PubNub vs Quickblox

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

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

What is Quickblox?

QuickBlox provides APIs and SDKs for building realtime chat, voice, and video communication apps. It includes chat UI kits, AI-powered assistants, push notifications, and custom video conferencing options.

When to use Quickblox

Pros and cons of Quickblox

Compare PubNub and Quickblox

Let’s compare PubNub and Quickblox, 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 PubNub and Quickblox. The content was last updated on 30 Apr 2025 for PubNub and on 16 May 2025 for Quickblox. 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 If you do find anything incorrect or out of date, then please let us know.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 PubNub and Quickblox

While both PubNub and Quickblox 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 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

Alternatives to Quickblox

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

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

CometChat provides rich messaging solutions for apps with features like text, voice, video chat, robust SDKs, and UI kits.

See more alternatives to Quickblox

Discover how PubNub and Quickblox stack up against Ably

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

Ably vs PubNub Ably vs Quickblox

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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	PubNub	Quickblox	Why this matters
Scalability
Concurrent connections	Number of users that can be supported in a single chat.	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.	Quickblox Limit on pre-enterprise plans is 25,000. There is no specified limit on Enterprise. Read more	Number of users that can be supported in a single chat.
Connections	Number of connections that can be handled across the platform.	PubNub Unlimited. Overages apply if you exceed plan quota - $0.15 per additional user.	Quickblox Unknown.	Number of connections that can be handled across the platform.
Channels / rooms	Number of channels or rooms that can be handled across the platform.	PubNub Unlimited.	Quickblox Unlimited.	Number of channels or rooms that can be handled across the platform.
Messages	Number of messages that can be handled across the platform.	PubNub Unlimited. Overages apply if you exceed 3000 per user - $43 per additional 1M transactions.	Quickblox Unknown.	Number of messages that can be handled across the platform.
Message throughput	Number of messsages that can be published per second.	PubNub 10-15 messages per second can be published. Read more	Quickblox Varies by plan: Basic: 80 requests/sec Startup: 120 requests/sec Growth: 160 requests/sec 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.	PubNub No	Quickblox 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.	PubNub No	Quickblox 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.	PubNub No	Quickblox 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.	PubNub PubNub offers a 99.999% uptime SLA for its users.	Quickblox Unknown.	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.	PubNub Yes	Quickblox No	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.	PubNub Yes PubNub supports multi-region data replication across different points of presence except for file sharing. Read more	Quickblox No	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.	PubNub No	Quickblox 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.	PubNub <100 milliseconds delivery.	Quickblox 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.	PubNub No	Quickblox 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.	PubNub Yes PubNub supports connection state recovery and has an automatic reconnection process to handle brief network interruptions. PubNub message delivery page	Quickblox Yes QuickBlox Chat SDKs support automatic reconnection and offline message queuing, which ensures that when the connection is lost, messages are held on the server and delivered once the connection is re-established. Read more	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.	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.	Quickblox WebSockets XMPP	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.	PubNub JavaScript Kotlin Unreal Swift Unity PubNub chat SDK page	Quickblox QuickBlox uses multiple programming languages for its UI kits and SDKs, including: Java Kotlin Swift Objective-C JavaScript Angular React / React Native Futter Read more	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.	PubNub Yes PubNub supports: Group chat channels Supergroup channels Private and public chat groups Direct message messaging	Quickblox Group chat Public chat Private chat Read more	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.	PubNub Yes Read more	Quickblox Yes QuickBlox SDK sends application-level pings to a user or server, allowing you to track user presence updates and check user status. 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.	PubNub Yes PubNub's Presence API allows developers to access and integrate occupancy information into their applications. Read more	Quickblox No	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.	PubNub Yes Read more	Quickblox Yes	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.	PubNub No	Quickblox 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.	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.	Quickblox Yes	Allow users to modify or remove messages.
Message reactions & emoticons	Boost engagement by enabling users to quickly express emotions or feedback on messages.	PubNub Yes	Quickblox No	Boost engagement by enabling users to quickly express emotions or feedback on messages.
Rich text support	Enhance messages with rich text formatting in chat.	PubNub No	Quickblox Yes QuickBlox UI kits support text formatting for text customization directly within the UI Kit components. Read more	Enhance messages with rich text formatting in chat.
Media attachments	Support for sharing images, videos, and files in chat.	PubNub Yes	Quickblox Yes QuickBlox provides file-sharing functionality through its iOS, Android, and React UI kits. Its Chat API also allows file uploads but doesn't offer a dedicated "media attachment" feature. Read more	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.	PubNub Yes PubNub supports in-app notifications through its mobile push gateway.	Quickblox No	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.	PubNub Yes	Quickblox Partial QuickBlox supports role-based permissions to some extent. However, the permissions are limited in scope as they primarily cover basic chat and user management actions. Read more	Control user roles and permissions to ensure proper access and moderation.
UI kit	Customizable UI elements for a seamless chat integration.	PubNub No	Quickblox Yes	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.	PubNub Yes Integration with 3rd party moderation tools via Functions.	Quickblox Yes	Detect and manage harmful content automatically, before the message is broadcast to participants.