PubNub vs. Sendbird
 | Sendbird | Why does it matter? | |
|---|---|---|---|
| PLATFORM PERFORMANCE | |||
| Uptime guarantee | 99.999% For all customers. | 99.97% - 99.99%
Dependant on Region. (99.999% offered for contract customers) | An uptime guarantee offers peace of mind for you and confidence in the service we provide. |
| Latency | WAN < 30 ms
50% of PubNub’s messages have below 20ms delivery speed. Our intranet latency is below 1ms, while our WAN latency is sub 30ms. | Not listed | Lower latency provides a true real-time experience for users, which is crucial for increased engagement and adoption. |
| Multi Region Support | Yes PubNub defaults you to all 15 data centers at all times - this means that users are dynamically routed to the closest center. | No You have to pick one data center. There are nine options. However your app will be fixed to just one data center. Once selected, you cannot change it. | If you have a user audience across the globe, you will experience higher latency and less localized support if you are fixed to one data center only. |
| Multiplexing | Yes PubNub offers high-volume channel subscriptions, with up to 20,000 channels for each connected user. | Yes For contracted customers, Sendbird provides up to 20,000 channels through its supergroup channels. | Multiplexing allows the transmission of a large number of messages to a large number of channels over the same connection. This is important to reduce complexity and optimize client resource consumption/usage. |
| Channel groups | Yes PubNub offers a server-side channel subscription control. | Yes | This allows end-users to subscribe to a channel group that controls channel subscriptions for each end-user by a Server-side API. Having more data availability and replication ensures that data can always be accessed quickly by users around the globe. |
| Compression for messages | Yes PubNub offers GZIP compression for both inbound and outbound messages. | Yes However, Sendbird offers compression for only outbound messages. | Compressed messages require significantly less storage capacity and in turn may provide lower latency. |
| SCALABILITY | |||
| Concurrency | Unlimited concurrency
| Charges for concurrent users (2% of MAU) | Unlimited concurrency gives our customers the ability to scale without the worry of the additional cost. |
| Channels | Unlimited channels
| Charges for the number of channels used | Unlimited channels give our customers the ability to scale without the worry of additional pricing. This is especially important in use cases that require ephemeral channels (i.e. one-time password use case). |
| Scale presence | Supports millions of users in a channel. | Limited 1,000 simultaneous users in a single channel (starter plan), 2000 (pro plan), 20,000 users (enterprise plan). | Supporting millions of users lets customers scale with ease. |
| Number of devices (As of 2021) | 800 million devices connected per month, and we can support even more. | 110 million monthly active users. | Supporting millions of devices shows that we are trusted and used among many companies. |
| Number of messages (As of 2021) | 2 trillion messages delivered per month, and we can support even more. | 1.5 billion delivered per month | The number of messages shows that PubNub can support a massive amount of usage each month. |
| CHAT CAPABILITIES - MESSAGING | |||
| 1:1 direct messaging | Yes | Yes | Connect users directly. One-on-one. |
| Group messaging | Yes Pubnub also has no limit on the number of users. | Yes However, users can join only up to 2000 group channels with up to 100 users in each channel | Connect groups. No limit on the number of users means no worries when hosting large events. |
| Presence indicators | Yes PubNub Presence lets you track the real-time status of millions of users on a single channel. | Yes However, only up to 1000 users for open channel, 100 users for group channel, and 2000+ for super group channel. | Allows users to see when others are there, allowing for more seamless engagement. |
| Advanced Presence | Yes Custom channel regular expression rules to configure presence events by naming patterns. | No You must pay for all tracking and events, even if they are not needed for your application | Reduces cost by targeting only necessary presence events for your application to be delivered. Improving the user experience enabling faster more efficient applications. |
| Super groups | Yes Up to 60,000 users for presence join/leave and millions of users for occupancy interval mode via presence ACLs | Yes Up to 20,000 users (for premium plan) in open channels | An expanded version of a group channel that supports more than 2000 members. |
| Push notifications | Yes | Yes | This feature ensures the messages users get are seen and received. |
| Advanced Access controls | Yes Access control patterns can be specified as regular expressions to match a diverse range of permissions | Not Listed | Access control patterns can be specified as regular expressions to match a diverse range of permissions |
| Programmable Functions | Yes PubNub can be used to transform messages in transit to provide real-time language translation or profanity filtering. | No | Programmable functions enable you to write code or leverage existing integrations to address your business needs, whether it's transforming, re-routing, augmenting, filtering, and even aggregating data for subsequent use. PubNub Functions are also serverless. |
| Webhooks | Yes Through PubNub’s Events & Actions service. | Yes | Webhooks allow for the publishing of messages on the client-server over HTTP to trigger events. |
| Chat UI Components | No But, UI components are difficult to customize and extend. Our Chat SDK lets you speed up chat development while retaining flexibility. | Yes | Chat UI components lets you quickly integrate chat into your app or game. |
| Dynamic user state | Yes Users can set flexible, dynamic user states. State changes generate state-change events. | No Presence is limited to online/offline status only. | Dynamic user state allows for real-time updates and support needs such as leaderboards etc. |
| Typing indicators | Yes | Yes | This is crucial to providing an engaging chat experience and is built-in to your Chat UI components; implemented in the most cost-effective way. |
| Delivery and read receipts | Yes | Yes | This function gives end users the assurance that their messages are being delivered and read. |
| Unread message counts | Yes | Yes | This allows end-users to easily navigate their messages and catch up with their conversations since their last interaction. |
| Pre-delivery message filtering | Yes Clients can select messages to filter out on the server. Customers only pay for delivered messages. | Yes However customers are charged for each filtered message. | Stream filtering reads input, filters, and passes it on. This can help to reduce overall transaction costs. |
| File and image sharing | Yes | Yes | File sharing adds new functionality to your chat application, allowing users to share files like images, records, documents, etc. |
| Message reactions | Yes | Yes Premium feature supported via Google Cloud Translations APIs. | Allows users to share custom reactions to other posts, allowing for a more dynamic experience for the end-user. |
| Real-time Translation | Yes via PubNub Functions. | Yes Premium feature supported with in-house non AI powered bots. | Real-time translations help to break down language barriers and create a more global conversation. |
| Real-time Profanity Filtering | Yes via PubNub Functions. | Yes Premium feature. | By implementing a filter for your chat, you are taking precautionary actions against offensive words and behaviors before they reach your audience. |
| Chatbots | Yes For PubNub chatbots, developers have full control of which channels have access & how/if/when they respond to messages. | Yes Premium feature supported via Google Cloud Translation APIs | Chatbots can understand and respond to user requests automatically. They can be useful in a variety of situations, such as customer service, new user registration, e-commerce, etc. |
| Slash Commands | Yes PubNub Functions allow you to add programmable logic for slash commands. | No | Create shortcuts and a more seamless process for end-users with slash commands. |
| Voice and Video APIs | Yes We have partner integrations with Vonage, Agora, or Dolby | Yes Through Sendbird Calls. | With PubNub’s partners, these APIs allow for Voice and Video features to end users’ chat apps. |
| CHAT CAPABILITIES - MODERATION | |||
| Moderation Dashboards | Yes via BizOps Workspace and our open source Moderation Dashboard. | Yes However, the dashboard is not useful for large scale events. | Moderation dashboard allows for moderation in realtime, to keep your chats clean and safe for all ages. |
| Profanity filters | Yes The profanity filter function allows you to customize dictionaries and control message behavior on profanity detection. We also support integrations with 3rd-party text moderation APIs, such as Tisane.ai and you can use any vendor of your choice. | Yes Supports channel-level profanity detection with controls on actions. | By implementing a filter for your chat, you are taking precautionary actions against offensive words and behaviors before they reach your audience. |
| Image moderation | Yes We have integrations with third-party vendors such as SightEngine and you can use any vendor of your choice. | Yes Premium feature supported via integration with Google Cloud Vision. | SightEngine’s image moderation allows developers to moderate and filter user-generated photos for adult content, validation, and phototype - Ideal for chat apps, forums, social media aggregators, and more. |
| Mute/Block users | Yes This is easily done through BizOps Workspace, our open-source Moderation Dashboard, or using your own custom solution through Access Manager. | Yes Platform API's are available to mute users from channels. | This enables you to manage access controls for individual users, so they can be muted or blocked on specific channels. |
| SUPPORT & MONITORING | |||
| Message history (persisted data) | Yes Allow persisting messages forever. | Yes | Data persistence is important because of its non-volatility, reliability, stability, and time-independent features. |
| Operational dashboards | Yes | Yes | Ability to monitor your app in realtime for any potential issues. |
| Export Operational metrics to a customer monitoring tool | Yes | No | Easily export data to gain insights and keep track of customers. |
| Support Team | Yes Dedicated 24/7 support team physically located in four time zones and backed by 10 years of experience. | Yes | Support, whenever you need it. No time constraints means timely help and more seamless development. |
*Information gathered from publicly available resources. Correct at time of collection - Dec 2021. Last update: Aug 2024.