Stream vs Twilio

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

What is Stream?

Stream is a platform for building scalable, realtime chat and activity feed applications. It provides APIs and SDKs to easily integrate messaging, video calls, and social feeds into apps.

When to use Stream

Pros and cons of Stream

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.

When to use Twilio

Pros and cons of Twilio

Compare Stream and Twilio

Let’s compare Stream and Twilio, 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 Stream and Twilio. The content was last updated on 1 May 2025 for Stream 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 If you do find anything incorrect or out of date, then please let us know.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 Stream and Twilio

While both Stream 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 Stream

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.

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

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

See more alternatives to Stream

Alternatives to Twilio

Vonage provides SMS, voice, and video APIs for customizable communication solutions.

Bird (formerly MessageBird) provides SMS, voice, chat, and video APIs for omnichannel communication.

Agora provides APIs for realtime voice, video and live streaming.

See more alternatives to Twilio

Discover how Stream and Twilio stack up against Ably

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

Ably vs Stream Ably vs Twilio

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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	Stream	Twilio	Why this matters
Scalability
Concurrent connections	Number of users that can be supported in a single chat.	Stream 2500 users supported in a single chat. Supported within Start and Elevate packages. Overages apply if you exceed plan quota - $0.79 per additional concurrent user. Read more	Twilio 1000 users can be supported per group.	Number of users that can be supported in a single chat.
Connections	Number of connections that can be handled across the platform.	Stream Unlimited. Overages apply if you exceed plan quota - $0.07 per additional user. Stream pricing page	Twilio Up to 7,000 in each Twilio subaccount. 100,000 overall, shared among all your subaccounts. Read more	Number of connections that can be handled across the platform.
Channels / rooms	Number of channels or rooms that can be handled across the platform.	Stream Unlimited.	Twilio Unlimited.	Number of channels or rooms that can be handled across the platform.
Messages	Number of messages that can be handled across the platform.	Stream Unlimited.	Twilio Unlimited.	Number of messages that can be handled across the platform.
Message throughput	Number of messsages that can be published per second.	Stream 5 messages per second. When concurrent connections exceeds 100 in a group messages are throttled to 5 per second.	Twilio Unknown.	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.	Stream 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.	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.	Stream 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	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.	Stream 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	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.	Stream Enterprise - 99.999% uptime SLA Business - 99.95% uptime SLA 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	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.	Stream Yes Stream has data centers located around the world, including: US East EU West Singapore Mumbai Tokyo	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.	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.	Stream No	Twilio Yes Twilio provides multi-region data replication to enhance 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.
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.	Stream Yes Stream's chat infrastructure does not rely on a single data center due to global edge network support, thus avoiding a single point of failure and congestion.	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.	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.	Stream Stream does not provide a global latency figure. However, it achieves a region-based average roundtrip latency of 170 ms between Amsterdam and the US East.	Twilio 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.	Stream Yes Stream has server-side batching for users and activity feeds. Read more	Twilio 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.	Stream Yes Stream SDKs automatically attempt to recover the connection and ensure that a connection to Stream chat is always kept alive. That chat state is recovered when the user's internet connection comes back online.	Twilio Yes Twilio provides reconnection states and events for Twilio Video applications through the Twilio Video SDK. 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.	Stream WebSocket.	Twilio WebSockets	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.	Stream JavaScript (including React and React Native) iOS (Swift, Objective-C) Android (Kotlin, Java) Flutter Angular Unity Python PHP Go C# Java	Twilio PHP Python Ruby NET Java Apex C# 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.	Stream Stream provides the following chat room types: Group chat channels Private and public chat groups Direct message messaging	Twilio Twilio is limited to two chat room types: Group 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.	Stream Yes	Twilio Yes Twilio offers presence functionality through its Conversations SDK, which has a built-in Reachability Indicator feature. 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.	Stream No	Twilio 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.	Stream Yes Stream supports typing indicators, which appear on the channel list item where someone is typing or in the chat channel view.	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	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.	Stream No	Twilio 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.	Stream Yes	Twilio Yes Twilio Conversations allows users and any conversation participant (based on role permissions) to edit and delete messages. Read more	Allow users to modify or remove messages.
Message reactions & emoticons	Boost engagement by enabling users to quickly express emotions or feedback on messages.	Stream Yes	Twilio Yes Twilio supports emojis in its messaging channels, including SMS, MMS, and WhatsApp. Read more	Boost engagement by enabling users to quickly express emotions or feedback on messages.
Rich text support	Enhance messages with rich text formatting in chat.	Stream Yes Stream SDKs offer markdown formatting for channel messages.	Twilio Yes Twilio supports rich text formatting via lightweight markup only for WhatsApp chats through its Programmable Messaging. Read more	Enhance messages with rich text formatting in chat.
Media attachments	Support for sharing images, videos, and files in chat.	Stream Yes	Twilio Yes	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.	Stream Partial Stream only supports in-app notification feeds.	Twilio 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.	Stream 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.	Control user roles and permissions to ensure proper access and moderation.
UI kit	Customizable UI elements for a seamless chat integration.	Stream Yes Stream offers UI kits for social media design and chat interfaces.	Twilio 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.	Stream Yes	Twilio Yes Not natively supported but possible via third-party integrations.	Detect and manage harmful content automatically, before the message is broadcast to participants.