# Bird vs Stream

**Leader by vioscaleAI score:** Stream

| Attribute | Bird | Stream |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 63.2 (73% (medium)) | 80.3 (73% (medium)) |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"Multi-channel communications platform enabling email, SMS, voice, WhatsApp, and real-time messaging through a single API designed for developers and AI agents. It is indexed under Communication APIs.","source":"https://bird.com/en-us/products/realtime/pricing","question":"What is Bird?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Bird offers a free tier, so you can start without paying. Paid plans are also available: Free, Startup, Growth and Custom. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://bird.com/en-us/products/realtime/pricing","question":"Is Bird free?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Bird supports the web, macOS, iOS, Android and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://bird.com/en-us/products/realtime/pricing","question":"What platforms does Bird support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have only confirmed a cloud / SaaS deployment for Bird, so it appears to be vendor-hosted. If a self-hosted option exists we have not found it documented publicly.","source":"https://bird.com/en-us/products/realtime/pricing","question":"Can Bird be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed SOC 2, HIPAA and GDPR for Bird. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as Bird not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://bird.com/en-us/products/sms/compliance/opt-out","question":"What security certifications does Bird have?","confidence":0.7}]` | `[{"answer":"A platform providing SDKs and APIs for adding chat messaging, video calling, activity feeds, and content moderation to applications, supporting billions of end users across a globally distributed infrastructure. It is indexed under Communication APIs.","source":"https://getstream.io/activity-feeds/pricing/","question":"What is Stream?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Stream offers a free tier, so you can start without paying. Paid plans start at $499 per month. Prices are published openly on the vendor's own pricing page. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://getstream.io/activity-feeds/pricing/","question":"Is Stream free?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Stream supports the web, iOS and Android. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://getstream.io/activity-feeds/pricing/","question":"What platforms does Stream support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have only confirmed a cloud / SaaS deployment for Stream, so it appears to be vendor-hosted. If a self-hosted option exists we have not found it documented publicly.","source":"https://getstream.io/activity-feeds/pricing/","question":"Can Stream be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 13 integrations for Stream, including Jenkins, GitHub, Slack, Postman, Xcode, Android Studio, React and Flutter, plus 5 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://getstream.io/activity-feeds/pricing/","question":"What does Stream integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA and GDPR for Stream. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as Stream not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://getstream.io/blog/content-compliance/","question":"What security certifications does Stream have?","confidence":0.7}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true}` | `{"cloud":true}` |
| description.long | Bird is a communications infrastructure platform that enables businesses to send and receive messages across multiple channels—email, SMS, WhatsApp, and voice—with a single API, integrated compliance tools, and built-in deliverability features. | Stream provides developer-friendly APIs and pre-built SDKs that integrate chat, live video, activity feeds, and automated content moderation into applications, allowing developers to add complex real-time features without building infrastructure from scratch. |
| features.capabilities | `{"rcs":true,"sms":true,"chat":true,"email":true,"voice":true,"two_way":true,"whatsapp":true,"verify_otp":true,"global_coverage":"global","deliverability_tools":true,"usage_pricing_transparent":true}` | `{"chat":true,"video":true,"voice":true,"two_way":true,"global_coverage":"global","usage_pricing_transparent":true}` |
| integrations.count | 21 | 14 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"n8n","native":true},{"name":"Slack","native":true,"category":"chat","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"Salesforce","native":true,"category":"crm","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"ActiveCampaign","native":true,"category":"crm","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"Zendesk Support","native":true,"category":"customer support","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"Zapier","native":true,"direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"Monday.com","native":true,"category":"project management"},{"name":"Asana","native":true,"category":"project management"},{"name":"Atlassian Jira","native":true,"category":"project management"},{"name":"Notion","native":true},{"name":"Attio","native":true,"category":"crm","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"PagerDuty","native":true,"category":"dev tools"},{"name":"Splunk","native":true},{"name":"Google Cloud Translation AI","native":true,"category":"ai"},{"name":"OPERA Cloud","native":true}]` | `[{"name":"Jenkins"},{"name":"GitHub"},{"name":"Slack"},{"name":"Postman"},{"name":"Xcode"},{"name":"Android Studio"},{"name":"React"},{"name":"React Native"},{"name":"Flutter"},{"name":"Swift"},{"name":"SwiftUI"},{"name":"Kotlin"},{"name":"Jetpack Compose"},{"name":"Expo"},{"name":"Vercel AI SDK","native":true,"direction":"bidirectional"}]` |
| market.availability | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"ios":true,"mac":true,"web":true,"android":true}` | `{"ios":true,"web":true,"android":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"freemium","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Free","summary":"Free, 1,000 emails/month","features":["1,000 emails per month","No credit card required","50 emails per day cap","1 webhook endpoint","1 sending domain","Authentication, dashboards, suppression, webhooks, 30-day retention, shared IP"],"components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":0,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"emails":"1000/month"}},{"free":false,"name":"Startup","summary":"From $15/month for 50K–100K emails/month","features":["50,000 to 100,000 emails per month","10 sending domains","Authentication, dashboards, suppression, webhooks, 30-day retention, shared IP"],"components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":15,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"emails":"50000-100000/month"}},{"free":false,"name":"Growth","summary":"Volume-based pricing starting $0.30 per 1,000 emails with declining per-unit cost","features":["100,000 to 2,500,000 emails per month","10 webhook endpoints","1,000 sending domains","Dedicated IPs available as add-on ($24.95/month each, up to 5)","ISP-aware routing, SPF/DKIM/DMARC, managed warm-up"],"components":[{"per":{"qty":1000,"unit":"emails"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.3,"currency":"USD"}],"contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"emails":"100000-2500000/month"}},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise","summary":"Custom pricing with negotiated per-message rates","features":["2.5M+ emails per month","Negotiated per-message rates","Multi-year invoiced billing","Volume above published tiers","Overage cap lifted by agreement"],"commitment":"annual","contactSales":true,"includedLimits":{"emails":"2500000+/month"}}],"addOns":[{"name":"Dedicated IP","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":24.95,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}]}],"summary":"Free tier (1K emails/month). From $15/month. Growth plan with volume-based per-message pricing. Enterprise custom rates.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://bird.com/en-us/products/email/pricing","retrievedAt":"2026-09-18T12:31:29.642Z","startingPrice":{"amount":15,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month"]}` | `{"type":"subscription","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Build","summary":"Free tier for makers (projects with <5 team members and <$10k/month revenue) or $100/month credit","features":["REST API","SDKs (Node, Python, Ruby, PHP)","Webhooks","Customizable UI","Flat & Timeline Feeds","Notification & Aggregated Feeds","SOC2/ISO27001/CCPA/GDPR","Global Edge Network"],"components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":0,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"api_calls":"125k/month","activities":"5k/month"}},{"free":false,"name":"Start","summary":"$499/month (annual commitment) or $599/month (monthly). Overages: $25 per 1k activities, $9 per 10k API calls","features":["Ranked Feeds","Ticketed Support","Dedicated Regional Servers","HIPAA","2FA","Audit Logs","24/7 Phone Support","Dedicated Slack Channel"],"commitment":"annual","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":499,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"api_calls":"1.25M/month","activities":"50k/month"}},{"free":false,"name":"Elevate","summary":"$899/month (annual commitment) or $999/month (monthly). Overages: $23 per 1k activities, $9 per 10k API calls","features":["All Start features"],"commitment":"annual","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":899,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"api_calls":"3.75M/month","activities":"150k/month"}},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise","summary":"Custom pricing with activity-based model","features":["99.999% SLA","SAML/SSO","Private Dedicated Servers","24/7 Support","Activity-based pricing","Scale to 100M+ users"],"contactSales":true}],"addOns":[{"name":"Image & File CDN","components":[{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"GB"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.17,"currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"GB"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.07,"currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1000,"unit":"images"},"kind":"metered","amount":5.8,"currency":"USD"}]}],"summary":"From $499/month. Free tier for makers. Usage-based overage charges.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://getstream.io/activity-feeds/pricing/","retrievedAt":"2026-09-22T14:42:50.701Z","startingPrice":{"amount":499,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month","year"]}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | freemium | freemium |
| pricing.price_level | mid | high |
| pricing.starting_price | `{"amount":15,"currency":"USD"}` | `{"amount":499,"currency":"USD"}` |
| pricing.transparent | yes | yes |
| reliability.sla_pct | - | 99.999 |
| reliability.status_page | yes | yes |
| security.certifications | `[{"name":"SOC 2","status":"active"}]` | - |
| security.disclosure_policy | yes | yes |
| security.gdpr | yes | yes |
| security.hipaa | yes | yes |
| security.iso27001 | - | yes |
| security.soc2 | yes | yes |
| security.trust_center | https://bird.com/en-us/products/sms/compliance | https://getstream.io/blog/content-compliance/ |

## Capabilities (Communication APIs)

| Capability | Bird | Stream |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Channels** |  |  |
| SMS | ✓ | - |
| Voice | ✓ | ✓ |
| WhatsApp | ✓ | - |
| RCS | ✓ | - |
| Transactional email | ✓ | - |
| Video / real-time | - | ✓ |
| In-app chat | ✓ | ✓ |
| Verify / OTP / 2FA | ✓ | - |
| **Messaging** |  |  |
| Two-way messaging | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Reach** |  |  |
| Geographic coverage | Global | Global |
| **Delivery** |  |  |
| Email deliverability tools | ✓ | - |
| **Commercial** |  |  |
| Published per-unit pricing | ✓ | ✓ |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-23T20:43:21.500Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*