Novu vs Stream
No clear leader: Novu (84.9) and Stream (80.3) are within the 5-point margin; treat as a tie. The attribute-by-attribute breakdown below, with a source and date on every value, is the honest way to compare them.
Capabilities
Feature-by-feature on the axes that matter for communication apis. “-” means undocumented, not absent.
What each one is
The product in its own terms, so the numbers below have context.
Novu
Infrastructure that allows developers to dispatch notifications through email, SMS, push, in-app, and chat, while also enabling AI agents to have two-way conversations with users on channels like Slack, WhatsApp, and Teams.
Stream
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.
Pricing
List pricing as published by each vendor, with the date we read it. Always verify at the source before you buy.
Novu
From $30/month (Pro). Free tier available. Team plan at $250/month. Enterprise custom pricing.
- FreeFree
- All channels: Email, In-app, SMS, Chat, Push
- US + EU data residency
- Up to 20 workflows
- 2 environments (Dev + Prod)
- 24-hour activity feed retention
- ProFrom $30/month, plus $1.20 per 1K additional workflow runs
- Everything in Free, plus:
- 30,000+ workflow runs / month
- 7-day activity feed retention
- Remove Novu branding
- Advanced email editor (blocks, layouts)
- +1 more
- Team$250/month
- Everything in Pro, plus:
- 250,000+ workflow runs / month
- Up to 10 environments (Staging, QA, Pre-prod…)
- 90-day activity feed retention
- Unlimited team members
- +3 more
- EnterpriseContact sales
- Everything in Team, plus:
- 10M+ workflow runs / month (custom volume tiers)
- Unlimited environments
- Custom retention policies (feed, audit, logs)
- Custom delay & digest windows
- +6 more
Stream
From $499/month. Free tier for makers. Usage-based overage charges.
- BuildFree
- REST API
- SDKs (Node, Python, Ruby, PHP)
- Webhooks
- Customizable UI
- Flat & Timeline Feeds
- +3 more
- Start$499/month (annual commitment) or $599/month (monthly). Overages: $25 per 1k activities, $9 per 10k API calls
- Ranked Feeds
- Ticketed Support
- Dedicated Regional Servers
- HIPAA
- 2FA
- +3 more
- Elevate$899/month (annual commitment) or $999/month (monthly). Overages: $23 per 1k activities, $9 per 10k API calls
- All Start features
- EnterpriseContact sales
- 99.999% SLA
- SAML/SSO
- Private Dedicated Servers
- 24/7 Support
- Activity-based pricing
- +1 more
Platform & deployment
Where each product runs and how it can be hosted. A dash means undocumented, not unsupported.
Integrations
What each product connects to. Counts come from the vendor's own integration directory where one exists.
- Slack
Novu
- SendGrid
- Amazon SES
- Postmark
- Resend
- Brevo
- Mailgun
- Mailjet
- Braze
- Infobip
- Twilio
- Plivo
- AWS SNS
- Vonage
- SMS77
- Telnyx
- Termii
- Gupshup
- SMS Central
- Firebase Cloud Messaging
- Apple Push Notification
- Expo Push
- OneSignal
- Pushpad
- Pusher Beams
- +21 more
Stream
- Jenkins
- GitHub
- Postman
- Xcode
- Android Studio
- React
- React Native
- Flutter
- Swift
- SwiftUI
- Kotlin
- Jetpack Compose
- Expo
- Vercel AI SDK
Novu or Stream: which one depends on you
A composite score cannot know your constraints. Describe them and both get re-weighted against what you actually need, with the evidence behind every position.
Free to run, no account needed to start. How the evaluation works
Comparison generated from independently-sourced facts. Every value links to its source and retrieval date. See the method.