus you can select only one transformer, listed above by V1, but if something doesn't work, you can just switch it with a single line of code. No rewrites, no need to learn a new API.

[EGreg]

I know you can't use both, but doesn't engine.io already support websockets?

[lpinca]

Yes it does, but if you are building something that works perfectly only using websockets (e.g. a command-line utility), why would you use engine.io?

You can tell engine.io to only use websockets, but what's the point if you can use websockets directly and have the same API?