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CometChat vs PubNub

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

CometChat

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.

PubNub logo

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.

Compare CometChat and PubNub

Let’s compare CometChat and PubNub, 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.

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.

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.

Connections

Number of connections that can be handled across the platform.

CometChat

Up to 500k.

PubNub

Unlimited.

Overages apply if you exceed plan quota - $0.15 per additional user.

Channels / rooms

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

CometChat

Unlimited.

PubNub

Unlimited.

Messages

Number of messages that can be handled across the platform.

CometChat

Unlimited.

PubNub

Unlimited.

Overages apply if you exceed 3000 per user - $43 per additional 1M transactions.

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.

PubNub

10-15 messages per second can be published.

Read more
Data integrity
Guaranteed message delivery

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

CometChat

No

PubNub

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.

CometChat

No

PubNub

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.

CometChat

No

PubNub

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.

CometChat

99.99% uptime guarantee.

Read more
PubNub

PubNub offers a 99.999% uptime SLA for its users.

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
PubNub

Yes

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

PubNub

Yes

PubNub supports multi-region data replication across different points of presence except for file sharing.

Read more
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

PubNub

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.

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
PubNub

<100 milliseconds delivery.

Server-side batching

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

CometChat

No

PubNub

No

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
PubNub

Yes

PubNub supports connection state recovery and has an automatic reconnection process to handle brief network interruptions.

PubNub message delivery page
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.

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.

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
PubNub
  • JavaScript
  • Kotlin
  • Unreal
  • Swift
  • Unity
PubNub chat SDK page
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
PubNub

Yes

PubNub supports:

  • Group chat channels
  • Supergroup channels
  • Private and public chat groups
  • Direct message messaging
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.

PubNub
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

PubNub

Yes

PubNub's Presence API allows developers to access and integrate occupancy information into their applications.

Read more
Typing indicators

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

CometChat

Yes

PubNub
Room reactions

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

CometChat

No

PubNub

No

Chat message attributes
Message edits and deletes

Allow users to modify or remove messages.

CometChat

Yes

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.

Message reactions & emoticons

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

CometChat

Yes

PubNub

Yes

Rich text support

Enhance messages with rich text formatting in chat.

CometChat

Yes

PubNub

No

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
PubNub

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.

CometChat

Yes

CometChat supports in-app notifications through CometChat's push notification service.

PubNub

Yes

PubNub supports in-app notifications through its mobile push gateway.

Role-based permissions

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

CometChat

Yes

PubNub

Yes

UI kit

Customizable UI elements for a seamless chat integration.

CometChat

Yes

CometChat supports UI kits for:

  • Android
  • iOS
  • React
  • Flutter
  • Vue
  • Angular
PubNub

No

Storage and history
Synchronous - automated moderation

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

CometChat

Yes

PubNub

Yes

Integration with 3rd party moderation tools via Functions.

Asynchronous - automated moderation

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

CometChat

Yes

PubNub

Yes

Integration with 3rd party moderation tools via Functions.

Manual moderation via dashboards

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

CometChat

Yes

CometChat lets human experts handle complex moderation cases. It allows users to set rules that flag borderline content for human review.

PubNub

Yes

PubNub offers a Moderation Dashboard that allows admins to manually moderate chat app users through the Users view.

Ban users

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

CometChat

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.

Dev tools
Programmatic management

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

CometChat

Yes

PubNub

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.

CometChat

CometChat pricing is based on the number of MAUs. Overages apply for additional MAU's and peak concurrent connection - over set quota.

CometChat pricing page
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
Pricing illustration

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

CometChat

$24,419

Base price - $669 Overages per additional concurrent user over 1250 - $23,750

Note: Assumes same users attend each event, to keep MAU at minimum

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
Free plan

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

CometChat

Yes

Free for up to 100 users.

PubNub

Yes

Pricing plans

The pricing plans offered by cost.

CometChat
  • Basic: Starting from $298.75/month for 1K MAUs - scale up to 1M
  • Advanced: Starting from $423.75/month for 1K MAUs - scale to to 10M
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing available from 10K MAU

Overages:

  • Per additional MAU - $0.10
  • Per additional peak concurrent connection at $1 each
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
Support for additional realtime features
Pub/Sub messaging

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

CometChat

No

PubNub

Yes

Collaboration capabilities

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

CometChat

Yes

CometChat offers collaboration capabilities with tools like polls, whiteboards, and collaborative documents.

PubNub

Partial

PubNub's collaboration capabilities are largely powered by its Presence feature. There is no dedicated collaboration SDK.

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.

CometChat

No

PubNub

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.

CometChat

Yes

PubNub

Yes

Asset tracking

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

CometChat

No

PubNub

Yes

PubNub can be used to track and trace assets, their locations, and status through its realtime visibility feature.

Read more
Integrations & interoperability
AI models

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

CometChat

Yes

CometChat uses the M87 LLM for its generative conversations.

Read more
PubNub

Yes

PubNub integrates with OpenAI's ChatGPT model.

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.

CometChat

No

PubNub

PubNub operates its own serverless architecture through its feature called PubNub Functions.

Streaming & queueing

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

CometChat

No

PubNub

Egress:

  • AWS Kinesis
  • AWS SQS
  • Apache Pulsar
  • RabbitMQ
  • AMQP
  • Kafka

Ingress:

  • Kafka
Observability services

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

CometChat

No

PubNub

Yes

PubNub provides integrations with Datadog and NewRelic.

Security & compliance
API key authentication

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

CometChat

Yes

PubNub

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.

CometChat

Yes

PubNub

Yes

PubNub implements SAML SSO authentication.

Rules for permissions and operations

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

CometChat

Yes

CometChat implements rules for permissions and user control. It features role-based permissions that allow you to manage user actions.

PubNub

Yes

PubNub supports rules for permissions and operations through its Access Manager.

See Access Manager docs
End-to-end encryption

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

CometChat

Yes

CometChat implements end-to-end encryption using Virgil E3Kit.

PubNub

Yes

PubNub uses AES256 encryption for end-to-end encryption of messages and files.

Read more
Compliance

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

CometChat

CometChat is compliant with four security standards:

  • HIPAA
  • GDPR
  • ISO 27001
  • SOC 2 Type 2
CometChat compliance page
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

Disclaimer: This comparison was created based on documentation and resources freely available online about CometChat and PubNub. The content was last updated on 1 May 2025 for CometChat 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 CometChat and PubNub

While both CometChat 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 CometChat

Twilio logo

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

Ably logo

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 logo

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 PubNub

Pusher logo

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

Socketio logo

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.

tech provider image

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 CometChat and PubNub stack up against Ably

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