They're not better than raw sockets, they're simply an abstraction layer on top of them. For example, building a message queuing service using raw sockets that

They're not better than raw sockets, they're simply an abstraction layer on top of them. For example, building a message queuing service using raw sockets that works on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux is quite the undertaking. With ZeroMQ (and I'm assuming nanomsg as well), it's quite simple. ZeroMQ and nanomsg are like raw socket toolboxes.