Compare
See how TalkJS compares
Teams in 90+ countries send 130M+ messages a month through TalkJS. These side-by-side comparisons show how it measures up against Sendbird, CometChat, Stream, Ably, PubNub, Twilio Conversations, and building on Firebase on features, compliance, and pricing, with sources and dates, and where each vendor leads.
TalkJS vs alternative chat APIs
Each comparison puts TalkJS next to one vendor, with sources and dates, and names where that vendor leads.
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Sendbird adds voice and video calling, native iOS and Android UIKits, and HIPAA with a BAA. TalkJS focuses on chat, with email, SMS, and push notifications built in on every plan.
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CometChat adds voice and video calling, native iOS and Android UI kits, and HIPAA on its Advanced plan. TalkJS focuses on chat, with pre-built UI components, and Data APIs for JavaScript, Kotlin, Swift, and Flutter when you build your own UI.
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Stream adds video and audio, native iOS and Android UI kits, threads, and HIPAA on its Elevate plan. TalkJS focuses on chat, with a complete chat UI that lives in your own codebase and support from engineers on every plan.
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Ably is a general real-time platform that goes beyond chat, with dedicated clusters and a HIPAA BAA on its Enterprise plan. TalkJS is built for in-app chat, with ISO 27001 certification, data hosted in Europe, and 130M+ messages a month.
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PubNub is a real-time platform with headless Chat SDKs, and its pre-built chat UI kit has been unsupported since January 2025. TalkJS ships the complete chat UI, with email, SMS, and push notifications on every plan.
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Firebase is Google’s app platform to build chat on, with Firestore, Cloud Functions, and FCM, SOC 2, and hosting regions on every continent. TalkJS gives you the chat: a pre-built UI, presence, and email, SMS, and push notifications on every plan.
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Twilio Conversations puts SMS, WhatsApp, and in-app chat users in one conversation, with a HIPAA BAA on its Security and Enterprise Editions, and you build the chat UI. TalkJS ships a pre-built chat UI, with email, SMS, and push notifications on every plan.
What to weigh when you compare chat APIs
Check these points against what your app needs. Each one says how TalkJS handles it, limits included.
TalkJS ships a pre-built chat UI as React and Web Components. Theme components let you replace parts of it with your own components, and the Data APIs for JavaScript, Kotlin, Swift, and Flutter let you build your own UI.
Email, SMS, and push notifications are built in on every TalkJS plan, with reply by email. They don’t need your own SendGrid or Twilio account. SMS is charged separately.
TalkJS is chat-first and has no native voice or video calling. You can integrate a calling provider of your choice next to TalkJS chat. Sendbird, CometChat, and Stream have their own calling products.
TalkJS is ISO 27001 certified, GDPR compliant, and hosts data in Europe (see Security). It doesn’t have SOC 2 and doesn’t sign a HIPAA BAA, so if you need either, compare the vendors that do.
TalkJS bills per monthly active user (MAU), not per message or connection. Each plan includes a number of MAU, and you pay per user beyond that. See pricing.
Chat and email support from engineers on every TalkJS plan, priority support from the Growth plan, and a named Solutions Engineer on the Enterprise plan.
More comparisons and alternatives guides
Guides on the TalkJS blog that look at other chat and real-time APIs, including Pusher and QuickBlox.
Nine chat APIs sorted by how much of the chat you still build, with prices at 10,000 and 25,000 monthly active users.
How to move from Pusher Chatkit to TalkJS, with a feature comparison.
A feature and pricing comparison of TalkJS and QuickBlox, with the key differences in video and voice chat, chat UI, and notifications.
FAQs
TalkJS is a chat API for user-to-user chat in web and mobile apps. Compared with Sendbird, CometChat, and Stream, TalkJS has no native voice or video calling, SOC 2, or HIPAA business associate agreement (BAA). It includes email, SMS, and push notifications on every plan, a pre-built UI you can customize with your own components, and support from engineers on all plans. Ably is a general real-time platform, and TalkJS focuses on chat.
Sendbird, CometChat, Stream, Ably, and PubNub are the chat and real-time APIs that developers most often compare with TalkJS. Each one has a side-by-side comparison with sources and dates, as do Twilio Conversations and building chat on Firebase. Pusher and QuickBlox have comparison guides on the TalkJS blog.
List what your app needs: a pre-built UI or a headless API, which notifications, voice or video calling, compliance certifications, and how you want to pay. Then check each vendor against that list. Each comparison shows how TalkJS handles these points and where the other vendor leads.
Yes. The TalkJS REST API imports users, conversations, and messages with their timestamps, and the data import and export API is available on all plans. A TalkJS engineer can help you plan the move: tell the team about your setup in the contact form.
TalkJS writes them. Each comparison uses both vendors’ public pricing pages and docs, shows the month TalkJS checked the facts, and names where the other vendor leads. Features and prices change, so check both vendors’ pages before you decide.
Yes. TalkJS development mode is free and includes all features.