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

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.
What is TalkJS?
TalkJS provides a chat API with customizable UIs for 1-on-1 messaging, group chats. It includes notifications and supports integration across web and mobile platforms via SDKs.
Compare Sendbird and TalkJS
Let’s compare Sendbird and TalkJS, 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. | 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. | TalkJS 300 users can be supported in a single chat. Limits for Enterprise plan are unknown. |
Connections | Number of connections that can be handled across the platform. | Sendbird Unlimited - depends on plan. Overages apply if you exceed plan quota - $0.05 per additional user. | TalkJS 25,000 connections can be handled across the platform. Users would need to opt for the Enterprise plan for higher rates. |
Channels / rooms | Number of channels or rooms that can be handled across the platform. | Sendbird Unlimited. | TalkJS Unlimited. |
Messages | Number of messages that can be handled across the platform. | Sendbird Unlimited. | TalkJS Unlimited. |
Message throughput | Number of messsages that can be published per second. | Sendbird 5 messages per second. | TalkJS 9 messages/second rate limit. Read more |
Data integrity | |||
Guaranteed message delivery | Ensures messages are never lost during transmission, even in the presence of network disruptions. | Sendbird No | TalkJS 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. | Sendbird No | TalkJS 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. | Sendbird No | TalkJS Yes TalkJS guarantees that messages are sent exactly-once via an idempotency key regardless of any number of retries. |
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. | Sendbird A 99.9% SLA uptime guarantee is provided on paid plans. | TalkJS TalkJS guarantees an uptime of 99.9%/month, only available for Enterprise customers. |
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. | Sendbird Yes Sendbird has servers deployed across 11 worldwide regions. | TalkJS No TalkJS servers are only located in the European Union. |
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. | Sendbird No | TalkJS |
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. | Sendbird No | TalkJS 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. | Sendbird Unknown. | TalkJS Unknown. |
Server-side batching | Reduces the overall message count, lowers costs, and mitigates the risk of hitting rate limits during high-throughput scenarios. | Sendbird No | TalkJS No |
Connection state recovery | Automatically re-establish failed connections and replay missed messages. | Sendbird Yes Sendbird implements connection state recovery through their chat SDKs, which are designed to automatically handle reconnections and message delivery. | TalkJS No |
Ecosystem support | |||
Supported realtime protocols | Support for multiple protocols provides the flexibility to choose a protocol that best suits your project’s requirements. | Sendbird
| TalkJS WebSocket only. |
Supported languages | Supporting multiple languages and platforms offers greater flexibility when building cross-platform realtime apps. | Sendbird
:cta[Sendbird chat messaging page[(https://sendbird.com/products/chat-messaging/sdk): :ctaGithub page Sendbird blog page | TalkJS
|
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. | Sendbird
| TalkJS TalkJS JavaScript SDK allows you to implement three chat room types:
|
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. | Sendbird Yes | TalkJS 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. | Sendbird Yes | TalkJS No |
Typing indicators | Show when others are typing in a chat room, enhancing realtime communication flow. | Sendbird Yes Sendbird offers text and bubble typing indicators in its SDKs and UI kits. | TalkJS Yes |
Room reactions | Customize the chat environment with reactions and other shared room states. | Sendbird Yes | TalkJS No |
Chat message attributes | |||
Message edits and deletes | Allow users to modify or remove messages. | 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. | TalkJS Yes You can delete or edit messages using TalkJS UI and configure which roles are allowed to do these operations. |
Message reactions & emoticons | Boost engagement by enabling users to quickly express emotions or feedback on messages. | Sendbird Yes | TalkJS Yes |
Rich text support | Enhance messages with rich text formatting in chat. | Sendbird No | TalkJS Yes |
Media attachments | Support for sharing images, videos, and files in chat. | TalkJS Yes 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. | Sendbird Yes | TalkJS No |
Role-based permissions | Control user roles and permissions to ensure proper access and moderation. | Sendbird Yes Sendbird offers role-based permissions. Users can have different roles based on their participation in chat channels. | TalkJS Yes TalkJS allows you to select the appropriate roles and permissions of a user from the Chat UI. The user can have a single role at a time within the chat. Read more |
UI kit | Customizable UI elements for a seamless chat integration. | Sendbird Yes Sendbird offers a UI kit called Sendbird UIKit. This toolkit provides pre-built components for rapidly integrating chat functionality. Read more | TalkJS Yes TalkJS provides pre-built UI to help you add chat easily. |
Storage and history | |||
Synchronous - automated moderation | Detect and manage harmful content automatically, before the message is broadcast to participants. | Sendbird Yes | TalkJS No |
Asynchronous - automated moderation | Detect and manage harmful content automatically, after the message is broadcast to participants. | Sendbird Yes Sendbird offers rule-based automated moderation to detect and manage harmful content. Its Advanced Moderation combines AI rules with human review. | TalkJS No |
Manual moderation via dashboards | Tools for moderators to detect harmful messages and manage them effectively. | 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. | TalkJS Yes The TalkJS dashboard enables you to manually address and remove any unwanted content that may appear in your chats. |
Ban users | Remove problematic users from the chat to maintain a healthy environment. | 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. | TalkJS Yes TalkJS allows you to remove users in a conversation via its REST API. After you have removed a user from a conversation, you can ban them by setting up identity verification and turning off browser synchronization. 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. | Sendbird Yes | TalkJS Yes TalkJS supports programmatic management through its API. |
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. | 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 | TalkJS |
Pricing illustration | An example price based on 5 live streaming chat events and 50K attendees. | Sendbird $25,549.00
Note: Assumes same users attend each event, to keep MAU at minimum. | TalkJS It isn't clear if 25K users could be supported in a single live stream chat. TalkJS restrictions would mean only 1250 could 'participate' in an event at any one time. |
Free plan | With a free plan, you can test the service’s functionality and compatibility with your project before committing to a paid plan. | Sendbird Yes The free plan allows a maximum of 100 MAUs and 10 peak concurrent connections. | TalkJS Yes |
Pricing plans | The pricing plans offered by cost. | Sendbird
Overages:
| TalkJS
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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. | Sendbird No | TalkJS No |
Collaboration capabilities | Enables you to quickly integrate realtime collaborative features like live cursors, member location, avatar stacks, and component locking. | Sendbird Yes | TalkJS 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. | Sendbird No | TalkJS 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. | Sendbird Yes | TalkJS Yes TalkJS supports email notifications, SMS notifications, browser notifications, and mobile push notifications. |
Asset tracking | State-of-the-art asset tracking across last mile logistics, food delivery applications, and urban mobility services. | Sendbird No | TalkJS No |
Integrations & interoperability | |||
AI models | Allows you to integrate AI models, like GPT, into your app. | Sendbird Yes Sendbird integrates AI chatbots into apps and websites. It supports the following AI models:
| TalkJS 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. | Sendbird No | TalkJS No |
Streaming & queueing | Provides a dependable method to reroute messages from the service to third-party streams and queues for further processing. | Sendbird Yes Sendbird offers streaming integrations natively using webhooks through its Sendbird Live feature. Read more | TalkJS No |
Observability services | Enables realtime monitoring and troubleshooting by offering insights into service behavior directly in your observability platform of choice. | 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. | TalkJS No |
Security & compliance | |||
API key authentication | Simplifies the authentication code on trusted servers compared to requesting, managing, and refreshing tokens. | Sendbird Yes Sendbird supports API key authentication for: | TalkJS No TalkJS does not rely on API key authentication to secure user sessions or communication with its APIs. Instead, it uses token-based authentication (JWT). |
Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication | SSO streamlines login processes, boosts security by minimizing password use, and meets compliance needs for secure data access management. | Sendbird Yes | TalkJS No TalkJS does not directly support Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication. Instead, it uses JSON Web Tokens (JWT) for authentication. Read more |
Rules for permissions and operations | Provides control over which users can subscribe and publish to certain channels. | Sendbird Yes | TalkJS Yes Read more |
End-to-end encryption | Ensures that the data transmitted between the client and the API server remains confidential and secure while in transit. | 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. | TalkJS No |
Compliance | Compliance with regulations can impact your ability to meet legal obligations in your industry. | Sendbird Sendbird maintains compliance with four key standards and regulations:
| TalkJS TalkJS only complies with the GDPR by acting as a data processor. TalkJS privacy page |
Disclaimer: This comparison was created based on documentation and resources freely available online about Sendbird and TalkJS. The content was last updated on 1 May 2025 for Sendbird and on 1 May 2025 for TalkJS. 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 Sendbird and TalkJS
While both Sendbird and TalkJS 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 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.
Alternatives to TalkJS

Stream is a realtime chat and activity feeds platform, offering easy integration through APIs and SDKs for enhanced user engagement

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

Sendbird offers APIs and SDKs for live chat, realtime messaging, push notifications, and calls with WebSocket connections, UI kits, and backend integrations.
Discover how Sendbird and TalkJS stack up against Ably
Ably is the definitive realtime experience platform of the internet. See how we compare to Sendbird and TalkJS 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