Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

MessageBird VS Chat by Stream

Compare MessageBird VS Chat by Stream and see what are their differences

MessageBird logo MessageBird

Reach 7 billion phones in seconds via SMS, Chat & Voice. Try it for free and improve your communication.

Chat by Stream logo Chat by Stream

Build and ship in app messaging in a few hours
  • MessageBird Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-29
  • Chat by Stream Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-08

MessageBird features and specs

  • Omnichannel Messaging
    MessageBird supports multiple communication channels including SMS, Voice, Email, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and more. This allows businesses to reach their customers through their preferred communication medium.
  • Global Reach
    MessageBird has a massive network that spans across the globe, making it ideal for businesses that need to communicate with international customers.
  • Scalability
    The platform is designed to handle high volumes of messages efficiently, making it suitable for both small businesses and large enterprises.
  • API Integration
    MessageBird provides robust API integrations that make it easy for developers to integrate communication functionality into their own applications.
  • User-friendly Dashboard
    The platform offers an intuitive and easy-to-use dashboard, simplifying the management and monitoring of communication activities.
  • Security and Compliance
    MessageBird is compliant with various industry standards and regulations, including GDPR, which ensures that customer data is handled securely.

Possible disadvantages of MessageBird

  • Pricing Complexity
    MessageBird's pricing structure can be complex and sometimes varies based on the region and type of service, which can make budgeting difficult for some businesses.
  • Customer Support
    Some users have reported that customer support can be slow to respond, which could be a critical issue during urgent situations.
  • Feature Overkill for Small Businesses
    The wide array of features and channels may be overwhelming for small businesses that do not need an extensive range of communication tools.
  • Learning Curve
    For new users, especially those not familiar with APIs, there can be a steep learning curve to fully understand and utilize the platform's capabilities.
  • SMS Delivery Issues
    Some users have experienced issues with SMS delivery, particularly in certain regions where the carrier network might not be as strong.
  • Upfront Costs
    The initial setup and integration can be expensive, particularly for small businesses that may not have a substantial budget for such services.

Chat by Stream features and specs

  • Scalability
    Chat by Stream is designed to handle large volumes of messages and users, making it suitable for applications with rapid growth or high traffic.
  • Customizability
    The API offers robust customization options, enabling developers to tailor chat functionalities to meet specific project requirements and UI/UX design.
  • Rich Features
    It comes with a wide range of built-in features like message threading, reactions, and typing indicators, enhancing user engagement.
  • Developer-Friendly
    Comprehensive documentation and SDKs for multiple platforms (e.g., iOS, Android, React) make it easier for developers to integrate and implement chat functionalities.
  • Performance
    Chat by Stream offers low-latency messaging and optimized performance that ensures smooth real-time communication.
  • Security
    Provides end-to-end encryption, along with compliance with data protection standards to safeguard user information.
  • Support
    Offers extensive support including detailed guides, a troubleshooting section, and responsive customer service.

Possible disadvantages of Chat by Stream

  • Cost
    Pricing can become high for larger applications or projects with a significant number of users, making it potentially prohibitive for startups or small businesses.
  • Complexity
    The extensive customization options and features can result in a steep learning curve for developers who are new to the platform.
  • Dependency
    Relying on a third-party service for critical functionality means that outages or changes in the service can impact your application.
  • Limited Offline Support
    Features might not work as efficiently or be fully available in offline scenarios, which could be limiting for certain applications.
  • Integration Time
    Although the platform is developer-friendly, integrating and fine-tuning the chat features to fit perfectly within an application can still be time-consuming.

Analysis of MessageBird

Overall verdict

  • MessageBird is generally considered a good option for businesses looking for a comprehensive communications platform. It offers a strong set of features and reliable services that cater to diverse communication needs. However, as with any service, it’s important to evaluate it based on specific business requirements to ensure it aligns well with your objectives.

Why this product is good

  • MessageBird, operating from the domain bird.com, is known for its robust cloud communications platform which integrates various communication channels like SMS, voice, email, and chat into a single API. Its ease of use, extensive functionality, reliable infrastructure, and global reach make it a preferred choice for businesses seeking unified and efficient communication solutions.

Recommended for

    MessageBird is highly recommended for businesses of all sizes, especially those seeking to streamline communication channels under a single platform. It's particularly beneficial for enterprises that require global communication capabilities, customer support solutions, and advanced messaging features. It is also well-suited for developers and companies looking to build scalable communication workflows with rich APIs.

Analysis of Chat by Stream

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Chat by Stream is a good option for anyone looking to implement a robust chat functionality within their applications. It is particularly well-regarded for its ease of integration, scalability, and wide array of features.

Why this product is good

  • Chat by Stream is considered a powerful and flexible chat solution because it offers a variety of features such as real-time messaging, scalability, and customizable UI components. It supports multiple platforms, including web and mobile, and offers excellent performance and reliability. Additionally, it provides strong developer documentation and robust SDKs, making it easier to integrate and customize according to specific needs.

Recommended for

  • Businesses needing scalable real-time chat systems
  • Developers looking for easy-to-integrate chat SDKs
  • Applications requiring customizable chat experiences
  • Organizations wanting reliable customer support chat solutions
  • Gaming platforms that require seamless in-game chat

MessageBird videos

CEO MessageBird: 'Text Messaging Is A Feature Of The Past? Keep Thinking That!'

More videos:

  • Review - MessageBird Programmable Conversations: One API, Omni-channel Access
  • Review - MessageBird Inbox is a Game-changer, Interview with Robert Vis, CEO

Chat by Stream videos

No Chat by Stream videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to MessageBird and Chat by Stream)
Communication
75 75%
25% 25
Messaging
85 85%
15% 15
Prototyping
0 0%
100% 100
Customer Engagement
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare MessageBird and Chat by Stream

MessageBird Reviews

15 Best Twilio Alternatives 2022
MessageBird knew that the best way to reach customers and clients was to adapt to their ways of communication so you can use MessageBird to reach out to customers using the most common messaging channels such as phone, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Viber, Line, Talk, and other well-known apps.
Top 10 Best Twilio Alternative Free In 2022
MessageBird understood that the very best way to reach consumers and customers was to adapt to their ways of interaction so you can use MessageBird to connect to customers employing the most common messaging channels such as phone and WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Viber, Line, Talk, and other popular apps.

Chat by Stream Reviews

We have no reviews of Chat by Stream yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Chat by Stream should be more popular than MessageBird. It has been mentiond 20 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

MessageBird mentions (2)

  • 7 Best Transactional Email Platforms in 2024 Compared 📬
    Bird is CRM for marketing, services, and payments focusing on enterprise customers. The transactional email platform, formerly known as SparkPost was founded in 2008. In 2021 it was acquired by MessageBird being a part of a large platform that provides tools for sending transactional and marketing emails, SMS, and WhatsApp messages. In 2024 MessageBird rebranded to Bird. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Looking for a two-way SMS capability
    We built a subscription management chatbot, using Twilio for sending SMS, but it lacked a dashboard to view conversations. I've recently come across https://messagebird.com/en/ - they have a pre-built dashboard that allows your team to respond to messages, as well as a nifty flow builder. Source: about 4 years ago

Chat by Stream mentions (20)

  • How to Add Real-Time Chat to Your AWS-Based Application
    If you are a developer or product manager looking to integrate a chat API into your application, this blog is for you. We will create a fully functional chat app with broadcast, direct message, and bot response functionalities using AWS services and test it using Postman. We will also check the out-of-the-box solutions. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Building a RAG-Powered AI Customer Support Chatbot with Stream and OpenAI
    Const express = require('express') Const embed = express.Router().use(express.json(), express.urlencoded({ extended: false })); Const { RecursiveCharacterTextSplitter } = require('langchain/text_splitter'); Const { CheerioWebBaseLoader } = require('@langchain/community/document_loaders/web/cheerio'); Const { supabase, openai } = require("../utils"); Async function storeEmbeddings() { const loader = new... - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • The 3 Best Python Frameworks To Build UIs for AI Apps
    Computer vision: In this category, you can build AI apps for text and image classification in a chat messaging app, video classification in a conferencing app like Zoom, and Text-to-video generation. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • Enhancing Your Stream Chat with Elasticsearch for Advanced Full-Text Search
    Stream Chat is a solution that provides scalable, real-time messaging infrastructure. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • How to Create an AI Assistant: A Dev’s Guide
    To simplify this process for developers, we've built a generic approach for connecting our Chat API to external LLM providers. Our approach uses a single backend server (NodeJS or Python), which can manage the lifecycle of agents and handle the connection to external providers. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing MessageBird and Chat by Stream, you can also consider the following products

Twilio - Brings voice and messaging to your web and mobile applications.

SendBird - SendBird is messaging-as-a-service.

Plivo - Plivo simplifies your customer engagement.

Invision - Prototyping and collaboration for design teams

Nexmo - Nexmo is a simple two way SMS API with global reach and wholesale rates

Pusher - Pusher is a hosted API for quickly, easily and securely adding scalable realtime functionality via WebSockets to web and mobile apps.