Best realtime tools for web apps

We asked 10 models: The best tools for adding realtime features such as live chat to a web app. Each named its own top 10.

Asked 4 ways: List request · Buyer asking for advice · Search query · Worth paying for?. Share of voice pools every wording.

Agreement between models: 56%
Same model, run twice: 77%
Different picks: 20

When agreement between models is well below a model's agreement with itself, the split reflects real differences in taste rather than randomness.

The consensus

Each cell is the position that model gave the pick; blank means it left the pick off. Click a row for each model's reasoning.

#	Pick	Listed by	Claude Haiku 5.5	GPT-6 Luna	Gemini 4 Argon	Qwen 3.8 Flash	DeepSeek V4 Pro	GLM-5.3	Kimi K3	MiniMax M3	Mistral Large 4	Nemotron 3 Ultra
1	Pusher	10/10	1	2	2	5	2	1	2	1	1	1
Claude Haiku 5.5 (#1) Mature hosted pub/sub service with simple API and strong reliability for live updates. GLM-5.3 (#1) Mature hosted pub/sub channels with simple SDKs, popular for live chat MiniMax M3 (#1) Most reliable WebSocket service with great DX Mistral Large 4 (#1) Battle-tested, dead-simple API, generous free tier, scales smoothly. Nemotron 3 Ultra (#1) Managed WebSockets with excellent developer experience GPT-6 Luna (#2) Mature hosted channels service with straightforward SDKs, presence, and private-channel authorization. Gemini 4 Argon (#2) The simplest, most battle-tested developer experience for quickly adding basic realtime events. DeepSeek V4 Pro (#2) Easy hosted WebSocket API with simple SDKs and Channels protocol, great for chat and notifications. Kimi K3 (#2) Developer-friendly WebSocket service, quick to integrate Qwen 3.8 Flash (#5) Simple channels/websockets; quick to embed chat features.
2	Ably	10/10	2	1	1	4	1	2	1	2	2	3
GPT-6 Luna (#1) Reliable managed pub/sub with global realtime infrastructure, presence, history, and strong developer tooling. Gemini 4 Argon (#1) Unmatched global reliability, guaranteed message ordering, and effortless scaling for enterprise pub/sub. DeepSeek V4 Pro (#1) Best-in-class realtime infrastructure with pub/sub, presence, and message history built for scale. Kimi K3 (#1) Best-in-class realtime messaging with managed scalability and rich SDKs Claude Haiku 5.5 (#2) Robust global realtime messaging with presence, history, and guaranteed ordering. GLM-5.3 (#2) Fully managed realtime infrastructure with low-latency delivery, scaled to match Firebase MiniMax M3 (#2) Strong pub/sub with global presence guarantees Mistral Large 4 (#2) Bulletproof reliability, global edge network, excellent developer experience. Nemotron 3 Ultra (#3) Enterprise-grade realtime platform with guaranteed delivery Qwen 3.8 Flash (#4) Reliable, presence-aware pub/sub with excellent developer DX.
3	Socket.IO	10/10	4	8	3	6	4	3	5	3	3	4
Gemini 4 Argon (#3) The gold-standard open-source library for building custom, bidirectional event-based communication. GLM-5.3 (#3) De facto open-source WebSocket library with rooms and fallbacks MiniMax M3 (#3) Battle-tested library with fallbacks and rooms Mistral Large 4 (#3) The go-to WebSocket library, huge ecosystem, easy self-hosting. Claude Haiku 5.5 (#4) Most popular open-source library for bidirectional realtime communication in Node apps. DeepSeek V4 Pro (#4) Most popular open-source realtime engine with auto fallback, rooms, and massive community support. Nemotron 3 Ultra (#4) Real-time engine powering millions of live apps Kimi K3 (#5) Popular self-hosted WebSocket library, full control Qwen 3.8 Flash (#6) Popular open-source websockets layer for custom chat backends. GPT-6 Luna (#8) Popular open-source choice for flexible bidirectional events and fallback transport support.
4	PubNub	10/10	3	4	7	3	6	5	3	8	5	6
Claude Haiku 5.5 (#3) Long-established realtime platform with broad SDK coverage and presence features. Qwen 3.8 Flash (#3) Battle-tested realtime Pub/Sub API for low-latency messaging. Kimi K3 (#3) Proven realtime infrastructure, low latency, generous chat APIs GPT-6 Luna (#4) Global realtime messaging platform with presence, history, and broad SDK coverage. GLM-5.3 (#5) Global realtime network with chat and presence APIs baked in Mistral Large 4 (#5) Enterprise-grade messaging with presence, storage, and 99.999% SLA. DeepSeek V4 Pro (#6) Mature realtime platform with 70+ SDKs, message persistence, and global edge delivery. Nemotron 3 Ultra (#6) Global edge network for low-latency messaging Gemini 4 Argon (#7) Extremely low-latency global network designed for high-volume messaging, IoT, and live chat. MiniMax M3 (#8) Real-time network with chat SDK and presence
5	Firebase Realtime Database	9/10	7	9	8	7	3	7	4	4		2
Nemotron 3 Ultra (#2) Google's sync engine for instant data updates DeepSeek V4 Pro (#3) Google-backed NoSQL realtime sync with offline support and seamless mobile/web SDKs. Kimi K3 (#4) Google-backed realtime sync, free tier, simple chat builds MiniMax M3 (#4) Easy sync data layer for simple chat features Qwen 3.8 Flash (#7) Google-backed sync with auth built in for chat apps. GLM-5.3 (#7) Google-managed realtime JSON sync, easy chat integration on web
6	Sendbird	9/10	6	6	6	2	10		7	5	10	9
Qwen 3.8 Flash (#2) Enterprise-grade chat and presence with strong moderation tools. MiniMax M3 (#5) Purpose-built chat SDK with prebuilt UI Claude Haiku 5.5 (#6) Dedicated chat platform with enterprise scale and polished mobile SDKs. Gemini 4 Argon (#6) Comprehensive chat platform with advanced moderation, AI integration, and scalable infrastructure. Kimi K3 (#7) Enterprise-grade chat SDK with extensive features Nemotron 3 Ultra (#9) Feature-complete chat SDK with UI components
7	Stream Chat	6/10		5		1			8	7	8	8
Qwen 3.8 Flash (#1) Purpose-built chat SDKs; fastest route to production live chat. MiniMax M3 (#7) Polished chat API with rich messaging features Mistral Large 4 (#8) Pre-built UI components, moderation tools, built for product chat. Nemotron 3 Ultra (#8) High-performance chat API with React components
8	Supabase Realtime	7/10		10			5	8	6	6	9	5
DeepSeek V4 Pro (#5) Postgres-native realtime with row-level security, broadcasting, and presence, open-source first. Nemotron 3 Ultra (#5) Postgres changes streamed via WebSockets Kimi K3 (#6) Open-source Postgres-based realtime, transparent and flexible MiniMax M3 (#6) Open-source Postgres-backed realtime channels GLM-5.3 (#8) Postgres-powered realtime broadcasts and presence, great for startups Mistral Large 4 (#9) Open-source, Postgres-backed, SQL-native, no vendor lock-in.
9	GetStream	5/10	5	7	5		7		9
Claude Haiku 5.5 (#5) Purpose-built chat APIs and SDKs with moderation and prebuilt UI components. Gemini 4 Argon (#5) Best-in-class prebuilt UI components and APIs specifically tailored for feature-rich live chat. GPT-6 Luna (#7) Feature-rich chat APIs and UI components make production live chat quick to build. Kimi K3 (#9) Chat-specific APIs with UI kits, moderation included
10	Firebase	5/10	9		10	8		4			4
Mistral Large 4 (#4) Zero backend work, Auth+DB+Realtime built in, great for MVPs. Claude Haiku 5.5 (#9) Realtime database and messaging backend that makes live chat quick to build.
11	Liveblocks	4/10		3	9		8		10
GPT-6 Luna (#3) Excellent React-focused primitives for chat, presence, comments, and collaborative application state. DeepSeek V4 Pro (#8) Purpose-built for collaborative experiences with presence, storage, and ready-made UI components. Gemini 4 Argon (#9) Purpose-built drop-in toolkit for adding multiplayer presence, cursors, and comments to web apps.
12	Supabase	4/10	10		4			10			6
Gemini 4 Argon (#4) Combines Postgres database changes, broadcast, and presence into one developer-friendly platform.
13	Twilio Conversations	2/10	8									7
Nemotron 3 Ultra (#7) Cross-channel chat with robust SDKs and scaling Claude Haiku 5.5 (#8) Solid programmable chat with cross-channel messaging and good documentation.
14	AWS AppSync	2/10						6		10
GLM-5.3 (#6) Managed GraphQL subscriptions over WebSockets at AWS scale
15	Agora	1/10									7
Mistral Large 4 (#7) Best-in-class for video/voice chat, ultra-low latency globally.

5 lower-scoring picks are not shown; every ballot below lists them in full.

Most divisive

Picks most models listed, at very different positions

Sendbird#2 for Qwen 3.8 Flash #10 for Mistral Large 4
Firebase Realtime Database#2 for Nemotron 3 Ultra #9 for GPT-6 Luna
Stream Chat#1 for Qwen 3.8 Flash #8 for Nemotron 3 Ultra

Hot takes

Picks that appear on only one ballot

Agora at #7, only Mistral Large 4
Sentry at #9, only Qwen 3.8 Flash
Phoenix Channels at #9, only GLM-5.3
Amazon IVS Real-Time at #9, only MiniMax M3
PartyKit at #10, only Qwen 3.8 Flash

Every ballot

Hover a pick to find it on the other ballots. Marked picks appear on no other ballot.

Claude Haiku 5.5

Pusher
Ably
PubNub
Socket.IO
GetStream
Sendbird
Firebase Realtime Database
Twilio Conversations
Firebase
Supabase

87% with consensus · 92% self-consistent

GPT-6 Luna

Ably
Pusher
Liveblocks
PubNub
Stream Chat
Sendbird
GetStream
Socket.IO
Firebase Realtime Database
Supabase Realtime

65% with consensus · 82% self-consistent

Gemini 4 Argon

Ably
Pusher
Socket.IO
Supabase
GetStream
Sendbird
PubNub
Firebase Realtime Database
Liveblocks
Firebase

68% with consensus · 54% self-consistent

Qwen 3.8 Flash

Stream Chat
Sendbird
PubNub
Ably
Pusher
Socket.IO
Firebase Realtime Database
Firebase
Sentry
PartyKit

44% with consensus · 93% self-consistent

DeepSeek V4 Pro

Ably
Pusher
Firebase Realtime Database
Socket.IO
Supabase Realtime
PubNub
GetStream
Liveblocks
Centrifugo
Sendbird

67% with consensus · 86% self-consistent

GLM-5.3

Pusher
Ably
Socket.IO
Firebase
PubNub
AWS AppSync
Firebase Realtime Database
Supabase Realtime
Phoenix Channels
Supabase

84% with consensus · 61% self-consistent

Kimi K3

Ably
Pusher
PubNub
Firebase Realtime Database
Socket.IO
Supabase Realtime
Sendbird
Stream Chat
GetStream
Liveblocks

74% with consensus · 64% self-consistent

MiniMax M3

Pusher
Ably
Socket.IO
Firebase Realtime Database
Sendbird
Supabase Realtime
Stream Chat
PubNub
Amazon IVS Real-Time
AWS AppSync

91% with consensus · 90% self-consistent

Mistral Large 4

Pusher
Ably
Socket.IO
Firebase
PubNub
Supabase
Agora
Stream Chat
Supabase Realtime
Sendbird

83% with consensus · 81% self-consistent

Nemotron 3 Ultra

Pusher
Firebase Realtime Database
Ably
Socket.IO
Supabase Realtime
PubNub
Twilio Conversations
Stream Chat
Sendbird
Centrifugo

77% with consensus · 71% self-consistent

Who agrees with whom

Overlap between two models' lists, weighted toward the top · 100 means identical · Color runs from 31 (lightest) to 89 (darkest)

	Claude Haiku 5.5	GPT-6 Luna	Gemini 4 Argon	Qwen 3.8 Flash	DeepSeek V4 Pro	GLM-5.3	Kimi K3	MiniMax M3	Mistral Large 4	Nemotron 3 Ultra
Claude Haiku 5.5		63	70	45	64	79	71	77	76	72
GPT-6 Luna	63		74	42	72	53	78	56	54	47
Gemini 4 Argon	70	74		33	78	62	75	65	65	51
Qwen 3.8 Flash	45	42	33		31	34	45	38	34	34
DeepSeek V4 Pro	64	72	78	31		62	86	69	58	71
GLM-5.3	79	53	62	34	62		61	79	89	70
Kimi K3	71	78	75	45	86	61		71	60	65
MiniMax M3	77	56	65	38	69	79	71		77	80
Mistral Large 4	76	54	65	34	58	89	60	77		69
Nemotron 3 Ultra	72	47	51	34	71	70	65	80	69