Real-time and chat services compared: free tiers and pricing

7 real-time and chat services, each with its free tier and lowest paid price as read from its pricing page.

Service	Free tier	Lowest paid price	Checked
Ably	Free: $0	Standard $29/mo; Pro $399/mo	2026-10-23
CometChat	Free for development: $0/mo	Build $239/mo; Basic $359/mo	2026-10-23
Liveblocks	Free monthly credits	Pro $25/mo billed annually, with $30 of monthly credits	2026-10-23
PubNub	Free plan, forever, no card	Starter $98/mo with 1,000 MAU	2026-10-23
Pusher	Sandbox: free	Startup $49/mo	2026-10-23
Sendbird	Free trial; free plan with limits	Starter $349/mo billed annually ($399 monthly)	2026-10-23
Stream	Free (Maker program for small teams)	Start $399/mo billed annually ($499 monthly)	2026-10-23

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Prices read from each vendor’s own pricing page

Vercel
Supabase
Stripe
Clerk
Resend
Neon
Cloudflare
PostHog

317 services listed across 36 categories. 70 priced in full, plan by plan.

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Recordings of the actual app. Inputs are illustrative; Billing shows an example account.

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Claude
ChatGPT
Cursor
VS Code

I’m building a booking app for yoga studios with sign-in, payments and email reminders. What should it run on, and what will it cost at 20,000 users?

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Supported OpenAI, Anthropic, Vercel, Stripe, AWS and DigitalOcean connections sync completed months nightly. Billing access depends on the provider; personal Claude API keys cannot read organization costs.

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Stack recommendations from a PRD or a short description
Cost now, as you grow, and in year one after startup credits
Cost cliffs, and stay, optimise or switch comparisons
70 vendors priced in full, with every plan and what it includes, and more being added
317 developer services on Vendors, 70 priced in full and the rest with free tiers and starting prices, growing as we research more
Audits of apps already built: what they run on, what to change
MCP server with 34 tools for Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and more
Saved stacks with price re-checks (sign in with email or GitHub)
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What is Kong Reviews?

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Where do the prices come from?

From each vendor's own pricing page. 70 of the 70 vendors in the cost engine were checked against their pricing pages in October 2026; any others are marked unverified. The other services on Vendors were read in October 2026 for their free tier and lowest paid price; the ones we couldn't read are marked Not Priced Yet. Both keep growing: we add vendors and services as we research them. Every answer lists its sources and the date each price was checked, and a price counts as out of date after 14 days. Check the vendor's page before you commit to anything.

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How do I use it from Claude or ChatGPT?

Open Connect AI and pick your app for the setup steps. Then ask in plain language, for example "Here's my PRD, what should I use?"

Do vendors pay to be listed or ranked higher?

No. Rankings come only from fit and cost, and there are no affiliate or referral links. See How we make money.

What happens to the PRD I paste?

It is read on our server with keyword rules to find requirements, then discarded. It is not stored and not sent to an AI provider. See Privacy.

How do I delete my data?

Sign in and go to Settings → Account → Delete account. That removes your account, your saved stacks and every sign-in straight away.

Can you add a vendor?

Yes, and we'll look at adding it.

Still have questions? Email [email protected].

Real-time and chat services compared: free tiers and pricing

What do I use to build this?And how much will it cost?What do you want to build?

What Are You Building?

Prices read from each vendor’s own pricing page

One placefor every stack decision.

Plan

Cost as you grow

Vendors

Audit

Billing

Showcase

Give your AI assistantaccess to Kong Reviews.

See what real productsare built on.

How services are ranked

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Pick what works.Build what’s next.

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What's it built on?

What it runs on

What matters

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Missing a Vendor?

Questions

Pick what works.Build what’s next.

What do I use to build this?
And how much will it cost?What do you want to build?

One place
for every stack decision.

Give your AI assistant
access to Kong Reviews.

See what real products
are built on.

Already built?
Start from what you run.

Pick what works.
Build what’s next.

Pick what works.
Build what’s next.