eventemitter3 vs mitt vs nanoevents
Event Emitter Libraries Comparison
1 Year
eventemitter3mittnanoeventsSimilar Packages:
What's Event Emitter Libraries?

Event emitter libraries are essential tools in JavaScript development, allowing for the implementation of the observer pattern, where one or more listeners can subscribe to events emitted by an object. These libraries facilitate communication between different parts of an application, enabling decoupled components to react to events without direct dependencies. They are particularly useful in scenarios involving asynchronous operations, user interactions, or any situation where event-driven architecture is beneficial. Each library offers unique features and performance characteristics, making them suitable for different use cases in web development.

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eventemitter349,273,9493,42573.4 kB172 years agoMIT
mitt10,494,52711,30626.4 kB202 years agoMIT
nanoevents197,7751,5605.43 kB07 months agoMIT
Feature Comparison: eventemitter3 vs mitt vs nanoevents

Performance

  • eventemitter3:

    EventEmitter3 is designed for high performance, making it one of the fastest event emitters available. It minimizes overhead and optimizes memory usage, allowing for efficient handling of a large number of events and listeners without significant performance degradation.

  • mitt:

    Mitt is extremely lightweight and performs well for small to medium-sized applications. Its minimalistic design ensures that it has low overhead, making it suitable for scenarios where performance is critical but complexity is not needed.

  • nanoevents:

    Nanoevents boasts a very small size and is optimized for speed. It is designed to handle events efficiently, making it an excellent choice for performance-sensitive applications where every byte counts.

API Design

  • eventemitter3:

    EventEmitter3 offers a comprehensive API with methods for adding, removing, and emitting events. It supports wildcard events and allows for once-only listeners, providing flexibility for complex event handling scenarios.

  • mitt:

    Mitt features a simple and intuitive API with just three methods: on, off, and emit. This simplicity makes it easy to learn and use, especially for developers looking for a quick solution without the need for extensive documentation.

  • nanoevents:

    Nanoevents provides a clean and straightforward API that is easy to understand. It focuses on the essential methods for event handling, making it accessible for developers who want to implement event-driven architecture without unnecessary complexity.

Memory Usage

  • eventemitter3:

    EventEmitter3 is optimized for memory efficiency, allowing for the handling of numerous listeners without significant memory overhead. This makes it suitable for applications that require a large number of events and listeners.

  • mitt:

    Mitt is designed to be lightweight, resulting in minimal memory usage. It is ideal for small applications or scenarios where memory resources are limited, ensuring that event handling does not lead to bloat.

  • nanoevents:

    Nanoevents has an extremely small memory footprint, making it one of the most memory-efficient event emitters available. This is particularly beneficial for applications that need to maintain performance while managing numerous events.

Use Cases

  • eventemitter3:

    EventEmitter3 is well-suited for complex applications where performance is a critical factor, such as real-time data processing, gaming, or applications with numerous interactive components that require efficient event handling.

  • mitt:

    Mitt is perfect for small to medium-sized projects where simplicity and ease of use are paramount. It is great for quick prototypes or applications that do not require extensive event handling capabilities.

  • nanoevents:

    Nanoevents is ideal for modern web applications that prioritize performance and size. It is particularly useful in scenarios where a lightweight solution is necessary, such as in microservices or serverless architectures.

Extensibility

  • eventemitter3:

    EventEmitter3 allows for extensibility through its robust API, enabling developers to create custom event types and listeners, making it suitable for complex applications that require tailored event handling solutions.

  • mitt:

    Mitt is not designed for extensibility; it focuses on simplicity and ease of use. It is best suited for straightforward applications where advanced features are not required.

  • nanoevents:

    Nanoevents is also minimalistic and does not offer extensive extensibility options. It is designed for developers who want a straightforward event handling solution without the need for additional features.

How to Choose: eventemitter3 vs mitt vs nanoevents
  • eventemitter3:

    Choose EventEmitter3 if you need a robust and high-performance event emitter with a focus on speed and efficiency. It is particularly well-suited for applications that require a large number of events and listeners, as it is optimized for performance and memory usage.

  • mitt:

    Choose Mitt for its simplicity and minimalistic approach. It is ideal for small projects or when you want a lightweight solution without unnecessary complexity. Mitt provides a straightforward API for event handling, making it easy to integrate into any project.

  • nanoevents:

    Choose Nanoevents if you prefer a tiny footprint with a focus on a simple API and high performance. It is designed for modern JavaScript environments and is particularly useful for applications that require a lightweight solution without sacrificing functionality.

README for eventemitter3

EventEmitter3

Version npmCICoverage Status

Sauce Test Status

EventEmitter3 is a high performance EventEmitter. It has been micro-optimized for various of code paths making this, one of, if not the fastest EventEmitter available for Node.js and browsers. The module is API compatible with the EventEmitter that ships by default with Node.js but there are some slight differences:

  • Domain support has been removed.
  • We do not throw an error when you emit an error event and nobody is listening.
  • The newListener and removeListener events have been removed as they are useful only in some uncommon use-cases.
  • The setMaxListeners, getMaxListeners, prependListener and prependOnceListener methods are not available.
  • Support for custom context for events so there is no need to use fn.bind.
  • The removeListener method removes all matching listeners, not only the first.

It's a drop in replacement for existing EventEmitters, but just faster. Free performance, who wouldn't want that? The EventEmitter is written in EcmaScript 3 so it will work in the oldest browsers and node versions that you need to support.

Installation

$ npm install --save eventemitter3

CDN

Recommended CDN:

https://unpkg.com/eventemitter3@latest/dist/eventemitter3.umd.min.js

Usage

After installation the only thing you need to do is require the module:

var EventEmitter = require('eventemitter3');

And you're ready to create your own EventEmitter instances. For the API documentation, please follow the official Node.js documentation:

http://nodejs.org/api/events.html

Contextual emits

We've upgraded the API of the EventEmitter.on, EventEmitter.once and EventEmitter.removeListener to accept an extra argument which is the context or this value that should be set for the emitted events. This means you no longer have the overhead of an event that required fn.bind in order to get a custom this value.

var EE = new EventEmitter()
  , context = { foo: 'bar' };

function emitted() {
  console.log(this === context); // true
}

EE.once('event-name', emitted, context);
EE.on('another-event', emitted, context);
EE.removeListener('another-event', emitted, context);

Tests and benchmarks

This module is well tested. You can run:

  • npm test to run the tests under Node.js.
  • npm run test-browser to run the tests in real browsers via Sauce Labs.

We also have a set of benchmarks to compare EventEmitter3 with some available alternatives. To run the benchmarks run npm run benchmark.

Tests and benchmarks are not included in the npm package. If you want to play with them you have to clone the GitHub repository. Note that you will have to run an additional npm i in the benchmarks folder before npm run benchmark.

License

MIT