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Chat features are useful to include in many types of apps, not just social networks and collaboration tools.
For instance, chat features can enhance a variety of apps such as adding customer service to e-commerce stores, gaming apps, and business tools.
But with a few different chat API solutions available out there, how do you know which one to choose?
If you’re looking to get the best performance and in-app chat experience, you should shop around.
You need to compare features and functions, and ultimately select a chat API that:
- provides a reliable chat infrastructure
- boasts modern UI-kits and feature-rich SDKs
- allows for a high number of users and is easily scalable
- and most importantly – fits your budget.
In this article, we'll compare two popular chat platform APIs and chat SDKs - Sceyt and Sendbird - so you can decide which in-app chat solution best suits your needs.
We'll cover everything from overall capability and pricing to key differences and unique features. By the end of this article, you’ll have enough information to make an informed decision regarding which chat platform is right for you - whether it's Sendbird or Sceyt, a powerful Sendbird alternative.
What to Consider When Comparing Chat Solutions
When evaluating a chat solution, there are a few key factors to consider to make sure that you pick the best one for your needs. These factors include:
- Overall Capability: Check the platform's performance during peak usage times, as well as its ability to handle large numbers of users and messages. Evaluate the reliability, scalability, and overall functionality of the chat solution.
- Pricing: How much does the chat platform cost? Are there different pricing packages available and are they within your budget?
- Evaluation & Contracting: Review the chat solution's documentation, demo, or trial version to get a better understanding of how it works. Understand the process for evaluating the chat solution and make sure to read through the contract before committing to it.
- Integration & Deployment: Check that the chat solution is straightforward to deploy and integrates well with websites or mobile apps.
- Features: Make sure that the chat solution offers all the features you need such as real-time messaging, file sharing, push notifications, and other chat functionality.
- Service & Support: Evaluate what kind of customer service and support is provided by the chat solution – are they available 24/7? What is their response time like? Make sure they can provide whatever level of service you require.
Now let's take a closer look at Sceyt and Sendbird to see how they stack up in each of these areas.
Feature Comparison Between Sceyt and Sendbird
This section will provide a comprehensive feature comparison between two leading customizable chat API solutions, Sendbird and a powerful Sendbird alternative – Sceyt.
We'll examine the features each one offers and how they measure up against each other. By the end of this section, you should have a clear idea of which in-app chat API solution is the right choice for you.
Pricing Comparison Between Sceyt and Sendbird
| Pricing & Concurrent Users |  Sceyt |  Sendbird |
|---|---|---|
| 1K Monthly Active Users | Starter $99 | Not Available |
| 5K Monthly Active Users | Growth $349 | Starter $399/Pro $599 |
| 10K Monthly Active Users | Growth $499 | Starter $499/Pro $749 |
| 25K Monthly Active Users | Standard $849 | Starter $1199/Pro $1799 |
| Concurrently connected users | 100% | 5% |
Pricing is a crucial factor when choosing a chat API solution, so let's take a look at how Sendbird and Sceyt compare in this area.
Sendbird offers pay-as-you-go and annual subscription packages, with pricing starting at $399 per month for essential messaging capabilities and 5000 monthly active users, and going up to $1,119 per month for 25,000 users. The Pro package, which includes advanced messaging features, starts at $599 per month and goes up to $1,799 per month for high-usage options.
Sceyt, on the other hand, offers more competitive pricing options, with the Starter package priced at just $59 per month. This includes all the core chat features for up to 1500 monthly active users. The more advanced Growth package allows up to 5000 monthly active users for $179 per month, and Standard Plan with 25000 monthly active users for $799.
It is worth noting that Sceyt offers all the core chat features within its Starter, Growth, and Standard packages. In other words, no matter which plan you choose, Sceyt provides all the features you need. Sendbird, on the other hand, offers the full range of features only in the Pro plan.
It's important to consider the number of concurrent users that a chat API solution can handle when considering your options. Sendbird can handle up to 5% of monthly active users as concurrently connected users, while Sceyt can handle up to 100% of monthly active users.
In other words, Sceyt has a significant advantage when it comes to scaling up the number of monthly active users (MAU) as it offers 100% concurrency out-of-the-box. With Sendbird, if you exceed the 5% limit, you will be charged extra on a monthly bill for extra concurrently connected users.
Overall, in terms of pricing and scalability, Sceyt is both cheaper and makes it easier to scale up the number of MAUs with no limit on the number of concurrent users. Additionally, Sceyt provides better value for money as you get access to all of the core features on each plan – Starter, Growth, and Standard, whereas Sendbird reserves many features for Pro plan subscribers only.
Deployment Comparison Between Sceyt and Sendbird
| Deployment | Sceyt | Sendbird |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-region support |  | |
| Dedicated infrastructure | | |
| Regional proxy | |  |
| On-Premises (full data control) | | |
| Multi-Tenant (multiple isolated applications) | | |
When it comes to deployment, both Sceyt and Sendbird offer multi-region support and dedicated infrastructure, allowing for high reliability and performance. Sceyt also offers regional proxy, which can be useful for reducing latency in specific regions. On the other hand, Sendbird does not offer regional proxy.
Sceyt provides the option for on-premises deployment, giving full control to the customer over the end-user data. Sendbird does not offer this option, which may be a deciding factor for some organizations with strict data privacy requirements.
Both Sceyt and Sendbird offer multi-tenant deployment, allowing for multiple isolated applications on a single account.
Overall, Sceyt offers more deployment options, including on-premises deployment, while Sendbird provides a slightly more limited range of options but still delivers high reliability and performance.
Security and Compliance Comparison Between Sceyt and Sendbird
| Security and Compliances | Sceyt | Sendbird |
|---|---|---|
| SOC2 | | |
| ISO27001 | | |
| GDPR | | |
| HIPPA | | |
| TLS(SSL) encryption in transit | (by default TLS 1.3) | |
| AES encryption at rest | | |
Regarding security and compliance, both Sceyt and Sendbird offer reliable measures to ensure data protection. Both chat API solutions are SOC2 and ISO27001 compliant, indicating their adherence to industry security standards. Additionally, both platforms comply with GDPR regulations, which are essential for any company handling data from EU citizens.
Sceyt also offers HIPPA compliance, which is critical for healthcare providers and organizations handling sensitive medical data.
Both Sceyt and Sendbird offer TLS (SSL) encryption in transit, ensuring secure communication between clients and servers. However, Sceyt provides the latest and recommended TLS 1.3 version as default, whereas Sendbird needs the inclusion of an additional library to support the TLS 1.3 version. AES encryption at rest is also provided by both platforms, which means that data is secure even in persistent storage.
Overall, both platforms offer robust security and compliance measures, but the fact that Sceyt offers TLS 1.3 as default nudges it in front of Sendbird.
Connectivity Comparison Between Sceyt and Sendbird
| Connection and Data format | Sceyt | Sendbird |
|---|---|---|
| WebSockets | | |
| Data format | Protobuf(Binary) | JSON(Text) |
In terms of connection and data format, both Sceyt and Sendbird offer support for WebSockets, which allows for real-time communication between client and server. However, there is a difference in the data format used by each platform.
Sceyt uses Protobuf binary format, while Sendbird uses JSON text format. The choice of data format can impact the speed and efficiency of data transmission, with binary formats generally being more compact and faster to process than text formats.
Protobuf is a more efficient data format as it can reduce message size and enable faster transmission of data. In contrast, JSON is a text-based format that is easy to read and parse by humans, but slower. In fact, Protobuf uses much, much less data and in some cases is up to 10x faster for serialization and deserialization.
Sceyt’s Protobuf binary data format delivers a number of advantages over Sendbird’s JSON format, including lower data size and enhanced performance, leading to low latency API.
Platform Management Comparison Between Sceyt and Sendbird
| Platform Management | Sceyt | Sendbird |
|---|---|---|
| Dashboard | | |
| Role-based dashboard access | | |
| Statistics | | |
| Moderation Dashboard | | Only Pro Plan |
In terms of platform management, both Sceyt and Sendbird offer powerful features. Both solutions provide users with a dashboard that allows them to monitor and manage chat activity. Additionally, both solutions offer role-based dashboard access, which enables the account owner to restrict access to certain features or data for different team members.
In terms of statistics, both Sceyt and Sendbird offer analytics dashboards that allow users to track metrics such as message volume, user activity, and more.
Both Sceyt and Sendbird offer moderation dashboards that empower moderators to view and manage reported chat messages, users, and channels in real-time. However, Sceyt holds a distinct advantage, as its moderation features are accessible across all plans. In contrast, Sendbird's moderation capabilities are exclusive to its Pro Plan, leaving users on lower-tier plans without access to these essential tools.
Overall, if moderation capabilities are a top priority for your chat application, Sceyt is the better option as they are available on all plans, whereas Sendbird offers them only on the Pro plan.
Integration Comparison Between Sceyt and Sendbird
| Integration | Sceyt | Sendbird |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile and Web SDKs | | |
| UI Kits | | |
| REST API | | |
| Webhooks | | |
| Chat Bots interface | Over Webhooks | |
| Third Party Integrations | | |
Both Sceyt and Sendbird offer a range of integration options to enable seamless integration with various platforms and services.
Sceyt and Sendbird both supply mobile and web tools, including SDKs, UI Kits, and APIs, which simplify chat app development. They both offer open-source UI Kits that save time by providing ready-to-use interface components.
Sceyt stands out for its sleek and modern UI designs, ensuring a smooth user experience with high-quality scrolling, navigation, and animation. Both platforms also support integrating chat apps with other software through third-party integrations.
Overall, there isn’t much to differentiate between Sceyt and Sendbird in terms of integration features, as they both offer a full range of options. However, Sceyt edges into the lead with its modern, high-performance UI kits.
Scalability Comparison Between Sceyt and Sendbird
| Scalability | Sceyt | Sendbird |
|---|---|---|
| Support for millions of users in one application | | |
| Support for millions of users in a single channel | | Limited support |
| All channel members receive push notifications | | Max 100 members |
| Message retention period | Unlimited | 6 months |
In terms of scalability, there are some major differences in the channel capabilities of the two platforms.
Sceyt supports channels with millions of users and offers an unlimited message retention period. In contrast, Sendbird has a limit of 100 members per group channel and 60K in an open channel, with a message retention period of only six months.
The reason Sendbird is limited in the number of users per channel, is that they can only accommodate millions of users in public channels by using dynamic partitioning which involves breaking down a channel into a large number of smaller sub-channels.
Due to its design and technological advancement, Sceyt allows you to add millions of users in a single channel, making it much more scalable.
Another key difference is that Sceyt ensures that all channel members receive push notifications, while Sendbird only offers this feature for up to 100 members.
Overall, if you require support for large numbers of users in a single channel and unlimited message retention, Sceyt is the better choice.
General Chat Features Comparison Between Sceyt and Sendbird
| General Chat Features | Sceyt | Sendbird |
|---|---|---|
| One-to-One chat | | |
| Group chat | | |
| Channel messaging | | |
| Chat folders | | |
| Media and file sharing | | |
| On-device thumbnail generator | | |
| User mentions | | |
| Unread message count | | |
| Unread mentions count | | |
| Delivery and read receipts | | Only Pro Plan |
| Message reactions | | |
| User presence | | |
| Typing indicators | | |
| Rich link preview | | |
| Message threading | | |
| Offline message storage | | |
| Built-in message forwarding | | |
| Built-in message translation | Over Third Party | Only Pro Plan |
| Delete message for all and self user | | |
| Metadata on users, channels, messages | | |
| Push notifications | | |
| Mute notifications | | |
| User privacy settings | | |
| User-to-user blocking | | |
| Custom channel events | | |
| Custom member roles | | |
| Contact Management | | |
| Message Search | | Only Pro Plan |
| Channel Search | | |
| User Search | | |
| Message reporting | | |
| Message AI moderation | Over Third Party | |
Sceyt and Sendbird both offer a range of chat features to meet the needs of various industries. Let's take a closer look at their general chat features and how they compare.
Sceyt provides some unique features such as chat folders, on-device thumbnail generator, user privacy settings, and custom member roles that are not available in Sendbird.
Sendbird offers delivery and read receipts and message translation only in the Pro plan, while Sceyt offers receipts in every package – Starter, Growth, and Standard, and message translation through third party integration.
Additionally, Sceyt allows for Message reporting and has Message Search, Channel Search, and User Search features in the cost-effective Starter package, whereas Sendbird only offers Message Search in the Pro plan.
Overall, Sceyt has some unique and valuable chat features, including chat folders, user privacy settings, and custom member roles. Meanwhile, Sendbird has a couple of other features that are not yet available in Sceyt, such as built-in message translation (only available on the Pro package) and AI-powered message moderation.
The main difference in terms of general features is that Sceyt offers features such as message search and read and delivery receipts as standard in every package – straight out of the box, whereas Sendbird only offers them in the more expensive Pro package.
Key Differences Between Sceyt and Sendbird Explained
While Sceyt and Sendbird share many similarities, there are several key differences that set them apart from each other.
Chat Features
Both Sceyt and Sendbird provide a similar range of two-way messaging features, but there are some key differences.
- Large Groups: Sendbird can handle millions of users per open channel, but only with the help of dynamic partitioning, while Sceyt scales to millions without partitioning in any channel.
- Real-time Messaging: Sceyt uses a low-latency binary transfer protocol and data format for the fastest possible messaging experience. Sendbird uses a slower text data transfer format.
- Modern and performant UI Kits: Sceyt provides modern UI Kits with various themes and colors for an attractive and user-friendly chat experience. Sendbird provides standard UI kits.
- Privacy Setting: Sceyt enables users to show or hide their profile picture, as well as whether to display message read status, online status, and typing status. Sendbird does not support these features.
- File Sharing: Both Sceyt and Sendbird include multimedia file sharing within chat channels.
- Message Archiving: Both chat API solutions support conversation archiving. Sceyt offers an advanced suite of archiving solutions including data retention options, integration with third-party services, multi-level archiving processes, and more.
- Message Forwarding: Sceyt provides a built-in message forwarding feature, allowing users to forward messages across channels and teams with ease. Sendbird does not currently offer this feature out of the box, but provides some workarounds.
- Message Deletion: Sceyt allows users to delete messages for themselves and all other members in a channel, essential for additional privacy control and protecting sensitive information. Sendbird does not currently offer this feature.
- Chat Folders: Sceyt offers chat folders, allowing users to be more organized by categorizing chat conversations into different folders and sub-folders. At the moment, Sendbird does not offer this feature.
- Custom Roles: Sendbird provides the ability to assign pre-defined member roles to determine what users can do within a channel or group. With Sceyt you can create as many custom member roles as you want, enabling users to assign specific permissions and access privileges to different user groups.
- On-device Thumbnail Generator: Sendbird provides on-server thumbnail generation for images and videos within the chat as a paid extra. Sceyt’s UI Kits enhances this feature by offering on-device thumbnail generation. This allows users to preview shared multimedia files without downloading their original files. Thumbnails are created automatically, simplifying navigation through shared content.
In terms of user features, Sceyt edges in front of Sendbird with its superior low-latency data transfer, ability to handle more connections and larger groups, and the provision of chat folders and built-in message forwarding.
Scalability
Sendbird's architecture supports many users in one-on-one or small group chats. However, it struggles with channels having thousands to millions of users. They use dynamic partitioning to address this issue.
In contrast, Sceyt applies a low-latency data protocol and highly scalable architecture that enables it to deliver real-time chat for millions of users in a single channel as a default without any significant decline in performance.
Faster response time with binary data transfer
Sceyt uses Protobuf binary data format, while Sendbird uses JSON text format for data transfer. Protobuf binary format is known for its compactness and faster processing times, making it an ideal choice for large-scale applications that require high performance.
With binary data format and transfer protocol, Sceyt is able to provide faster response times and more efficient data transfer compared to Sendbird, making it a suitable choice for companies looking to optimize their chat API performance.
Conclusion
Sendbird and Sceyt are both leading chat API solutions, but there are distinct differences between them.
Sendbird, on the other hand, offers a couple of features that are not yet available in Sceyt, which are built-in message translation and AI message moderation.
Sceyt, on the other hand, is much more competitively priced while still offering fast integration with the help of modern UI Kits, advanced tech and a low-latency data transfer protocol (to allow much more scope for scaling up), and continuous improvement and development of the API.
Another advantage of Sceyt is that all of the core chat and platform features are available across all packages (Starter, Growth and Standard), whereas Sendbird limits some of the core features to their Pro package.
Sceyt stands out as the top Sendbird alternative in today's market. This feature-rich chat API is more affordable than its competitors. Sceyt excels in areas like scalability, faster API response time, and offering core features across all plans, not just on higher tiers.
Dan Martin
Dan is a an experienced B2B tech writer with a background in engineering.
He specializes in writing about IT, software, SaaS, and engineering.