StreamChat, developed by GetStream, is a powerful and user-friendly solution for integrating chat functionalities into web and mobile applications. However, is it truly the best option available? In this blog post, we will delve into the features offered by StreamChat, explore its limitations compared to its competitors, and highlight some compelling alternatives that can meet your requirements.
A brief synopsis of stream chat: from activity feeds to real-time chat
Originally recognized for its exceptional Activity Feeds API, GetStream expanded its horizons by venturing into the realm of real-time chat. StreamChat, their chat API product, empowers developers to seamlessly incorporate real-time chat features into their applications.
While StreamChat offers an extensive range of features including Messaging API, Chat SDKs, user management, message moderation, channel management, file sharing, and push notifications, it is important to note that their primary focus lies in providing developers with raw APIs to build upon.
This emphasis on developer-centric solutions, while commendable, may leave some businesses seeking more polished options tailored to their specific needs. Let's explore more on common limitations and viable alternatives.
Why do businesses look for alternatives to Streamchat?
When it comes to basic chat implementation, StreamChat's developer-friendly approach is often the first choice. However, when businesses require a more integrated and sophisticated chat experience, StreamChat's capabilities may fall short.
If chat is central to your product, the level of customization and depth offered by StreamChat may not be adequate. The ability to weave the chat functionality into the core product experience could be lacking.
1. The absence of native SMS and email notifications
Notifications are crucial in ensuring consistent user engagement and successful messaging adoption. SMS and email notifications are particularly essential in use-cases like marketplaces, where chat drives revenue and continuity. Disappointingly, StreamChat lacks native support for these notifications.
The need for additional custom development to compensate for the absence of native SMS and email support could mean increased development time and effort.
2. No structured message support
In the modern chat environment, businesses are turning to chat platforms to facilitate major product interactions and actions. The lack of support for structured and interactive messages in StreamChat's SDK, however, restricts the facilitation of these advanced functionalities.
Structured messages play a vital role in marketplace apps for sending product cards or collecting reviews. They are also invaluable tools in telehealth apps to schedule appointments within the chat interface. Unfortunately, supporting such use-cases with StreamChat is far from straightforward.
3. A primitive conversational experience
While StreamChat promises real-time messaging, its overall conversational experience can feel outdated when compared to more refined alternatives. Current chat users anticipate smart replies or AI-assisted conversation prompts as standard features for efficient and engaging conversations. Regrettably, StreamChat does not offer these advanced features.
4. Basic UI kits limitations
StreamChat primarily utilizes chat SDKs for integrations, supplemented by rudimentary UI kits. Whilst these UI kits provide a visual framework for chat functions, they lack comprehensive business logic integration. Consequently, those seeking a solution that marries a user-friendly chat interface with their unique business processes may find StreamChat's UI kits restrictive.
5. Voice and video capabilities shortfalls
StreamChat's voice and video calling, still in its Beta phase, could raise concerns regarding stability and functionality. These features are not readily available and require additional integration, potentially complicating the setup process. The lack of a Moderator Mode, crucial for content management and security, also poses significant challenges.
6. Additional storage costs
An often overlooked aspect of StreamChat is the added costs for image and file transfers, which is charged at $0.12 per GB, plus storage costs at $0.05 per GB. There are even additional fees for image previews and resizing. Bearing in mind these supplementary charges is crucial in understanding the true cost of StreamChat, as they can notably impact your budget depending on your requirements.
Top 5 alternatives to StreamChat
1. CometChat
CometChat is not just a chat API provider; we go a step beyond by recognizing the integral role that chat plays in various sectors like telehealth, marketplaces, social community and dating. We offer particularly tailored chat components for these industries, ensuring a complete and detailed chat solution that blends effortlessly into the core product experience.
Signup for a free trial to test it on your own or schedule a personalized demo tailor made for your use case.
Direct comparison of Streamchat and CometChat
| Features | Streamchat | CometChat |
|---|---|---|
UI kits
| They offer UI kits for select technologies, such as React, Android, and iOS. However, the UI Kit is not completely modular, making it difficult to customize.
Stream's product philosophy is "SDK first," and UI Kits are considered an afterthought.
| CometChat prioritizes time-to-market with ready to go, modular and flexible UI Kits for all popular front end frameworks.
CometChat eliminates the need for custom design for chat as it provides a best-in-class chat UI out of the box with our UI Kits
and Vue.
|
Core chat features
| Stream initially gained recognition for their Activity Feeds API. Over time, they broadened their offerings to include chat services. However, chat is not their sole primary product.
| Cometchat offers chat, in-app calling, and video calling as a unified product. You gain access to all three features without needing to pay separately for each.
|
Development effort
| Good with SDKs but limited customizability.
| Offers the fastest development due to their pre-built UI Kits that mimic popular messaging apps like WhatsApp. These kits include interactive features such as forms, calendars, and cards, and they also allow the integration of any custom message through their SDKs.
Moving beyond mere communication, Cometchat leverages chat as an operational hub,instead of just a communication hub.
|
Custom messages
| Stream does not support custom messages as a built-in feature. Therefore, delivering non-standard messages within the chat will necessitate considerable development effort.
| CometChat offers the ability to create custom interactive messages within our UI kits and SDK. These messages enable you to embed various elements directly into the chat interface, such as forms, product cards, payment links, and calendar schedulers.
|
Moderation
| Stream provides basic moderation tools such as image moderation, regex pattern matching, and profanity filters. Their new moderation platform emphasizes semantic filtering, which may be less effective compared to CometChat's AI-powered approach that analyzes context and intent.
| CometChat stands out with its:
Advanced AI-Powered Moderation: Effectively identifies and addresses a wide range of inappropriate content, including hate speech, bullying, and harassment.
Scalability and Ease of Use: Simplifies moderation workflows and scales seamlessly to accommodate growing user bases.
Comprehensive Feature Set: Encompasses all aspects of chat moderation, including text and image analysis, user profile monitoring, and real-time intervention.
|
Notifications
| Stream does not offer notifications natively. In order to build it, it will take significant development effort.
| Built-in push notification functionality integrated with the chat service.
|
Analytics and insights
| Stream does not provide any usage insights.
| CometChat offers comprehensive data tracking and analysis by including conversation and engagement analytics, user-level data tracking, and AI-powered insights. Businesses can use advanced insights tools to analyze messaging adoption, correlate messaging with user activity, and personalize user experiences.
Data can also be exported via APIs for deeper business analysis.
|
Pricing
| Stream offers separate plans for each of its services. They provide chat, voice, and video calling as distinct products, each requiring separate payment.
| CometChat distinguishes itself by consolidating chat, voice, and video calling into a unified product, available under a single payment. Additionally, CometChat provides a variety of plans including both free and subscription-based options.
|
AI features
| Stream enables you to integrate AI chatbots into your applications using their SDKs.
| CometChat offers a comprehensive AI solution that includes user insights, funnel analysis, and entity insights. It also features conversational tools such as starters, smart replies, summarization, and coaching capabilities, along with moderation tools, all integrated into a single product.
|
What sets CometChat apart is the extensive range of standout features and differentiating factors:
Efficeint UI kits
Best-in-class chat UI kits that significantly reduce the time-to-market for integrating chat features. Our UI kits are designed for modern chat experiences, offering an array of out-of-the-box user experience features that rival popular platforms like WhatsApp or Slack.
Unified real-time engagement solution
With CometChat, businesses get a comprehensive platform that handles all aspects of real-time engagement. Whether it's chat, audio, or video, all these features are integrated seamlessly into one app for a unified experience.
Industry-specific solutioning
Deep out-of-the-box solutions tailored to fit the unique needs of each industry.
Language-agnostic integration
CometChat provides UI Kits and SDKs that are compatible with all popular frameworks across web, android, and iOS. This language-agnostic approach ensures that whatever your preferred framework, CometChat can accommodate.
Scalability
Regardless of the size of your user base, CometChat has you covered. From early-stage startups with a few thousand users to massive enterprises with millions of monthly active users, the platform is designed to scale effortlessly, ensuring all users experience optimal performance.
Read what successful customers have to say about CometChat
2. Pubnub
The Publish-Subscribe model is a messaging pattern used in distributed systems where senders (publishers) categorize published messages into classes without knowing which subscribers, if any, there may be. Similarly, subscribers express interest in one or more classes, and only receive messages that are of interest, without knowing which publishers, if any, there are.
The pub/sub model decouples the sender and receiver by introducing a third component: the message broker or event bus. The primary advantage of pub/sub is that it allows for asynchronous communication and can easily handle one-to-many or many-to-many conversations.
Limitations of the Pub/Sub model
01.
Message Delivery Guarantee: If a subscriber is not actively listening when a publisher sends a message, the message may be lost. This is a significant issue if assured delivery is required.
02.
Lack of Message History: Unless specifically designed into the system, a newly subscribing client won't have access to the history of messages sent before it subscribed
03.
Difficulty in Debugging: Problems can be hard to debug in a pub/sub system because of the decoupling between publishers and subscribers. If a bug occurs, it can be unclear whether the fault was on the publisher's end or the subscriber's end.
04.
Message Order: There's no guarantee that messages will be received in the order they're sent.
Additional reading
3. Sendbird
While Sendbird offers robust features and a scalable solution for in-app chat, video, and voice functionalities, it does have a few potential pitfalls that you should be aware of:
01.
Time-Consuming Development: Developing highly tailored chat interfaces in SendBird requires significant time and effort. For example, implementing email and SMS notifications from scratch using their webhooks can be laborious and time-consuming, whereas other solutions provide this as a ready-to-use feature.
02.
Pricing Limitations: SendBird's pricing model can present challenges for businesses experiencing rapid growth. Costs can rise significantly as the user base grows. There's also an additional cost of $5 for every Peak Concurrent Connection (PCC) overage.
03.
Restricted Features: Some essential features are only available with SendBird's costlier enterprise plan. For instance, messaging retention is capped at six months for all plans except Enterprise, and the maximum group size is limited unless you subscribe to the Pro or Enterprise plans.
04.
UI Kit Limitations: SendBird's UI kits provide basic building blocks for chat interfaces but lack advanced features and workflows needed in real-world applications. This creates additional work for developers.
Additional reading
4. Socket.io
Socket.IO works well for small-scale applications but building a fully-featured, scalable, and secure chat or calling feature can be a daunting task compared to using a dedicated platform like CometChat, SendBird, or PubNub.
Limitations of Socket.io
01.
Lack of Advanced Features: Socket.IO is a basic real-time communication library. It doesn't provide higher-level features like message history, read receipts, typing indicators, user presence, etc. Developers would need to build these features from scratch manually, which is time-consuming and potentially challenging.
02.
Infrastructure Maintenance: Socket.IO requires you to manage your own server infrastructure ( deployment, monitoring, troubleshooting, updates) forcing you to focus more on infrastructure maintenance than your core business. On the other hand, CometChat, SendBird, and Streamchat are managed services, where these aspects are taken care of for you.
03.
No Built-in Security: Socket.IO does not provide built-in security features like end-to-end encryption or access control. These are crucial if you are handling sensitive data.
04.
Support and Reliability: As an open-source library, Socket.IO does not offer dedicated support. It’s very critical to choose a platform that provides reliable uptime, dedicated customer support, and regular updates for large-scale applications.
5. Ably
Ably has been built from the ground up to support a multitude of use cases, from real-time financial trading platforms to multiplayer gaming and live event broadcasting. It is, therefore, much more than just a tool for adding chat features to applications.
The platform's most potent selling point is its ability to deliver billions of real-time messages every day with latencies as low as 35ms, globally. By utilizing Ably, developers can focus on building the best experiences for their users, secure in the knowledge that real-time data delivery is taken care of.
Additional reading
Aarathy Sundaresan
Content Marketer , CometChat
