When comparing Total.js vs Sails.js, the Slant community recommends Sails.js for most people. In the question“What are the best node.js web frameworks?” Sails.js is ranked 4th while Total.js is ranked 7th. The most important reason people chose Sails.js is:
Sails.js is built with a focus on building real time communication apps such as chat or multiplayer games, so naturally it has Socket.io extremely well supported.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro No dependencies
Which in other words means, a high performance solid core which provides you with a with a minimal (but stable) layer to build your app on.
Pro Websocket support
Up to date with Websocket RFC 6455.
Pro Automated compression
Minification and gzip compression is built in and automatic.
Pro Good documentation and examples
Often updated examples and well written documentation.
Pro Getting the things done efficiently without useless ceremony
Following and adding to Node.js the proven battle-tested paradigm implemented by Django, Laravel & ASP.NET MVC.
Pro Good support
Pro Really reactive community and developers on their Chat
Pro Working on all versions of the node.js
Pro Transparent support for Socket.io
Sails.js is built with a focus on building real time communication apps such as chat or multiplayer games, so naturally it has Socket.io extremely well supported.
Pro MVC architecture
This could be a huge plus, if you prefer to build your apps using the Model View Controller architecture. Using Sails.js you'll find the task of separating the business logic from the user interface and keeping the interactions between them in a separate layer, extremely easy.
Pro JSON API generated for free
Exposes public JSON API for free. No additional routing to be defined. Makes it pretty easy to access data from anywhere.
Pro ORM that can be plugged into any database, or even custom web service
Sails.js uses Waterline ORM at its backend which means you can store your data in any datastore that you like; all you have to do is make a change to the Waterline adapter, this will allow you to store your data in MySQL/Redis or any other kind of database.
Pro So easy to deploy and lift
Pro Great documentation and structure
Clear documentation and easy to understand. The file structure gives you a way to understand where you can start to develop when you encounter a new Sails project
Cons
Con Developed only by one person
Framework is developed by only one person.
Con Paid support
Framework lacks any community, if you need support you are forced to buy support package from developer.
Con Best practices
This framework doesn't adhere to any best practices in software development.
Con Poor design
Framework is designed very poorly, autocomplete in IDEs don't work.
Con Poor documentation
Source code is very poorly documented, only available information is on the official website.
Con Prototype pollution
Con Node IDE support or Autocomplete
Con Poor performance
Con Poor ORM
The built-in Waterline is not well designed and is not suitable for production environments. Populating more than 1 level deep is a nightmare, there is no transaction support, new features/bug fixes are not implemented anywhere near a timely manner (the most requested feature 'deep populate' has been lingering in their github issues list for over a year and a half now).