6 free alternatives to Stream

ConnectyCube's free plan gives you public cloud hosting, up to 1,000 users per account, 5 GB storage, a 1 month retention policy, P2P audio and video calls, client-side video recording, and community support through GitHub and Stack Overflow. It is a broader communications starter than Stream if your app needs chat plus calling in the same place. Its main advantage is bundled voice and video support on the free tier, which Stream's free plan does not spell out. It falls short on credit-card simplicity, since the card requirement is not clearly absent here. Switch if you need chat plus calling and can live with tighter data limits and shorter retention.

• Beats Stream: Includes P2P audio/video calls on the free tier
• Falls short: Card requirement is unknown, while Stream explicitly requires no credit card
• Who should switch: Switch here if you need chat and calling together in a small public-cloud starter plan.

See the full listing · Compare with Stream

Liveblocks' free plan includes realtime infrastructure, collaboration features, pre-built components, unlimited monthly active users, unlimited comments, unlimited collaboration notifications, unlimited notification channels, 1,000 custom notification events, 256 MB realtime data storage, 512 MB file storage, 10 projects, Development and Production environments, 3 standard dashboard seats, and community support. It is especially generous for product teams building collaborative experiences because user count is not capped. Compared with Stream, its strongest free advantage is unlimited MAU, which removes the growth ceiling that matters most for many early products. It falls short on live room activity, because it caps monthly active rooms at 500. Switch if your collaboration product needs room to grow user count before paying.

• Beats Stream: Unlimited monthly active users on the free tier
• Falls short: Capped at 500 monthly active rooms, which Stream does not expose
• Who should switch: Switch if your product is collaboration-first and user growth matters more than chat-room scale.

See the full listing

Pusher's free Sandbox plan includes 200,000 messages per day, 100 concurrent connections, standard support, and Functions. That makes it a strong fit for realtime messaging and in-app events, and it matches Stream's concurrent connection ceiling while giving a clear daily message allowance. Its main free advantage is message throughput, because 200,000 messages per day is an explicit cap that can be more useful than a monthly active user limit for event-heavy apps. It falls short on chat-product breadth, since it is more centered on realtime transport than a full chat platform. Switch if your app is message-heavy and you want a straightforward hosted pub/sub layer.

• Beats Stream: 200,000 messages per day on the free tier
• Falls short: Less chat-specific feature depth than Stream's all-chat free access
• Who should switch: Switch if you need high-throughput realtime messaging more than a full chat stack.

See the full listing

PubNub's free tier includes up to 200 MAU, up to 1 million transactions monthly, 1 GB of data storage for 7 days, 5 test Serverless Functions with 7-day runtime, 1 million push notifications per month, and no credit card required. It covers realtime messaging plus push and lightweight serverless workflows in one package. Its strongest free advantage is the breadth of channels it offers, especially push notifications and serverless functions alongside messaging. It falls short on user capacity, because 200 MAU is well below Stream's 1,000 MAU cap. Switch if you want a multi-purpose realtime platform and your user count stays small.

• Beats Stream: Includes push notifications and test serverless functions on the free tier
• Falls short: Only 200 MAU, which is lower than Stream's 1,000 MAU
• Who should switch: Switch if you want realtime messaging plus push and small serverless workflows in one free plan.

See the full listing

Tencent RTC's free offer gives each developer 10,000 free minutes every month for a whole year, plus a Starter Plan that includes 50,000 package minutes for Call, Room, Live, and RTC Engine, complete UI for Call, Room, and Live, and 1-to-1 technical support for several products. It is the best fit when your main problem is call minutes rather than chat-user counts. Its strongest free advantage is time-based usage, because the monthly minutes are explicit and generous for RTC testing or a small launch. It falls short on always-on chat infrastructure, since the offer is centered on call and live products. Switch if your app is more voice or video than chat.

• Beats Stream: 10,000 free minutes every month for a year
• Falls short: More RTC-focused than Stream's chat-first free tier
• Who should switch: Switch if your product is centered on voice or video minutes instead of chat messaging.

See the full listing

Ably's free package lets you build a proof of concept for $0, with up to 200 concurrent connections, up to 500 messages per second, up to 6 million messages per month, access to any Ably product, and community and email support on a best-effort basis. It has more connection headroom than Stream and much higher message throughput, which makes it a strong choice for realtime apps that grow by traffic rather than by MAU. Its main free advantage is the message and connection ceiling. It falls short on card simplicity, because the free tier does not clearly state that no credit card is required. Switch if you want the most headroom before paying and can work within a proof-of-concept-style free package.

• Beats Stream: Up to 200 concurrent connections and 6 million messages per month
• Falls short: Credit-card requirement is not clearly absent, unlike Stream
• Who should switch: Switch if you need the most free realtime headroom and can tolerate a POC-style plan.

See the full listing