eventemitter3 vs mitt vs nanoevents vs signals
Event Emitter Libraries Comparison
1 Year
eventemitter3mittnanoeventssignalsSimilar Packages:
What's Event Emitter Libraries?

Event emitter libraries are essential tools in JavaScript for implementing the observer pattern, enabling asynchronous communication between different parts of an application. They allow objects to emit events and other objects to listen for those events, facilitating decoupled and modular code. These libraries are particularly useful in scenarios where components need to communicate without being tightly coupled, such as in UI frameworks, state management, and real-time applications. Each library has its unique features, performance characteristics, and use cases, making it important to choose the right one based on project requirements.

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eventemitter353,771,8753,44873.4 kB172 years agoMIT
mitt11,297,71811,44026.4 kB222 years agoMIT
nanoevents242,7581,5785.43 kB09 months agoMIT
signals24,2651,977-1813 years ago-
Feature Comparison: eventemitter3 vs mitt vs nanoevents vs signals

Performance

  • eventemitter3:

    EventEmitter3 is designed for performance, offering a highly optimized event dispatching mechanism that minimizes overhead. It can handle a large number of events and listeners efficiently, making it suitable for high-frequency event scenarios.

  • mitt:

    Mitt is extremely lightweight and fast, with a minimalistic design that ensures low overhead. Its performance is excellent for small to medium-sized applications, although it may not be as optimized for large-scale event handling as some other libraries.

  • nanoevents:

    Nanoevents boasts a very small footprint and is optimized for speed, making it one of the fastest event emitters available. It is particularly effective in performance-sensitive applications where every millisecond counts.

  • signals:

    Signals provide a robust performance profile, particularly in complex applications where event management can become cumbersome. While not as lightweight as some alternatives, it offers a good balance of performance and structure.

API Design

  • eventemitter3:

    EventEmitter3 features a straightforward API that includes methods for adding, removing, and emitting events. Its simplicity allows developers to quickly implement event-driven architectures without a steep learning curve.

  • mitt:

    Mitt has an extremely simple API with just three methods: on, off, and emit. This minimalism is beneficial for developers who want to avoid unnecessary complexity and focus on core functionality.

  • nanoevents:

    Nanoevents offers a clean and intuitive API that allows for both single and multiple listeners. It supports chaining and provides a clear way to manage event subscriptions, making it easy to use and understand.

  • signals:

    Signals provide a more structured API that includes features like strong typing and event management capabilities. This can be beneficial for larger applications where event handling needs to be more organized.

Memory Usage

  • eventemitter3:

    EventEmitter3 is optimized for low memory usage, making it suitable for applications where resource efficiency is critical. Its design minimizes the memory footprint while maintaining performance.

  • mitt:

    Mitt is extremely lightweight, resulting in very low memory consumption. This makes it an excellent choice for small applications or when minimizing bundle size is a priority.

  • nanoevents:

    Nanoevents is designed to be memory-efficient, ensuring that it does not introduce significant overhead even when managing a large number of events and listeners.

  • signals:

    Signals may use slightly more memory due to its structured approach and additional features, but it provides better management capabilities for complex event flows.

Use Cases

  • eventemitter3:

    EventEmitter3 is well-suited for applications that require high-frequency event handling, such as real-time data streaming, gaming, or complex UI interactions where performance is paramount.

  • mitt:

    Mitt is ideal for small to medium-sized applications where simplicity and minimalism are desired. It's perfect for projects that need basic event handling without the overhead of more complex libraries.

  • nanoevents:

    Nanoevents is great for performance-critical applications that require efficient event handling, such as animations, game development, or real-time applications where speed is essential.

  • signals:

    Signals are best for larger applications with complex event management needs, such as state management libraries or frameworks where structured event handling is beneficial.

Extensibility

  • eventemitter3:

    EventEmitter3 is not designed for extensibility but provides a solid foundation for event-driven architectures. Developers can extend its functionality if needed, but it remains focused on performance.

  • mitt:

    Mitt is intentionally minimal and does not offer extensibility features. It is designed for straightforward use cases where additional functionality is not required.

  • nanoevents:

    Nanoevents allows for some level of extensibility, enabling developers to create custom event types and manage listeners effectively, making it flexible for various use cases.

  • signals:

    Signals offer extensibility through a structured approach, allowing developers to create complex event systems and manage dependencies effectively, making it suitable for larger applications.

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

    Choose EventEmitter3 for high-performance applications where you need a lightweight and efficient event emitter with a simple API. It's particularly suitable for scenarios requiring a large number of events and listeners due to its optimized performance.

  • mitt:

    Select Mitt if you need a minimalistic and straightforward event emitter without any dependencies. It's ideal for small projects or when you want to keep your bundle size low while still having a functional event system.

  • nanoevents:

    Opt for Nanoevents when you want a highly efficient and compact event emitter that supports both single and multiple listeners. Its focus on performance and simplicity makes it a great choice for performance-critical applications.

  • signals:

    Use Signals if you prefer a more structured approach to event handling with support for strong typing and better management of event listeners. It's particularly useful in applications where you need to manage complex event flows and dependencies.

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