Stream

What is stream

Stream is a cloud API platform that provides two core product lines: activity feeds (personalized timelines and social feeds) and in-app chat (real-time messaging, channels, and moderation). Developers use Stream to add social features — ranked and aggregated feeds, follow graphs, and recommendation-friendly timelines — and to add full-featured chat and messaging to web and mobile apps with client SDKs, server SDKs, and hosted infrastructure.

Stream focuses on reducing engineering time for features that require low-latency, high-throughput handling of user-generated events. The service handles storage, indexing, ranking, aggregation, fan-out strategies, presence, typing indicators, push notifications, and moderation controls so teams can integrate social and messaging features via REST and real-time APIs.

Stream targets SaaS companies, marketplaces, social networks, media platforms, and any product that benefits from activity streams or chat such as social feeds, notifications, comment feeds, collaborative apps, and customer-facing messaging experiences. The platform is commonly used by mobile-first teams and companies that expect to scale to millions of users.

Stream features

Stream's product surface is built around two feature sets: feeds and chat. Each product exposes multiple SDKs and hosted capabilities intended to shorten integration time and handle scale.

• Activity Feeds: Ranked and aggregated feed views, custom feed groups, follow/unfollow semantics, activity enrichment (attachments, reactions, counts), multi-tenant feed support, and flexible ranking/weighting rules. Feed operations support fan-out-on-write and fan-out-on-read patterns so you can tune for write-heavy or read-heavy workloads.

• In-App Chat: Channels (public/private), direct messaging, group messaging, threaded replies, reactions, attachments (images, files), read receipts, typing indicators, presence, push notifications integration, message search, and message persistence with moderation workflows.

• SDKs and Client Support: Official SDKs for JavaScript, iOS, Android, React Native, Flutter, and server SDKs for Node.js, Python, Ruby, Java, and Go. WebSocket/real-time transport for low-latency updates and REST endpoints for server-side tasks.

• Security and Compliance: Token-based authentication for individual users, granular API keys, role-based access controls for server-side operations, enterprise controls such as SSO, audit logs, and contractual compliance options. Stream publishes documentation about their security practices and compliance programs.

• Moderation and Safety: Built-in moderation features including profanity filters, image moderation integrations, custom moderation rules, report workflows, and admin tools to remove or hide content. These are aimed at applications that require content safety at scale.

• Analytics and Monitoring: Usage metrics, request logs, throughput dashboards, latency monitors, and webhooks for event-driven workflows. Export options for integrating platform metrics into standard monitoring stacks.

• Extensibility: Webhooks, server-side hooks, and user-defined enrichment steps allow integration with search, personalization, and recommendation services. Stream can be combined with external ML and analytics layers for custom ranking and recommendations.

What does stream do?

Stream provides the technical plumbing to implement real-time feeds and messaging without building the specialized infrastructure in-house. For feeds, Stream stores incoming activities (events), applies ranking and aggregation policies, and delivers personalized timelines or notification feeds to consumers with low latency. For chat, Stream manages message routing, channel membership, event delivery, and client synchronization across devices.

Developers interact with Stream via REST APIs for control plane tasks and real-time sockets for live updates. SDKs handle reconnection logic, event buffering, and local caching to improve perceived performance on mobile devices. Stream also includes moderation, search, and analytics features that address common production needs.

Operationally, Stream abstracts the complexity of scaling fan-out (delivering an activity to thousands or millions of followers), message ordering, and cross-device synchronization. The platform includes options to tune fan-out strategy and caching behavior depending on a product's read/write profile.

Stream integrates with identity and notification systems so messages or feed updates can trigger push notifications, email digests, or other downstream workflows handled by the application stack.

Stream pricing

Stream offers these pricing plans:

• Free Plan: $0/month with usage limits suitable for development and early prototypes
• Starter: $99/month with higher usage limits and basic SLA
• Professional: $499/month with increased quotas, priority support, and advanced features
• Enterprise: Custom pricing for large-scale deployments with dedicated support, SLAs, and compliance add-ons

Pricing for Stream is usage-based and typically depends on metrics such as monthly active users (MAUs) for chat, number of feed operations (writes and reads), storage volumes, and additional features like advanced analytics or image moderation. Many customers begin on the Free Plan to prototype and then move to a usage tier or Enterprise contract as volume grows.

Check Stream's current pricing tiers and detailed limits on Stream's current pricing tiers (https://getstream.io/pricing/) for the latest rates, region-specific options, and enterprise arrangements.

How much is stream per month

Stream starts at $0/month with the Free Plan for basic development and low-volume projects. Paid plans typically begin at about $99/month for the entry paid tier, which covers higher request quotas and modest production workloads. Mid-level plans such as $499/month are common for teams needing more throughput, additional features, and better support. Large customers are usually billed via custom Enterprise agreements that reflect actual usage and SLAs.

How much is stream per year

Stream costs $0/year for the Free Plan. Annual billing is commonly offered for paid tiers and can reduce the effective monthly cost; for example, a $99/month plan billed annually corresponds to approximately $1,188/year and a $499/month plan billed annually corresponds to approximately $5,988/year. Enterprise contracts are quoted annually and include negotiated support and compliance terms.

How much is stream in general

Stream pricing ranges from $0 (free) to several hundred dollars per month for standard paid tiers and into custom enterprise pricing for high-scale customers. The effective bill depends on MAUs for chat, API request volumes for feeds, and optional add-ons such as image moderation, dedicated clusters, or advanced security features. For products with heavy read/write volumes, costs scale with operations and storage; the best way to estimate is to use Stream’s pricing calculator or contact sales for a tailored quote.

What is stream used for

Stream is used to build social and collaborative features that require real-time updates and personalized content delivery. Common uses include social timelines (activity feeds), notification systems, user activity dashboards, comment feeds, and aggregated event streams where order, ranking, and deduplication matter.

In addition to feeds, Stream is used as the messaging backbone for in-app chat — customer support chat, community chat, team collaboration features, and marketplaces where buyer-seller communication needs to be real-time and persistent. The chat product is often chosen where quick time-to-market, cross-platform SDKs, and moderation controls are priorities.

Organizations use Stream to offload difficult problems like high-scale fan-out, message synchronization across devices, and low-latency delivery. Using Stream reduces operational burden around scaling databases for social graphs, handling conflict resolution for messages, and maintaining reliable real-time transport.

Pros and cons of Stream

Pros:

• Robust, developer-friendly SDKs for major languages and platforms that speed up implementation of both feeds and chat.
• Managed infrastructure handles fan-out complexity and scaling, letting product teams focus on UX and business logic.
• Built-in moderation, analytics, and extensibility hooks that address production needs beyond core messaging or feeds.

Cons:

• Pricing scales with usage; high-read or write-heavy social products can incur significant monthly costs compared with fully self-hosted solutions.
• Relying on a hosted third-party service introduces vendor dependency, which can be a concern for teams with strict data residency or on-premise requirements.
• Complex customization of ranking or personalization logic may require additional infrastructure or server-side enrichment outside of Stream’s hosted capabilities.

Operational considerations include testing fan-out strategies for your specific workload, evaluating caching layers to reduce read costs, and auditing moderation workflows to meet regulatory or platform standards.

Stream free trial

Stream provides a Free Plan designed for development, testing, and small-scale production usage. The free tier typically includes a limited number of MAUs, API operations, and restricted feature access to help teams prototype feeds and chat without initial cost.

For teams that want to evaluate performance under production-like loads, Stream offers trial upgrades or temporary credits to exercise higher tiers. The pathway to production is usually: prototype on the Free Plan, move to Starter or Professional for staging and initial production, then negotiate Enterprise terms for scale, compliance, or dedicated infrastructure.

Check Stream's current pricing tiers and trial options on Stream's current pricing tiers (https://getstream.io/pricing/) to see what is included in the free tier and how upgrade credits or trials are handled.

Is stream free

Yes, Stream offers a Free Plan intended for development and early prototypes. The free tier includes limited API usage and lower quotas for feeds and chat, which are sufficient for building proof-of-concept applications and testing client SDKs. For production workloads and higher throughput, paid tiers are required.

Stream API

Stream exposes well-documented REST APIs and real-time endpoints for its feed and chat products. The API design focuses on resource-oriented endpoints for activities, feeds, users, channels, messages, and reactions. Typical API operations include creating activities/messages, following/unfollowing feeds, marking messages as read, adding reactions, and querying aggregated or personalized timelines.

The platform provides both client and server SDKs that abstract token generation, connection handling, and reconnection strategies. For authentication, Stream uses scoped tokens that allow developers to grant minimal privileges to clients while keeping sensitive operations server-side.

Stream’s APIs include webhooks to receive asynchronous event notifications (for example, when a message is created or when an activity is delivered), and server-side enrichment hooks so developers can augment activities or messages before they are stored or delivered. There are also pagination, filters, and ranking parameters to fetch feed slices efficiently.

Detailed technical reference and integration guides are available in Stream's API documentation at Stream’s developer documentation (https://getstream.io/docs/). The docs include code samples for building features like threaded comments, reaction handling, and multi-device message synchronization.

10 Stream alternatives

• Sendbird — Hosted chat and messaging APIs focused on rich media, moderation, and enterprise features.
• PubNub — Realtime messaging and data stream network used for live updates, presence, and signaling.
• Pusher — Real-time event delivery with channels and presence that developers use for chat and live features.
• Twilio Conversations — Programmable chat and conversations API with omnichannel support (SMS, WhatsApp, chat).
• Ably — Real-time messaging platform with pub/sub, presence, and guaranteed delivery semantics.
• Firebase Realtime Database — Google’s backend-as-a-service offering that can be used for real-time data sync and simple chat implementations.
• Socket.IO — Real-time bidirectional event-based communication library often used for custom chat servers (self-hosted).
• Rocket.Chat — Open source chat server that can be self-hosted and extended for team collaboration and messaging.
• Mattermost — Open source, self-hosted team messaging platform aimed at enterprises that require control over infrastructure.
• Matrix / Element — Open standard for decentralized real-time communication with open-source server and client implementations.

Paid alternatives to Stream

• Sendbird — Provides a managed, feature-rich chat platform with advanced moderation and analytics suited for customer-facing apps.
• Twilio Conversations — Strong choice when you need programmable multi-channel messaging (SMS, WhatsApp, chat) and global reach.
• PubNub — Designed for real-time signaling and low-latency updates at scale with a global network and built-in presence features.
• Pusher — Developer-friendly event API for real-time updates, often chosen for fast prototypes and smaller production systems.
• Ably — Enterprise-grade real-time delivery with clear SLAs and features for guaranteed message delivery and multi-region support.
• MessageBird — Offers omnichannel messaging and programmable conversations for customer-facing chat across channels.

Open source alternatives to Stream

• Socket.IO — An event-driven real-time library that developers use to build custom chat systems and real-time features; requires self-hosting.
• Matrix / Element — Decentralized, open protocol for real-time communication; servers like Synapse and clients like Element provide a full stack.
• Rocket.Chat — Self-hosted chat server with admin controls, integrations, and UI customizations for teams and communities.
• Mattermost — Open source messaging platform for secure, on-premise deployment in enterprise environments.
• Stream-Framework — An earlier open-source framework (community maintained) for building activity feeds and experimenting with ranking and aggregation strategies; useful if you want a fully self-managed feed stack.

Frequently asked questions about Stream

What is Stream used for?

Stream is used for building activity feeds and in-app chat. Product teams use it to implement timelines, notifications, comment streams, and real-time messaging without building the underlying infrastructure for fan-out, persistence, and delivery. It is suitable for social apps, marketplaces, news apps, and collaboration tools.

Does Stream offer hosted chat APIs?

Yes, Stream provides a managed chat API. The chat product includes channels, direct messages, reactions, typing indicators, presence, and moderation features accessible through SDKs and REST endpoints for web and mobile platforms.

How much does Stream cost per user or per month?

Stream starts at $0/month for the Free Plan. Paid plans begin around $99/month for small production workloads and scale to higher tiers or custom enterprise pricing depending on MAUs, API operations, and optional add-ons.

Is there a free version of Stream?

Yes, Stream has a Free Plan for development and small projects. The free tier includes limited API requests and quotas suitable for prototyping; production apps typically upgrade to paid tiers as usage grows.

Can I customize feed ranking and aggregation?

Yes, Stream supports customizable ranking and aggregation rules. You can configure weightings, aggregation windows, and enrichment steps, and also combine Stream’s ranking with server-side or ML-driven personalization for more advanced behavior.

Does Stream integrate with push notifications and identity systems?

Yes, Stream integrates with notification and identity systems. You can trigger push notifications from feed or chat events and integrate with existing auth systems (SSO, OAuth) to manage user identities and access controls.

How secure is Stream for handling user data?

Stream offers production-grade security controls and enterprise compliance options. The platform provides token-based authentication, role-based access for server operations, SSO for enterprise customers, and documentation on security practices; enterprise plans can include contractual compliance and region-specific hosting.

Can I moderate content in Stream?

Yes, Stream includes moderation tools and integrations. Built-in filters, image moderation integrations, custom rules, and report workflows let teams manage content and enforce community standards at scale.

Does Stream support offline use and reconnection?

Stream's SDKs include connection handling and reconnection logic. They buffer events locally where appropriate and resynchronize state when clients reconnect, but full offline editing and conflict resolution patterns typically require application-side handling.

How do I get started with Stream's APIs?

The fastest way to start is to use Stream’s SDKs and example projects. Stream provides step-by-step guides and code samples for web and mobile platforms in Stream’s developer documentation (https://getstream.io/docs/) including tutorials for feeds and chat that include minimal server-side code.

stream careers

Stream maintains roles for engineering, developer experience, product, and enterprise support. Engineering positions typically focus on distributed systems, real-time protocols, SDK development, and scaling. Developer experience roles concentrate on improving documentation, sample apps, and onboarding paths so that new customers can prototype quickly.

Career pages also list customer-facing roles such as solutions engineers, account managers, and trust & safety specialists who handle moderation policy and enterprise compliance. For up-to-date openings and role descriptions, see Stream's careers listings on the company site or their LinkedIn page.

stream affiliate

Stream offers partner programs and solution partner arrangements for agencies and systems integrators that build apps using Stream products. Affiliate or partner programs usually provide co-marketing, technical enablement, and sales referral incentives for partners who bring enterprise customers or significant volume to the platform. Contact Stream's partnership team through their business pages to learn about current partner tiers and requirements.

Where to find stream reviews

You can find independent reviews and user feedback for Stream on software review sites like G2 and Capterra, as well as developer forums such as Stack Overflow and Hacker News. Case studies and customer testimonials are available on Stream's website, and technical evaluations often appear in engineering blog posts that describe integration experiences and performance benchmarks. For current comparative and pricing information, consult Stream's developer documentation and customer case studies on Stream's developer documentation (https://getstream.io/docs/).