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Blog » Communication » The 10 Best Real Time Chat APIs & Messaging SDKs [2025]
Thanks to modern technologies, communication has become a lot easier in today’s virtual age. Businesses are shifting towards real-time chat apps to stay on top of internal interactions and customer service. Have you been planning to build a real-time chat app lately? Well, an efficient real time messaging chat API can help you establish your messaging platform smoothly.
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A well-structured messaging API helps you build a robust real time chat platform. It can help you integrate the most modern chat features into your business messaging system without any hassles. It’s also referred to as “RTM API”
A mobile chat SDK saves you from the time and effort of building everything from scratch. Some of the most common capacities of any chat API are direct and group messaging, push notifications, and many others. With an efficient chat SDK, you can build a well-performing application to stay on top of your business communications.
The Top 10 Instant Messaging APIs & SDKs in 2025 reviews are Apphitect, MirrorFly, Stream, Twilio, PubNub, Cometchat, Sendbird, Quickblox, Agora and TalkJS.
It is a well-understood fact that group messaging APIs help you quickly launch your messaging platform without much investment of time and money. So, if you’ve been thinking of building a custom chat platform, leverage the power of efficient best chat APIs and SDKs.
A Best Real-time Messaging API & SDK for Android and iOS Apps
It is one of the leading group chat API providers available in the market. The best part about Apphitect is that it is 100% customizable and comes with highly advanced messagingfeatures. Some of the top features being push notifications, offline messages, presence indicators, geolocation tracking, video and voice calling, and many more.
Pricing Details
Apphitect provides its messaging API & SDK for a custom pricing. You must talk to our team for a quotation.
Free trial availability
Leading SaaP & Saas Real-time Chat API & SDK for Web and Mobile
MirrorFly has both SaaS & self-hosted chat API and messaging SDK that provides you with 100% customizable chat solutions. It offers around 1000+ chat features. Get 3-tier security and compliance, access to centralized administration, and on-cloud premises. MirrorFly supports cross-platform messaging and proactive messaging. Some of the best features of MirrorFly include 1-1 private & group chat, file & screen sharing, push notifications, proactive messaging, and much more.
MirrorFly has outstretched its wings around 40+ industrial sectors that include healthcare, banking and finance, social and dating, fitness, e-learning, e-commerce, transportation, and more.
MirrorFly Chat API & SDK comes in 2 different pricing models:
Monthly pricing:
Custom pricing:
MirrorFly offers a free demo of its products. The packages do not include costless usage.
Also Read: The Best 10 Dating App Features In 2025
Secure Real-time Messaging API
Stream popularly known as Getstream, is a chat API provider for custom messaging apps It provides developers with the infrastructure and tools to build scalable and engaging chat experiences. Some of its prominent products include 1-on-1 chats, video call solution and Activity feeds. Stream’s robust platform is built to handle the complexities of real-time messaging and driving millions of concurrent conversations. Stream offer a high degree of flexibility and customization backed by its flexible client libraries and REST API.
Stream.io Chat Platform Features
The stream providesa Free chat API for certain limit and paid too
Modern Communiation API & SDK
Twilio is a top-notch real time API provider . It allows you to reach customers in over 180 countries and build communication flows for every interaction. Moreover, it enables you to reach your customers on their preferred channel at every stage of the customer journey, no matter where they are in the world.
Also Read: Best Twilio Alternatives in 2025
Twilio charges a monthly fee in 2 ways:
Free Chat API
Yes, Twilio offers free trial with some restrictions.
A Real-time chat platform Web and Mobile
It is a top-grade real-time messaging API with modern advanced features. PubNub has 99.999% of API uptime. Some of the best chat functions of PubNub are unread message counts, file and image sharing, Giphy, message reactions, user presence indicators, @Mentions, and much more.
Pubnub Chat comes in 3 different monthly plans:
Yes, Pubnub offers a free trial of its chat messaging API.
Best Real-time Messaging SDK & API Provider for Web and Mobile
Cometchat is one of the best real time messaging sdk providers available in the market. It supports cross-platform compatibility and is highly scalable. Cometchat offers modern messaging solutions to small, medium, large businesses. It also provides individuals and small enterprises with a special package called ‘Sandbox’.
Cometchat comes in 4 monthly packages:
Yes, Cometchat’s Free Forever package gives a free chat API and the provider offers free trial for its other packages.
Top Real-time Chat API & Messaging SDK Provider
It is one of the best real-time chat SDK providers which app developers can utilize for building their chat platform. It comes with AES 128 end-to-end encryption. Some of the top-notch features of Sendbird are user muting, image filtering, chat moderation, profanity filters, announcements, and much more. Sendbird provides free chat api for android and iOS.
Sendbird’s messaging SDK comes in 4 monthly packages:
Sendbird does offer a Free trial
Real-time Chat API for Android, iOS Apps
Build a real time chat app with Quickblox. It is one of the best white-label chat solutions available in the market. It comes with an easy-to-use and friendly user interface. Some of the best chat features of Quickblox are cross-platform compatibility, file sharing, video & voice calling, screen sharing, multimedia sharing, and much more.
Recommended Reading: Conversational Banking
Quickblox’s instant messaging API comes is 5 different monthly packages:
Quickblox do offer a Free package for its real-time chat SDK.
Top Real-time Messaging API & Chat SDK
Agora is a top real-time messaging API that is highly scalable and allows live audio and video calls. It also enables live interactive streaming. Moreover, it is compatible with all popular development platforms and also mobile-friendly with minimal battery consumption.
Agora Pricing Details
Agora Chat SDK comes in 4 different monthly packages:
Free: $0 upto 500 MAU
Starter: Starting at $349/50 MAU
Pro: Starting at $699/100 MAU
Enterprise: Custom charges (min. 100K MAU)
Agora does offer a free trial for its real-time chat API.
Real-time Messaging API for Android & iOS
TalkJS is another key player in the Chat API market that is well-known for simplifying the process of integrating chat into your web apps. It has a easy-to-use API and feature-rich chat SDK for seamlessly adding chat functionality without the overhead of building it from scratch. TalkJS is designed for speed, making it an ideal choice for projects where time to market is critical.
TalkJS Chat API Platform Features
TalkJS Pricing Details
TalkJS comes in 3 different packages:
Yes, TalkJS offers a free trial.
We hope our article helped you learn about the top real-time chat service providers. Make sure you choose an efficient chat SDK that suits your business requirements and budget. Now, what are you waiting for? Start creating your messaging platform now. May you establish a popular and successful chat app!
Real-time messaging (RTM) is the delivery of messages as events happen, enabling immediate communication between two or more people. It refers to the distribution and delivery of messages that are designed to be consumed or used in real-time, as opposed to messages that are stored and accessed at a later time.
RTM is commonly used in chat rooms, messenger services, and other applications that require instantaneous exchange of information between users.
A real-time API is a set of rules and protocols that enables applications to send and receive data instantaneously. Unlike traditional request-response APIs, real-time APIs leverage websocket technology to provide persistent, two-way communication between the client and server, allowing for immediate data exchange and updates.
MirrorFly is undoubtedly the best real-time chat SDK for building instant messaging apps as it offers 1000+ chat features and custom encryptions, and flexible deployment options.
To build a real-time chat app with an API:
To build a real-time messaging app, the key steps include:
Drive 1+ billions of conversations on your apps with highly secure 250+ real-time Communication Features.
Rajeshwari
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Rajeshwari is a skilled digital marketer, passionate about SEO and exploring the latest trends and tech innovations in communication and Chat APIs. With a keen eye for detail, she helps brands improve their online visibility, and she is always eager to stay ahead in the evolving digital landscape.
We are seeking a mobile chat API to integrate a private video calling feature into our app. Additionally, the pricing should be affordable.
I will Suggest MirrorFly Their documentation is good, and the pricing on Cloudflare is very appealing.
I have read your article on real-time messaging API SDKs. I am currently building an Android app for the education niche, and you have mentioned several chat SDKs. Which one would be the best for this use case?
Hi Allison, For building an Android education app, both MirrorFly and Apphitect are great choices due to their robust features and ease of integration.
HI we at settleking looking for Chat API to be integrated with our app to provide messaging feature for our users. I would like to discuss regrading license cost, Support in case of failure, SLA ,etc. kindly get back to me
We are looking for a mobile chat sdk for our app to create a private video calling feature between doctors and patients and we are looking for more details on the pricing of the video call feature
I am creating a chat app and I would like more information about your chat API for end-to-end encryption for instant messaging
Hello, Please could you tell me the pricing for 1000 monthly active users of MirrorFly group messaging API (please before an initial call). I’d also like to know whether you are hosted in Germany or EU? Thanks, Dom
I would like to make a video chat app of which only people in my country can use cause i feel like they are shy using this other apps that got too many countries in it .i think mirrorfly messaging api its right choice for me .share your pricing details ASAP
Excellent article. As I would see it, extraordinary compared to other real time messaging platform is Capture One, despite the fact that learning it is more troublesome than lightroom.
Thanks for this. And Keep writing. Cheers
My friend and I want to start making consulting app for our business, so I wanted tips on messaging api providers. I didn’t know you should consider the computer you have when deciding what chat api providersyou want to use. I’ll have to keep that in mind and look around for cAPI providers lists that has superb color grading, thanks to this post!
Nice post Parthiba! Some good pointers. I like the suggestions you made in the messaging sdk providers comparison. That gives some good ideas on what stuff to buy if I ever have the guts to make chat app for my business :).
Thanks so much for this! I LOVE the tips you provide for free! Just getting started choose top real time messaging api for android,ios for business needs and I feel like I have a better idea where to go from here.
This is an AMAZING comparsion article about real time messaging sdk providers. Thanks for sharing all the insights and direction on what I can do, both for my own business and my clients.
I look forward to starting to implement these. I appreciate your work Parthiba.
Parthiba, you did a super amazing job on this content. it is definitely worth bookmarking. You just inspired me to go ahead and give best real time messaging API & SDK comparison
Thanks, always.
I have used 2 of listed above one is Mesibo & agora real time messaging API. Both of them are really great. But this post had cleared some myths about other chat sdk providers. Thanks for this informative article.
A good messaging api provider list.I am doing some research since I am building my own social chat app . I am learning the pros, cons, what features people need, what people don’t and so on. This list helped a lot. Thanks for putting this together here parthiba
I think very very detailed article for those who are looking for real time messaging api for their apps . There are some drawbacks in each chat api platform so you should choose any of them carefully. I suggest you MirrorFly
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