github.com/simpleiot/simpleiot@v0.18.3/docs/user/faq.md (about)

     1  # Frequently Asked Questions
     2  
     3  ### Q: How is SIOT different than Home Assistant, OpenHAB, Domoticz, etc.?
     4  
     5  Although there may be some overlap and Simple IoT may eventually support a
     6  number of off the shelf consumer IoT devices, the genesis and intent of the
     7  project is for developing IoT products and the infrastructure required to
     8  support them.
     9  
    10  ### Q: How is SIOT different than Particle.io, etc.?
    11  
    12  Particle.io provides excellent infrastructure to support their devices and solve
    13  many of the hard problems such as remote FW update, getting data securely from
    14  device to cloud, efficient data bandwidth usage, etc. But they don't provide a
    15  way to provide a user facing portal for a product that customers can use to see
    16  data and interact with the device.
    17  
    18  ### Q: How is SIOT different than AWS/Azure/GCP/... IoT?
    19  
    20  SIOT is designed to be simple to develop and deploy without a lot of moving
    21  parts. We've reduced an IoT system to a
    22  [few basic concepts](https://github.com/simpleiot/simpleiot/tree/master#core-ideas)
    23  that are exactly the same in the cloud and on edge devices. This symmetry is
    24  powerful and allows us to easily implement and move functionality wherever it is
    25  needed. If you need
    26  [Google Scale](https://blog.bradfieldcs.com/you-are-not-google-84912cf44afb),
    27  SIOT may not be the right choice; however, for smaller systems where you want a
    28  system that is easier to develop, deploy, and maintain, consider SIOT.
    29  
    30  ### Q: Can't NATS Jetstream do everything SIOT does?
    31  
    32  This is a good question and I'm not sure yet. NATS has some very interesting
    33  features like Jetstream which can queue data and and store data in a key-value
    34  store and data can be syncronized between instances. NATS also has a concept of
    35  leaf-nodes, which conceptually makes sense for edge/gateway connections.
    36  Jetstream is optimized for data flowing in one direction (ex: orders through
    37  fullfillment). SIOT is optimized for data flowing in any direction and data is
    38  merged using data structures with CRDT (conflic-free replicated data types)
    39  properties. SIOT also stores data in a DAG (directed acyclic graph) which allows
    40  a node to be a child of multiple nodes, which is difficult to do in a
    41  hiearchical namespace. Additionally, each node is defined by an array of points
    42  and modifications to the system are communicated by transferring points. SIOT is
    43  a batteries included complete solution for IoT solutions, including a web
    44  framework, clients for various types of IO (ex: Modbus) and cloud services (ex:
    45  Twilio). We will continue to explore using more of NATS core functionality as we
    46  move forward.