PubNub Chat review
A feature-rich chat SDK with a free entry plan and paid growth tiers.
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
PubNub Chat is a developer SDK for adding real-time messaging to mobile apps, games, browsers, and other applications. It supports direct, group, and public conversations, with features including presence, typing indicators, read receipts, reactions, threads, message history, push notifications, mentions, invitations, and moderation controls. Teams can build custom interfaces while integrating with React, React Native, Vue, Angular, Electron, Svelte, Nest, or Express. Its platform coverage spans web, iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Linux, and API use cases.
Pricing is structured around a free plan and two paid tiers. Free costs $0 per month and includes up to 200 MAU or 1M transactions, 1GB of data storage for 7 days, and no credit card requirement. Starter costs $98 per month, includes 1,000 MAU, provides up to 6 months of data storage, and includes Insights and BizOps Workspace for new customers. Pro uses custom MAU packages and adds unlimited data storage, advanced analytics and monitoring, and custom integrations. This makes the free tier suitable for early evaluation or smaller deployments, while Starter provides a defined paid step up.
The standout strength is the breadth of chat behavior available within one SDK: message edits, deletes, forwarding, quotes, pins, read receipts, reactions, threads, mobile push notifications, rate limiting, and reporting, muting, and banning controls are all part of the feature set. Delivery methods include publish/subscribe, signals, and mobile push notifications, with SDK support for JavaScript, Kotlin, Swift, Unity, and Unreal. Choose PubNub Chat if your team needs customizable real-time chat across several platforms. Teams seeking a fixed Pro price or a narrower messaging toolkit may prefer a simpler alternative.
PubNub Chat pros and cons
- Where it wins
- Supports threads, reactions, history, presence, typing indicators, and moderation
- Works across web, mobile, desktop, and API-based applications
- Free plan includes up to 200 MAU or 1M transactions
- Where it doesn't
- Paid access starts at $98/month on the Starter plan
- Pro pricing uses custom MAU packages rather than a listed fixed price
- Advanced capabilities and custom integrations are reserved for Pro
PubNub Chat fact sheet, pricing and score →
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