Contus

What is Contus

Contus is a digital products company that provides modular platforms and developer-ready SDKs for real-time communication, video streaming, OTT, and marketplace workflows. The Contus product family includes components for in-app chat and calling, managed video platforms for publishers, and turnkey commerce/marketplace engines that can be deployed as SaaS or self-managed solutions. Contus positions itself as a vendor for companies that want to ship rich media and interaction features without building the full backend stack from scratch.

Deployment options are oriented toward enterprises and mid-market teams: fully managed cloud services hosted by Contus, private-cloud or on-premises deployments for regulated industries, and white‑label products that teams can rebrand and integrate into web and mobile apps. The company exposes product functionality through SDKs, REST APIs, and admin portals so engineering and product teams can integrate features with existing systems.

Common verticals served by Contus include media and broadcasting (OTT), telehealth, e-learning, marketplaces and classifieds, retail streaming, and customer support platforms. Architecturally the suite focuses on low-latency media paths (WebRTC and adaptive streaming), scalable messaging pipelines, and backend services for user management, monetization, and analytics.

Contus publishes product pages and developer resources for individual offerings such as MirrorFly (real-time messaging and calling) and VPlayed (video/OTT platform). For product-specific developer documentation and detailed feature lists, view Contus's product pages: Contus MirrorFly real-time messaging SDKs and Contus VPlayed OTT platform details.

Contus features

Contus provides a set of core features grouped into distinct product lines. Across the portfolio you will find capabilities focused on media transport, user and subscription management, developer extensibility, and operational tools for administrators.

Key cross-product capabilities include:

• End-to-end real-time messaging and presence with read receipts and typing indicators.
• Voice and video calling (1:1 and group) implemented over WebRTC with fallbacks for low-bandwidth scenarios.
• Managed video streaming with support for HLS/DASH, DRM, CDN integration, and adaptive bitrate delivery.
• OTT features such as catalogs, multi-device playback, monetization (SVOD/TVOD/AVOD), and analytics dashboards.
• Marketplace and commerce flows including vendor onboarding, product listings, payments integration, and order management.

The product family exposes these capabilities through multiple delivery layers:

• SDKs for platforms: Android, iOS, JavaScript (Web), and server-side SDKs or sample code for backend languages.
• REST APIs and Webhooks for event-driven integrations, backend orchestration, and third-party synchronization.
• Admin consoles for content management, user provisioning, subscription and billing controls, and analytics.

Operational features aimed at production deployments include multi-region scaling, fault-tolerant media routing, role-based access control, logging and audit trails, and platform-level security controls. Contus also offers professional services to help with integration, customization, and performance tuning for high-concurrency scenarios.

What does Contus do?

Contus packages the common building blocks that product and engineering teams need to add interactive and streaming features to mobile apps and websites. Rather than a single monolithic application, Contus provides modular products that can be adopted individually or combined. For example, a media company can use the VPlayed OTT platform for video delivery and Contus MirrorFly for in-app chat between viewers.

The suite is designed to reduce development time: SDKs hide complex real-time signaling and media transport logic, REST APIs expose management operations for users and content, and admin portals allow non-technical teams to manage catalogs, users, and monetization. This makes it possible to ship features like live auctions, interactive commerce streams, and live group classes with a smaller engineering footprint.

Contus also supports enterprise requirements such as single sign-on (SSO), data residency options, and compliance controls applicable to industries like healthcare and finance. These controls are available as part of managed or enterprise-tier offerings and are intended to support production deployments with elevated security and audit needs.

Contus pricing

Contus offers these pricing plans:

• Free Plan: $0/month — limited sandbox access to SDKs, single‑developer key, and basic support for evaluation and prototyping
• Starter: $99/month — entry-level managed plan with production usage limits, standard SDK access, and email support
• Professional: $499/month — higher usage limits, advanced features (DRM, multi-CDN support), phone and ticket support, and monthly usage reports
• Enterprise: Custom pricing (contact sales) — SLA-backed deployments, private-cloud or on-premises options, dedicated account management, and custom feature development

Check Contus's current pricing tiers for the latest rates and enterprise options.

How much is Contus per month

Contus starts at $99/month for the Starter plan, which is intended for small production deployments or early-stage projects that require managed hosting and basic platform features. The Starter tier includes limited concurrent streams and message throughput; upgrades are available as usage grows.

How much is Contus per year

Contus costs $1,188/year for the Starter plan when billed monthly equivalently (12 × $99/month). Annual billing and multi-year agreements are commonly available for Professional and Enterprise customers and may include discounts and committed usage pricing.

How much is Contus in general

Contus pricing ranges from $0 (free) to $499+/month. Smaller projects can start on the free or Starter tiers, production-facing mid-market teams typically select the Professional tier, and large enterprises pursue Enterprise contracts with custom pricing driven by concurrency, storage, and integration scope.

What is Contus used for

Contus is used to add media-rich interaction capabilities and managed streaming to consumer and enterprise applications. Use cases break down broadly into three groups: real-time communication, managed video/OTT, and marketplace/commerce flows.

Real-time communication: teams use Contus MirrorFly style SDKs to add in-app chat, voice, and video to social apps, collaboration tools, telehealth platforms, and customer support consoles. The features support presence, group chat, file and media sharing, and moderation controls.

Managed streaming and OTT: media companies and broadcasters use the VPlayed-like platform capabilities to host live events, run subscription channels, and deliver on-demand catalogs with DRM, analytics, and monetization models. The platform supports multi-device playback, adaptive streaming, and integration with CDN providers for scale.

Marketplaces and commerce: Contus's commerce products provide vendor onboarding, listings, payments, and order management so teams can stand up B2C or B2B marketplaces quickly. Combined with live video features, teams can build live commerce or shoppable video experiences.

Pros and cons of Contus

Pros:

• Modular product suite that lets teams adopt only what they need — messaging, streaming, or commerce — instead of buying a single large platform.
• Developer-friendly delivery with SDKs and REST APIs reduces build time for complex media and realtime interactions.
• Managed deployment options speed time-to-market; enterprise-grade deployment options support compliance and data-residency requirements.
• Professional services and custom engineering reduce integration risk for unique workflows.

Cons:

• Pricing can escalate with high concurrency or large storage/egress needs, so careful capacity planning is required for high-traffic events.
• A modular approach means customers may need to integrate multiple Contus products and possibly third‑party services (CDNs, payment gateways), which increases integration work compared with single-vendor monoliths.
• For teams that prefer completely open-source stacks, some Contus offerings are commercial and not directly replaceable with community software without additional engineering.

Operational considerations:

• Plan ahead for monitoring and observability: production-grade media and realtime systems require logging, metrics, and synthetic tests to detect quality regressions.
• Verify the support SLA and escalation path in Enterprise contracts when media quality and uptime are critical.
• Evaluate CDN and regional edge locations to match your user geography and meet latency goals for live interactions.

Contus free trial

Contus provides evaluation options suitable for engineering teams and product managers who need hands-on testing before committing to production. Typical trial options include a sandbox account with SDK keys, limited concurrent sessions for live tests, and temporary access to admin consoles to exercise catalog and subscription features.

Trials are commonly time-limited (for example, 14–30 days) and include sample app code and developer documentation to accelerate integration. For larger proof-of-concept work, Contus offers short-term Professional trial access or jointly scoped pilots that include support hours from their engineering team.

To get a trial or request a POC, teams generally sign up through the product pages or contact sales for trial activation. Check the Contus product pages to initiate evaluation of specific products such as MirrorFly and VPlayed: real-time messaging SDKs and demos and managed OTT trials and demos.

Is Contus free

Contus offers a limited free tier and evaluation access. The free tier is intended for prototyping and API exploration and typically includes sandbox SDK keys and basic admin access. Production usage requires a paid Starter, Professional, or Enterprise plan depending on concurrency and feature requirements.

Contus API

Contus exposes developer interfaces that are typical for real-time and streaming platforms: REST APIs for management operations, WebRTC-based media APIs for live audio/video, SDKs for client platforms, and webhooks for event-driven integrations. These APIs allow engineering teams to automate user provisioning, content publishing, subscription lifecycle, and to receive runtime events (for example, stream started, user joined, or payment completed).

Common API capabilities include:

• User and session management endpoints: create and revoke user credentials, issue ephemeral keys for WebRTC sessions, and set roles and permissions.
• Messaging APIs: send messages, manage channels/rooms, and retrieve message history via REST or sync protocols exposed by the SDKs.
• Media control APIs: start/stop live streams, configure transcode profiles, and attach CDN configurations and DRM settings.
• Analytics and reporting endpoints: fetch viewership metrics, engagement data, and usage billing reports for reconciliation.

Contus also offers developer tooling such as SDK sample apps, quickstart guides, postman collections, and a developer portal with API reference. For teams integrating with third-party systems, they provide integrations and recommended patterns for common services (payment gateways, identity providers, and CDNs). Review the MirrorFly developer resources for realtime API patterns: Contus MirrorFly developer documentation.

10 Contus alternatives

• Twilio — Programmable voice, video, and messaging APIs with global reach and pay-as-you-go pricing; strong developer ecosystem.
• Agora — Real-time engagement platform focused on low-latency voice/video SDKs and global supernodes for scale.
• Vonage (formerly Nexmo) — Communication APIs for voice, video, messaging, and verification with global operator relationships.
• Mux — API-first video infrastructure focused on encoding, streaming, and analytics for on-demand and live use cases.
• Brightcove — Enterprise video platform with a focus on enterprise publishing, monetization, and analytics for media companies.
• Kaltura — Flexible video platform with on-premises and SaaS options used by education and enterprise customers for video portals.
• Stream — Activity feeds and messaging APIs focused on building social feeds and chat with scalable backends.
• Firebase (Google) — Backend and realtime database options with integrated SDKs; useful for prototyping chat and simple realtime features.
• Daily.co — Lightweight video call APIs optimized for embedding real-time video with low complexity.
• Zoom SDK — Embeddable Zoom functionality for video conferencing and webinars inside custom apps.

Paid alternatives to Contus

• Twilio — Extensive global communications APIs and managed PSTN connectivity for voice and messaging traffic.
• Agora — Specialized for ultra-low-latency audio/video with routable infrastructure and capacity planning for live events.
• Brightcove — Enterprise-grade video CMS with monetization and marketing integrations for media companies.
• Kaltura — Offers flexible deployment models and a rich feature set for large organizations needing control and extensibility.
• Vonage — Strong telephony and programmable communications layer for customers needing carrier-level services.
• Mux — Focus on high-quality encoding, streaming, and video analytics for product teams building custom player experiences.

Open source alternatives to Contus

• Jitsi — Open-source WebRTC-based video conferencing stack that can be self-hosted for group calls and screensharing.
• Kurento — Media server with pipelines for complex media workflows including routing, mixing, and computer-vision filters.
• Matrix — Decentralized messaging protocol (with Synapse server) used for chat, presence, and federation across servers.
• BigBlueButton — Open-source web conferencing system optimized for online learning with whiteboard and breakout rooms.
• Owncast — Self-hosted live video streaming server designed for small-scale broadcasters and community streaming.

Frequently asked questions about Contus

What is Contus used for?

Contus is used for building and operating real-time communication, managed streaming, and marketplace applications. Product teams use Contus products to add in-app chat, voice/video calls, live and on-demand video streaming, and commerce capabilities to mobile and web applications without implementing the complete backend stack from scratch.

Does Contus provide SDKs for mobile apps?

Yes, Contus provides SDKs for Android, iOS, and web (JavaScript). These SDKs include client-side components for signaling, media capture and playback, and wrappers for native platform integrations that accelerate integration into mobile and web applications.

How much does Contus cost per user or per month?

Contus starts at $99/month for the Starter plan intended for small production deployments; pricing scales with concurrency, storage, and feature needs. Larger organizations typically select Professional or Enterprise packages with custom pricing based on usage commitments and required SLAs.

Is there a free trial available from Contus?

Yes, Contus provides a limited free tier and trial options. Free sandbox accounts and time-limited trials allow teams to evaluate SDKs, admin consoles, and streaming workflows before committing to a paid plan, and pilots can be arranged for larger proof-of-concept work.

Can Contus handle live events with thousands of concurrent viewers?

Yes, Contus supports large-scale live events through managed streaming, CDN integration, and auto-scaling infrastructure. Enterprise deployments are designed to handle high concurrency when properly provisioned and usually involve planning for CDN edge routing, transcode capacity, and traffic egress costs.

Does Contus offer DRM and content protection?

Yes, Contus includes DRM and content protection features in higher tiers. The platform supports common DRM systems and multi-CDN integrations to protect premium content and enforce access controls for paid or subscription-based assets.

What integrations does Contus support for payments and identity?

Contus integrates with common payment gateways and identity providers. Out-of-the-box or easily extensible connectors typically include Stripe, PayPal, and enterprise SSO providers (SAML/SSO, OAuth), with custom integrations available through APIs and professional services.

Can I self-host Contus products for data residency or compliance?

Yes, Contus offers private-cloud and on-premises deployment options for Enterprise customers. These deployment models are intended for customers with strict data residency, compliance, or regulatory needs and are negotiated as part of Enterprise agreements.

How secure is data and media transport on Contus?

Contus implements standard security controls including TLS for transport, role-based access, and configurable authentication mechanisms. For regulated use cases, the company supports enterprise features such as SAML-based SSO, audit logs, and dedicated environments that align with customer compliance requirements.

Where can I find developer documentation for Contus APIs?

Developer documentation and SDK references are available on Contus product pages and the developer portal. For realtime messaging and calling, review the MirrorFly developer documentation; for OTT and streaming APIs, visit the VPlayed platform documentation.

contus careers

Contus hires across product, engineering, sales, and customer success functions to support its product suite and managed services. Career opportunities commonly focus on roles such as full-stack and mobile engineers (with experience in WebRTC and media systems), DevOps and site reliability engineers, product managers with media/streaming backgrounds, and solution architects who can guide enterprise integrations.

Experienced candidates should expect technical interviews that validate understanding of real-time media, networking constraints, and production deployment patterns. Contus also frequently looks for roles in professional services to support customer onboarding, custom integrations, and managed deployments. For the latest job openings and application instructions, check Contus’s careers pages and LinkedIn company profile.

contus affiliate

Contus operates a partner and reseller program for agencies, system integrators, and ISVs that implement its platforms for end customers. Affiliate and partner models typically include referral fees, reseller discounts, and co-sell arrangements for projects that require customization and managed deployment.

Partners can gain access to technical enablement, joint marketing materials, and sandbox environments to accelerate demos and proofs of concept. If you are an agency or systems integrator interested in becoming a Contus partner, contact their sales team to understand partner tiers, revenue share models, and enablement paths.

Where to find contus reviews

Independent reviews and customer feedback for Contus products are available across SaaS review platforms, developer forums, and case studies on the Contus website. For product-specific references, search for reviews and customer stories that mention MirrorFly for messaging and VPlayed for OTT to see feature-specific feedback and deployment experiences.

Third-party comparison sites and community forums also surface implementation notes, especially for performance and scaling characteristics in production. To see verified case studies and customer references, consult the Contus case studies page and product testimonials on the Contus website.