Proto.Actor vs Erlang and Akka
Proto.Actor builds on ideas popularised by Erlang/OTP and Akka but aims to provide a minimal, cross-language runtime.
Similarities
- Actor model: all three use message passing, supervision and isolation.
- Failure handling: supervisors restart failed actors instead of sharing memory.
Differences
- Language support: Erlang targets the BEAM VM; Akka focuses on JVM and Scala/Java; Proto.Actor provides implementations for .NET and Go with similar APIs.
- Minimalism: Proto.Actor intentionally keeps the core small. Features such as persistence or clustering are optional packages, whereas Akka and Erlang ship with many batteries included.
- Ecosystem: Erlang and Akka have decades of libraries built around their runtimes. Proto.Actor emphasises portability and interoperability across languages.
Choosing a framework
If you already rely heavily on the BEAM or JVM ecosystems, Erlang or Akka may offer richer tooling. Proto.Actor is a good fit when you need a lightweight actor runtime in .NET or Go that can integrate with existing message queues, logs or services.
