For businesses relying on real-time chat to enhance user engagement and retention, selecting the ideal chat sdk platform is a critical decision. Whilst PubNub has been a well-known choice, there are also other viable alternatives.
In this blog, we will explore some of the top alternatives to PubNub. But first, let's take a closer look at how PubNub works and some of the main reasons why businesses look for alternatives to PubNub.
PubNub : A quick overview
PubNub is a real-time infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) company offering a cloud-based platform enabling developers to build, manage, and scale real-time applications. Its key offering is a real-time publish/subscribe (pub/sub) messaging API.
In the pub/sub model, messages are dispatched to specific 'channels' or 'topics', and then received by subscribers to these channels. This model allows for scalability and network dynamics, with publishers (senders of messages) and subscribers (receivers), functioning independently. This means that a new chat message or a live game score update can be pushed out to interested users in real-time at scale.
However, the pub/sub approach democratises the construction of real-time messaging systems, leading to a significant amount of custom development.
As a result, businesses may find themselves building some chat features and the chat UI from scratch, a potentially time-consuming and complex process. While PubNub does offer presence and persistence features, implementing a full chat UI and advanced chat functionality still requires significant developer effort. Additionally, voice and video chat capabilities are not natively provided and must be integrated via third-party partners.
In the following sections, we'll delve deeper into the challenges faced when using PubNub and other pub/sub based solutions for building real-time messaging applications.
PubNub's performance limitations
01.
Uneven message ordering
PubNub does not guarantee that messages will be delivered to subscribers in the exact same order in which they were published. While it provides mechanisms for maintaining order, developers need to implement additional logic to ensure message sequencing, which always proved to be complex.
02.
Lack of a reliable message delivery method
Pubnub has a message queue size of 100. If a user experiences a temporary loss of connectivity and published messages exceeds this limit, older messages may be discarded and remain undelivered upon the user's subsequent reconnection.
03.
PubNub's Pub/Sub model typically does not persist messages
If a subscriber is offline or not subscribed to a channel when a message is published, they may miss that message. Developers may need to implement additional systems for message persistence and offline message delivery, which adds to development time.
04.
No in-built user presence indicators
Unlike other real-time messaging platforms like CometChat that offer built-in user presence features, PubNub requires developers to design, implement, and maintain their own system for this purpose. This could consume developer time and effort and add complexity compared to using a chat-focused SDK.
PubNub's security limitations
01.
Lack of Authentication and Security:
PubNub offers no inbuilt authentication or security, potentially making it unsuitable for applications requiring strict access control, and forcing developers to create their own authentication and authorization layers which would incur significant dev time and cost.
02.
Potential for Unwanted Messages:
In an open pub/sub model, there is a risk of receiving unwanted or spam messages. Without proper controls, channels can be prone to unsolicited messages, which can affect user experience and necessitate filtering mechanisms.
03.
Absence of robust compliance standards
PubNub's pub/sub model lacks inbuilt security and privacy measures, burdening developers with the task of ensuring regulatory compliance. In sectors like healthcare and finance, where sensitive data is handled, privacy and compliance are critical.
04.
Channel naming conflicts
Since channel names are typically chosen by users or developers, there's a possibility of naming conflicts or channels with similar names. This can lead to confusion and potential issues in message delivery.
PubNub's pricing limitations
PubNub's pricing now centers on MAU-based plans across Free, Starter, and Pro tiers. The Free plan supports up to 200 MAUs with 1M transactions and 1GB storage for 7 days. The Starter plan costs $98/month for up to 1,000 MAUs, includes BizOps add-on, up to 6 months of storage, and standard support. Pro plans offer custom MAU packages with volume discounts, unlimited storage, dedicated support, and advanced analytics.
Overages are proportional to MAU consumption—if a user exceeds their allowance, they count as multiple MAUs rather than being billed per message or per GB. This MAU-based model simplifies billing, though higher engagement still requires plan monitoring.
PubNub's extendability limitations
While PubNub has its strengths, implementing a complete chat experience still requires additional development. Voice and video chat must be integrated via third-party solutions, and webhooks offer only basic presence triggers. Persistence and presence features are available, but full chat UI, rich messaging, moderation, and engagement features must be built by developers or integrated via partners.
6 Popular alternatives to PubNub
1. Cometchat
CometChat offers a range of solutions that serve various use cases such as one-on-one chat, group conversations, voice & video calling, and more.
It can be easily incorporated into different types of applications, including online marketplaces, dating apps, healthcare apps, and gaming apps.
Key features of CometChat
Highly customizable: Our chat sdks and pre-buit UI components can be tailored to suit the specific needs of different businesses.
Rich engagement features: Features like message reactions, typing indicators, presence indicators, read receipts, file sharing, and more.
Advanced moderation tools: CometChat provides advanced moderation tools like data masking, content moderation, user banning to ensure user safety and compliance with platform rules.
Support for different platforms: CometChat supports different platforms, including Android, iOS, and the web.
Easy integration: CometChat offers several options for integration, including UI Kits, SDKs, and Widgets, allowing businesses to choose the best fit for their needs.
Scalability: CometChat is designed to scale with businesses as they grow, ensuring that the chat experience remains smooth, even with an increase in users.
CometChat is trusted by thousands of customers globally, from small startups to big enterprises, due to its ease of use, robust features, and reliability.
See how Bitdefender supercharged their chat experience.
Learn how Randstad fast-tracked hiring with CometChat.
Find out how Yuga Labs built real conversation into their platform using CometChat.
Direct comparison of PubNub and Cometchat
| Feature | PubNub | CometChat |
|---|---|---|
UI Kits
| PubNub doesn't offer pre-built UI kits and instead relies on SDKs for integration.
| CometChat offers pre-built UI kits to most of the popular frameworks like React, React Native, iOS, Android, Flutter, Angular and Vue.
|
Core chat features
| Requires significant development effort to implement features like search, and presence.
| Core chat features include chat, in-app calling, video calling, swipe to reply, conversational search, and moderation.
|
Development effort
| Easier for experienced developers familiar with SDKs, but requires building chat UI from scratch.
| Fastest development using pre-built UI kits that replicate popular messaging apps; extensive documentation and SDK support available.
|
Custom messages
| Supports custom data objects, but integration into chat experience requires additional development.
| Provides dedicated "Custom Message" feature with metadata and tags for easier identification and categorization.
|
Moderation
| Basic moderation tools like blacklisting and keyword filtering; complex workflows require additional development.
| Includes user banning, muting, blocking, chat history retrieval, and message deletion for moderation.
|
Notifications
| Basic push notifications through platform integrations (FCM, APNs).
| Built-in push, Email, and SMS notifications across platforms, with multiple notification types.
|
Analytics and insights
| Basic metrics on message volume, user activity, and channels.
| Core metrics included; advanced analytics available in Pro plan.
|
Pricing
| MAU-based from Free plan / $98 Starter plan; Pro plans offer custom MAU packages with volume discounts.
| Combination of free and subscription-based plans.
|
AI features
| No built-in AI; external AI can be integrated.
| AI chatbots available in higher-tier plans for support and FAQs.
|
2. Sendbird
Sendbird's solutions serve various use cases across several industries, including gaming, online communities, marketplaces, on-demand services, live-video streaming, and more.
Highlights
Multi-platform support
Real-time messaging and calling
Comprehensive documentation
Limitations
Sendbird's pricing is not scale friendly and they also charge a heft overage fee.
Primitive UI kits that lacks business logic.
Extensive development time
Additional reading
3. StreamChat
However, it's important to note that the platform's customization options, while available, may not be as extensive as some competitors, potentially limiting highly tailored user interfaces.
Additionally, while StreamChat offers solid technical support, the responsiveness and depth of support may vary depending on the subscription tier.
Additional reading
4. Ably
Limitations
Usage-based pricing can escalate with high traffic
Additional security measures may be required for GDPR/HIPAA compliance
Additional reading
5. Socket.io
The main capabilities provided by Socket.IO include:
Real-Time Analytics
Binary Streaming
Instant Messaging and Chat
Document Collaboration
Its event-driven complexity can make development and debugging more intricate, and its resource demands might not align with lightweight or resource-constrained projects.
6. Firebase by Google
Firestore and Realtime Database enable real-time updates for collaborative applications.
Firestore provides a scalable and flexible NoSQL database with real-time data synchronization, allowing developers to build collaborative and responsive applications such as chat apps, live dashboards, and multiplayer games.
Firebase's Realtime Database, though older, similarly enables real-time data updates and synchronization.
Advantages include seamless integration with other Firebase services, straightforward setup, and strong offline support.
However, potential disadvantages include limited querying capabilities, scalability challenges with high write loads, and the need for careful data structuring to optimize performance.
Aarathy Sundaresan
Content Marketer , CometChat
