Gone are the days of the passive messaging technique which was used as a substitute for chatting where each message was just a notification. Today’s generation like it quick and in real-time when it comes to conversation. For this very reason, a real-time chat feature in the web and mobile apps is no longer a ‘nice-to-have’ feature but, a ‘must-have’ one. Being a mobile app development company and providing the development service since a decade now, we come across the requirements with 90% of those having real-time chat as a must-have feature even if they are the MVPs. Startups and entrepreneurs of the product wants to have an active engagement on the app and what better then the actual users conversing with each other or the app admin using real-time chat?
Tempting it may seem, incorporating a real-time chat feature in the app in a bespoke manner is quite effort and time consuming. Citing the growing demand of the real-time chat, various players have entered the market with providing ready-to-use chat solutions which we call as chat API or messaging SDK. Let’s look into what does a chat API mean before diving into the top 10 real-time chat APIs.
What is a Chat API?
Chat API in general context to the web and mobile app development landscape are a set of tools, pre-developed components, and protocols that allows the developers to integrate the real-time messaging and chat functionalities into their applications. These chat APIs abstract the complexities of building a chat system from scratch, enabling quicker and more reliable development of communication features thereby, saving a much time and cost of developing apps.
Chat API not only enables the apps with text-based messaging but, come with a variety of features for real-time messaging such as support for sharing images, videos, documents, and even GIFs. Some of the chat APIs provide a feature of read-receipt as well where both the parties engaged in communication can track when the other read the message.
Top 10 real-time chat API to use in 2025
Twilio
Twilio is a cloud communications platform that enables developers to integrate various communication channels such as SMS, voice, video, email, and messaging into their applications through simple APIs. More known for it’s SMS API, Twilio’s Conversations API enables real-time messaging across platforms (mobile, web, and desktop). Twilio serves major companies like Airbnb, Netflix, and Lyft, underlining its importance in modern communication. The demand for twilio integration of the Conversations API has grown over the years due it’s performance and quick support.
- Cross-platform messaging (SMS, in-app chat, and WhatsApp).
- Typing indicators, read receipts, media sharing.
- Push notifications and offline messaging.
- Upto 200 active users - Free
- Starting from $0.05 per active user from 201st user
- [https://www.twilio.com/en-us/messaging/pricing/conversations-api](https://www.twilio.com/en-us/messaging/pricing/conversations-api)
- End-to-end encryption
- GDPR compliance
- Expensive for large-scale usage due to its pay-as-you-go pricing.
- Integration might be challenging for beginners.
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SendBird
Sendbird** is a leading platform that provides APIs and SDKs to integrate in-app chat, voice, video, and live-streaming capabilities into mobile and web applications. Over the years, SendBird integration has gained much popularity in the eCommerce, social networking, gaming, and healthcare industry. SendBird can handle large-scale messaging with high reliability, offering features like group chats, multimedia sharing, moderation tools, and read receipts. SendBird’s messaging process millions of messages every month showcasing it’s flexibility and robustness.
- One-on-one and group chat.
- Customizable chat UI and media sharing.
- Typing indicators, offline messaging, and read receipts.
- Depends on MAU (Monthly Active Users).
- Starts free for experimental purpose.
- For 1K users, starts from $399/month.
- [https://sendbird.com/pricing](https://sendbird.com/pricing)
- End-to-end encryption.
- Compliance with GDPR and HIPAA.
- Pricing increases with the increase in MAU.
- The free plan in restricted for experimental purpose only.
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PubNub
PubNub** allows for the instant transmission of messages between millions of devices globally. PubNub operates on a publish/subscribe (pub/sub) model. Similar to Twilio and SendBird, apart from push notifications, live updates, and IoT device connectivity into web, mobile, and IoT applications, PubNub also offers real-time chat API for integration. PubNub handles trillions of real-time messages every month, showcasing its ability to manage immense traffic with minimal latency issues.
- Real-time messaging, presence detection, and message history.
- Low-latency delivery across devices.
- Free plan upto 200 MAU.
- $98 per month with pay-as-you-go.
- [https://www.pubnub.com/pricing/](https://www.pubnub.com/pricing/)
- TLS encryption
- Access control
- GDPR compliance
- Challenging for developers unfamiliar with real-time messaging APIs.
- Event-based pricing can become expensive.
- Doesn’t provide pre-built chat interfaces.
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CometChat
CometChat** is an Indian communication platform that provides APIs and SDKs for developers to integrate real-time chat, voice call, and video call features to the web and mobile applications. CometChat is designed to help businesses build engaging and interactive user experiences with minimal development effort. It started as a plugin for forums and websites to enable live chat but later evolved into a full-fledged communication platform. Today, it powers over 50,000 apps globally. CometChat supports over 92 languages, allowing businesses to create localized, multilingual experiences for users worldwide.
- Message translation, Message shortcuts.
- Profanity filters, virus and malware scanner.
- Unread message count, delivery and read receipts.
- Free plan upto 100 MAU.
- $298.75 per month from 101st user.
- [https://www.cometchat.com/pricing](https://www.cometchat.com/pricing)
- End-to-end encryption.
- GDPR compliance.
- Performance can lag slightly compared to competitors.
- Unnecessary extensive features for simple chat integration.
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Agora
Founded in 2014 by Tony Zhao, a former CTO of WebEx, Agora** aims to revolutionize human connections by enabling ultra-low latency and highly scalable communication experiences. It serves industries such as education, gaming, social networking, telehealth, and live commerce, powering applications like virtual classrooms, live game streaming, remote consultations, and interactive shopping events. Processing billions of minutes of live audio and video each month, supported by a network of over 250 data centers worldwide to ensure seamless real-time interactions.
- Instant message exchange. (Text, images, videos, and more.)
- High-quality, low-latency voice and video communication.
- Facilitates group chats with multiple participants.
- Free upto 500 MAU.
- $349 per month from 501st user till 50K users.
- [1. https://www.agora.io/en/pricing/chat/](https://www.agora.io/en/pricing/chat/)
- End-to-end encryption (AES 256-bit).
- Secure token-based authentication.
- Costly for high-volume applications.
- Initial integration and setup more complex compared to simpler alternatives.
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MirrorFly
For modern businesses and enterprises, the technology also gets transformed for their requirements. In that case, the MirrorFly Chat API** solution offers a complete end-to-end communication solution from instant messaging to unlimited voice calls and video conferencing to SIP calls. With 1000+ in-app communication features and a self-hosted messaging solution, you can customize all your features, branding, and hosting. With custom workflow you can transform your chat with strong moderation and access flow for enterprises and fintech industries.
- Unlimited customization.
- Cross-platform capabilities and support all tech stacks.
- Modern messaging features and advanced analytics.
- As a self-hosted solution, pricing is custom based on your specific needs.
- End-to-end encryption.
- Custom security and workflow.
- Global compliances including HIPAA and GDPR.
- No free trial available.
- Requires developer support for integration. (However, you can hire a dedicated team)
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Vonage Chat API
It is a comprehensive platform that allows developers to integrate real-time messaging, voice, and video communication features into their web, mobile, and desktop applications. It is part of Vonage’s larger suite of Communication APIs and is designed to provide businesses with a reliable, scalable, and flexible solution for creating engaging, conversational experiences. The API supports various messaging channels such as SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and in-app chat, offering a unified and seamless communication strategy.
- Provides advanced search capabilities to help users find specific messages.
- Developers have the flexibility to build their own UI.
- Includes tools for content moderation, including profanity filters, message removal, and more.
- Pay as you go model
- [https://www.vonage.com/communications-apis/messages/pricing](https://www.vonage.com/communications-apis/messages/pricing)
- OAuth 2.0 for secure authentication.
- Pricing can become complex, especially for large-scale apps.
- Limits to how much can be tailored within Vonage’s pre-built UI components.
Pusher Channels
Pusher Channels** similar to PubNub leverages the publish/subscribe (pub/sub) messaging pattern to deliver low-latency, scalable, and reliable communication between servers and clients. Its ease of integration and developer-friendly APIs make it a popular choice for building interactive features like chat systems, live dashboards, collaborative tools, and gaming applications. Pusher Channels supports WebSockets, ensuring fast, bidirectional communication, while offering fallbacks to HTTP-based transports for broader compatibility. It was initially created as an internal tool for a project before evolving into a standalone service, highlighting its roots in solving practical developer challenges.
- Real-time messaging and notifications.
- Presence channels for user status and activity.
- Free tier available.
- Pricing starts with $49 per month.
- [https://pusher.com/channels/pricing/](https://pusher.com/channels/pricing/)
- SSL encryption.
- Token authentication.
- GDPR compliance.
- Pusher doesn’t offer robust message history.
- The free tier has limited connections and message events.
- Lacks advanced messaging features like chatbots, content moderation, etc.
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Stream Chat
Stream Chat** is a robust, scalable API and SDK platform that allows developers to integrate real-time chat and messaging features into web and mobile applications. One-on-one messaging, group chats, threads, reactions, typing indicators, and read receipts, as well as moderation tools like message filtering and reporting are some of it’s many features enabling the developers to integrate the real-time chat feature in the apps. Stream Chat emphasizes developer experience, providing detailed documentation, pre-built components, and integrations with popular frameworks like React, Flutter, and Swift.
- Real-time messaging, message history, and offline support.
- Typing indicators, thread support, and attachments.
- Free till 100 MAU.
- $399 per month pricing starts from 101st MAU till 10,000 MAU.
- [https://getstream.io/chat/pricing/](https://getstream.io/chat/pricing/)
- End-to-end encryption.
- GDPR compliance.
- Advanced features and customizations may be challenging.
- Costs can rise rapidly with increased usage.
- Developers need to build or customize their chat interface.
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Firebase Cloud Messaging
Firebase Cloud Messaging** (FCM) is a powerful messaging service provided by Google that allows developers to send push notifications and messages to Android, iOS, and web applications. As part of Google’s Firebase suite, FCM supports reliable, low-latency message delivery at no cost, making it an essential tool for engaging app users with real-time updates, promotional alerts, and transactional notifications. It enables developers to target messages based on user segmentation, device type, or custom preferences, ensuring a tailored communication experience. Additionally, FCM supports both upstream and downstream messaging, allowing two-way communication between apps and servers. Even though, with such offerings, people seek for firebase alternatives which can solve the shortcomings of the FCM.
- Real-time data sync for chat messages.
- Push notifications and offline messaging.
- Lightweight and fast integration.
- Free tier available.
- Pay-as-you-go for high usage.
- [https://firebase.google.com/pricing](https://firebase.google.com/pricing)
- Rules-based access control.
- SSL-encryption.
- Performance may degrade with large datasets.
- Firebase lacks advanced chat features like message moderation, typing indicators, etc.
- Requires careful database structuring.
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BONUS
Socket.io
Rather than a commercialized third party real-time chat API provider, Socket.io** is a JavaScript library that enables real-time, bidirectional communication between web clients and servers, making it a powerful tool for building interactive applications. Socket.IO includes built-in features like auto-reconnection and multiplexing, reducing the need for extra coding to handle complex real-time scenarios. Its ability to create dynamic, low-latency user experiences has made it an essential tool in the world of real-time web applications.
- Works seamlessly with JavaScript (Node.js), Python, and Java.
- Fully customized chat applications.
- Enables low-latency, event-driven messaging over WebSockets.
- Free to use.
- Relies on developers to implement encryption.
- Requires significant customization.
- Lacks built-in features message history, typing indicators, and so on.
- Due to its flexibility and customization, Socket.IO may be overwhelming for developers.
Conclusion
Each real-time chat API listed above provides the features that are much required for an chat feature in the mobile and web applications. As most of the features are similar, the dilemma occurs on which to choose. Consult a mobile app development company who can guide you towards selecting the best from the lot based on the requirements and your idea. While Twilio, PubNub, SendBird, are some of the known and established names, CometChat, Agora, and Pusher Channels provide some unique features to enhance your real-time chat API integration. Every API or SDK has it’s own offering and shortcomings which you need to consider and analyze before selecting a real-time chat API.