100ms vs. Stream Video

Adding video and audio capabilities to your app has the potential to skyrocket user engagement and retention metrics. But, get the UX of this powerful interactivity solution wrong, and you risk tanking those KPIs along with your brand’s reputation.

When comparing Video SDKs, 100ms and Stream Video both provide a Video SDK. Let's explore how Stream Video compares to 100ms to ensure you choose the perfect real-time communication solution for your app.

100ms vs. Stream Video

The single SDK provided by 100ms offers both video calling and live streaming, simplifying the development of these features in the same product. Creating an audio or video call with just a few participants is as easy as an all-hands meeting with hundreds of participants.

100ms supports SDKs for Android, iOS, Flutter, ReactNative and React. Next to 100ms base SDKs, 100ms offers a supporting library called “Prebuilt”. Prebuilt is a low-code UI component solution supporting limited flexibility or theming. You can replace some artwork and define some colors from the Prebuilt experience, but there is no way to adjust or add on top of the UI facilitated by Prebuilt.

Stream allows you to build feature-rich in-app video calling, live streaming, and audio rooms experiences in days. Stream Video provides an extensive UI Component library for the platforms React, React Native, iOS, Android, and Flutter to ensure quick and efficient implementation.

Let’s compare 100ms and Stream Video in terms of video quality, ease of integration, customization, support, developer experience, and pricing.

Video Quality and Performance

Stream Video sets the standard for excellence in real-time communication, offering unparalleled quality and performance. With support for resolutions up to 4K and adaptive bitrate streaming, Stream guarantees your users crisp, clear video streams with minimal latency and smooth playback, regardless of device or network conditions.

Stream controls the resolution, video codec, fps, and bandwidth usage through our dynascale capabilities, redundant audio support (RED) and full OPUS DTX audio support. This is especially useful when creating calls beyond 20 participants.

Our Dynascale solution dynamically changes the video resolution and codecs to optimize what’s displayed on a user’s screen. If your video is only shown in a tiny thumbnail, we will automatically change your stream to a lower bandwidth, matching what is visible on a user’s screen. If a user starts talking and people look at a user’s video feed in high resolution, we automatically send a higher-quality stream.

By combining our Dynascaling with Stream’s global edge network and SFU architecture, we help to ensure that regardless of where a participant is located, they will always benefit from the lowest possible latency and best resolution. Each user will send and receive video and audio streams at the correct resolution and bitrate to ensure the best possible user experience.

While 100ms delivers commendable performance, it does not operate its own global network of video nodes. With Stream Video, you can trust that your video streams will consistently meet the highest fidelity and reliability standards, setting your application apart from the competition.

Effortless Integration and Seamless Experience

Stream Video is designed with three core features in mind: developer experience, scalability, and swift time-to-market.

For developers building on the web with React or on mobile with native Android, iOS, or cross-platform solutions, Stream's Video SDKs come with comprehensive developer documentation, sample apps, and tutorials. These resources aim to simplify the API learning process and enable the quick deployment of a rich, customized audio/video calling experience in your application.

Like our Chat API, Stream offers a suite of highly customizable pre-built components already integrated with our API and optimized for peak performance. This allows developers and businesses to concentrate on the unique aspects of their apps that set them apart from the competition.

Complex services such as out-of-the-box integration with CallKit and ringing, background track handling on mobile, backstage modes, and the ability to view call participants before joining are readily available from day one with the Stream API. In contrast, these features are either partially supported or unavailable on 100ms.

For customers seeking a comprehensive chat experience to complement their video integration, our Video API is designed to work seamlessly with our flagship Chat API from the outset. This means developers and businesses can utilize both products in their applications and benefit from all the features of our Chat API, such as reactions, threads, offline support, etc. while using a single token and SAAS provider for their communication needs.

Extensive Customization and Flexibility

Whether you are creating an audio-only experience like Twitter Spaces or an education platform similar to the one depicted above, Stream's UI Components empower developers with complete control over their application's layout, branding, and flow.

As all components are directly accessible and customizable in code, developers can access and manipulate all parts of the video pipeline, allowing for easy integration of features such as video filters, integration with noise suppression APIs, AI models for sentiment analysis, and much more.

In contrast to 100ms's "pre-built" — a recently launched low-code customization dashboard that permits basic customization of component colors, logos, and backgrounds – businesses utilizing Stream's UI Components have the flexibility to either use our components directly or tailor and extend them to add functionality that aligns with their specific business requirements.

Overview of Free Chat by 100ms

As part of 100ms’ pre-built solution, users can access a simplified chat to communicate with other users on the call.

Unlike Stream’s dedicated Chat API, 100ms’ chat offering lacks some basic features users expect today, such as reactions, threads, or in-line replies.

Our Chat and Video APIs are designed to work well together from day one, meaning users on the Stream platform can benefit not only from having a single provider for their Chat and Video needs but also from a shared authentication and user model, streamlined integration process, and group pricing for both industry-leading products.

Stream offers a streamlined chat development experience with feature-rich SDKs for React, React Native, Angular, iOS, Android, and Flutter. With Stream Chat, you can build real-time chat experiences that are easily tailored to the user experience you need. Like our Video SDKs, our Chat SDKs offer customizable high-end UI components to get you started quickly.

Transparent Pricing and Scalability

Let’s see how Stream and 100ms' pricing stack up in a head-to-head comparison.

Let’s compare a classroom example listed on 100ms’ webpage: five participants, 60-minute session duration, and 300 sessions each month with chat, recording, and HD quality (720p).

That would make 300 60 minutes 5 = 90,000 minutes in total with 18,000 recorded minutes.

Below, we will detail each line item for both Stream and 100ms.

• 100ms provided 10,000 free minutes and charges $0.004 for 80,000 minutes, resulting in $320. Add 18,000 recorded minutes to that by multiplying 300 sessions with 60 minutes per session. Each recorded minute is charged at $0.027, resulting in $486.

• Stream charges $1.50 for every 1,000 minutes over 66,000. That’s 24,000 divided by 1,000 multiplied by $1.50, resulting in $36. Add 18,000 recorded minutes, at $6 for every 1,000 minutes: $108.

Since 100ms offers a rudimentary chat feature, let’s add Stream Chat as well. We assume each session has 5 new participants. Resulting in 1,500 Monthly Active Users (MAU). Stream charges $399 for the starter plan, covering the first 10,000 MAUs.

With transparent pricing and scalable infrastructure, Stream Video offers a cost-effective solution for projects of all sizes. Whether you're a startup with limited resources or an enterprise with extensive scalability requirements, Stream Video's flexible pricing plans ensure you can scale your video application without breaking the bank. With predictable pricing and no hidden fees, Stream Video enables you to manage your video streaming costs effectively while maintaining the highest standards of quality and performance.

Dedicated Developer Support and Thriving Community

At Stream, we understand the importance of providing exceptional developer support and fostering a vibrant community. With dedicated support channels and extensive documentation, Stream is committed to helping you succeed with Stream Video.

Whether you're a seasoned developer or new to video integration, Stream’s team will assist you every step of the way, ensuring that you have the documentation, resources, and guidance you need to unlock the full potential of Stream Video.

To allow you to comprehend what is going on at runtime fully, we made all our client SDKs open-source. This allows you to debug everything that’s going on in your project in full detail when needed.

Conclusion

In summary, Stream Video emerges as the undisputed winner in a head-to-head comparison against 100ms. It provides superior quality, seamless integration, extensive customization options, dedicated developer support, and transparent pricing.

Stream Video can elevate your video experience to new heights and increase core business metrics like retention, engagement, and satisfaction by delighting users, helping you stay ahead of the competition.

Try Stream Video for free today and unlock the full potential of your app and website.

Try Stream Video and Chat

If you prefer to dive into code first, here are some tutorials to get you started:

• React Stream Video and Chat Integration Guide
• iOS Stream Video and Chat Integration Guide
• Android Stream Video and Chat Integration Guide