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Agora vs Twilio

Discover how Agora compares to Twilio, 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.

Twilio logo

What is Twilio?

Twilio is a cloud platform that enables developers to build real-time communications features for their applications. It provides APIs for voice, SMS, video, WhatsApp, and other messaging services.

Compare Agora and Twilio

Let’s compare Agora and Twilio, 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.

Twilio

1000 users can be supported per group.

Connections

Number of connections that can be handled across the platform.

Agora

Unknown.

Twilio
  • Up to 7,000 in each Twilio subaccount.
  • 100,000 overall, shared among all your subaccounts.
Read more
Channels / rooms

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

Agora

Unlimited.

Twilio

Unlimited.

Messages

Number of messages that can be handled across the platform.

Agora

Unknown.

Twilio

Unlimited.

Message throughput

Number of messsages that can be published per second.

Agora

Unknown.

Twilio

Unknown.

Data integrity
Guaranteed message delivery

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

Agora

No

Twilio

No

Twilio does not provide exactly-once message delivery. While it ensures reliable delivery, it typically follows at-least-once or best-effort delivery models. That means messages may be delivered more than once in rare cases, such as during network failures or retry attempts.

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

Twilio

No

Twilio sends SMS messages in the order they are queued, but they are delivered individually. That means that if you send multiple SMS messages to the same user quickly, Twilio cannot guarantee that the messages will arrive in the order you sent them.

Read more
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

Twilio

No

Twilio doesn't guarantee exactly-once delivery by default. However, it can implement de-duplication in the receiving service by checking if an event with the same ID has already been received, and discarding duplicates.

Read more
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%.

Twilio
  • Twilio APIs SLA: Up to 99.99%
  • Twilio Flex Critical Scenarios SLA: Up to 99.90%
  • Twilio Segment Data Ingestion API SLA: Up to 99.99%
Read more
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
Twilio

Yes

Twilio has a global edge network of network edges called Twilio Edge Locations, which allows you to control the geographic location where your application's network traffic enters and exits Twilio's platform.

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

Twilio

Yes

Twilio provides multi-region data replication to enhance message durability.

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
Twilio

Yes

Twilio's "Super Network" and hybrid cloud infrastructure reduce the risk of a single point of failure and congestion. The design is built with redundancy and scalability to minimize potential disruptions.

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
Twilio

Unknown.

Server-side batching

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

Agora

No

Twilio

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.

Twilio

Yes

Twilio provides reconnection states and events for Twilio Video applications through the Twilio Video SDK.

Read more
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
Twilio
  • WebSockets
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
Twilio
  • PHP
  • Python
  • Ruby
  • NET
  • Java
  • Apex
  • C#
Read more
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
Twilio

Twilio is limited to two chat room types:

  • Group chat
  • Private chat
Read more
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

Twilio

Yes

Twilio offers presence functionality through its Conversations SDK, which has a built-in Reachability Indicator feature.

Read more
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

Twilio

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
Twilio

Yes

Twilio Conversation SDK has a Typing Indicator feature that enables typing signals, that allow typing indication to be implemented in a conversation.

Read more
Room reactions

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

Agora

Yes

Twilio

No

Chat message attributes
Message edits and deletes

Allow users to modify or remove messages.

Agora

Yes

Twilio

Yes

Twilio Conversations allows users and any conversation participant (based on role permissions) to edit and delete messages.

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
Twilio

Yes

Twilio supports emojis in its messaging channels, including SMS, MMS, and WhatsApp.

Read more
Rich text support

Enhance messages with rich text formatting in chat.

Agora

No

Twilio

Yes

Twilio supports rich text formatting via lightweight markup only for WhatsApp chats through its Programmable Messaging.

Read more
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
Twilio

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

Twilio

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
Twilio

Yes

Twilio Conversations has a Role Resource that represents what a user can do within Conversations. Users are assigned a role at the Service level, and participants are assigned a role at the Conversation level.

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
Twilio

Yes

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.

Twilio

Yes

Not natively supported but possible via third-party integrations.

Asynchronous - automated moderation

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

Agora

Yes

Twilio

Yes

Not natively supported but possible via third-party integrations.

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
Twilio

No

Ban users

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

Agora

Yes

Twilio

Yes

With Twilio Flex chat, users can block other users from sending messages in a chat.

Read more
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

Twilio

Yes

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
Twilio

Twilio has a pay as you go model.

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
Twilio

$1300.

  • MAU = $0.045 per user
  • Storage = $150

Using Twilio Conversations.

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.

Twilio

Yes

Some (not all) of Twilio's services have a free plan.

  • Twilio Flex: 5,000 free active user hours
  • Twilio Conversations: Free up to 200 MAUs
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.
Twilio
  • Twilio Flex: $1/active user hour or $150/named MAU.
  • Twilio Conversations: Starts at $0.05 per MAU & $0.25 per GB of media storage.
  • SMS and MMS start at $0.0079 per message.
  • WhatsApp Business API template messages start at $0.0042, and session messages start at $0.005.
  • Voice APIs: $0.0085/min to receive calls, $0.014/min to make calls.
  • Twilio SendGrid Email API and Twilio SendGrid: Starting at $19.95/month.
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
Twilio

No

Collaboration capabilities

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

Agora

No

Twilio

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

Twilio

No

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

Twilio

Yes

Twilio offers push notifications through its Twilio Notify API.

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.

Twilio

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
Twilio

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

Twilio
  • Twilio Functions
Streaming & queueing

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

Agora

No

Twilio

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
Twilio

Yes

Twilio provides observability through insights and monitoring dashboards for voice, messaging, and flex. The dashboards give metrics like time range, delivery status, messaging traffic, errors, responses, etc.

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
Twilio

Yes

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

Twilio

Partial

Twilio offers Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication for customers with a supported Twilio Editions package.

Read more
Rules for permissions and operations

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

Agora

Yes

Twilio

Yes

Twilio manages permissions and operations through its Console and Access Control features.

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
Twilio

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
Twilio
  • GDPR
  • HIPAA
  • PCI DSS
  • ISO/IEC

Disclaimer: This comparison was created based on documentation and resources freely available online about Agora and Twilio. The content was last updated on 16 May 2025 for Agora and on 16 May 2025 for Twilio. 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 Twilio

While both Agora and Twilio 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 Twilio

tech provider image

Vonage provides SMS, voice, and video APIs for customizable communication solutions.

tech provider image

Bird (formerly MessageBird) provides SMS, voice, chat, and video APIs for omnichannel communication.

tech provider image

Agora provides APIs for realtime voice, video and live streaming.

See more alternatives to Twilio

Discover how Agora and Twilio stack up against Ably

Ably is the definitive realtime experience platform of the internet. See how we compare to Agora and Twilio 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