Kuzzle case study

Author: Bart van den Berg <Barvand>

Kuzzle logo

Introduction

Kuzzle is a powerful and adaptable backend platform tailored for building complex, real-time applications across diverse fields, from IoT and smart city solutions to enterprise-scale systems. Designed to streamline backend development, Kuzzle equips developers with essential tools and services that allow them to focus on creating unique business logic, eliminating the need to reinvent common backend functionalities.

With built-in features like real-time data synchronization, advanced search, and secure user management, Kuzzle provides a scalable and high-performance foundation for applications where reliability and flexibility are paramount.

By supporting self-hosted and managed deployment options, Kuzzle also offers a level of control that is ideal for industries requiring strict data security and low-latency processing, making it a go-to choice for developers building future-ready applications in data-intensive environments.

Brief History

The following timeline highlights Kuzzle’s development milestones:

2015: Kuzzle was founded.
2016: Kuzzle launched as an open-source project.
2017 - 2018: Kuzzle expands its focus on real-time and IoT applications. Gaining traction within the industries requiring complex data management (Smart city infrastructure & Healthcare).
2019: The release of Kuzzle v2. V2 introduced enhanced real-time capabilities, improved API management, a more extensible plugin system, robust security features, and expanded protocol support, making Kuzzle even more powerful and flexible.
2020: Expansion of IoT and enterprise capabilities
2021: Update on SDK and client libraries for a smoother integration across multiple platforms.
Security updates and the encouragement of community contributions.
2023 - Present: Expanded protocol support, enterprise offerings, Ai and Machine Learning integrations.

Main Features

Kuzzle is a powerful backend solution designed for building scalable and real-time applications. Its main features include:

Data Storage and Access

Kuzzle provides real-time data synchronization capabilities, which is crucial for applications that require instant updates (e.g., social media feeds, live auctions, or chat applications).

WebSockets & HTTP: Kuzzle supports both WebSockets and HTTP protocols for seamless communication between the backend and client applications. WebSockets are ideal for maintaining persistent connections, ensuring real-time updates, while HTTP is useful for traditional request-response patterns.
Realtime Engine & Pub/Sub: Kuzzle’s Realtime Engine is built on a Publish/Subscribe (Pub/Sub) model, where data is pushed to clients as soon as it’s available. Developers can create dedicated communication channels (rooms) to which clients can subscribe, and any event in those rooms will trigger real-time updates to the clients subscribed to that room.
Custom Event Handling: The Pub/Sub model allows users to define custom events, letting developers fine-tune how they want to trigger data changes based on specific conditions or user actions.

Kuzzle pub/sub system

Advanced Search

Kuzzle offers highly customizable search capabilities, built on top of Elasticsearch. This allows developers to execute sophisticated queries on large datasets efficiently.

Full-text Search: Developers can implement complex search features, such as full-text search, to find documents based on keywords, stemming, and fuzzy matching.
Geospatial Queries: Kuzzle enables geospatial queries, allowing developers to search for documents based on their geographical location. This is useful for applications involving maps, location-based services, or geo-aware recommendations.
Faceted Search: You can use filters to refine results based on attributes like categories, dates, or custom tags, enhancing the user experience and making data retrieval more efficient.

Data Persistence

Kuzzle uses Elasticsearch as a NoSQL document storage backend, providing efficient data indexing and retrieval.

Indexing and Querying: With Elasticsearch, documents are indexed by fields, making queries extremely fast even as the dataset grows. Developers can index documents in real-time and perform complex queries to fetch data instantly.
Horizontal Scalability: Kuzzle’s Elasticsearch-based storage allows horizontal scaling, meaning you can add more nodes to handle larger amounts of data as your application grows.
Automatic Sharding and Replication: Elasticsearch automatically handles data sharding (splitting data across different servers) and replication (copying data to multiple nodes), ensuring availability and fault tolerance.

User Management

Kuzzle’s built-in user authentication and management system helps streamline user access and security for applications.

Multi-Authentication: Kuzzle supports various authentication methods, including password-based, OAuth, JWT (JSON Web Tokens), and more. This flexibility enables developers to choose the right method for their application’s security model.
Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): With RBAC, developers can define user roles and their permissions. You can create roles such as admin, user, or custom roles, and assign permissions at different levels (read, write, execute) for different parts of your application.
Security Features: Kuzzle ensures that all user data is protected through encrypted communications (e.g., HTTPS, WebSocket Secure), and sensitive data is stored in a secure manner.

API Generation

Kuzzle simplifies backend API development by automatically generating RESTful and WebSocket APIs, providing developers with ready-to-use endpoints for frontend integration.

Automatic REST API: Kuzzle creates CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) endpoints for data models, meaning developers don’t have to manually build APIs from scratch.
WebSocket API: Real-time functionality is integrated directly into the WebSocket API. This is essential for applications requiring live data feeds or instant communication.
Custom API Extensions: Beyond the default APIs, Kuzzle allows you to create custom API extensions to meet specific use cases, giving you flexibility for handling more complex requirements.

Plugins and Extensibility

Kuzzle is built to be extensible, supporting custom plugins that enhance or change its default behavior.

Custom Plugin Development: Developers can write plugins to add additional functionality, whether it’s for integrating with external services, altering API behavior, or adding specific business logic to Kuzzle’s core services.
Plugin Ecosystem: Kuzzle offers an ecosystem of existing plugins to extend its functionality, such as plugins for data validation, notifications, integration with external services, and more.
Event-driven Architecture: Plugins can hook into specific events within the platform (e.g., data changes, user authentication) to perform actions, such as sending notifications or triggering workflows.

Cross-Platform

Kuzzle’s flexibility extends to various front-end frameworks and mobile platforms.

JavaScript/TypeScript SDKs: Kuzzle offers official SDKs for integrating with popular frameworks like React, Vue, and Angular. These SDKs allow developers to manage user authentication, real-time data synchronization, and more from the client-side application.
Mobile Frameworks: Kuzzle also supports mobile applications built with React Native and Flutter. For mobile platforms, Kuzzle’s WebSocket capabilities ensure real-time updates on both iOS and Android.
Cross-Platform Synchronization: By providing WebSocket support, Kuzzle enables seamless data synchronization across devices, whether on a web application, mobile application, or IoT devices, making it a versatile backend solution for any project.

Use cases

Kuzzle’s diverse capabilities make it suitable for a wide range of applications, including

Real-Time Web and mobile applications With WebSocket technology, Kuzzle enables real-time applications, such as chat apps, where messages and notifications appear instantly across devices.
E Commerce Platforms: Kuzzle’s inventory and stock tracking capabilities make it ideal for e-commerce.
Geo tracking Kuzzle’s real-time data capabilities are beneficial for tracking vehicles and assets.
All use cases Kuzzle offers robust backend solutions well-suited for applications requiring real-time tracking, monitoring, and data synchronization. For a comprehensive list of use cases, see kuzzle use cases.

High-Profile Use Cases: Kuzzle IoT in Action

Kuzzle IoT was selected as the data and IoT platform for the Finistère Smart Connect project, connecting 270 municipalities across the region. This initiative marks the first department-wide smart territory network in France.

With 475,000+ connected sensors and equipment, Kuzzle IoT monitors these smart territories in real-time through a territorial hypervisor, enabling data-driven decision-making and smarter urban management.

For detailed insights on how Kuzzle IoT powers the Smart City transformation, check out the Smart City Case Study.

Market comparison Firebase & AWS Amplify

When choosing a backend platform, it’s essential to consider the specific needs for your project. Below is a comparison of Kuzzle, Firebase and AWS Amplify.

Feature	Kuzzle	Firebase	AWS Amplify
Core Focus	Real-time backend for IoT, mobile, and web apps	Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS) with real-time capabilities	Full-stack development platform with backend services
Database	Elasticsearch (NoSQL)	Firestore (NoSQL), Realtime Database	DynamoDB, Aurora, and others (supports multiple databases)
Real-Time Capabilities	Strong real-time with Pub/Sub	Real-time Database, Firestore (limited)	WebSocket support, AppSync (GraphQL-based)
User Authentication	Built-in with role-based access control	Firebase Authentication	Cognito for user management and authentication
Search	Advanced search with full-text and geospatial queries	Limited full-text search, no native geospatial	Limited search capabilities
API Support	REST, WebSocket, MQTT (custom plugins)	REST, WebSocket (limited)	REST, GraphQL, WebSocket
Extensibility	Plugin system for custom functionality	Limited (Firebase Extensions)	Highly extensible with AWS services
Data Storage and Persistence	Persistent storage via Elasticsearch	Persistent storage via Firestore or Realtime Database	Persistent storage with various AWS databases
Scalability	Scalable (requires server setup)	Highly scalable with Google infrastructure	Highly scalable with AWS infrastructure
Pricing	Enterprise plans, open-source options	Pay-as-you-go with free tier	Pay-as-you-go, based on AWS usage
Open Source	Yes	No	No
Ideal Use Cases	IoT, smart cities, real-time tracking, and geospatial applications	Mobile/web apps, simple real-time apps	Enterprise-level, full-stack applications
Community and Support	Active community, enterprise support available	Large community, extensive documentation	AWS support plans, extensive resources
Serverless Support	No (requires dedicated server)	Yes (fully serverless)	Yes (supports serverless architecture)
Developer Learning Curve	Moderate to steep (requires familiarity with Elasticsearch and real-time systems)	Easy for basic use; some complexity with scaling and security	Moderate (integrates various AWS services, requires AWS knowledge)

Conclusion

Kuzzle is ideal for developers working on real-time, IoT, or complex applications requiring advanced data management. It’s particularly suited for industries like smart cities and healthcare.
Firebase excels in rapid development, especially for mobile and web apps that don’t require complex backends. It’s a go-to choice for simple, serverless applications.
AWS Amplify is perfect for enterprise-level applications needing high scalability and integration with the broader AWS ecosystem, but it may be overkill for smaller projects.

Pricing

Kuzzle offers various pricing options based on the hosting solution you choose. They provide both self-hosted and managed cloud services.

Free Plan: Kuzzle offers a free plan, which is suitable for small-scale projects or testing the platform.
Managed Cloud Plans: These start at $1,200 per month. This option includes cloud hosting, allowing you to leverage Kuzzle’s platform without managing the infrastructure yourself.
Premium Support: Kuzzle also offers premium support, which begins at $2,400 per month. This provides additional help and services, such as consulting and direct assistance.

For detailed information on pricing and to get a customized quote based on your needs, you can visit Kuzzle’s official website or reach out to their sales team.