Life & fun · alternatives · 2026

Serverless realtime chat with Fanout and Fly is a chat application built using serverless architecture. It demonstrates how to build real-time messaging functionality without managing dedicated servers. The app uses… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Serverless realtime chat with Fanout and Fly launched in 2018; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

1. 1FR
   Fanout – Reverse proxy to push real-time data to connected devices▲84

   Deliver real-time data and low-latency WebSockets & pub/sub at the edge with Fastly. Scale chat, IoT, live apps and messaging with a self-managed infrastructure.

   2017 · fanout.io · its alternatives →

2. 2
   Fanout▲98

   Your API stack. Now with realtime push.

   2015 · fastly.com · its alternatives →

3. 3
   Jan▲329

   Open-source ChatGPT alternative that runs 100% offline

   2024 · jan.ai · its alternatives →

4. 4
   Let's Chat, a self-hosted chat app for small teams▲350

   Self-hosted chat for small teams.

   2015 · sdelements.github.io · its alternatives →

5. 5
   Volley▲324

   Community powered by video messaging

   2021 · volleyapp.com · its alternatives →

6. 6
   Chat'Inn▲69

   Miminal, Clean and Realtime Global Chat Application

   2022 · chat-inn.vercel.app · its alternatives →

7. 7
   Twist 2.0▲291

   For teams burnt out by real-time chat, work async, not ASAP

   2021 · twist.com · its alternatives →

8. 8
   A serverless chat backend – built on Firebase Cloud Functions▲15

   A serverless chat backend - built on Firebase Cloud Functions - abiglobalhealth/chatfireServerless

   2018 · github.com · its alternatives →

9. 9
   Let's Chat▲323

   Like Slack, but opensource and self-hosted.

   2015 · sdelements.github.io · its alternatives →

10. 10
    Honk▲265

    Real-time messaging

    2020 · honk.me · its alternatives →

11. 11
    Fanout▲13

    Realtime APIs made simple

    2017 · fastly.com · its alternatives →

12. 12
    AirBug▲146

    Live Chat. Your Way. Anytime.

    2024 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →

13. 13
    Open Source alternative to services like Intercom.io and Smooch▲163

    Client library for Minimal Chat. Contribute to minimalchat/client development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2017 · github.com · its alternatives →

14. 14
    Chat▲88

    turn your backend into a chat app instantly

    Mar 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

15. 15RS
    Realtime Server-Sent Events in Go▲118

    2015 · sse.getgin.io · its alternatives →

16. 16
    Realtime Chatroom Built with Laravel and VueJS▲53

    Creating Real Time chat with Laravel, Vue and Pusher - ahmedkhan847/chatwithlaravelandvue

    2017 · github.com · its alternatives →

17. 17
    Fanoob▲68

    The virtual sports bar that fits right in your pocket

    2018 · fanoob.com · its alternatives →

18. 18
    Manage web sockets from AWS Lambda using Fanout▲56

    FaaS GRIP library for Python. Contribute to fanout/python-faas-grip development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2017 · github.com · its alternatives →

19. 19
    Pushpin, a reverse proxy for real-time web services▲49

    A proxy server for adding push to your API, used at the core of Fastly's Fanout service - fastly/pushpin

    2016 · github.com · its alternatives →

20. 20
    Ably Chat▲73

    Hey HN, Staff Engineer at Ably here. Over the past few months I've been speaking to engineers building AI assistants, copilots, and agentic workflows (over 40 companies at this point), with particular focus on cloud-hosted agents. I expected the hard problems to be in model selection, prompt engineering, and orchestration. Instead, the same infrastructure challenges kept coming up: realtime sync between agents and end clients is surprisingly painful to get right. - Managing and scaling WebSocket or SSE connections between agents and clients - Buffering messages server-side and implementing…

    Apr 2026 · ably.com · its alternatives →

21. 21
    Slacking Pigeons▲109

    Chat in real time with your users directly from Slack

    2017 · its alternatives →

22. 22
    Whale▲94

    Build chat-based applications for a seamless user experience

    2024 · vercel-whale-platform.vercel.app · its alternatives →

23. 23
    I Made a Chat Server▲20

    2021 · github.com · its alternatives →

24. 24AB
    A browser-based IRC client built on Node.js – first Node project▲60

    2014 · airchatter.net · its alternatives →

Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →