What PubNub does

PubNub, founded in 2010 and headquartered in San Francisco, operates a globally distributed real-time Data Stream Network that provides APIs, SDKs, and infrastructure enabling developers and enterprises to build chat, live updates, presence detection, mobile push notifications, and in-app interactivity at scale. The platform processes more than 3 trillion API transactions per month across 800 million-plus connected devices with sub-30ms latency and a 99.999 percent uptime SLA for select enterprise customers, and it supports 15-plus SDK languages spanning JavaScript, Java, C#, Python, Ruby, Go, Swift, Kotlin, Rust, Unity, and Unreal Engine. The product portfolio centers on a core pub/sub messaging platform extended by modules including PubNub Chat, In-App Messaging, Presence, App Context (Live Data Sync), Mobile Push Notifications, Illuminate and Insights for real-time analytics and decision intelligence, AI Chat Moderation, and a 2025 MCP Server for AI-native application development.

PubNub generates revenue through a hybrid usage-based and subscription model: developers can self-serve on a free tier up to 200 monthly active users with no credit card required, then upgrade to paid Pro and Enterprise tiers billed monthly or annually, with custom enterprise pricing including 99.999 percent uptime SLAs. Distribution combines product-led growth (free tier, documentation, tutorials, SDKs) with enterprise field sales targeting regulated and high-scale buyers, supplemented by AWS Marketplace listings (including a 2026 joint solution with Red5) and a partner ecosystem of integrators and technology providers such as Tisane Labs, SightEngine, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Hugging Face. The company holds a comprehensive compliance portfolio — SOC 2 Type II, SOC 3, ISO/IEC 27001:2022, HIPAA, GDPR, CCPA, and EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework — that enables enterprise procurement in healthcare, fintech, and public sector workloads.

The platform serves more than 2,000 enterprise customers across 40-plus industries including sports and media (DAZN, Ticketmaster, Yelp, ACS), gaming (Scopely, Pocket Gems), digital healthcare (MaNaDr), eCommerce (Swiggy, Talk Shop Live), fintech (GCash), enterprise technology (DocuSign, Logitech, Autodesk), transport and logistics (Mothership), and customer service (Kustomer). PubNub has raised approximately $134 million in disclosed venture funding across seven rounds, most recently a $65 million Series E in November 2021 led by The Raine Group with participation from HPE Growth, Bosch Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, and Scale Venture Partners. Total cumulative funding figures are not separately confirmed in the source material beyond the round-by-round disclosure.

Name

PubNub

Legal name

PubNub Inc.

Website

https://www.pubnub.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2010

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

PubNub provides a globally distributed real-time Data Stream Network with APIs and 15-plus SDKs enabling developers and enterprises to build chat, live updates, presence, and in-app interactivity at scale across 2,000-plus customers in 40-plus industries.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Real-Time Communication Platform

NAICS

Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (5182), Software Publishers (513210)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Event Streaming & Pub/Sub Platforms (HDAEAIAD)

akta.pro secondary industry

Data/Apps Connectivity & Adapters (Connectors, Drivers, SDKs) (HDAEAIAK)

Keywords

• Real-time messaging platform
• Developer API infrastructure
• Event streaming service
• In-app chat SDK
• Edge messaging network

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Usage-based API transactions: Primary revenue stream based on API message volume and consumption. Customers pay based on message throughput and API calls, aligning cost with usage scale.
2. Subscription Plans: Tiered subscription plans offering different feature sets and usage limits. Includes Pro tier with access to compliance reports and premium support.
3. Freemium Tier: Free tier for up to 200 Monthly Active Users (MAUs) enabling developer adoption and prototype development. Serves as top-of-funnel for conversion to paid tiers.
4. Enterprise Custom Pricing: Custom pricing for large enterprises with dedicated support, SLA guarantees, and advanced features. Includes 99.999% uptime SLA for select customers.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

PubNub operates a secure global Data Stream Network that provides developers and enterprises with real-time messaging infrastructure, APIs, and SDKs for building chat, live updates, push notifications, presence, and in-app interactivity at scale. The platform is sold as a unified subscription with usage-based pricing on top of a freemium entry point, and it is wrapped with enterprise-grade security and compliance (SOC 2, SOC 3, ISO 27001, HIPAA, GDPR). A modular product layer adds chat, decision intelligence, AI moderation, MCP server, and generative AI capabilities on the same edge backbone.

Product overview

PubNub is a real-time communications platform offering a unified platform-plus-modules architecture. The core PubNub Platform provides real-time messaging infrastructure with ultra-low-latency APIs and global SDKs. Key modules include PubNub Chat (with In-App Messaging, Presence, and PubNub Chat itself), Mobile Push Notifications for APNS/FCM delivery, and Live Data Sync through App Context. Decision Intelligence features include PubNub Illuminate for real-time analytics and decisioning, PubNub Insights for operational visibility, and AI Chat Moderation powered by Tisane Labs. The Generative AI Platform enables AI-native real-time apps using models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Hugging Face. PubNub MCP Server allows AI systems to interact with PubNub environments. The Global Network infrastructure spans 800+ million devices with sub-30ms latency. PubNub Functions provides serverless compute for custom business logic.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• PubNub Platform The core real-time communication platform that enables developers to build applications with chat, live updates, and in-app interactivity using ultra-low-latency APIs and SDKs that scale from prototype to millions of users.
• PubNub Core Services Real-time communication infrastructure providing pub/sub messaging, event handling, and data streaming capabilities with global network distribution for low-latency message delivery worldwide.
• PubNub Chat Chat solution with SDKs, UI templates, and moderation tools that simplifies chat development for in-app messaging, livestream chat, and customer support applications.
• In-App Messaging In-app messaging product combining pub/sub with persistence, file sharing, PubNub Functions, and third-party integrations to manage channels and boost engagement.
• PubNub Presence Real-time awareness service to monitor and manage user activity and engagement status across channels, enabling applications to track who is online, viewing, or actively participating.
• Live Data Sync (App Context) App Context service ensuring real-time consistency by syncing critical app data across users and devices, maintaining state synchronization in real-time applications.
• Mobile Push Notifications Mobile push notification delivery using APNS (Apple Push Notification Service) and FCM (Firebase Cloud Messaging) for immediate updates on iOS and Android devices.
• PubNub Illuminate Live analytics and decisioning platform enabling real-time analytics, decisioning, and automation with no-code tools, empowering rapid responses to live trends and events.
• PubNub Insights Operational analytics product providing visibility into real-time application performance with dashboards for monitoring message traffic, latency, and system health.
• Decision Intelligence Decision intelligence product that powers decisions with real-time intelligence using built-in no-code tools for personalization and monetization optimization.
• AI Chat Moderation AI-powered message filtering product that blocks toxic, abusive, or unsafe messages in real time to protect communities and brands without slowing down conversations.
• Chat Moderation Dashboard Pre-built, open-source, configurable GUI product enabling moderation capabilities including automatic text and image moderation, admin message monitoring, and user management with flagging, muting, and banning.
• PubNub MCP Server Server product enabling AI systems to understand and interact with PubNub environments, allowing developers to build, debug, and scale real-time applications using AI assistants.
• Global Network Globally distributed edge messaging infrastructure product for IoT, mobile, and web with 800+ million connected devices, 2,000+ customers, and sub-30ms latency.
• PubNub Functions Serverless compute product enabling developers to extend PubNub's real-time messaging with custom business logic, data transformation, and integrations with external APIs.
• Generative AI Platform AI-native real-time application platform enabling developers to build AI-powered experiences using generative AI capabilities for summarization, classification, and analysis of real-time data.

Quantifiable outcome

• Sub-250 millisecond ultra-low-latency live video delivery in partnership with Red5
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers16 records

Segments11 records

Ideal customer profiles6 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration9 records

AI capability10 records

Feature15 records

Partnerships

Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core and supporting.

• Red5coreTechnology or Integration · 24 March 2026Deep technology integration combining Red5 Cloud and Red5 Pro with PubNub's platform to deliver sub-250ms ultra-low-latency live video with in-app messaging, synchronized metadata, and real-time engagement features. Joint solution targets live sports betting, drone monitoring, and traffic management applications. Available through AWS Marketplace with open-sourced reference integrations, Terraform modules, and Helm charts on GitHub.
• Tisane LabssupportingTechnology or IntegrationAI-powered text moderation integration detecting cyberbullying, hate speech, sexual harassment, and other problematic content in real-time chat.
• SightEnginesupportingTechnology or IntegrationImage moderation integration for detecting and filtering unwanted content in images within chat applications.
• Amazon Web Services (AWS)coreTechnology or IntegrationAWS hosts PubNub's production servers and all customer data. AWS provides comprehensive compliance and controls infrastructure. PubNub leverages AWS services for global infrastructure deployment.
• StripesupportingTechnology or IntegrationStripe handles PubNub's payment processing as a PCI DSS Level 1 certified service provider. PubNub does not store, transmit, or process payment card information.
• OpenAIsupportingTechnology or IntegrationIntegration with OpenAI's enterprise-grade models for AI-powered features including code generation, data analysis, and content moderation within PubNub's platform.
• AnthropicsupportingTechnology or IntegrationIntegration with Anthropic's AI models for responsible AI capabilities including analysis, summarization, and classification within PubNub's Illuminate product.
• Hugging FacesupportingTechnology or IntegrationIntegration with Hugging Face models for AI-powered features within PubNub's platform, under strict data protection controls.
• FX DigitalsupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerStrategic content partnership featuring CEO Matt Duhig's insights on connected TV, second screening, and interactive app trends in the Future State of Streaming series.

Scale indicators14 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Ably: Ably provides a real-time messaging platform with pub/sub, presence, and push capabilities targeting developers and enterprises. It is the closest direct competitor to PubNub in managed real-time messaging infrastructure.
• Pusher (MessageBird): Pusher offers hosted real-time messaging services including Channels for pub/sub and Beams for push notifications. It competes directly with PubNub on chat, presence, and live updates for web and mobile apps.
• Stream: Stream provides APIs and SDKs for chat, activity feeds, and real-time messaging, with a similar vertical focus on sports, social, and enterprise collaboration. It competes directly with PubNub Chat and Illuminate.
• Sendbird: Sendbird offers chat, voice, and video APIs with SDKs for in-app messaging at scale, serving many of the same verticals as PubNub (social, marketplaces, healthcare, fintech). It is a direct competitor in the chat API space.

Broad incumbents

• Firebase Realtime Database / Firestore: Google's Firebase offers real-time database sync and pub/sub functionality as part of a broader mobile/web app development platform. It competes with PubNub on real-time sync at lower price points, leveraging Google's hyperscaler scale.
• Confluent (Apache Kafka): Confluent provides managed Kafka for event streaming and pub/sub, used by enterprises for real-time data pipelines. While more infrastructure-focused, it overlaps with PubNub's event streaming use cases for larger enterprises.
• AWS (SNS, IoT Core, AppSync): AWS offers native pub/sub, IoT messaging, and GraphQL real-time services as part of its broader cloud platform. It serves as both PubNub's infrastructure provider and a competitor on price-sensitive real-time workloads.
• Google Cloud Pub/Sub: Google Cloud Pub/Sub is a managed real-time messaging service for event ingestion and delivery. As a hyperscaler-native alternative, it competes with PubNub on enterprise real-time streaming workloads.

Emerging players

• OneSignal: OneSignal provides push notification and in-app messaging infrastructure with focus on marketing and engagement use cases. It overlaps with PubNub's push notification and in-app messaging products for SMB and mid-market customers.
• Knock: Knock offers notification infrastructure with APIs for multi-channel messaging (in-app, email, SMS, push). It is an emerging player with partial overlap on PubNub's notification and orchestration capabilities.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/PubNub
• GitHubgithub.com/pubnub
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/pubnub
• Facebookfacebook.com/PubNub

Compliance8 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles10 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds7 records

Investors16 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about PubNub