No. 1 of 38 ·Message Broker Software

Faye

Web · Windows · Mac · Linux · Self-hosted

Freedom report

Three barsScore 6.6

Free tierA free tier is on its own pricing page
Open codeNo open-source code on record
Runs widely4 of 6 device platforms
DocumentedPlans, terms and facts published

Faye is ranked #1 of 38 in message broker software on Freedom251. It runs on Linux, macOS, Self-hosted, Web, Windows. There is a free plan.

Faye plans and pricing

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Faye Free Open-source software · Apache 2.0 license faye.jcoglan.com · 4 Oct 2026

Compared on message broker software

Deployment model: self_hosted
Delivery guarantees: configurable
Supported protocols: Bayeux

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The record

Purpose: Faye is a publish-subscribe messaging system based on the Bayeux protocol.
Server and clients: It provides message servers for Node.js and Ruby and clients for servers and major web browsers.
Browser requirement: Browser clients require a Faye server to handle message delivery between clients.
Messaging transports: The adapters support WebSocket, HTTP long-polling, Cross Origin Resource Sharing, and JSON-P callback-polling.
Client recovery: The browser client periodically retries after a lost connection and can redeliver dropped messages.
Scaling: 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.
Integrations: The download instructions provide installation through npm for Node.js and RubyGems for Ruby.
Extensions: Server and client extensions can intercept and modify incoming or outgoing messages, including to implement subscription authentication.
Security: Faye allows cross-domain access and unrestricted publishing and subscribing by default, so the documentation advises adding application-appropriate restrictions.
Transport security: The security guide advises using HTTPS to protect messages and the HTTP transport from eavesdroppers.
Monitoring: The monitoring API can report client handshakes, subscriptions, unsubscriptions, publishes, and disconnections.
Notable browser limit: The documentation advises creating one client per target server because browsers impose per-host connection limits.
License and release: The site lists version 1.4.2, released 14 September 2026, under the Apache 2.0 license.
Maker: The site credits James Coglan as Faye’s maker.
Price from: Free

Where it ranks on Freedom251

Best Message Broker Software in 2026#1 of 38

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Sources

faye.jcoglan.com· checked 4 Oct 2026
faye.jcoglan.com/browser.html· checked 4 Oct 2026
faye.jcoglan.com/architecture.html· checked 4 Oct 2026
faye.jcoglan.com/node/engines.html· checked 4 Oct 2026
faye.jcoglan.com/download.html· checked 4 Oct 2026
faye.jcoglan.com/node/extensions.html· checked 4 Oct 2026
faye.jcoglan.com/security.html· checked 4 Oct 2026
faye.jcoglan.com/node/monitoring.html· checked 4 Oct 2026