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We compare Consul to SmartStack here: https://www.consul.io/intro/vs/smartstack.html

With a tool like consul-template, you can have the same behavior that Synapse gives you. https://hashicorp.com/blog/introducing-consul-template.html

In the general case, clients of Consul don't need special handling code for events, it's handled by Consul for you.

Consul provides service discovery via a REST API and via DNS. I had to make some small configuration and code changes to my existing services to make use of SRV records. They have no knowledge of Consul's existence.

As far as I understand, the less involved method is:

Consul: your calling webservice uses a DNS name served by consul. Consul responds with a pool of working servers. As soon as one fails, consul doesn't include its address anymore, and hence the calling services stop talking to it.

Some more info here: https://consul.io/intro/vs/smartstack.html