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CometChat vs Twilio

Discover how CometChat compares to Twilio, 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.

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 CometChat and Twilio

Let’s compare CometChat 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.

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.

Twilio

1000 users can be supported per group.

Connections

Number of connections that can be handled across the platform.

CometChat

Up to 500k.

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.

CometChat

Unlimited.

Twilio

Unlimited.

Messages

Number of messages that can be handled across the platform.

CometChat

Unlimited.

Twilio

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.

Twilio

Unknown.

Data integrity
Guaranteed message delivery

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

CometChat

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.

CometChat

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.

CometChat

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.

CometChat

99.99% uptime guarantee.

Read more
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.

CometChat
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.

CometChat

No

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.

CometChat

No

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.

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
Twilio

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

Twilio

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
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.

CometChat

WebSocket.

Twilio
  • WebSockets
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
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.

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

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.

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.

CometChat

No

Twilio

No

Typing indicators

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

CometChat

Yes

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.

CometChat

No

Twilio

No

Chat message attributes
Message edits and deletes

Allow users to modify or remove messages.

CometChat

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.

CometChat

Yes

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.

CometChat

Yes

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.

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
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.

CometChat

Yes

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

Twilio

No

Role-based permissions

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

CometChat

Yes

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.

CometChat

Yes

CometChat supports UI kits for:

  • Android
  • iOS
  • React
  • Flutter
  • Vue
  • Angular
Twilio

Yes

Storage and history
Synchronous - automated moderation

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

CometChat

Yes

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.

CometChat

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.

CometChat

Yes

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

Twilio

No

Ban users

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

CometChat

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.

CometChat

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.

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
Twilio

Twilio has a pay as you go model.

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

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.

CometChat

Yes

Free for up to 100 users.

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.

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
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.

CometChat

No

Twilio

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.

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.

CometChat

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.

CometChat

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.

CometChat

No

Twilio

No

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
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.

CometChat

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.

CometChat

No

Twilio

No

Observability services

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

CometChat

No

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.

CometChat

Yes

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.

CometChat

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.

CometChat

Yes

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

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.

CometChat

Yes

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

Twilio

No

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

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

While both CometChat 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 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 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 CometChat and Twilio stack up against Ably

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