6 free alternatives to Pusher

PubNub's free plan is built for realtime apps that need a broader mix of messaging features without paying up front. It includes up to 200 MAU, 1M transactions monthly, 1GB of data storage for 7 days, 5 test Serverless Functions with 7-day runtime, and 1M push notifications per month. No credit card is required. That makes it useful if your project needs persistence, push delivery, or a small Functions workflow in the same platform. It falls short on concurrent connections compared with Pusher's 100 connection cap, since PubNub's published free items are centered on MAU and transaction limits instead. Switch if you want more feature breadth around realtime messaging, storage, and push.

• Beats Pusher: Broader free feature mix, including storage, push notifications, and test Functions.
• Falls short: Pusher publishes a clearer concurrent-connections limit, while PubNub's free items do not.
• Who should switch: Switch if you need pub/sub plus storage or push features in one free package.

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Ably's free package gives you a monthly sandbox for realtime messaging with up to 200 concurrent connections, 500 messages per second, and 6 million messages per month. It also includes access to any Ably product, community and email support on a best-effort basis, and no commitment required. That makes it attractive for teams that think in terms of sustained throughput rather than daily message caps. It falls short of Pusher on sign-up friction because a credit card is required, and its support is lighter than Pusher's standard support. Switch if your main problem is needing more live connection room and a higher monthly message envelope.

• Beats Pusher: Higher published connection limit and much larger monthly message allowance.
• Falls short: A credit card is required, unlike Pusher's free signup.
• Who should switch: Switch if you need more realtime capacity and can accept a card requirement.

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Stream's free Build plan includes access to all Chat features, 1,000 monthly active users, 100 concurrent connections, community support, and no credit card requirement. That gives you a strong fit if your product is chat-centric and you want the free tier to cover the full chat feature set rather than a narrow messaging sandbox. It falls short of Pusher on throughput detail, since the free items are framed around MAU and connections instead of a daily message quota. It is also more specialized around chat and related engagement features. Switch if you are building chat and want the free plan to include the full chat feature surface.

• Beats Pusher: All Chat features are included on the free plan.
• Falls short: Pusher is more explicit about message throughput with a daily messages cap.
• Who should switch: Switch if the app is chat-first and you want the free tier to cover all chat features.

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Scaledrone's free plan includes all product features, 20 concurrent connections, and 100,000 events per day. It is a straightforward realtime messaging option for smaller apps that want the entire feature set without a paywall on specific capabilities. That can be easier to reason about than plans that split features across tiers. It falls short of Pusher on capacity, because both the connection limit and the daily event cap are lower than Pusher's free tier. Switch if feature completeness matters more than raw free-tier scale and your app stays well below those limits.

• Beats Pusher: All product features are included on the free plan.
• Falls short: Lower capacity, with fewer connections and fewer daily events than Pusher.
• Who should switch: Switch if you want full feature access and your traffic is modest.

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Azure Notification Hubs' free tier is focused on push delivery, with up to 1 million pushes per subscription per tier, up to 100 namespaces per tier, up to 100 hubs per namespace, up to 500 active devices per namespace, cross-platform push to individual devices, push variables support, limited telemetry, and queryable audiences. That makes it useful when your main job is mobile push rather than general realtime pub/sub. It falls short of Pusher on general realtime messaging, and the signup and pricing structure are less transparent because the paid tiers are usage-based. Switch if you need mobile push at scale and want the free tier to lean into push-specific workflows.

• Beats Pusher: Much stronger push-notification structure, including namespaces, hubs, and device targeting.
• Falls short: It is a push service first, not a general realtime pub/sub replacement.
• Who should switch: Switch if your use case is mobile push notifications more than realtime messaging.

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Knock's free Developer plan includes up to 10,000 messages per month, 500 guide active users per month, 500 AI agent credits, unlimited notification workflows, unlimited broadcasts, unlimited delivery channels, unlimited team members, batch and delay notifications, built-in multi-tenancy, and Google SSO access. That is a better fit if notifications are part of a broader engagement system with workflows and multiple channels. It falls short of Pusher on raw realtime messaging capacity, because the message allowance is far smaller than Pusher's daily quota. Switch if your product needs notification orchestration and team-facing controls more than high-volume realtime transport.

• Beats Pusher: Unlimited workflows, broadcasts, delivery channels, and team members on the free plan.
• Falls short: Far lower message volume than Pusher's free tier.
• Who should switch: Switch if you are building notification workflows, not a high-volume realtime layer.

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