CometChat vs Sendbird
Discover how CometChat compares to Sendbird, 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.

What is Sendbird?
Sendbird provides APIs and SDKs for mobile and web to integrate live chats and realtime messaging with message history, typing indicators, and push notifications features. It uses WebSocket connections and offers customizability using UI kits and backend integrations. It also supports video and audio integrations for calls.
Compare CometChat and Sendbird
Let’s compare CometChat and Sendbird, 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. | Sendbird Up to 20K users in super groups are supported in a single chat. Overages apply if you exceed plan quota - $5 per additional concurrent connection. |
Connections | Number of connections that can be handled across the platform. | CometChat Up to 500k. | Sendbird Unlimited - depends on plan. Overages apply if you exceed plan quota - $0.05 per additional user. |
Channels / rooms | Number of channels or rooms that can be handled across the platform. | CometChat Unlimited. | Sendbird Unlimited. |
Messages | Number of messages that can be handled across the platform. | CometChat Unlimited. | Sendbird Unlimited. |
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. | Sendbird 5 messages per second. |
Data integrity | |||
Guaranteed message delivery | Ensures messages are never lost during transmission, even in the presence of network disruptions. | CometChat No | Sendbird 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 | Sendbird 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 | Sendbird 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 | Sendbird A 99.9% SLA uptime guarantee is provided on paid plans. |
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 | Sendbird Yes Sendbird has servers deployed across 11 worldwide regions. |
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 | Sendbird No |
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 | Sendbird 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 | Sendbird Unknown. |
Server-side batching | Reduces the overall message count, lowers costs, and mitigates the risk of hitting rate limits during high-throughput scenarios. | CometChat No | Sendbird 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 | Sendbird Yes Sendbird implements connection state recovery through their chat SDKs, which are designed to automatically handle reconnections and message delivery. |
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. | Sendbird
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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:
| Sendbird
:cta[Sendbird chat messaging page[(https://sendbird.com/products/chat-messaging/sdk): :ctaGithub page Sendbird blog 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
| Sendbird
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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. | Sendbird 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. | CometChat No | Sendbird Yes |
Typing indicators | Show when others are typing in a chat room, enhancing realtime communication flow. | CometChat Yes | Sendbird Yes Sendbird offers text and bubble typing indicators in its SDKs and UI kits. |
Room reactions | Customize the chat environment with reactions and other shared room states. | CometChat No | Sendbird Yes |
Chat message attributes | |||
Message edits and deletes | Allow users to modify or remove messages. | CometChat Yes | Sendbird Yes Sendbird supports both deleting and editing messages. It offers options to delete messages individually or clear all messages in a channel and allows users to edit messages directly. |
Message reactions & emoticons | Boost engagement by enabling users to quickly express emotions or feedback on messages. | CometChat Yes | Sendbird Yes |
Rich text support | Enhance messages with rich text formatting in chat. | CometChat Yes | Sendbird 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 | |
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. | Sendbird Yes |
Role-based permissions | Control user roles and permissions to ensure proper access and moderation. | CometChat Yes | Sendbird Yes Sendbird offers role-based permissions. Users can have different roles based on their participation in chat channels. |
UI kit | Customizable UI elements for a seamless chat integration. | CometChat Yes CometChat supports UI kits for:
| Sendbird Yes Sendbird offers a UI kit called Sendbird UIKit. This toolkit provides pre-built components for rapidly integrating chat functionality. Read more |
Storage and history | |||
Synchronous - automated moderation | Detect and manage harmful content automatically, before the message is broadcast to participants. | CometChat Yes | Sendbird Yes |
Asynchronous - automated moderation | Detect and manage harmful content automatically, after the message is broadcast to participants. | CometChat Yes | Sendbird Yes Sendbird offers rule-based automated moderation to detect and manage harmful content. Its Advanced Moderation combines AI rules with human review. |
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. | Sendbird Yes Sendbird offers a moderation dashboard for manual oversight, allowing moderators to identify and handle harmful content within chat channels by banning users, removing messages, and configuring moderation settings. |
Ban users | Remove problematic users from the chat to maintain a healthy environment. | CometChat Yes | Sendbird Yes Sendbird offers a feature to ban users from chat channels, which can be applied to both group and open channels, allowing moderators to restrict specific users' participation. |
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 | Sendbird 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 | Sendbird Sendbird pricing is based on the number of MAUs. Overages apply for additional MAU's and peak concurrent connections over the set quota. Sendbird 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 | Sendbird $25,549.00
Note: Assumes same users attend each event, to keep MAU at minimum. |
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. | Sendbird Yes The free plan allows a maximum of 100 MAUs and 10 peak concurrent connections. |
Pricing plans | The pricing plans offered by cost. | CometChat
Overages:
| Sendbird
Overages:
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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 | Sendbird No |
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. | Sendbird Yes |
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 | Sendbird 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 | Sendbird Yes |
Asset tracking | State-of-the-art asset tracking across last mile logistics, food delivery applications, and urban mobility services. | CometChat No | Sendbird No |
Integrations & interoperability | |||
AI models | Allows you to integrate AI models, like GPT, into your app. | CometChat | Sendbird Yes Sendbird integrates AI chatbots into apps and websites. It supports the following AI models:
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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 | Sendbird No |
Streaming & queueing | Provides a dependable method to reroute messages from the service to third-party streams and queues for further processing. | CometChat No | Sendbird Yes Sendbird offers streaming integrations natively using webhooks through its Sendbird Live feature. Read more |
Observability services | Enables realtime monitoring and troubleshooting by offering insights into service behavior directly in your observability platform of choice. | CometChat No | Sendbird No Sendbird does not provide integrated observability services, such as detailed realtime monitoring. It only offers a status monitoring system where users can track uptime, service incidents, and some historical data. |
Security & compliance | |||
API key authentication | Simplifies the authentication code on trusted servers compared to requesting, managing, and refreshing tokens. | CometChat Yes | Sendbird Yes Sendbird supports API key authentication for: |
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 | Sendbird Yes |
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. | Sendbird Yes |
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. | Sendbird No Sendbird does not currently offer E2EE for its messaging services. It provide TLS encryption for data in transit and AES256 encryption for files stored on its servers. |
Compliance | Compliance with regulations can impact your ability to meet legal obligations in your industry. | CometChat CometChat is compliant with four security standards:
| Sendbird Sendbird maintains compliance with four key standards and regulations:
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Disclaimer: This comparison was created based on documentation and resources freely available online about CometChat and Sendbird. The content was last updated on 1 May 2025 for CometChat and on 1 May 2025 for Sendbird. 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 Sendbird
While both CometChat and Sendbird 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 Sendbird
Twilio is a platform that provides developers with a suite of communication tools for building messaging infrastructure in their applications.

Bird (formerly MessageBird) provides SMS, voice, chat, and video APIs for omnichannel communication.
PubNub is a developer API platform that powers the realtime infrastructure in apps to build engaging Virtual Spaces where online communities can connect.
Discover how CometChat and Sendbird stack up against Ably
Ably is the definitive realtime experience platform of the internet. See how we compare to CometChat and Sendbird 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