Celeris vs PubNub
An honest comparison of Celeris and PubNub: pricing transparency, throughput, and protocol approach.
PubNub started in the realtime market in 2010. It has broad feature coverage. It also has more than 60 transaction types, HTTP long-polling on the delivery path, and prices that require a contract.
TL;DR
Choose Celeris if:
- You want prices that you can understand without a sales call
- You need pure WebSocket delivery, not 60 transaction types
- High throughput matters, without HTTP long-polling overhead
- You want binary messaging (MessagePack, Protobuf)
- You want your data in your own infrastructure (BYOD, coming soon)
Choose PubNub if:
- You need SDKs for obscure or embedded platforms (50+ available)
- You rely on PubNub Functions or on the BizOps Portal specifically
- Your existing PubNub deployment is stable, and the migration cost is high
- You need features that only the PubNub platform has
The pricing transparency problem
PubNub has more than 60 transaction types, and it bills each one separately. An average contract is approximately $80k each year. You only get a clear number after a sales call, and that makes comparisons hard.
Celeris pricing:
- 3 dimensions: messages, connection minutes, channel minutes
- All rates are on this website now
- A free tier, with no credit card, is available today
- A 10-year billing option renews every 10 years
PubNub pricing:
- More than 60 transaction types, each with a separate bill
- An average contract of approximately $80k each year
- A quote requires sales engagement
- HTTP long-polling on the delivery path for some features
Feature comparison
| Feature | Celeris | PubNub |
|---|---|---|
| Throughput approach | Binary WebSocket, sustained high throughput | HTTP long-polling + WebSocket |
| Binary messaging | ✓ | Limited |
| Pricing transparency | Published on website | Requires sales engagement |
| Free tier self-serve | ✓ | Limited |
| BYOD data export | Coming soon | — |
| 10-year recurring pricing | ✓ | — |
| SDK count | 4 (JS/TS, Python, Go, Java) | 50+ |
| Multi-region | US and EU regions via AWS Global Accelerator (130 PoPs) | Global |
| Pure WebSocket protocol | ✓ | Mixed |
| Per-origin ordering | ✓ | — |
The honest take
What PubNub does well: PubNub has the widest SDK coverage in the industry, with more than 50 SDKs. If you need obscure or embedded platforms, PubNub can be your only option. Its global network is extensive and mature.
Where Celeris is different: Celeris is a transport layer. It has a focused set of SDKs, not fifty, with JavaScript and TypeScript first. A binary-first transport has no HTTP long-polling and no JSON tax on the delivery path. The prices are on the website. You do not need a sales call to know if you can afford it.
Who should stay on PubNub: Your team can have an existing PubNub deployment with platform-specific features (Push Notifications, Functions, BizOps Portal). Then the migration cost is possibly not worth it. If you start fresh and need standard pub/sub WebSocket delivery, evaluate Celeris first.