Bird vs PubNub

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

What is Bird?

Bird (formerly MessageBird) is a cloud communications platform that offers SMS, voice, chat, and video capabilities. It focuses on enabling omnichannel communication for businesses, allowing them to connect with customers across various channels seamlessly.

When to use Bird

Pros and cons of Bird

What is PubNub?

PubNub is a developer API platform that powers the realtime infrastructure in apps to build engaging Virtual Spaces where online communities can connect. It can serve as the foundation for online chat, live events, geolocation, remote IoT control, and realtime updates.

When to use PubNub

Pros and cons of PubNub

Compare Bird and PubNub

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

Disclaimer: This comparison was created based on documentation and resources freely available online about Bird and PubNub. The content was last updated on 16 May 2025 for Bird and on 30 Apr 2025 for PubNub. 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 If you do find anything incorrect or out of date, then please let us know.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 Bird and PubNub

While both Bird and PubNub 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 Bird

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

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

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

See more alternatives to Bird

Alternatives to PubNub

Pusher is a first-generation pub/sub messaging service that provides bi-directional hosted APIs for adding realtime features to applications.

Socket.IO is a library that provides realtime, bi-directional communication between clients and servers. It allows the management of connections, sending and receiving messages, and more.

SignalR is an open-source library that simplifies adding real-time web functionality to ASP.NET Core web apps.

See more alternatives to PubNub

Discover how Bird and PubNub stack up against Ably

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

Ably vs Bird Ably vs PubNub

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

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	Bird	PubNub	Why this matters
Scalability
Concurrent connections	Number of users that can be supported in a single chat.	Bird Unknown.	PubNub 10,000 users can be supported in a single chat. They recommend you limit the number of online users in a single chat room or space to 10,000 users for optimal performance.	Number of users that can be supported in a single chat.
Connections	Number of connections that can be handled across the platform.	Bird Unknown.	PubNub Unlimited. Overages apply if you exceed plan quota - $0.15 per additional user.	Number of connections that can be handled across the platform.
Channels / rooms	Number of channels or rooms that can be handled across the platform.	Bird Unlimited.	PubNub Unlimited.	Number of channels or rooms that can be handled across the platform.
Messages	Number of messages that can be handled across the platform.	Bird Unlimited.	PubNub Unlimited. Overages apply if you exceed 3000 per user - $43 per additional 1M transactions.	Number of messages that can be handled across the platform.
Message throughput	Number of messsages that can be published per second.	Bird Not publicly disclosed.	PubNub 10-15 messages per second can be published. Read more	Number of messsages that can be published per second.
Data integrity
Guaranteed message delivery	Ensures messages are never lost during transmission, even in the presence of network disruptions.	Bird No	PubNub No	Ensures messages are never lost during transmission, even in the presence of network disruptions.
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.	Bird No	PubNub No	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.
Exactly-once message delivery	Guarantees that each message is processed exactly once, preventing data inconsistencies that can arise from duplicate processing or missing messages.	Bird No	PubNub No	Guarantees that each message is processed exactly once, preventing data inconsistencies that can arise from duplicate processing or missing messages.
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.	Bird 99.9% uptime/month for Bird API Voice and Bird Dashboard 99.95% uptime/month for SMS Services Read more	PubNub PubNub offers a 99.999% uptime SLA for its users.	An uptime guarantee instills confidence in the reliability of the service and protects your business from the negative impacts of downtime.
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.	Bird No	PubNub Yes	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.
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.	Bird No	PubNub Yes PubNub supports multi-region data replication across different points of presence except for file sharing. Read more	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.
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.	Bird No	PubNub No	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.
Latency	Low latency is crucial for realtime apps as it ensures swift and efficient data transmissions, providing a smoother and more responsive user experience.	Bird Unknown.	PubNub <100 milliseconds delivery.	Low latency is crucial for realtime apps as it ensures swift and efficient data transmissions, providing a smoother and more responsive user experience.
Server-side batching	Reduces the overall message count, lowers costs, and mitigates the risk of hitting rate limits during high-throughput scenarios.	Bird No	PubNub No	Reduces the overall message count, lowers costs, and mitigates the risk of hitting rate limits during high-throughput scenarios.
Connection state recovery	Automatically re-establish failed connections and replay missed messages.	Bird No	PubNub Yes PubNub supports connection state recovery and has an automatic reconnection process to handle brief network interruptions. PubNub message delivery page	Automatically re-establish failed connections and replay missed messages.
Ecosystem support
Supported realtime protocols	Support for multiple protocols provides the flexibility to choose a protocol that best suits your project’s requirements.	Bird Bird uses SMPP (Short Message Peer-to-Peer) for SMS messaging. Read more	PubNub HTTP MQTT Fallback to Comet (XHR) and Long Polling for older browsers PubNub uses HTTP as the transport for their client libraries. A WebSocket compliant interface is provided in some libraries, however this is just a wrapper around an underlying HTTP transport.	Support for multiple protocols provides the flexibility to choose a protocol that best suits your project’s requirements.
Supported languages	Supporting multiple languages and platforms offers greater flexibility when building cross-platform realtime apps.	Bird PHP Ruby Go Python C# Java NodeJS Read more	PubNub JavaScript Kotlin Unreal Swift Unity PubNub chat SDK page	Supporting multiple languages and platforms offers greater flexibility when building cross-platform realtime apps.
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.	Bird Bird does not natively support chat rooms as part of its messaging API.	PubNub Yes PubNub supports: Group chat channels Supergroup channels Private and public chat groups Direct message messaging	Enables chat experiences to be tailored to various user needs, from one-on-one to large, scalable group discussions.
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.	Bird Partial You can integrate your Bird app with Pusher Channels, which supports presence channels to track and display users’ online status in realtime.	PubNub Yes Read more	Maintaining a view of which users are connected, and their associated metadata, enables their online status to be updated in realtime.
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.	Bird Partial You can integrate your Bird app with Pusher presence channels for occupancy tracking.	PubNub Yes PubNub's Presence API allows developers to access and integrate occupancy information into their applications. Read more	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.
Typing indicators	Show when others are typing in a chat room, enhancing realtime communication flow.	Bird No	PubNub Yes Read more	Show when others are typing in a chat room, enhancing realtime communication flow.
Room reactions	Customize the chat environment with reactions and other shared room states.	Bird No	PubNub No	Customize the chat environment with reactions and other shared room states.
Chat message attributes
Message edits and deletes	Allow users to modify or remove messages.	Bird No	PubNub Yes PubNub stores all messages in a time-series database and doesn’t expose an API to directly update a message. Users can delete or edit messages using the Message Reactions feature.	Allow users to modify or remove messages.
Message reactions & emoticons	Boost engagement by enabling users to quickly express emotions or feedback on messages.	Bird No	PubNub Yes	Boost engagement by enabling users to quickly express emotions or feedback on messages.
Rich text support	Enhance messages with rich text formatting in chat.	Bird No	PubNub No	Enhance messages with rich text formatting in chat.
Media attachments	Support for sharing images, videos, and files in chat.	Bird Yes Bird's File Storage API enables its Conversations API to send messages with files. Bird also has MMS API that enables you to send and receive MMS messages that include multimedia content but only within the US and Canada. Read more	PubNub Yes	Support for sharing images, videos, and files in chat.
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.	Bird No	PubNub Yes PubNub supports in-app notifications through its mobile push gateway.	Notify users of important events from other chat rooms without them leaving the current chat, keeping them engaged and informed.
Role-based permissions	Control user roles and permissions to ensure proper access and moderation.	Bird Yes Bird uses Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) to ensure that only authorized individuals can access critical systems and information. Read more	PubNub Yes	Control user roles and permissions to ensure proper access and moderation.
UI kit	Customizable UI elements for a seamless chat integration.	Bird No	PubNub No	Customizable UI elements for a seamless chat integration.
Storage and history
Synchronous - automated moderation	Detect and manage harmful content automatically, before the message is broadcast to participants.	Bird No	PubNub Yes Integration with 3rd party moderation tools via Functions.	Detect and manage harmful content automatically, before the message is broadcast to participants.
Asynchronous - automated moderation	Detect and manage harmful content automatically, after the message is broadcast to participants.	Bird No	PubNub Yes Integration with 3rd party moderation tools via Functions.	Detect and manage harmful content automatically, after the message is broadcast to participants.
Manual moderation via dashboards	Tools for moderators to detect harmful messages and manage them effectively.	Bird No	PubNub Yes PubNub offers a Moderation Dashboard that allows admins to manually moderate chat app users through the Users view.	Tools for moderators to detect harmful messages and manage them effectively.
Ban users	Remove problematic users from the chat to maintain a healthy environment.	Bird Yes	PubNub Yes PubNub users can automatically disable default access to channels, channel groups, and other users' metadata through the access manager and admin portal.	Remove problematic users from the chat to maintain a healthy environment.
Dev tools
Programmatic management	Enables the automation of provisioning, management, and testing of service resources, simplifying integration with existing development workflows such as CI.	Bird Yes Bird offers programmatic management through its programmable SMS API. Read more	PubNub Yes	Enables the automation of provisioning, management, and testing of service resources, simplifying integration with existing development workflows such as CI.
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.	Bird Bird pricing is based on your targeted monthly contacts (unique user interactions per month on the app). Read more	PubNub PubNub offers Free, Starter, and Pro packages. Their support packages, separate from their standard plans, also include an Enterprise option. Their pricing model is based on monthly active users (MAUs). See the pricing page	The pricing model should align with your project's expected load, usage patterns, and budget in order to be cost-effective and efficient.
Pricing illustration	An example price based on 5 live streaming chat events and 50K attendees.	Bird Unable to confirm that 25k concurrent connections can be supported in a single group. Bird is best suited to 1:1 or small group chats.	PubNub $23,048.00 Plan = $98.00 Overages over 1000 users @ $0.15 = $3,600.00 Overages for transactions over 3000 per user @$43 per additional 1M transactions = $19,350.00 Note: Assumes same users attend each event to keep MAU at minimum. PubNub pricing page	An example price based on 5 live streaming chat events and 50K attendees.
Free plan	With a free plan, you can test the service’s functionality and compatibility with your project before committing to a paid plan.	Bird Yes Bird offers a free support plan called Coach. Read more	PubNub Yes	With a free plan, you can test the service’s functionality and compatibility with your project before committing to a paid plan.
Pricing plans	The pricing plans offered by cost.	Bird Contact-based pricing: Starts from $45/month for 3,000 contacts. Enterprise pricing: Custom for more than 50,000 contacts.	PubNub Starter: $98/month/MAU: Up to 1000 MAUs, and up to 3000 transactions per MAU. Pro packages: Custom pricing Their support packages, separate from their standard plans, also include an Enterprise option. Overages apply: $0.15 per additional user $43 per additional 1M transactions	The pricing plans offered by cost.
Support for additional realtime features
Pub/Sub messaging	Reduces communication code complexity, simplifying the process of building highly functional and architecturally complex realtime apps.	Bird No	PubNub Yes	Reduces communication code complexity, simplifying the process of building highly functional and architecturally complex realtime apps.
Collaboration capabilities	Enables you to quickly integrate realtime collaborative features like live cursors, member location, avatar stacks, and component locking.	Bird No	PubNub Partial PubNub's collaboration capabilities are largely powered by its Presence feature. There is no dedicated collaboration SDK.	Enables you to quickly integrate realtime collaborative features like live cursors, member location, avatar stacks, and component locking.
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.	Bird No	PubNub No	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.
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.	Bird Partial Bird can supports push notifications through the Pusher Beams API. Read more	PubNub Yes	Send notifications directly to users screens, from chat responses to news alerts, or game updates, whether or not an application is open and running.
Asset tracking	State-of-the-art asset tracking across last mile logistics, food delivery applications, and urban mobility services.	Bird Partial Bird can only supports asset tracking when integrated with Pusher Channels which can display the current location of assets on a map in realtime. Read more	PubNub Yes PubNub can be used to track and trace assets, their locations, and status through its realtime visibility feature. Read more	State-of-the-art asset tracking across last mile logistics, food delivery applications, and urban mobility services.
Integrations & interoperability
AI models	Allows you to integrate AI models, like GPT, into your app.	Bird No	PubNub Yes PubNub integrates with OpenAI's ChatGPT model.	Allows you to integrate AI models, like GPT, into your app.
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.	Bird No	PubNub PubNub operates its own serverless architecture through its feature called PubNub 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.
Streaming & queueing	Provides a dependable method to reroute messages from the service to third-party streams and queues for further processing.	Bird No	PubNub Egress: AWS Kinesis AWS SQS Apache Pulsar RabbitMQ AMQP Kafka Ingress: Kafka	Provides a dependable method to reroute messages from the service to third-party streams and queues for further processing.
Observability services	Enables realtime monitoring and troubleshooting by offering insights into service behavior directly in your observability platform of choice.	Bird No	PubNub Yes PubNub provides integrations with Datadog and NewRelic.	Enables realtime monitoring and troubleshooting by offering insights into service behavior directly in your observability platform of choice.
Security & compliance
API key authentication	Simplifies the authentication code on trusted servers compared to requesting, managing, and refreshing tokens.	Bird Yes	PubNub Yes	Simplifies the authentication code on trusted servers compared to requesting, managing, and refreshing tokens.
Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication	SSO streamlines login processes, boosts security by minimizing password use, and meets compliance needs for secure data access management.	Bird Yes Bird CRM provides SSO via OpenID or SAML SSO integration standards. Read more	PubNub Yes PubNub implements SAML SSO authentication.	SSO streamlines login processes, boosts security by minimizing password use, and meets compliance needs for secure data access management.
Rules for permissions and operations	Provides control over which users can subscribe and publish to certain channels.	Bird Yes Bird implements user permission control within its Inbox platform, which is mainly intended to support the organization of user access and ticket handling through predefined roles and permissions. Read more	PubNub Yes PubNub supports rules for permissions and operations through its Access Manager. See Access Manager docs	Provides control over which users can subscribe and publish to certain channels.
End-to-end encryption	Ensures that the data transmitted between the client and the API server remains confidential and secure while in transit.	Bird Yes Bird supports end-to-end encryption for WhatsApp. Bird's WhatsApp Business API offers end-to-end encryption for WhatsApp messages. Read more	PubNub Yes PubNub uses AES256 encryption for end-to-end encryption of messages and files. Read more	Ensures that the data transmitted between the client and the API server remains confidential and secure while in transit.
Compliance	Compliance with regulations can impact your ability to meet legal obligations in your industry.	Bird ISO/IEC 27001:2013 SOC 2 Type I & II GDPR HIPAA Read more	PubNub PubNub is compliant with five policies for the security and privacy of its services: ISO 27001 SOC 2 Type II HIPAA GDPR CCPA PubNub FAQ page	Compliance with regulations can impact your ability to meet legal obligations in your industry.