I want to build a real-time multiplayer game using nodejs as a backend and preferrably socket.io. I have had a very tough time researching anything reliable online on what the best ways to perform this are as well as the pros and cons of it.

Could someone point me in the right direction? I am open to as many other options as well. The thing I like about the idea of using nodejs is that it is something I am familiar with and I find it can be very fast and light weight. But does it integrate well with unity and mobile? Where should I go as a resource to learn more about servers and multiplayer game development in general?

Its also important to note that I have tried out Photon as well as UNET and I do enjoy them but I am looking for other options...

Anyway, thanks in advance. Looking forward to seeing your responses.

Client websocket libraries for Unity and mobile-native may not be as robust as those built into a browser.

The only reason to use Websockets is really that it's hard to get real-time communications out of browsers in other ways. When the platform is not a browser, other options open up.

If you're writing native code, how about using nodejs, but with UDP sockets? They are fully supported in nodejs. Or, if you don't like to build some kind of replication protocol on top of UDP, you could use plain TCP sockets (although they are not as good on lossy networks as UDP about latency.)