The Pusher Chatkit Alternative
Pusher retired Chatkit, and Pusher Channels is a realtime transport, not a chat platform: you still have to build messaging, storage, moderation, and history yourself. Ethora is the complete platform: realtime messaging, the full feature set, and self-hosting, in one.
The honest short answer
Ethora vs Pusher for chat: the honest short answer
Pusher retired Chatkit, its hosted chat product, on 23 April 2020 and now sells Channels (realtime pub/sub, priced on messages per day and concurrent connections) and Beams (push). Channels moves events between clients; it does not store messages, keep history, track read state, moderate, or search. Chat built on it is a chat backend you write and run yourself.
Ethora is the full chat platform: realtime messaging plus storage, history, presence, read receipts, files, moderation, search, and AI agents, with an open-source core you can self-host on every plan, so no vendor can retire it from under you.
Stay with Pusher if
- You need a realtime event bus for non-chat features such as live dashboards, notifications, or collaborative cursors
- Your chat backend already exists and transport is the only piece you are missing
- You prefer a managed service and never want to run infrastructure
Choose Ethora if
- You are replacing Chatkit, or building chat on Channels and keep writing storage, history, and moderation yourself
- You want an open-source core you can host and maintain for as long as the product lives
- You need AI agents, HIPAA readiness, or voice and video inside chat
Best for: Pusher for realtime delivery as a component; Ethora for teams that need the whole chat platform, owned and self-hosted.
Side by side
Ethora vs Pusher Channels: capabilities at a glance
What each platform offers on the eight questions teams ask when they need chat, not just sockets. Pusher facts come from the vendor’s own pricing and product pages.
Ethora
How to read this table
Pusher facts are taken from Pusher’s own Channels pricing page and its Chatkit retirement notice, checked 24 September 2026. Pricing is described by model, not by rate, because plan prices change; see Pusher’s pricing page for current numbers and our monthly Chat SDK pricing comparison for the chat vendors. Spotted an error? Tell us and we will correct it.
Why teams switch from Pusher
Teams move to Ethora when realtime transport is no longer enough to run production chat.
Pusher Channels
Realtime transport only
Ethora
Self-hosted SDK, AI-native
One SDK, six production-ready modules
Everything you need to build modern messaging, from group chats and broadcast channels to AI agents, working together instead of assembled around a transport.
Chat & Docs Engine
Realtime chat with reactions, threads, read receipts, document exchange, offline support, and audit logs. Encrypted in transit and at rest, with optional end-to-end encrypted rooms per app. Web, iOS, Android, and React Native.
AI Bots SDK
Multi-turn, context-aware agents with function calling and delegation to human operators. Connect OpenAI, Claude, open-source LLMs, or your own endpoint.
RAG Crawler
Turn your website and documentation into a knowledge source. The crawler indexes your content so agents answer from your information, not the model’s general knowledge.
Marketplace Chat SDK
Buyer-seller communication with order-linked conversations, seller presence, and dispute escalation, across Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento.
Chat Widget
A working chat or AI support experience on any website with a single script tag. About five minutes, no separate chat backend to build.
React UI Kits
Fully customizable React and React Native components, so chat looks and behaves like part of your product.
Your servers. Your data. Your rules.
With Pusher, realtime communication runs through a managed service. With Ethora, the complete chat and AI stack, from messaging and storage to AI inference and audit logs, runs inside your infrastructure: your VPC or private cloud, your data residency, your security controls.
Bring your own LLM
Ethora’s AI layer is model-agnostic. Connect the model that fits your application and change it as your requirements evolve, without touching your chat logic. Three things teams actually do with it:
Support deflection in-chat
Answer questions and handle tier-1 support directly inside conversations, with handoff to a human when it matters.
RAG over your docs
Give agents access to your own documentation and knowledge base so they answer from something real.
AI moderation
Flag and review content using your preferred model and policies before it reaches your team.
No LLM lock-in. Swap models in a config file without touching your chat logic.
Compliance-ready
Ethora ships with audit logs, encryption at rest, and encryption in transit: not as add-ons, as defaults.
The technical foundations for applications with strict security and data requirements, proven in regulated production.
GDPR
EU Data Protection
CCPA
California Privacy
HIPAA
Healthcare PHI
SOC 2
Security & Availability
By the numbers
Ship faster, spend less
~95%
faster dev time vs. building from scratch
~60%
cost reduction vs. in-house build
5 min
widget install on any website
How it ships
Only four steps and you are live.
SDKs: React, React Native, iOS (Swift), Android (Kotlin), Node.js, Python.
Save Months of Work with Ethora
Build any chat use case into your product — in hours.
Free
- Community Support
- 30 Days of Free Support
- No Credit Card Required
Small Business
- Tech Support
- SLA 99.9%
- AI Allowance
- Custom Domain
Enterprise
- 24/7 Phone Support
- Self-hosted AI
- Custom Configuration
- Dedicated / On-prem hosting
Migration
From Chatkit or Channels to a full chat platform
If your chat is built around Pusher, migration does not mean throwing away your application. You replace the realtime layer and the custom chat code around it with a platform.
Map your current chat architecture
Identify how your application handles messages, channels, users, presence, history, notifications, and storage today, and which parts depend on Pusher versus your own backend.
Connect your existing users
Map application users to Ethora through your authentication or SSO setup. Your identity system stays in place while Ethora takes over the chat layer.
Move channels and history
Create the equivalent Ethora channels and migrate message history where you still hold it. The exact process depends on your Chatkit or Channels implementation and where message data is stored.
Switch the realtime layer
Replace Pusher client connections with the Ethora SDK and move chat functionality into the platform. Run both side by side during the transition, then retire the Pusher integration.
Get help if you want it
We can scope the migration and deployment with you, including a hosted-by-us option under an SLA if you want the control without running it yourself.
FAQ
What replaced Pusher Chatkit?
Nothing from Pusher. Chatkit was retired on 23 April 2020 so Pusher could focus on Channels (realtime pub/sub) and Beams (push notifications), and it was never directly replaced. A self-hostable chat platform like Ethora covers the same need with more control and no shutdown risk: realtime messaging, storage, history, presence, moderation, search, and AI, on infrastructure you run.
Can I build chat on Pusher Channels?
You can use Channels as the realtime transport, but it is a pub/sub layer: it delivers events and does not store messages. You build message storage, history, read state, presence beyond who is connected, moderation, search, and file handling yourself. In Ethora those capabilities are part of the platform.
Why choose open source for a chat platform?
Chatkit’s shutdown is the risk every closed product carries: the vendor controls the product’s lifecycle and your migration date. An open-source core means you can self-host, inspect, and maintain the platform for as long as you need it, whatever the vendor decides.
Does Ethora support self-hosting?
Yes, on every plan including free. Ethora runs on AWS, Azure, GCP, a private cloud, or on-premises, so the complete chat and AI stack lives inside the environment you control. Pusher Channels is a managed service only.
Can I migrate from Pusher Chatkit to Ethora?
Yes. Map existing users through your authentication or SSO setup, recreate channels, move message history where you still hold it, and replace the Chatkit client integration with Ethora’s SDK. The exact process depends on where your message data ended up after the retirement.
Can I migrate from Pusher Channels to Ethora?
Yes. If Channels is your realtime layer, replace the Pusher client connections with the Ethora SDK and move the chat-specific logic you built around it into the platform. Your authentication and the rest of your backend do not need to change, and you can run both side by side during the transition.
Does Ethora include AI bots and RAG?
Yes. The AI Bots SDK adds conversational agents inside your chat and the RAG Crawler indexes your website and documentation so they answer from your own content. Connect OpenAI, Claude, an open-source model, or a custom LLM endpoint, including self-hosted inference.
Is Ethora a replacement for Pusher’s other products?
No. Ethora is an alternative for the chat and messaging use case, not a drop-in replacement for every Pusher product. If you use Channels for non-chat realtime features such as live dashboards or collaborative cursors, or Beams for push, those can stay. If your use case is in-product chat, Ethora provides the platform, the hosting options, and the AI around it.
Build a chat platform you control, not one assembled around a transport
Talk through your move off Chatkit or Channels, or start building today: self-hosted, AI-native, and yours end to end.
