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PubNub vs Twilio: What are the differences?

Key Differences between PubNub and Twilio

PubNub and Twilio are two popular communication platforms that offer different features and functionalities. Here are the key differences between PubNub and Twilio:

  1. Messaging and Broadcasting: PubNub specializes in real-time messaging and broadcasting capabilities. It provides a reliable and scalable infrastructure for sending messages, enabling developers to build chat applications, IoT devices, and collaborative tools. On the other hand, Twilio can also handle messaging, but it primarily focuses on providing APIs for voice and video communications, such as making phone calls and sending SMS.

  2. Voice and Video Communications: Twilio excels in voice and video communications, offering comprehensive APIs and SDKs for integrating voice and video calling functionality into applications. It supports features like call routing, conference calling, and two-factor authentication via phone calls. While PubNub does have voice and video capabilities, it is not its core strength and may not offer the same level of customization and flexibility as Twilio in this area.

  3. Integration with PSTN: Twilio has extensive support for integrating with the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), allowing developers to make and receive phone calls to and from regular telephone numbers. It provides virtual phone numbers, call routing, and more advanced telephony features. PubNub, on the other hand, does not have direct integration with PSTN and primarily focuses on real-time messaging and IoT use cases.

  4. Scalability and Global Network: PubNub is specifically designed to handle large-scale real-time messaging and IoT applications with a global presence. It boasts a distributed network infrastructure that ensures low-latency communication across the globe. Twilio, meanwhile, offers a global network as well, but its primary focus is on voice and text communication.

  5. Pricing Model: PubNub and Twilio have different pricing models. PubNub's pricing is based on the number of messages sent and received, the number of connected devices or users, and the bandwidth used. Twilio, on the other hand, charges based on the number of API requests made, the number of minutes or messages used, and the additional features and services utilized. It's important to consider the specific needs and usage patterns to determine the most cost-effective option.

  6. Development Complexity: The development complexity of PubNub and Twilio can also differ. PubNub provides a simplified and user-friendly API that allows developers to quickly integrate real-time messaging into their applications. It offers various SDKs and pre-built components to facilitate development. Twilio, on the other hand, offers a comprehensive set of APIs for voice, video, and SMS, but may require more development effort and expertise to utilize its features effectively.

In summary, PubNub is a specialized platform for real-time messaging and broadcasting, while Twilio offers comprehensive capabilities for voice, video, and SMS communication, with extensive support for integrating with PSTN. PubNub focuses on scalability and global network infrastructure, while Twilio excels in voice and video communications. The pricing models and development complexity may vary between the two platforms.

Advice on PubNub and Twilio
Needs advice
on
MessageBirdMessageBird
and
TwilioTwilio

Hey! We need an omnichannel inbox that's housed within Salesforce Sales Cloud that makes it super easy for our reps to respond to inbound communication (needs: clean inbox, provides historical context, etc.). We're a high-volume call center, and we get a ton of incoming SMS and email every day. We'd love a solution that lets us view all of that in one place — ideally Salesforce, as that's where our reps work, and we want to avoid needing them to switch between windows. Thanks!

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Replies (2)
Recommends

if the inbound SMS are sales rep specific you could potentially have twilio fwd that msg to a google voice phone number which will in turn put an email in their inbox (so they're looking at 1 inbox instead of multiple places) Just an idea. Probably way off in left field compared to what you're thinking and I also invision. I'm not all familiar with MessageBird nor am I at all familiar w/ your data flow / business process. Would be happy to help brainstorm anytime! 10+ years experience on the sfdc platform

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Ryan Hitchler
CEO & Co-founder at Centro · | 1 upvotes · 105.3K views
Recommends
on
TwilioTwilio
at

Check out Centro. We built this to solve this exact problem! We used tools like Twilio but wrapped it up in a application that runs on Slack.

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Dainis Duļbinskis
Marketing project manager at Colortime · | 2 upvotes · 112.2K views
Needs advice
on
PlivoPlivo
and
TwilioTwilio

Hello! We need to integrate an SMS gateway into our app for user phone verification. As we are just starting, we are searching for the most affordable/best price/performance option for SMS gateway to verify client phone numbers with the code, maybe you can suggest something between those two or maybe something else. We are planning to do business in Europe

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Replies (4)
Recommends
on
NexmoNexmo

Twilio is the leader. Strong API, excellent documentation and reliable service. I suggest Nexmo since their API has smaller learning curve, offering better prices and also reliable solution. Also Nexmo offers more call per sec. 3 vs 2 and 2, out of the box. Good luck

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Recommends
on
TwilioTwilio

Twilio might be not cheapest, but they have awesome documentation (a lot of examples), easy to use API and libraries. I think it's a very good product to start. If the bill will become too heavy, you can shop around for economical options.

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Recommends
on
TwilioTwilio
at

Twilio documentation is very good and as a platform it just works. It's robust and reliable. We road-tested plivo and it wasn't anywhere near in terms of docs or support. In fact their support was terrible at replying to us. 48 hours to answer basic questions.

That's said, were also using sendgrid by twilio and that's not been pleasant . Their email builder appears to be react based but written by a team who don't understand react very well. That's a nightmare as yet

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Andrew Voirol
Founder at The Social Diner · | 1 upvotes · 111.8K views
Recommends
on
PlivoPlivo

stackshare doesn't seem to have this in the stack list yet, but in my experience Twillio is attractive. It's good for basics, their acquisition of SendGrid gives them a bit more market share.. They are stronger at marketing to those that benefit them. That said from my understanding SendGrid leases the networks, channels, and lines. While their interface is friendly, their pricing suited for lower volume, you want to look at what they are using via an API, a contract, etc. Is it a more friend UI to a combination of others. What redunancies do to they have, try their support. It's not that Twillio is bad, it's about the volume, the use case, the liabiitlies you might have to your end-users if Twillio isn't the right choice. Another option is Bandwidth. You ask for affordable, Twillio is an option, but front end costs v/s the costs of support you'll need to consider. Bandwidth has more reliability but requires more engineering and more skillset. Another option that is worth considering, not the most affordable, but https://www.zipwhip.com/ have perhaps options that might be higher and the cost is relative. Wight costs, of support costs of integration, cost of scale, costs of a volume..

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Pros of PubNub
Pros of Twilio
  • 36
    Massively scalable & easy to use
  • 25
    Easy setup
  • 20
    Reliable
  • 19
    Great support
  • 14
    Flexible to integrate to custom applications
  • 13
    Sockets at Scale
  • 13
    99.999% availability guarantees
  • 13
    High-Performance
  • 12
    High-Reliability
  • 12
    Multiplexing
  • 7
    Scalability
  • 5
    High-Availability
  • 5
    70+ SDKs
  • 4
    Security
  • 4
    Azure Add-on
  • 3
    Heroku Add-on
  • 3
    Presence
  • 3
    Flexible
  • 3
    Easy to setup
  • 2
    Data Streams
  • 2
    Free Plan
  • 2
    Server-Side Cache
  • 2
    PhoneGap Plugin
  • 2
    AngularJS Adapter
  • 2
    Data Sync
  • 2
    Analytics
  • 2
    Support
  • 1
    Easy setup and very reliable
  • 1
    High cost, going up more in Summer '15
  • 1
    Cool
  • 1
    Angular 2+ integration
  • 1
    Documentation, easy to use, great people/service
  • 1
    CTO stephen also is A++++++
  • 1
    Real time and easy to use.
  • 1
    Easy integration with iOS apps
  • 148
    Powerful, simple, and well documented api
  • 88
    RESTful API
  • 66
    Clear pricing
  • 61
    Great sms services
  • 58
    Low cost of entry
  • 29
    Global SMS Gateway
  • 14
    Good value
  • 12
    Cloud IVR
  • 11
    Simple
  • 11
    Extremely simple to integrate with rails
  • 6
    Great for startups
  • 5
    SMS
  • 3
    Great developer program
  • 3
    Hassle free
  • 2
    Text me the app pages
  • 1
    New Features constantly rolling out
  • 1
    Many deployment options, from build from scratch to buy
  • 1
    Easy integration
  • 1
    Two factor authentication

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Cons of PubNub
Cons of Twilio
  • 1
    Costly
  • 4
    Predictable pricing
  • 2
    Expensive

Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions

What is PubNub?

PubNub makes it easy for you to add real-time capabilities to your apps, without worrying about the infrastructure. Build apps that allow your users to engage in real-time across mobile, browser, desktop and server.

What is Twilio?

Twilio offers developers a powerful API for phone services to make and receive phone calls, and send and receive text messages. Their product allows programmers to more easily integrate various communication methods into their software and programs.

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