--- title: "PubNub Software Pricing, Alternatives & More 2026 | Capterra" description: "With the help of Capterra, learn about PubNub Software - reviews, pricing plans, popular comparisons to other Cloud Communication Platform products and more." source_url: "https://www.capterra.com/p/169852/PubNub/" page_type: "product" language: "en" --- # PubNub Software Review 2026: Features, Reviews, Integrations, Pros & Cons Last updated on September 25, 2026 Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Description](#description)[Use cases](#use-cases)[Alternatives](#alternatives)[FAQs](#faqs)[Features](#features)[Pricing](#pricing)[Support](#support)[Reviews](#reviews) PubNub ## What is PubNub? PubNub is a Pub/Sub service for sending data between devices in realtime. It is ideal for developers building chat apps, IoT device signaling, realtime GPS location tracking, multiplayer online games & more. Messages generally make it from publisher to subscriber in 80100ms, regardless of their locations. There are PubNub SDKs for every programming language so your server, web browser, mobile phone or smart device can use PubNub right away. After free signup, you get live API keys instantly. ## What is PubNub used for? [IoT](https://www.capterra.com/iot-software/)[Application Development](https://www.capterra.com/application-development-software/)[API Management](https://www.capterra.com/api-management-software/) Top alternative Featured Overall rating Based on 6 user reviews Reviews sentiment Positive \- Neutral \- Negative \- Starting price $49 Per Feature, Per Month Free trial available Includes Free Version Capterra Shortlist charts the highest-rated and most popular products... Our "Best of" badge program showcases products with the highest ratings... Our "Best of" badge program showcases products with the highest ratings... Do you work for PubNub?[Manage this product listing](https://www.g2.com/products/pubnub-pubnub/claim_requests/new?auto=true) ## Compare with a popular alternative Capterra selects software alternatives based on relevant features, verified user reviews and user interactions. Placement may be influenced by client status. ### PubNub 4.8 (6) VS. [4.9 (4,881)](https://www.capterra.com/p/172127/Rippling/reviews/) Starting Price $49 Per Feature, Per Month Starting Price $8 Per User, Per Month Free Trial Free Version Pricing Options Free Trial Free Version Ease Of Use 4.8 (6) Ease Of Use 4.9 (2,214) Value For Money 4.8 (5) Value For Money 4.8 (1,544) Customer Service 4.7 (6) Customer Service 4.7 (1,318) ## PubNub alternatives [4.6 (375)](https://www.capterra.com/p/163343/Backup-and-Recovery/reviews/) Starting price Contact vendor for pricing Pricing Options Free Trial Free Version User Rating 95% of reviewers rated it above 4 stars [4.7 (1,789)](https://www.capterra.com/p/102188/LiveAgent/reviews/) Starting price $15.00 Per User, Per Month Pricing Options Free Trial Free Version User Rating 97% of reviewers rated it above 4 stars [Airtable](https://www.capterra.com/p/146652/Airtable/) [4.6 (2,244)](https://www.capterra.com/p/146652/Airtable/reviews/) Starting price $20.00 Per User, Per Month Pricing Options Free Trial Free Version User Rating 95% of reviewers rated it above 4 stars [Learn More](https://www.capterra.com/p/146652/Airtable/) [Caspio](https://www.capterra.com/p/137206/Caspio/) [4.6 (249)](https://www.capterra.com/p/137206/Caspio/reviews/) Starting price $600.00 Per User, Per Month Pricing Options Free Trial Free Version User Rating 93% of reviewers rated it above 4 stars [Learn More](https://www.capterra.com/p/137206/Caspio/) ## FAQs about PubNub Overview ### What company size and specific industries is PubNub built for? PubNub is designed for developers and businesses of all sizes that need realtime features in their applications, including small teams, mid-market companies, and enterprise organizations. It is a fit for products in chat, IoT device control, multiplayer gaming, and geolocation tracking across technology-driven industries. Features and Usability ### What are the key features of PubNub? PubNub offers real-time consumer-facing chat, APIs, access controls and permissions, and data security for application messaging. It also includes mobile and web notifications, notification scheduling, geotargeting, device targeting, reporting and analytics, third-party integrations, transcripts and chat history, and transfers and routing. Getting Started and Support ### What training and onboarding options does PubNub offer? PubNub provides live online sessions, webinars, and documentation. Live online sessions support guided training, webinars present product information in a group format, and documentation offers written reference material for self-paced learning and step-by-step review. Getting Started and Support ### What customer support options does PubNub offer? PubNub provides chat support. With no reviewer feedback available on support experiences, no pattern can be stated about response times, helpfulness, or common frustrations. The channel is listed directly in the catalog, but user sentiment about support quality is not available for summary. ## Features AI summary Based on 7,285 Cloud Communication Platform reviews According to Capterra reviewers, these are the features buyers prioritize most when evaluating application development software: - **Code Development** (**67%** of reviewers rated this feature as critical) - **Workflow Management** (**45%**) - **Code Editing** (**56%**) PubNub focuses on other capabilities that Capterra reviewers also consider important, including **Access Controls/Permissions** (**45%**). This feature helps businesses manage user access, protect application data, and maintain tighter control over who can view or change key resources, providing teams with more secure and organized development environments. Access Controls/Permissions Define levels of authorization for access to specific files or systems Activity Dashboard Dashboard to view the status of ongoing processes, identify current incidents and track past activities Activity Monitoring Track and report on everything that happens within the system or network AI Copilot A virtual assistant that uses AI to pursue goals and complete tasks on behalf of users Alerts/Notifications Alerts or notifications of various types such as pop-up messages, sounds, banners, or badges API Application programming interface that allows for integration with other systems/databases PubNub 89 features Define levels of authorization for access to specific files or systems Dashboard to view the status of ongoing processes, identify current incidents and track past activities Track and report on everything that happens within the system or network A virtual assistant that uses AI to pursue goals and complete tasks on behalf of users Alerts or notifications of various types such as pop-up messages, sounds, banners, or badges Application programming interface that allows for integration with other systems/databases Grants high speed API calls for efficient functionality. Allows files and data to integrate directly into enterprise applications via APIs or connectors Track, manage and store the applications of potential future members, customers or candidates Manage the process of evaluating documents or requests submitted for approval Ability to place a message in a message queue and does not need to wait for a reply to continue processing Audio/Video Conferencing Plan, schedule, and execute organization's accounts and assets to ensure compliance with policies and laws Verify the identity of users/devices to enable secure access Automatic reply functionality for incoming messages Completes tasks independently without constant human intervention Listen to live phone conversations for the purpose of training and assessing agent performance Record the audio of phone conversations for quality assurance purposes Sends voice calls to a specific queue based on predetermined criteria Identify the number and contact information of a caller before answering the phone Communicate using direct chat or messages within the system AI-based platform which conducts a conversation via auditory or textual methods Functions through a cloud-based messaging service without on-premise infrastructure. Provides a channel for team members to share AI models, media files, communicate, and work together Manage and track all internal and external communication conducted via calls, email, text, or chat Provides public user forums for support questions and help. Computer-telephony integration is the use of computers to manage telephone calls Manage, organize, and store contact information Conduct tracking and assessment of application and device behavior without breaks or interruptions Works across multiple software systems or databases Add customized logos and colors to align with company branding Customize data fields to support various needs and use cases Create labels for products that contain required information such as colors, sizes, dates, etc. Creation and customization of dashboards Connect to big data sources Import and export data to and from software applications Combining data from different sources and providing a unified view The ability to process large amounts of data. Combines data from multiple sources such as software solutions, public websites, and spreadsheets Synchronizing data between two or more devices/systems and automatically updating changes to maintain consistency Translate EDI formats into data suitable for use with company applications. Graphical representation of data Supports common databases such as MySQL and Oracle Witness statements, confessions, time cards, video footage, and other investigation materials are stored in secure designated data warehouses for safe keeping throughout the investigaiton process. Assemble applications and processes by dragging over and arranging pre-built components A chronological record of actions or occurrences within a network, software, or process Public or private sharing of digital files such as documents, audio/video, images, and more Use AI to generate content in the form of text, images, videos, etc. Determines the location of a device using GPS or an IP address Integrate with a variety of data sources, such as guest wifi, customer data platforms, visitor counters, POS systems, and third-party data sources. Track interaction history by documenting conversations for contacts The ability of two or more systems to exchange information or data. Read and accept a combination of touch tone keypad selections and voice inputs and provide the appropriate prerecorded voice response Supports programming languages such as Java, C, or Python. Support for front-end languages such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Has minimal delay between input and visual feedback. Ability to chat online in real time Process of distributing a set of tasks over a set of resources, with the aim of making their overall processing more efficient Access software remotely via mobile devices Allows communication with customers or users via multiple channels such as phone, email, live chat, etc. Manage and support multiple languages Ability to break down and plan multi-step processes Organize and manage the accomplishments and development of employees or performance of applications or systems Allows for additional features and functionalities in the form of pre-packaged integrations and plug-ins. Ability to control file/folder access by user or group, external sharing permissions, editing policies, device location restrictions, sharing by device, etc. Uses webpage, tab, browsing session, or selected text context to generate responses and suggestions Connects users with professional support teams to troubleshoot and finetune integrations. Receive data and information in real time Active monitoring of systems, applications, or networks Delivers real-time emotion analysis across facial, vocal, and multimodal inputs, ensuring immediate feedback for high-speed applications. Active reporting of data and metrics Receive system updates as soon as any changes are made The ability to see large amounts of data in a digestible format in order to make informed business decisions. View and track pertinent metrics to find patterns and gain insights from data It is a logic or a condition that executes business rules in a runtime production environment Securely stores data to prevent data loss or breaches Detects anomalies in functionality, user accessibility, traffic flows, and tampering. Online portal through which end users can access the system, manage tasks, or obtain information Categorize emotions expressed and identify if they are positive, negative or neutral Allow users to access multiple services after entering their login credentials once Send promotional campaigns or transactional messages via text messages Send messages via SMS Security protocol that ensures secure, encrypted communication over the internet, safeguarding sensitive data from unauthorized access Set up connections to third-party platforms to improve business processes Presenter can see and hear participants and vice versa Consolidate and integrate communication tools as one platform or entity to enhance business communication and collaboration A visual way of interacting with a computer using items such as windows, icons, and menus, used by most modern operating systems Maintain and control user sessions (including session tracking, timeouts and termination) in a web application or system Computer-based system that allows users to send and receive voice messages Create, design and manage workflows for repetitive tasks Features 5.0 (6) 5.0 Based on 6 reviews ## Pricing Value for money 4.8 (5) Free Trial Free Version Basic $49.00 Per Feature,Per Month Value for money 4.8 (5) 4.8 Based on 5 reviews ## Support, customer service and training options Customer Service 4.7 (6) Support - Email/Help Desk - FAQs/Forum - Knowledge Base - Phone Support - 24/7 (Live rep) - Chat Training - In Person - Live Online - Webinars - Documentation - Videos Deployment - Web - Android - iPhone/iPad Typical users - Freelancers - Small businesses - Mid size businesses - Enterprises Customer Service 4.7 (6) 4.7 Based on 6 reviews ## User reviews Overall rating 4.8 Based on 6 reviews Filter by rating 5(5) 4(1) 3(0) 2(0) 1(0) Mentioned topic Sorted by most recent SV Subbu V. CEO E-Learning ### "Solid product for real-time networking" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 5.0 5.0 Customer Service 5.0 5.0 Likelihood to Recommend 10/10 December 22, 2020 We have been using Pubnub for our real-time communication needs on our collaborative live training tool - we moved to Pubnub after moving from the open source Socket.io. Pubnub takes away the headache of managing the infrastructure for any real-time communication - they are extremely reliable and performant, keeping up their promise of 250 ms for message delivery time. They are extremely customer friendly and do not treat you as a revenue-producing machine, like some of the more successful companies in the Valley do. Pros Highly reliable - their services rarely go down. Pubnub's team is extremely customer-friendly and have always responded to our custom requests. The product is very scalable and we can easily do billions of messages per day. Cons Would love to have reduced pricing for ping pong (keep-alive) messages which do not constitute the core business logic. Also, if they support web sockets instead of using classic HTTP that would be great. Support for sending large messages would also be very helpful. Reasons for choosing PubNub Easy-to-use product and an extremely developer-friendly onboarding process. Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. AZ Anhang Z. CTO Entertainment ### "Reliable and fast" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 5.0 5.0 Customer Service 4.0 4.0 Likelihood to Recommend 10/10 December 20, 2020 Pros Set up was easy, integration into our existing codebase took less an a week. It's also reliable, and has never gone down for us. Cons Support could take a while to figure out your problem, so if you have advanced features you're trying use and are running into edge cases, your own timeline could be delayed by a week. Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. NA Naveen A. Senior UI developer Information Technology and Services ### "Good features and easy to use" 4.0 Overall Rating 4.0 4.0 Ease of Use 4.0 4.0 Features 5.0 5.0 Customer Service 4.0 4.0 Likelihood to Recommend 9/10 December 19, 2020 I have used pubNub to support push notifications in mobile devices and was using javascript and Java SDK. Though it was tricky to use PubNub but sometimes their documentation will give you some hard time finding the stuff you need. Pros PubNub's multiple languages SDK are really good and will work for any major programming language in the market. Their customer support response is quick and to the point most of the time. Cons Documentation and examples are outed or insufficient sometimes which definately need some improvement. Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. JC Jason C. Director, Site and Network Operations Information Technology and Services ### "Mission Critical Product for our business" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 5.0 5.0 Customer Service 5.0 5.0 Likelihood to Recommend 9/10 December 17, 2020 Pros Pubnub provides key functionality for our business, a monetized chat system in our ecommerce platform. We rely on pubnub 24/7 for this part of our business, which has thrived in the last couple of years. They've been more than fair as well on pricing as we've grown the business with them. Cons We've had a few small issues with pubnub as far as infrastructure goes, but nothing to complain about the software and its implementation, which has required little work since building out. Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. Will J. Senior iOS Engineer Information Technology and Services ### "Built a high volume product with this, thanks for making a sweet product PubNub!!" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 5.0 5.0 Customer Service 5.0 5.0 Likelihood to Recommend 10/10 December 16, 2020 5/5 stars Pros Storage and playback of realtime events works really well, has zero setup cost. Channel groups, message actions, and object metadata. Swift SDK is really good. Especially automatic retry for dropped connections. Native cross platform push notifications Cons There isn't good visibility into how PubNub API calls get translated into APNS JSON payloads. Kudos to them for making this a bit better during the time I've used PubNub. It's also pretty amazing that PubNub now has all the parts needed to make a push reporting and diagnostic dashboard similar to onesignal/google cloud messaging. PubNub added the two missing pieces after we asked which was useful and super cool. Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. JA julio a G. CEO+CTO Retail ### "Excellent partner" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 5.0 5.0 Customer Service 5.0 5.0 Likelihood to Recommend 10/10 December 14, 2020 Pros Product quality, technical support and commercial support Cons I haven't identified anything you need to add Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. ## Top-rated software of 2026 ### Fill out the form and we'll send a list of the top-rated software based on real user reviews directly to your inbox.