Sendbird alternatives: 7 solutions to consider in 2026

If you’re searching for Sendbird alternatives in 2026, you’re probably in one of two situations:

- your product already runs on a chat or community stack and the Sendbird pricing / limits no longer work for you

- you’re starting from scratch, comparing SDK and API-based options that will power in-app chat, communities, and live experiences for years ahead.

In-app community tools can help you grow engagement, retention, and revenue, especially if your product is built around content, events, or multiplayer experiences. Sendbird is a well-known communication platform with strong capabilities and a growing AI product line. At the same time, many teams are now evaluating alternatives that are either more community-focused, more transparent in pricing, or easier to integrate with small engineering teams.

This guide walks through what Sendbird is today, why teams look for alternatives, and seven options worth considering in 2026, including Watchers, which focuses specifically on live communities around content and events.

What is Sendbird©?

Founded in 2013, Sendbird is an API communication platform that integrates with various platforms. It offers chats, calls, and business messaging, with features like an AI concierge and an AI voice agent. Sendbird serves industries such as digital health, e-commerce, and entertainment, with clients including Hyundai, Noom, and Redfin.

Sendbird provides APIs and SDKs for mobile and web, uses WebSocket connections, and offers UI kits and backend integrations.

Sendbird serves clients from various industries but is best suited for enterprises or high-growth startups with large product or engineering teams. While seamless and highly customisable, it requires skilled developers. The company has refocused on AI agents and support, making it less suitable for community-building tools.

Best Sendbird Alternatives in 2026

Watchers

Watchers is a SaaS solution offering social tools based on live chat. It integrates with iFrame or webview for a simple and fast setup, while allowing customisation. Watchers chats include widgets for engagement, both community-driven and platform-driven. To handle high loads and keep low latency, they have clusters on all continents that support thousands of users at once. For AI moderation, they use their own model and several ML models based on Google Gemini, which supports various languages.

Key Features

• Community live chat
• AI assistants
• AI moderation, filters, user tools, manual tools
• In-app audio and video live streaming
• Semantic and sentimental analysis for deep insights
• Social widgets that grow revenue
• In-chat marketing widgets
• Developed achievement system
• Scope of APIs for seamless connection

Pros

• Fast integration
• Seamless experience for users
• A lot of engagement facilities
• Convenient system for in-app live streaming
• Excellent and fast support

Cons

• Iframe and webview solution supports customisation but with limitations: clients can choose colours, icons, and many other things, but some structural peculiarities stay as it is
• In-chat video live streaming can be costly

GetStream©

GetStream is a scalable, efficient communication platform based on API and SDK, designed for developers to build real-time in-app chat, video calling, and activity feeds. It offers tools like AI moderation, typing indicators, and in-chat file uploads, with pre-built UI components for fast integration.

Key Features

• Chat SDK
• Activity Feed
• AI moderation
• Video and audio calls
• Video and audio live streaming
• UI Kits
• Video and voice agents
• Simple usage after implementation

Pros

• Sophisticated solutions that provides overall experience
• Various features that can enhance the experience
• Suitable for many industries
• Stable and scalable

Cons

• Costly: considering reviews on G2, various clients notice that the price at the end is much higher than expected, and continues to grow. Also, customers have to pay not just for monthly usage but for peaks
  Pretty complicated to request new features or changes due to the SDK architecture 
• Some users complain about audio and video quality
• Absence of proactive guidance on how to use all of Stream's features; absence of a changelog

CometChat©

CometChat is a cloud-based platform that helps businesses integrate real-time text, voice, and video chat with websites and mobile apps. They provide customisable UI Kits, SDKs, and APIs for development. CometChat typically serves health apps, ed tech, and marketplaces.

Key features

• Text messaging, voice, and video calling/conferencing.
• No-code widgets for quick setup, UI Kits for front-end customisation, and flexible APIs for deep integration.
• AI User Copilot for a summary of conversations, which analyses the latest 1000 messages.
• Analytics provides insights into user behaviour, engagement patterns, retention, churn, and cohort analysis.

Pros

• API support and webhooks
• Responsive account managers
• Regular new products
• Easy integration

Cons

• SDKs appear to have limitations, especially for customisation
• Not too clear documentation, some integration methods are hard to find
• High pricing, based on cost per visit instead of per user

PubNub©

Pubnub is a real-time communication platform-as-a-service (PaaS) that offers APIs and SDKs to build instant applications. It supports real-time chat, IoT device signalling, GPS tracking, and live dashboards for many companies. Pubnub has one of the longest histories in this domain, having been founded in 2010. Last year, PubNub collaborated with DAZN to broadcast and provide interaction for fans during the FIFA Club World Cup 2025™.

Key features

• Pub/Sub Messaging
• Real-time messages
• File exchange, and storage
• True adaptive intelligence analytics platform to receive trends
• BizOps Workspace dashboard

Pros

• High reliability
• Variety of functions
• No latency
• Relevant for various industry
• Suitable for huge events

Cons

• Unpredictably costly
• Difficulties in the documentation navigation

Twilio©

Customer Engagement Platform (CEP) was founded in the US in 2008 and offers a scalable platform to build communication channels, access contextual data, and use integrated AI-driven workflows. Unlike other companies presented here, Twilio focuses n customers rather than users, and on communication between a customer and a platform, such as SMS, phone calls, and emails. They also provide video API, conversation API, and engagement tools.

Key features

• Phone calls and video calls
• Instant messaging, live chat
• WhatsApp Messaging
• WhatsApp Marketing
• Screensharing

Pros

• Reliability
• Scalable CPaaS with excellent APIs
• Detailed documentation
• Customisable workflows

Cons

• Complex initial configuration
• Some of additional features require deep involvement of the client which can be irrelevant for small teams
• Weak support on most of the plans
• Pricing with hidden fees

Ably©

Ably is a WebSocket platform that delivers a real-time layer for AI agents, real-time chat, notifications, live dashboards, and collaboration between users. They are known for great scalability and global availability. It is built primarily on Amazon's cloud infrastructure. Their core product is Ably Pub/Sub, Chat SDK, and Spaces SDK for building multiplayer collaborative components in apps. Users of Ably’s clients can collaborate synchronously.

Key features

• API chat features
• AI agents
• Notifications
• Live dashboards
• Campaign performance
• Audience insights
• History API
• Push notifications

Pros

• Low latency
• Developer-friendly APIs and SDKs
• Responsive customer service team
• Precise SDK documentation
• Excellent onboarding
• Scalability

Cons

• Complex initial configuration
• Some of additional features require deep involvement of the client which can be irrelevant for small teams
• Weak support on most of the plans
• Pricing with hidden fees
• Lack of enterprise dashboard to monitor

Social.Plus©

Social.Plus was known as Amity, before this, as Eko. Initially, the company was founded in Thailand in 2012, but a year ago, they rebranded. In general, Social.Plus is a suite of pre-built white-label modules, SDKs and API that bring engagement features to clients’ apps or websites. They provide features like activity feeds, groups, profiles, live chat, and streaming. To improve community experience, they focus on AI-driven insights and moderation capabilities, also providing monetisation for their clients.

Key features

• Communication Platform as a Service (CPaaS)
• Customer-to-Customer (C2C) Community Marketing
• Live chat
• Online community management

Pros

• Quick set-up
• Easy customisation
• Large number of features

Cons

• Incomplete and outdated documentation
• Weak admin dashboards
• Can be difficult to manage large communities

How to choose the best Sendbird alternative

The table below compares each company’s main product focus, the industries they serve, and how long setup takes.

Build Your In-App Community with Watchers

If you have an app or website and want a community platform to bring people together around your service, product, or content, try Watchers. We integrate easily with a webview or iframe architecture, so you do not need to synchronise release cycles to access our new features. Book a demo call to start the integration process, or register directly to explore our solution on your own.

FAQs About Sendbird Alternatives

Who are the main Sendbird Competitors?

For SDKs, the main Sendbird competitors are GetStream and Social.plus. For live chat functionality, Watchers is a strong competitor, offering a different architecture and a white-label solution with many in-chat features.

Why do teams look for Sendbird Alternatives?

Teams look for alternatives because of high pricing, an outdated approach to live chat and moderation, and the company's shift from community-building tools to AI support and agents.

How to choose the right Alternative for your product?

You need to understand your main goals and expectations, considering usage. Your goals help you choose a shortlist of solutions, and usage helps estimate the price. If your main goal is support chat, CometChat or Pubnub may be the best fit. If you want to build a community on your sports platform or VOD, Watchers or Getstream are top choices. Then, compare their pricing to decide which fits you best.