Facts read November 7, 2026
Liveblocks vs Pusher Channels
Liveblocks is Cuely's default realtime pick when your description doesn't favor either one: rooms, presence and shared state for collaborative boards and documents, with React hooks.
Side by side
| Fact | Liveblocks | Pusher Channels |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Hosted realtime collaboration: rooms, presence, shared state, comments. | Hosted pub/sub channels for live updates. |
| Free plan | Free: unlimited monthly active users, 500 monthly active rooms, 10 simultaneous connections per room, 3,000 realtime collaboration minutes. | Sandbox (free): 200,000 messages per day, 100 concurrent connections. |
| Paid from | Pro: $25/month billed annually. | Startup: $49/month (1 million messages per day, 500 concurrent connections). |
| At 1,000 users | $0/month | $49/month |
| Open source | No | No |
| Self-hostable | No | No |
| Best for | Collaborative boards, whiteboards and documents; Presence and live cursors; React apps | Simple live notifications; Teams that know the Pusher API |
| Watch out | The free plan allows 10 simultaneous connections per room and 500 monthly active rooms. | The free Sandbox caps you at 100 concurrent connections. |
Where they differ
The published scores, from −3 to +3, that decide which one Cuely picks for each need.
| Need | Liveblocks | Pusher Channels |
|---|---|---|
| realtime features | +3 Rooms, presence and conflict-free shared state are the product. | +1 Pub/sub channels; presence and shared state are yours to build. |
| traffic comes in viral spikes | −1 Built for rooms of collaborators (10 at once per room on Free), not one broadcast to a crowd. | −3 The free Sandbox allows 100 concurrent connections; Startup is $49/month for 500. |
| Next.js or React | +1 React hooks and Next.js examples. | 0 No particular strength here. |
| sells to businesses (organizations, roles, SSO) | +1 A room per team session maps well onto team tools. | 0 No particular strength here. |
| keep costs as low as possible | 0 No particular strength here. | −1 100 concurrent connections free, then $49/month. |
Sources: Liveblocks pricing (read November 7, 2026), Pusher Channels pricing (read November 7, 2026). No vendor pays for placement.