TalkJS vs PubNub
TalkJS is a chat API that ships a complete chat UI. PubNub is a real-time messaging platform with headless Chat SDKs, so you build the screens yourself. PubNub is cheaper to start: $98 a month for 1,000 users on Starter, against $279 for TalkJS Basic. But from 5,000 users, PubNub's own pricing calculator comes out higher, and our price already includes the UI, email and push notifications, and message history that never expires.
On PubNub, you get real-time messaging and Chat SDKs, and your team designs and builds every chat screen on top. On TalkJS, you start from a working chat: drop the inbox, chatbox, or popup into your app, restyle it to match, and the notifications that bring users back already work. If chat between your users is a feature of your product rather than the product itself, we think TalkJS is the better fit.
TalkJS is a chat API and SDK for adding chat between your users to web and mobile apps. Its pre-built chat UI comes as React and Web Components that work with any framework, plus React Native and Flutter SDKs. Theme components let you swap parts of it for your own. Email, SMS, and push notifications are built in on all plans. TalkJS is ISO 27001 certified, GDPR compliant, and hosted in Europe.
- You'd rather restyle a working chat UI than build the inbox and chat screens yourself
- Your users aren't always in your app, so you want email and SMS notifications (and replies by email) on every plan
- You want old conversations still there next year (retention is unlimited on every plan)
- You'll have thousands of users and want a bill you can predict
- You want to build and test with every feature, free, for as long as development takes
PubNub is a real-time messaging platform used for chat, multiplayer games, IoT device control, and data streaming. Its Chat SDKs for JavaScript, Kotlin, Swift, Unity, and Unreal give you channels, users, messages, typing indicators, threads, and reactions, and you build the interface. PubNub prices by monthly active users (MAU), with messages included.
- PubNub's own docs say its Chat SDK "renders nothing", and its old UI kit is no longer supported. TalkJS ships the complete chat UI, ready to drop into your app.
- PubNub publishes one paid plan price, Starter for 1,000 MAU. Extra users on Starter are bought by card at a rate it doesn't publish, and Pro is priced by contract. TalkJS publishes its Basic and Growth prices and what each extra user costs.
- PubNub has SOC 2 Type II and signs a HIPAA BAA on Pro; TalkJS has neither. TalkJS is ISO 27001 certified, keeps your data in the EU, and runs on-premise or in your private cloud on Enterprise.
- PubNub's Auto Moderation, in beta, filters toxic messages on Starter and Pro. TalkJS masks blocked words and regex patterns, can hide email addresses, phone numbers, and links so users don't take conversations off your platform, and connects the AI moderation vendor you choose through webhooks.
Compare TalkJS and PubNub
On the basics (group chat, typing indicators, read receipts, reactions) the two are even. PubNub has threads and AI moderation, which we don't. Both are in the table. The rows that decide how much your team builds are the chat UI and notifications. For a longer write-up, see our PubNub alternative post.
| TalkJS | PubNub | Why it matters | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chat UI and SDKs | Chat UI and SDKs | |||||
| Pre-built web UI | Yes React and Web Components (any framework) | No. Chat Components, its React UI kit, has been unsupported since January 1, 2025 | Start with a working chat UI instead of building one. | |||
| Pre-built mobile UI | Yes React Native and Flutter | No. The Kotlin and Swift Chat SDKs are headless | Ship chat in mobile apps without building the screens. | |||
| UI customization | Theme components: replace parts of the UI with your own React or Web components | You build the UI. PubNub's docs suggest open-source libraries such as Chat UI Kit (React) | How much of the chat UI your team writes and maintains. | |||
| Headless SDKs | Yes Data APIs for JavaScript, Kotlin, Swift and Flutter | Yes Chat SDKs for JavaScript, Kotlin, Swift, Unity and Unreal | Build your own chat UI on live chat data. | |||
Core messaging | Core messaging | |||||
| 1-on-1 and group chat | Yes | Yes | Private buyer-seller, support or team conversations. | |||
| Typing indicators | Yes | Yes | Shows the other side is replying. | |||
| Read receipts | Yes | Yes | Tells senders a message was seen. | |||
| Emoji reactions | Yes | Yes | Acknowledge without a full reply. | |||
| Threads | No (replies to a message are built in, with a guide to building reply threads) | Yes Threaded messages | Keeps busy group chats organized. | |||
Notifications | Notifications | |||||
| Mobile push | Yes All plans | Yes All plans, through APNs and FCM | Brings mobile users back to the conversation. | |||
| Email notifications | Yes All plans, built in | Not listed in PubNub's chat or push docs | Reaches users who aren't in your app. | |||
| SMS notifications | Yes All plans (SMS charged separately) | Not listed | Reaches users without your app or email open. | |||
| Reply via email | Yes All plans (replies land in the chat) | Not listed | Users answer from their inbox. | |||
Message history | Message history | |||||
| Message retention | Unlimited, all plans | Free: 1 or 7 days. Starter: up to 6 months. Pro: 1 year or unlimited | Whether old conversations are still there next year. | |||
Moderation | Moderation | |||||
| Word filters | Yes Word blocklists and regex suppression | Yes Word masking lists in Auto Moderation | Masks profanity and banned terms. | |||
| AI moderation | No (connect your own vendor through webhooks and the REST API) | Yes Auto Moderation, in beta, on Starter and Pro, turned on by PubNub on request | Flags toxic messages automatically. | |||
| Moderator tools | Yes Report-message action, moderator roles, bans through the REST API | Yes Channel Monitor (up to 5 channels at once), mute and ban | How your team acts on reported messages. | |||
Security and compliance | Security and compliance | |||||
| ISO 27001 | Yes | Yes | Independent check of security management. | |||
| GDPR | Yes Data processor, data hosted in the EU | Yes | Required for users in the EU. | |||
| SOC 2 | No | Yes Type II | Often asked for in US enterprise reviews. | |||
| HIPAA (BAA) | No | Yes Pro plan | Needed for US health data. | |||
| Data hosting | Europe, with on-premise or private cloud as an Enterprise add-on | US-only, EU-only or APAC-only options | Where your chat data is stored. | |||
| Uptime SLA | Yes 99.9% on Enterprise | Yes Up to 99.999% on Pro | What the vendor commits to in writing. | |||
Support | Support | |||||
| Support | Chat with our engineers on all plans (office hours on Basic), priority chat and email from Growth, phone on Enterprise | Email and chat on Free and Starter, response in 1-2 days; faster tiers through sales | How fast you get help when chat breaks. | |||
Pricing and usage | Pricing and usage | |||||
| Pricing model | Per monthly active user (MAU), unlimited messages | Per MAU, messages included (a per-transaction model also exists) | What makes your bill grow. | |||
| Free plan | Development mode with all features (pay when you go live) | 200 MAU or 1M transactions, testing keysets only (no live traffic) | What you can do before you pay. | |||
| Cheapest paid plan | Basic: $279 a month (10,000 MAU) | Starter: $98 a month (1,000 MAU) | The price of your first live month. | |||
| Extra users | $0.04 per MAU on Basic, $0.03 on Growth | Starter: bought by card, rate not published. Pro: custom | What each user past the plan costs. | |||
Read more in the TalkJS docs: Themes, Notifications, and Moderation.
Why TalkJS?
We've run chat in production since 2016 and deliver more than 130 million messages a month for customers in over 90 countries.
We were able to offload all messaging to TalkJS — hugely simplifying our development of an otherwise complex stack.
We've seen a 3x increase in booking conversion compared to our previous experience with a masked-SMS solution.
I demoed a working end-to-end chat conversation in our platform in just 2-3 days. The POC took less than an hour.
TalkJS pricing vs PubNub
Both vendors price by monthly active users (MAU), with messages included. Here's what you'd pay each month at four sizes.
| TalkJS | PubNub | |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000 MAU | Basic $279 | Starter $98 |
| 5,000 MAU | Basic $279 | $370 (estimate) |
| 10,000 MAU | Basic $279 | $550 (estimate) |
| 25,000 MAU | Growth $569 | $1,130 (estimate) |
Prices are in USD per month, billed monthly. Billed annually, TalkJS Basic is $239 and Growth is $499 a month. PubNub's only published paid plan price is Starter at 1,000 MAU. Its other figures come from the "Platform Pro (Estimated)" calculator on its pricing page, which PubNub calls representative of most simple use cases. Its Pro plan is priced by contract.
Even at 1,000 users, the real comparison isn't $98 against $279. It's $98 plus the inbox and chat screens your team builds and maintains, against $279 with the chat UI and email, SMS, and push notifications already working (SMS is billed per message). See the current prices on the TalkJS pricing page and the PubNub pricing page.
Migrate to TalkJS from PubNub
You can bring your users, conversations, and messages over from PubNub with the TalkJS import API. Tell us about your setup in the form below, and we'll plan the move with you.
- Each message keeps its original timestamp
- Migration help from the TalkJS team
FAQs
Only for testing. PubNub's Free plan costs $0 for up to 200 MAU or 1 million transactions, but it's limited to testing keysets, so it can't carry live traffic. TalkJS's development mode is free forever and includes every feature, so you only pay once real users are chatting.
At 1,000 MAU, PubNub is cheaper, with Starter at $98 a month against $279 for TalkJS Basic. From 5,000 MAU, PubNub's pricing calculator comes out higher: $370 at 5,000 MAU, $550 at 10,000, and $1,130 at 25,000. TalkJS Basic covers up to 10,000 MAU at that price, and Growth is $569 up to 25,000. These are USD prices per month, billed monthly, as of October 2026.
Not anymore. PubNub stopped supporting Chat Components, its pre-built React and React Native chat UI kit, on January 1, 2025. Its Chat SDKs are headless, so you build every screen yourself or start from an open-source library. TalkJS ships a complete chat UI for React, React Native, Flutter, Vue, Angular, and Web Components, and you can replace parts of it with your own components.
We didn't find email or SMS notifications in PubNub's chat or push docs. They do cover mobile push through APNs and FCM on every plan. TalkJS sends email, SMS, and push notifications on all plans (SMS is billed per message), and users can reply to a notification email to answer in the chat.
PubNub keeps messages for 1 or 7 days on Free, up to 6 months on Starter, and 1 year or unlimited on Pro. Message persistence is off by default, and you turn it on for each keyset. TalkJS includes unlimited message retention on all plans.
No. TalkJS doesn't have SOC 2 and doesn't sign a HIPAA business associate agreement (BAA). PubNub is SOC 2 Type II audited and signs a BAA on its Pro plan. TalkJS is ISO 27001 certified, GDPR compliant as a data processor, and hosts your data in the EU. On Enterprise, you can add an on-premise or private cloud install.
Yes. You can import your users, conversations, and messages with their original timestamps through the TalkJS REST API. To plan the move with us, use the contact form.