Editorial take
Why it stands out
Agora is strongest when the product roadmap really spans several realtime surfaces, not when the team only needs one simple calling feature.
Loading
Tool profile
Realtime engagement platform for voice, video, chat, signaling, and AI conversation features with broad usage-based pricing.
Realtime voice, video, and livestreaming in customer-facing applications
Agora is one of the broadest communications platforms in this category, and that breadth is exactly why it belongs in the directory. It covers voice calling, video calling, livestreaming, signaling, chat, whiteboard, and newer conversational-AI surfaces under one vendor relationship. For teams building realtime products across several interaction modes, that range can be strategically useful.
The tradeoff is that Agora behaves like a menu, not a single product. Pricing is metered per product family, often with free monthly allowances and then per-1,000-minute or per-month fees after that. That makes it powerful but easy to underestimate financially if a product ends up using several extensions at once. Compared with Daily, Agora covers more adjacent realtime surfaces. Compared with LiveKit, it is less open-source centered and more platform-menu oriented.
Quick fit
Editorial take
Agora is strongest when the product roadmap really spans several realtime surfaces, not when the team only needs one simple calling feature.
What it does well
Primary use cases
Fit notes
Compare with
Pressure-test this pick against nearby alternatives.
Pricing snapshot
Agora's pricing is heavily usage-based by product. Current public examples include Video Calling from $3.99 per 1,000 minutes, Voice Calling from $0.99 per 1,000 minutes, Broadcast Streaming from $0.59 per 1,000 minutes, Signaling from $59/month, and Chat from $349/month, with many products including the first 10,000 minutes or similar free monthly allowances.
AWS SES
PaidProduct email at scale (receipts, alerts, lifecycle)
Cloud email service for transactional and bulk sending with API control and strong AWS integration.
No pretty dashboards—budget engineering for observability.
