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APIs · head to head

Formance vs PubNub

Formance logo

Formance

APIs

Open source double-entry ledger and payment orchestration for money-moving software

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
PubNub logo

PubNub

APIs

Realtime communication platform for chat, IoT, and live data apps

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Formance formance holds no money and provides no regulatory cover, so it must be paired with a payments provider or bank, and buyers occasionally mistake a ledger for a treasury system and discover the gap late.; PubNub free plan storage history is limited to 7 days, which is short for apps needing longer message retention.
  • They diverge on capability: Formance covers Double-entry ledger, PubNub covers Pub/sub messaging.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Formance and PubNub actually diverge.

Attributes where Formance and PubNub differ
AttributeFormancePubNub
Pricing modelOpen source, no licence feefreemium
PlatformsLinux, Docker, Kubernetes, Web, APIweb, ios, android, api

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (APIs).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Formance

  • Double-entry ledger
  • Numscript transaction DSL
  • Multi-currency
  • Payments connectivity
  • Reconciliation
  • Self-hosted deployment
  • Cloud offering
  • API and SDKs

Only in PubNub

  • Pub/sub messaging
  • Presence tracking
  • Message persistence
  • Serverless Functions
  • File sharing
  • Encryption and access controls

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Formance

  • A marketplace splitting a single customer payment between seller, platform fee and tax that needs the split to be atomic and auditablenot PubNub
  • A fintech whose homegrown balances table produced numbers finance could not reconcile and now needs proper double-entry before an auditnot PubNub
  • A payments team that wants one normalised model across several PSPs so reconciliation is not written separately for eachnot PubNub
  • A company that wants its ledger under a licence it can keep running even if the vendor disappearsnot PubNub

PubNub

  • Building realtime chat applicationsnot Formance
  • Streaming live IoT sensor datanot Formance
  • Adding presence indicators to collaborative appsnot Formance
  • Running edge logic with serverless Functions on realtime eventsnot Formance

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Formance

  • Formance holds no money and provides no regulatory cover, so it must be paired with a payments provider or bank, and buyers occasionally mistake a ledger for a treasury system and discover the gap late.
  • Numscript is a domain-specific language your team must learn, and while it makes complex splits expressible it also means transaction logic sits outside the languages your engineers already debug well.
  • Self-hosting a ledger that must never lose or duplicate a transaction is a serious operational commitment covering backups, upgrades and Postgres tuning, which is real cost the zero licence fee hides.
  • Enterprise pricing is not published, so the difference between the free path and the supported path cannot be evaluated without a sales conversation.
  • The company is much smaller than the incumbent alternatives, and while the MIT licence protects the code it does not protect the roadmap, so features on the hosted side may arrive slowly or change direction.

PubNub

  • Free plan storage history is limited to 7 days, which is short for apps needing longer message retention.
  • MAU-based pricing means costs scale directly with user growth, which can be less predictable than flat message-based pricing.
  • Pro-tier custom pricing above 50,000 MAU requires contacting sales rather than self-serve checkout.

Pricing, plan by plan

Formance

Free
  • Open SourceFree
    • MIT licensed core ledger
    • Numscript transaction DSL
    • Multi-currency tracking
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Managed or private deployment
    • Payments connectivity and reconciliation
    • Support with response commitments

PubNub

Free
  • FreeFree
    • Up to 200 MAU or 1M transactions
    • 1GB data storage (7 days)
    • 5 test Serverless Functions
  • Starter$98/month
    • 1,000 MAU included
    • User management
    • Insights
  • Pro$undefined/month
    • Custom MAU packages
    • Volume discounts
    • Enterprise-scale configurations

Which should you pick?

Choose Formance if

  • You need double-entry ledger.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Web, API.
  • You also want numscript transaction dsl.
Formance review

Choose PubNub if

  • You need pub/sub messaging.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on web, ios, android, api.
  • You also want presence tracking.
PubNub review

Questions people ask

Is Formance or PubNub better?
Neither clearly leads. Formance starts at Free and PubNub at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Formance or PubNub?
Formance starts at Free and PubNub at Free.
Does Formance or PubNub run on more platforms?
Formance runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Web, API. PubNub runs on web, ios, android, api.
Can I use Formance for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Formance best used for?
Formance is most often used for a marketplace splitting a single customer payment between seller, platform fee and tax that needs the split to be atomic and auditable, a fintech whose homegrown balances table produced numbers finance could not reconcile and now needs proper double-entry before an audit, a payments team that wants one normalised model across several psps so reconciliation is not written separately for each, a company that wants its ledger under a licence it can keep running even if the vendor disappears. Of those, a marketplace splitting a single customer payment between seller, platform fee and tax that needs the split to be atomic and auditable and a fintech whose homegrown balances table produced numbers finance could not reconcile and now needs proper double-entry before an audit are not what PubNub is typically brought in for.
What can Formance do that PubNub cannot?
Formance covers Double-entry ledger, Numscript transaction DSL, Multi-currency, Payments connectivity. PubNub covers Pub/sub messaging, Presence tracking, Message persistence, Serverless Functions.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Formance: Is Formance really open source?

Yes. The core ledger is MIT licensed with full source access and no deployment restrictions.

PubNub: What does PubNub cost?

PubNub offers a free plan for up to 200 MAU or 1 million transactions, a Starter plan at $98/month for 1,000 MAU, and custom Pro pricing for larger volumes, e.g. around $550/month for 10,000 MAU.

Source
Formance: Does Formance move money?

No. It records and orchestrates movements; the actual payments happen at a PSP or bank you connect.

PubNub: Is there a free plan, and what are its limits?

Yes, the free plan supports up to 200 monthly active users or 1 million transactions, includes 1GB of data storage retained for 7 days, and requires no credit card.

Source
Formance: What does the enterprise version cost?

Not published. It is an annual subscription quoted per customer.

PubNub: How is usage metered?

PubNub bills primarily by Monthly Active Users, defined as a unique user who connects at least once in a billing cycle; messages are bundled into MAU pricing with no separate per-message fees, and overage is billed proportionally.

Source
Formance: Do I have to use Numscript?

Yes for anything beyond the simplest transfers. It is how multi-party transactions are expressed atomically.

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