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Agora vs Arrowchat

Discover how Agora compares to Arrowchat, and understand which is right for your use case, based on dimensions such as scalability, pricing, security, and their chat features.

Agora

What is Agora?

Agora offers realtime communication services through APIs, enabling developers to integrate voice, video, and live-streaming features into mobile, desktop, and web applications.

Arrowchat

What is Arrowchat?

ArrowChat is a self-hosted live chat tool built with PHP and jQuery that integrates chat, video calls, and group chats on websites. ArrowChat is suited for mobile and desktop and includes a comprehensive admin panel for configuration and monitoring.

Compare Agora and Arrowchat

Let’s compare Agora and Arrowchat, looking at key elements of their offering such as their scalability, pricing, security and chat feature set.

Scalability
Concurrent connections

Number of users that can be supported in a single chat.

Agora

10,000 users supported per chat room.

Arrowchat

Dedicated servers can run more than 1,000 online users, but shared servers can handle much less. Primarily built for 1-on-1 chats. Limits can be set by the administrator.

Read more
Connections

Number of connections that can be handled across the platform.

Agora

Unknown.

Arrowchat

Unknown.

Channels / rooms

Number of channels or rooms that can be handled across the platform.

Agora

Unlimited.

Arrowchat

Unlimited.

Messages

Number of messages that can be handled across the platform.

Agora

Unknown.

Arrowchat

Unknown.

Message throughput

Number of messsages that can be published per second.

Agora

Unknown.

Arrowchat

Unknown.

Data integrity
Guaranteed message delivery

Ensures messages are never lost during transmission, even in the presence of network disruptions.

Agora

No

Arrowchat

No

Guaranteed message ordering

Maintains the sequence of messages as they were sent. This is particularly important in apps where the chronological order of messages is essential for meaningful communication.

Agora

No

Arrowchat

No

Exactly-once message delivery

Guarantees that each message is processed exactly once, preventing data inconsistencies that can arise from duplicate processing or missing messages.

Agora

No

Arrowchat

No

Performance & availability
Uptime Guarantee

An uptime guarantee instills confidence in the reliability of the service and protects your business from the negative impacts of downtime.

Agora

Agora guarantees an SLA uptime of 99.95%.

Arrowchat

None.

Global edge network

By bringing servers (Points of Presence, or PoP) geographically closer to the devices of end users, and routing requests to the nearest PoP, global latency is reduced to a minimum.

Agora

Yes

Agora operates a global network (SD-RTN) of over 200 data centers spread across multiple regions, including the United States, Europe, China, Japan, India, and the Asia Pacific.

Read more
Arrowchat

No

Multi-region data replication (message durability)

By replicating data across multiple regions, the risk of data loss or downtime is greatly mitigated since if data is lost or a server fails in one region, the information can be retrieved from another.

Agora

Yes

Arrowchat

No

Regardless of whether you opt for the self-hosted or paid-for hosted backend, ArrowChat cannot scale beyond one server.

No single point of failure or congestion

Having no single point of failure means a system is resilient and can continue to operate even if one part fails. Avoiding a single point of congestion ensures messages flow efficiently across the system and avoids bottlenecks that could lead to performance issues under load.

Agora

Yes

Agora global data centers have superior routing capabilities to ensure that the network services are not interrupted due to a single point of failure.

Read more
Arrowchat

No

Latency

Low latency is crucial for realtime apps as it ensures swift and efficient data transmissions, providing a smoother and more responsive user experience.

Agora

The average end-to-end global latency for Agora is 300 milliseconds.

Read more
Arrowchat

Self-hosted version: Depends on the capacity of your server and other factors such as the bandwidth available to your hosting provider, as well as its location relative to your users. However, latency is likely to be poor due to ArrowChat’s reliance on a mix of short and long polling.

Hosted version: Not published.

Server-side batching

Reduces the overall message count, lowers costs, and mitigates the risk of hitting rate limits during high-throughput scenarios.

Agora

No

Arrowchat

No

Connection state recovery

Automatically re-establish failed connections and replay missed messages.

Agora

Yes

Agora supports reconnection and state recovery mechanisms through the Agora SDK, which automatically tries to re-establish connections if a user drops offline.

Arrowchat

No

Ecosystem support
Supported realtime protocols

Support for multiple protocols provides the flexibility to choose a protocol that best suits your project’s requirements.

Agora
  • WebSockets
Arrowchat
  • Self-hosted version: short and long HTTP polling.
  • Hosted version: WebSockets.
Read more
Supported languages

Supporting multiple languages and platforms offers greater flexibility when building cross-platform realtime apps.

Agora
  • Flutter
  • React Native
  • Java
  • C#
  • JavaScript
Read more
Arrowchat
  • JavaScript / JQuery
  • PHP
Chat room types
Multi-type chat support (group, DM, supergroups)

Enables chat experiences to be tailored to various user needs, from one-on-one to large, scalable group discussions.

Agora
  • Group chat
  • Private chat
  • Direct message (one-to-one) chat
Read more
Arrowchat
  • Group chat
  • Direct messaging ( 1-on-1 chat)
  • Private and public chat
Chat room management
Presence

Maintaining a view of which users are connected, and their associated metadata, enables their online status to be updated in realtime.

Agora

Yes

Arrowchat

Yes

Occupancy

High-level metrics about the clients currently connected to a channel make it simple to show things such as connected user count, or display which channels are the most popular.

Agora

No

Arrowchat

No

Typing indicators

Show when others are typing in a chat room, enhancing realtime communication flow.

Agora

Yes

Agora’s Chat SDK allows you to build fully-featured messaging experiences for your users, including typing indicators.

Read more
Arrowchat

Yes

Room reactions

Customize the chat environment with reactions and other shared room states.

Agora

Yes

Arrowchat

No

Chat message attributes
Message edits and deletes

Allow users to modify or remove messages.

Agora

Yes

Arrowchat

Partial

ArrowChat allows message deletion, but has not mentioned an available message editing feature.

Read more
Message reactions & emoticons

Boost engagement by enabling users to quickly express emotions or feedback on messages.

Agora

Yes

Agora allows you to react with up to 20 emoji reactions in a single message during one-to-one chats and group chats.

Read more
Arrowchat

Yes

Rich text support

Enhance messages with rich text formatting in chat.

Agora

No

Arrowchat

No

Media attachments

Support for sharing images, videos, and files in chat.

Agora

Yes

Agora allows you to send media attachments to a user, a chat group, or a chat room.

Read more
Arrowchat

Yes

Chat application and user state
In-app notifications

Notify users of important events from other chat rooms without them leaving the current chat, keeping them engaged and informed.

Agora

No

Arrowchat

No

Role-based permissions

Control user roles and permissions to ensure proper access and moderation.

Agora

Yes

Agora offers role-based access control through the Agora console.

Read more
Arrowchat

Yes

UI kit

Customizable UI elements for a seamless chat integration.

Agora

Yes

Agora provides open-source chat UI kits on GitHub for iOS, Android, and Web, which you can clone and run.

Read more
Arrowchat

No

Storage and history
Synchronous - automated moderation

Detect and manage harmful content automatically, before the message is broadcast to participants.

Agora

Yes

Moderation is done through Microsoft Azure, and is not enabled by default. To get access, you need either a Pro or Enterprise plan.

Arrowchat

No

Asynchronous - automated moderation

Detect and manage harmful content automatically, after the message is broadcast to participants.

Agora

Yes

Arrowchat

No

Manual moderation via dashboards

Tools for moderators to detect harmful messages and manage them effectively.

Agora

Yes

Agora's console allows moderators to manually view the report items and address the messages and message senders according to their content policy.

Read more
Arrowchat

Yes

Ban users

Remove problematic users from the chat to maintain a healthy environment.

Agora

Yes

Arrowchat

Yes

Dev tools
Programmatic management

Enables the automation of provisioning, management, and testing of service resources, simplifying integration with existing development workflows such as CI.

Agora

Yes

Arrowchat

No

Pricing
Pricing model

The pricing model should align with your project's expected load, usage patterns, and budget in order to be cost-effective and efficient.

Agora

Agora provides pay-as-you-go pricing based on the number of participant minutes, messages per month, and MAUs for chat.

Read more
Arrowchat

Pricing of the hosted version depends on number of concurrent users and the number of messaging events within the month.

Pricing illustration

An example price based on 5 live streaming chat events and 50K attendees.

Agora

$2349,

  • Base Plan (Pro) = $699/month
  • Additional MAUs (15,000) = $750/month
  • Signaling Messages = $900
Arrowchat

ArrowChat cannot support more than 2,000 concurrent users, so we are unable to provide a scaled pricing illustration.

Free plan

With a free plan, you can test the service’s functionality and compatibility with your project before committing to a paid plan.

Agora

Yes

Agora's free plan offers 10k minutes/month.

Arrowchat

Self-hosted edition offers a basic free plan but functionality is very limited. Hosted version has a 14-day free trial.

Learn more
Pricing plans

The pricing plans offered by cost.

Agora
  • Free Plan: $0/month for up to 500 MAUs.
  • Starter Plan: $349/month for up to 5,000 MAUs; $0.05 per additional MAU.
  • Pro Plan: $699/month for up to 10,000 MAUs; $0.05 per additional MAU.
  • Enterprise Plan: Custom pricing for over 100,000 MAUs, with tailored features and support.
Arrowchat

There are four paid packages:

  • Basic: 100 concurrent users, 200,000 events, $10 per month.
  • Advanced: 500 concurrent users, 1 million events, $25 per month.
  • Pro: 1,000 concurrent users, 5 million events, $50 per month.
  • Enterprise: 2,000 concurrent users, 20 million events, $100 per month.

:ctaLearn more

Support for additional realtime features
Pub/Sub messaging

Reduces communication code complexity, simplifying the process of building highly functional and architecturally complex realtime apps.

Agora

Yes

Agora's message channels use the pub/sub model, allowing you to publish messages to a channel or subscribe to receive them without pre-creating the channel.

Read more
Arrowchat

No

Collaboration capabilities

Enables you to quickly integrate realtime collaborative features like live cursors, member location, avatar stacks, and component locking.

Agora

No

Arrowchat

No

Database sync capabilities

Database sync capabilities enable realtime updates between your database and UI, ensuring the UI reflects changes in the database instantly, with data consistency, and without the need for polling.

Agora

No

Arrowchat

Yes

Notifications

Send notifications directly to users screens, from chat responses to news alerts, or game updates, whether or not an application is open and running.

Agora

Yes

Arrowchat

Partial

HTML5 desktop notifications only. No support for native mobile notifications.

Read more
Asset tracking

State-of-the-art asset tracking across last mile logistics, food delivery applications, and urban mobility services.

Agora

Yes

Agora provides rich media messages that support GPS locations, allowing you to track assets.

Arrowchat

No

Integrations & interoperability
AI models

Allows you to integrate AI models, like GPT, into your app.

Agora

Yes

Agora provides integration with OpenAI models AI for its conversational AI SDK developed in partnership with OpenAI.

Read more
Arrowchat

No

Serverless functions

Enables integration with third-party cloud providers by facilitating the execution of custom code against messages to perform business logic like on-the-fly translation.

Agora

No

Arrowchat

No

Streaming & queueing

Provides a dependable method to reroute messages from the service to third-party streams and queues for further processing.

Agora

No

Arrowchat

No

Observability services

Enables realtime monitoring and troubleshooting by offering insights into service behavior directly in your observability platform of choice.

Agora

Yes

Agora analytics integrates with Datadog to provide monitoring of servers, databases, tools, and services.

Read more
Arrowchat

No

Security & compliance
API key authentication

Simplifies the authentication code on trusted servers compared to requesting, managing, and refreshing tokens.

Agora

No

Agora uses token-based authentication for user authentication, rather than API keys. Users authenticate through Access Tokens, which are generated using the app's credentials.

Read more
Arrowchat

No

Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication

SSO streamlines login processes, boosts security by minimizing password use, and meets compliance needs for secure data access management.

Agora

Yes

Arrowchat

No

Rules for permissions and operations

Provides control over which users can subscribe and publish to certain channels.

Agora

Yes

Arrowchat

Yes

End-to-end encryption

Ensures that the data transmitted between the client and the API server remains confidential and secure while in transit.

Agora

Yes

Agora implements E2EE for its messages through its signaling SDK, which has a built-in AES 256 GCM encryption algorithm.

Read more
Arrowchat

No

Compliance

Compliance with regulations can impact your ability to meet legal obligations in your industry.

Agora
  • HIPAA
  • GDPR
  • COPPA
  • SOC 2
  • ISO/IEC 27001
Arrowchat
  • CalOPPA
  • COPPA

Disclaimer: This comparison was created based on documentation and resources freely available online about Agora and Arrowchat. The content was last updated on 16 May 2025 for Agora and on 16 May 2025 for Arrowchat. Be sure to double-check everything before you make any decisions. If you do find anything incorrect or out of date, then please let us know.

Alternatives to Agora and Arrowchat

While both Agora and Arrowchat are worth considering as options for realtime experiences, they aren’t without their limitations. We suggest evaluating them against the following alternatives to make sure you find the right solution for your needs.

Alternatives to Agora

tech provider image

Sendbird offers APIs and SDKs for live chat, realtime messaging, push notifications, and calls with WebSocket connections, UI kits, and backend integrations.

Pubnub logo

PubNub is a developer API platform that powers the realtime infrastructure in apps to build engaging Virtual Spaces where online communities can connect.

Twilio logo

Twilio is a platform that provides developers with a suite of communication tools for building messaging infrastructure in their applications.

See more alternatives to Agora

Alternatives to Arrowchat

tech provider image

CometChat provides rich messaging solutions for apps with features like text, voice, video chat, robust SDKs, and UI kits.

tech provider image

Sendbird offers APIs and SDKs for live chat, realtime messaging, push notifications, and calls with WebSocket connections, UI kits, and backend integrations.

Twilio logo

Twilio is a platform that provides developers with a suite of communication tools for building messaging infrastructure in their applications.

See more alternatives to Arrowchat

Discover how Agora and Arrowchat stack up against Ably

Ably is the definitive realtime experience platform of the internet. See how we compare to Agora and Arrowchat on key dimensions such as core features, pricing, integrations, QoS, performance, and security and compliance.

Try Ably for free to discover the benefits for yourself

Ably has built reliable realtime infrastructure so you don’t have to. On our free plan you benefit from:

  • 6M monthly messages
  • 200 concurrent channels
  • 200 concurrent connections