CometChat vs Firebase

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

What is CometChat?

CometChat is a messaging platform designed for integration into various applications, offering text, voice, and video chat capabilities. It supports extensive customization through SDKs and UI kits.

When to use CometChat

Pros and cons of CometChat

What is Firebase?

Firebase is a cloud-native backend by Google that allows developers to build mobile and web applications. Firebase services include Firebase Realtime data, Firestore database, authentication, and Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM), among others.

When to use Firebase

Pros and cons of Firebase

Compare CometChat and Firebase

Let’s compare CometChat and Firebase, 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 CometChat and Firebase. The content was last updated on 1 May 2025 for CometChat and on 16 May 2025 for Firebase. 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 If you do find anything incorrect or out of date, then please let us know.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 CometChat and Firebase

While both CometChat and Firebase 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 CometChat

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

Ably is the definitive realtime experience platform of the internet. Serving more WebSocket connections than any other pub/sub platform on earth. Businesses trust us to power their critical applications - reliably, securely and at serious scale.

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

Alternatives to Firebase

Supabase Realtime is a globally distributed real-time server network built on PostgreSQL, enabling developers to build applications with real-time data sync.

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

OneSignal is a customer engagement platform that offers push notifications, messages, and email sends for businesses to manage communication with their users.

See more alternatives to Firebase

Discover how CometChat and Firebase stack up against Ably

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

Ably vs CometChat Ably vs Firebase

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200 concurrent connections

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	CometChat	Firebase	Why this matters
Scalability
Concurrent connections	Number of users that can be supported in a single chat.	CometChat Up 100k concurrent connections can be supported. The use of certain features, such as delivery receipts, read receipts, and typing indicators, may impact these limits. For example, groups with all features enabled can accommodate up to 300 members.	Firebase Up to 200,000 concurrent WebSocket connections per database instance. This limit applies per database. To support more concurrent users, you can shard your data across multiple database instances. Read more	Number of users that can be supported in a single chat.
Connections	Number of connections that can be handled across the platform.	CometChat Up to 500k.	Firebase By sharding, you can scale beyond 200,000 concurrent connections. Each additional database instance adds another 200,000 connections. Read more	Number of connections that can be handled across the platform.
Channels / rooms	Number of channels or rooms that can be handled across the platform.	CometChat Unlimited.	Firebase Unlimited. Each path with listeners or queries should not exceed 75 million total nodes. Read more	Number of channels or rooms that can be handled across the platform.
Messages	Number of messages that can be handled across the platform.	CometChat Unlimited.	Firebase Unlimited. Write operations are subject to rate limits.	Number of messages that can be handled across the platform.
Message throughput	Number of messsages that can be published per second.	CometChat Up to 333 messages per second. API calls for standard operations are rate limited to 20000 requests per min.	Firebase ~1,000 writes/sec per database. 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.	CometChat No	Firebase 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.	CometChat No	Firebase 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.	CometChat No	Firebase 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.	CometChat 99.99% uptime guarantee. Read more	Firebase 99.95%. Read more	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.	CometChat Yes Read more	Firebase Yes Firebase's global CDN (content delivery network) supports a global edge network by integrating with Google Cloud Platform (GCP), with edge PoPs spanning over 180 internet exchanges and over 160 interconnection facilities worldwide. Read more	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.	CometChat No	Firebase Partial Firebase supports multi-region data replication, primarily through Cloud Firestore locations, but this is not supported in Firebase Realtime Database. 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.	CometChat No	Firebase Yes Firebase's design uses Google Cloud Platform's infrastructure, which implements redundancy and automatic failover features.	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.	CometChat Under optimal test conditions, CometChat has a one-way latency of less than 50 ms response time. It is not mentioned what its roundtrip latency is. Read more	Firebase Unknown.	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.	CometChat No	Firebase Partial Firebase supports server-side batching through transactions and batched writes in Firestore. Read more	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.	CometChat Yes CometChat supports connection state recovery, monitoring realtime connection status to its WebSocket servers. If disconnected, the SDK auto-reconnects, indicating "connecting" and "connected" states. Read more	Firebase Partial Firebase does not directly support automatic state recovery. The connection state recovery capabilities can be integrated with Firebase Realtime Database and Cloud Firestore, which automatically handle connection issues.	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.	CometChat WebSocket.	Firebase WebSockets Server-sent events (SSEs)	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.	CometChat CometChat supports several programming languages for effective integration with CometChat's SDKs and APIs: React Vue Swift (for iOS) Kotlin (for Android) PHP Angular React Native Flutter CometChat SDK page	Firebase JavaScript TypeScript Java Swift Objective-C Kotlin C++ Go Python Flutter Node.js Ruby C#	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.	CometChat Group chat channels Supergroup channels Private and public chat groups Direct message messaging	Firebase Firebase does not have built-in support for specific chat room types. Instead, Firebase provides backend tools such as Realtime Database, Firestore, and Firebase Authentication that allow you to implement chat rooms.	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.	CometChat Yes CometChat supports user presence out-of-the-box through CometChat SDKs and its UI kits. The SDKs include options for subscribing to presence updates to all users, specific roles, or friends.	Firebase Yes Firebase Realtime Database natively supports presence. 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.	CometChat No	Firebase Partial Firebase does not have built-in support for occupancy tracking. However, occupancy tracking functionality can be built on top of the Firebase Realtime Database.	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.	CometChat Yes	Firebase Partial Firebase does not have built-in support for typing indicators. However, you can implement this feature using Firestore or Realtime Database.	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.	CometChat No	Firebase Partial Firebase does not have built-in support for room reactions or arbitrary room state management specifically for chat applications, but you can integrate Firestore or Realtime Database for building out room reactions.	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.	CometChat Yes	Firebase Partial Firebase does not have built-in message delete or edit functionality for chat applications. However, it provides flexible database services, such as Firestore, Realtime Database, and cloud functions to implement these features.	Allow users to modify or remove messages.
Message reactions & emoticons	Boost engagement by enabling users to quickly express emotions or feedback on messages.	CometChat Yes	Firebase Partial Firebase does not have built-in support for message reactions or emoticons in chat applications. However, it offers tools like Firebase Firestore or Realtime Database to do that with some custom development.	Boost engagement by enabling users to quickly express emotions or feedback on messages.
Rich text support	Enhance messages with rich text formatting in chat.	CometChat Yes	Firebase No Firebase itself does not provide dedicated tools specifically for rich text formatting. You can leverage various third-party libraries and Firebase's existing tools to implement rich text support in your application. Otherwise, you can store rich text data (like markdown), and implement formatting on the client side. Read more	Enhance messages with rich text formatting in chat.
Media attachments	Support for sharing images, videos, and files in chat.	CometChat Yes CometChat in-app messaging allows users to send and receive various documents and multimedia files through its SDKs and UI kits. Read more	Firebase Partial Firebase supports media attachments, but it doesn't have built-in features specifically for handling media uploads in chat applications. You can leverage its Firebase Cloud Storage with Firestore or Realtime Database.	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.	CometChat Yes CometChat supports in-app notifications through CometChat's push notification service.	Firebase Yes Firebase supports in-app notifications, primarily through its Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) service.	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.	CometChat Yes	Firebase Yes Firebase supports role-based access control through the Firebase Admin SDK, Firebase IAM, and Cloud Firestore. Read more	Control user roles and permissions to ensure proper access and moderation.
UI kit	Customizable UI elements for a seamless chat integration.	CometChat Yes CometChat supports UI kits for: Android iOS React Flutter Vue Angular	Firebase No Firebase itself does not offer a built-in UI Kit specifically for chat applications.	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.	CometChat Yes	Firebase Partial Yes but not natively supported. Requires custom implementation using approval flags and client-side filtering. Read more	Detect and manage harmful content automatically, before the message is broadcast to participants.