Adding chat to your website is a must nowadays. Whether you need chat for community engagement, live streaming, virtual events, in-app chat, gaming chat or customer centric chat
Chat has become an important part of our lives and one that we cannot really live without.
Building out chat functionality for our needs is a difficult endeavor and here comes the chat API and SDK providers.
You can easily add chat that scales with these providers and have a chat for any use case that you might have
What is Chat SDK?
SDK or Software development kit is a group of functions or methods that are provided to you by the chat SDK provider
Methods are easy to use functions that does something like adding a user to the chat or sending a message. They basically hide the complex functionality that is required to achieve a task such as adding a user to chat and gives you an easy to use function that you can call to achieve your task.
Along with Methods SDKs often comes with events. Events are a trigger to something that is happening in the chat.
For example: When a message is sent in the chat room an event is triggered, you can listen on to this event through function given in the SDK and perform certain action if you wish to.
Difference between Chat SDK and API
API stands for Application Programming Interface enable a chat provider to open up its functionality to third party applications.
Chat APIs might include APIs to export the messages from a chat room or API that lets you know how many users are there in a chat room
SDK is a set of tools that is provided by the chat provider, it might include APIs or methods that call the API to fulfill a purpose.
SDK might include methods that call the APIs for a specific purpose like SDK method might call the API to add and user and then call the API to send a welcome message once the user has entered the chat room
Features and Pricing to evaluate the Chat SDK
To get a pre-built chat solution, you must consider what features you might require in the solution.
Some of the features could be the following:
- Ability to handle massive amounts of concurrent users
- Ease of adding the Chat to your website or app
- customization
- Group Chat
- 1-1 Chat
- Chat Moderation
- SSO
Beware though not all chat solutions offer these features. We have created a list of chat providers and what features they offer so that you can make the decision for your self.
1. DeadSimpleChat
DeadSimpleChat as the name implies is a easy to use chat solution, and a very powerful solution at that.
Ability to handle massive amounts of concurrent users
DeadSimpleChat provides ability to handle 10 Million Online Concurrent users, so if you have a need a lot of users for your Live stream or virtual event this might be the solution for you.
DeadSimpleChat is the Most Saleable chat out there along with this they also offer 99.999% Chat uptime which means chat is always available when you need it.
Ease of adding the Chat to your website or app
DeadSimpleChat offers Pre-Built Chat solution. That you can add to your website or app by pasting a single line of iframe code.
It is just like adding a YouTube video to your website just copy the code and paste where you want the chat to appear on your website.
DeadSimpleChat is a Turn Key Chat solution, just purchase the plan you need and the chat is up and running
There is even a free plan to try out everything before you commit.
Customization
You can easily customize every aspect of the chat using either the UI based customization tool or through APIs and SDK.
With DeadSimpleChat everything can be customized to suit your website or app.
- Background color
- font size
- font color
- hide aspects of the chat
- height and width of the chat
- import your custom fonts
- much more
You can even write custom CSS to precision customize the chat UI.
Whether customizing lots of chat rooms through chat sdk and apis or customizing individual rooms through UI based customization tool and coping the customization to different chat rooms the choice is yours.
Group Chat
DeadSimpleChat comes with 10 Million Online Concurrent Users. So, having a huge group chat is as easy as a walk in the park.
You can also easily export the chat after the event is over and export all the files and images as well.
You can also turn Off/On chat as needed.
1-1 Chat
You can create 1-1 chat easily with DeadSimpleChat. 1-1 Chat can be through through the UI based tool as well through API and SDK as well.
Chat Moderation
There is chat moderation available with DeadSimpleChat. You can also create moderators that have the power to moderate the chat rooms that you assign to them.
Moderators can delete the chat room messages, ban and unban users, add custom bad words to a bad word list, the bad words are not shown in the chat room.
You can create Moderators manually through the UI based tool or you can use the API and SDK to programmatically create moderators and assign them the chat rooms
Single Sign On
With Single Sign On you can automatically login users that are on your website or app to the chat platform.
This provides a seamless experience to the users and makes the chat look like a part of your website or app.
2. Sendbird
Sendbird is an alternative to DeadSimpleChat. It works with website as well as mobile devices but it is mainly focused on mobile devices
Send bird is completely based on the API and does not have Pre-Built Chat. So, you need a development team to implement Sendbird to your app
Ability to handle massive amounts of concurrent users
We don't know how many concurrent users SendBird can handle because they don't mention this metric on their webiste.
Although live streaming as a use-case is mentioned but does not say how many users they can support
Ease of adding the Chat to your website or app
Sendbird does not have Pre-built Chat, they only provide the api and you as a user needs to completely build the front-end interface yourself.
So, you need a development team and designers to build out your chat and that also affects your time to market as well
customization
Sendbird chat is completely customizable as you are the one building the front-end interface and maintaining the front-end interface
So, you can say that the Sendbird UI is completely customizable
Group Chat
Sendbird offers group chat with upto 20,000 users
1-1 Chat
Sendbird has 1-1 chat for phone and website but most focus is on the phone messaging.
Chat Moderation
Yes Chat Moderation is available with Sendbird. You can ban users and block them but there is no mention whether you can delete messages as well or not
You can not also create moderators that can moderate chat everything needs to be done at the admin level or you can give users ability to ban each other
SSO
Sendbird website does not mention whether SSO is available or not.
3. GetStream Chat
GetStream is a API based chat and it is an alternative to DeadSimpleChat.
GetStream is wholly API based and does not offer Pre-built Chat
So, you need to built out the front-end by yourself.
Ability to handle massive amounts of concurrent users
GetStream says it can handle millions or users but does not say if the million users are in a single chat room or how many millions
Unlike DeadSimpleChat that says they can handle 10 millions concurrent users in a single chat room
GetStream does not mention specific numbers
Ease of adding the Chat to your website or app
GetStream does not offer Pre-built chat only the APIs and you have to built out the chat yourself
You need a development team and designers to develop front-end for your chat application
It could affect your budget as well as time to market plus ongoing maintenance would also be required for the front-end of the app.
DeadSimpleChat offers Pre-built chat with the ability to customize the interface including ability to write custom CSS
Adding Chat to your website or app is a matter of pasting a single line of code.
Chat can be live in your website or app within minutes.
Customization
GetStream is completely customizable as you have to build out the front-end yourself and they just provide the back-end api
DeadSimpleChat provides prebuilt chat that you can customize as much or as little as you want to.
Group Chat
GetStream Provides Group chat with upto millions of users but they don't mention how many max users can the chat handle
1-1 Chat
GetStream Offers 1-1 Chat
SSO
It does not mention on the GetStream website whether they offer SSO or not so we don't know
PubNub
PubNub is an Api based Chat that offers In-App Chat and other user-case chat. PubNub also has other businesses so its not purely focused on chat
All the Sales with PubNub is contact based so you simply cannot go to the website and purchase the chat
Ability to handle massive amounts of concurrent users
PubNub says it can handle unlimited amount of users but does not offer a concreate maximum number of users it can offer
What does it mean by unlimited number of users?
We don't know, so can't really comment on that
Ease of adding the Chat to your website or app
PubNub offers only Chat APIs and you have to build the front-end of the chat by yourself
That means hiring a development and design team to build the front-end of your chat application
then you can integrate that chat app on your website or app
While PubNub handles the backend you need to do the front-end work and build the front-end of your chat application
This also affects your time to market and cost to build and launch the application
Customization
As you are building the front-end of the chat yourself you can customize it as you wish.
Group Chat
PubNub Only offers group chat with upto 60,000 users
1-1 Chat
PubNub does have 1-1 chat available on its platform
Chat Moderation
It does not mention on the website of PubNub if they offer chat moderation
DeadSimpleChat offers moderation and the ability to create multiple moderators that can moderate the chat rooms
Moderators can delete messages, ban users, un ban users, there is also automatic moderation and profanity filters available with DeadsimpleChat
SSO Single Sign On
It does not mention on the PubNub Website whether they offer SSO functionality or not
Firebase
Firebase is google answer to messaging. It is a backend and database that you can use build your own chat platoform
If you have the developers and designers you can use the scalable backend of FireBase to build your own chat
Ability to handle massive amounts of concurrent users
Firebase can scale but its costs increase to a huge amount as you scale and it becomes costly to have a large number of users with Firebase
Ease of adding the Chat to your website or app
You need to develop the whole chat by yourself the firebase just provides the backend.
So it is not quite easy to develop the chat and add it to your app as well
Customization
You have to build the whole chat by yourself so the customization is available with Firebase chat
Group Chat
You can create Group Chat functionality with Firebase. but you will have to build it by yourself
1-1 Chat
You can create 1-1 Chat functionality using Firebase but you will have to built it out yourself
Chat Moderation
You will have to hire a developer and build the Chat moderation feature by yourself.
Firebase just provides the ability to send and receive messages
SSO Single Sign ON
Firebase does not provide SSO functionality but you can built it out your self by hiring a development team
Comparison
| Features | DeadSimpleChat | SendBird | GetStream | Pubnub | FireBase |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ability to handle massive amounts of concurrent users | 10 Million Concurrent Users | 20,000 | N/A (No specific number is mentioned) | 60,000 | unlimited but becomes hugely expensive as you scale |
| Ease of adding the Chat to your website or app | Very easy (just paste a single line of code to add chat to your website or app) | Just APIs are provided. You have to build the front-end yourself | Just APIs are provided. You have to build the front-end yourself | Just APIs are provided. You have to build the front-end yourself | You have to build the front-end and back-end yourself |
| customization | Prebuilt chat with UI based customization and ability to write custom css Customize as much as you need | yes, as you are building the complete front-end by yourself | yes, as you are building the complete front-end by yourself | yes, as you are building the complete front-end by yourself | yes, as you are building the complete front-end by yourself |
| Group Chat | yes with upto 10 million concurrent users | yes with upto 20,000 users | yes | yes | you have built it out yourself |
| 1-1 chat | yes | yes | yes | yes | you have built it out yourself |
| Chat Moderation | yes, you can also create moderators that can moderate the chat rooms, also profanity filter, automatic moderation, ban bad words, delete messages, ban users/ un ban users | Cannot create Moderators but some moderation features available | Cannot create Moderators but some moderation features available | Cannot create Moderators but some moderation features available | No moderation features available and you have to build moderation yourself |
| Single Sign On | Yes, automatically login users that are on your website or app to chat for a seamless experience | N/A | N/A | N/A | No, you have to built it out yourself |
Conclusion
In this article we have detailed how each chat platform compares with other chat platforms
What are their benefits and limitations and now you can decide for yourself which chat you want to go with
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