systemd "socket activation" vs xinetd

I use xinetd and it works for my purposes. However I recently discovered that systemd has something built in called "socket activation". These two seem very similar, but systemd is "official" and seems like the better choice. *However before using it, are they really the same? Are there differences I should be aware of?* For example, I want to start some dockerised services only when they are first requested - my first thought would be to use xinetd. But is socket activation better / faster / stabler / whatever?