What is PubNub used for?

PubNub offers realtime messaging and presence APIs that developers use to build chat, IoT and live-update features without operating messaging infrastructure. It is a good fit for in-app chat features, and IoT device messaging and telemetry.

Yes. PubNub has a free plan, and paid plans start at $98 per month. A free trial is also available.

Is PubNub open source?

No. PubNub is proprietary (closed-source) software and can't be self-hosted. Open-source alternatives to PubNub include OpenIM, Mercure and Centrifugo.

What are some alternatives to PubNub?

PubNub competes with Ably, Pusher and Stream. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source PubNub alternatives.

PubNub: features, pricing and alternatives

About PubNub

PubNub is a commercial realtime communications platform. Applications publish messages to channels and subscribed clients receive them almost immediately, which provides the foundation for chat, live feeds, device telemetry and multiplayer or collaborative features.

The service adds presence to show who is online, message storage so clients can retrieve earlier messages, and access control for restricting who can read or write to a channel. It also supports mobile push notifications. SDKs cover many programming languages and platforms, and the whole thing is delivered as a hosted global network, so teams do not need to run their own brokers. It suits product teams and IoT developers needing a managed messaging layer.

Key features

Publish and subscribe messaging over channels
Presence showing which users are online
Stored message history for retrieval
Access control for channels and users
Mobile push notification support
SDKs for many languages and platforms

Good fit for

→In-app chat features
→IoT device messaging and telemetry

Tags: realtime; messaging; pub-sub; presence; iot; chat; api

PubNub: questions and answers

What is PubNub used for?: PubNub offers realtime messaging and presence APIs that developers use to build chat, IoT and live-update features without operating messaging infrastructure. It is a good fit for in-app chat features, and IoT device messaging and telemetry.
Is PubNub free?: Yes. PubNub has a free plan, and paid plans start at $98 per month. A free trial is also available.
Is PubNub open source?: No. PubNub is proprietary (closed-source) software and can't be self-hosted. Open-source alternatives to PubNub include OpenIM, Mercure and Centrifugo.
What are some alternatives to PubNub?: PubNub competes with Ably, Pusher and Stream. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source PubNub alternatives.