Agora
Video conferencing software
Live stream software
Video platform as a service (VPaaS) software
Virtual classroom software
Video software
Education software
- Features
- Ease of use
- Ease of management
- Quality of support
- Affordability
- Market presence
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What is Agora
Agora is a developer-focused video platform as a service (VPaaS) that provides APIs and SDKs to embed real-time video, voice, interactive live streaming, and messaging into web and mobile applications. It is used by product and engineering teams building custom video conferencing, virtual classroom, telehealth, and live event experiences inside their own apps. The platform emphasizes programmable components (RTC/RTM, recording, streaming, and related services) rather than an out-of-the-box webinar or meeting UI.
Robust developer APIs and SDKs
Agora provides client SDKs for major platforms (iOS, Android, Web, and common desktop frameworks) and server-side APIs to control sessions and media workflows. This supports building custom in-app experiences where the vendor’s UI is not desired. Compared with packaged webinar tools, this approach offers more control over UX, roles, and in-app feature integration.
Real-time and streaming capabilities
The product supports real-time communications (voice/video) and interactive live streaming patterns, enabling use cases such as classes, events, and multi-party sessions. It also supports common media workflows such as recording and broadcasting/stream distribution as part of an application architecture. This breadth can reduce the need to stitch together separate vendors for RTC and live streaming.
Scales across multiple use cases
Agora is used as an underlying media layer for different application types, including virtual classrooms, social/live engagement, and customer support video. Teams can reuse the same platform across products while varying features like moderation, roles, and session formats. This can be advantageous for organizations that need a consistent media stack rather than separate point solutions.
Not a turnkey webinar tool
Agora is primarily an API/SDK platform, so organizations typically need engineering resources to build the user experience, admin controls, and operational tooling. Teams looking for ready-made registration pages, email workflows, and event management features may find it less suitable than packaged webinar platforms. Time-to-launch depends heavily on internal development capacity.
Operational complexity and governance
Running video at scale requires monitoring, incident response processes, and careful configuration of authentication, access control, and abuse prevention. Many governance features (e.g., retention policies, compliance workflows, and detailed admin reporting) may require additional implementation work or complementary systems. This can increase total effort compared with fully managed, end-user-focused platforms.
Cost predictability can vary
Usage-based pricing models common to VPaaS can make spend sensitive to minutes streamed, participants, and feature usage (e.g., recording). Forecasting costs may be harder for organizations with highly variable attendance or rapid growth. Finance teams often need additional metering and controls to manage budget risk.
Plan & Pricing
Pricing model: Pay-as-you-go (usage-based) across Agora Core products, Extensions, and Tools. Pricing is per participant-minute or per month for some services. All figures taken from Agora official pricing pages (agora.io).
Free tier / free-usage allowances (official): Many products include recurring free monthly allowances or “starter” free tiers rather than traditional time-limited trials. Examples: free for the first 10,000 minutes every month (Voice, Video Calling, Interactive Live Streaming, Broadcast Streaming, Interactive Whiteboard, Flexible Classroom, AI Noise Suppression, 3D Spatial Audio, Recording in some modes); Conversational AI free for first 300 minutes; Real-Time Speech-to-Text & Translation free for first 300 minutes (shared); Signaling free up to 1,000,000 messages/month; Chat free for up to 500 monthly users; Analytics offers a “Starter (Free)” package.
Example costs (selected SKUs from official pricing):
-
Video Calling (per participant minutes):
- Voice: $0.99 per 1,000 minutes (free: first 10,000 minutes/month).
- Video HD: $3.99 per 1,000 minutes (free: first 10,000 minutes/month).
- Video Full HD: $8.99 per 1,000 minutes (free: first 10,000 minutes/month).
- Video 2K: $15.99 per 1,000 minutes.
- Video 2K+: $35.99 per 1,000 minutes.
-
Interactive Live Streaming: $0.99 per 1,000 minutes (free: first 10,000 minutes/month).
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Broadcast Streaming: $0.59 per 1,000 minutes (free: first 10,000 minutes/month).
-
Conversational AI Engine: $0.0099 per minute (free for first 300 minutes).
-
Extensions / Add-ons:
- Real-Time Speech-to-Text: $16.99 per 1,000 minutes (free for first 300 minutes).
- Real-Time Translation: $8.99 per 1,000 minutes / language (free for first 300 minutes — shared with RTSTT).
- Recording (Cloud): Audio $1.49 / 1,000 minutes; Video HD $5.99 / 1,000 minutes; Video Full HD $13.49 / 1,000 minutes (some recording modes also show free 10,000 minutes/month).
- Interactive Whiteboard: $1.40 per 1,000 minutes (free for first 10,000 minutes/month).
- AI Noise Suppression: $0.59 per 1,000 minutes (free for first 10,000 minutes/month).
- 3D Spatial Audio: $0.99 per 1,000 minutes (free for first 10,000 minutes/month).
- Media Push / Pull / Gateway: Media Push $1.99 / 1,000 minutes; Media Pull $1.15 / 1,000 minutes; Media Gateway (audio) $0.99 / 1,000 minutes.
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Platform / monthly products:
- Signaling: Starts at $59 per month (free up to 1,000,000 messages/month).
- Chat: Starts at $349 per month (free for up to 500 monthly users).
- Analytics (packages): Starter — Free; Standard $449 / month; Premium $999 / month; Enterprise $1,599 / month.
- Flexible Classroom: $2.19 per 1,000 minutes (free for first 10,000 minutes/month).
Cloud Proxy / Minimum monthly base fee (official):
- Cloud Proxy operating modes: Automatic (free), Force UDP or Force TCP/TLS 443 (paid). When using Force UDP/Force TCP, there is a minimum monthly base fee which counts toward usage-based fees. Official minimums by PCU tier:
- Tier 1 (<=200 PCU): $500 / month
- Tier 2 (201–1,000 PCU): $1,000 / month
- Tier 3 (1,001–2,000 PCU): $2,000 / month
- Tier 4 (2,001+ PCU): Contact Sales Note: Minimum monthly base fee applies to Cloud Proxy when forced modes are selected; Automatic mode is free.
Volume discounts / prepaid & subscription options (official):
- Official volume discount tiers for minutes (Video Calling page): 0–10K minutes: FREE; 100K–500K: 5%; 500K–1M: 7%; 1M–3M: 10% (volume discounts do not apply to minimum monthly base fee).
- Agora also advertises prepaid subscription packages (self-service prepaid plans) and customized pricing / enterprise contracts — customers can contact sales for volume/commitment discounts and negotiated contracts.
Notes & caveats (from official site):
- Many lines show “Starts at” rates and encourage contacting sales for customized pricing for higher-volume or enterprise use-cases.
- Several products provide monthly free allowances (e.g., “free for first 10,000 minutes every month”) which function as recurring free-tier allowances rather than limited-time trials.
- Cloud Recording, On-Premise Recording, Webpage Recording and other items have distinct pricing that varies by recording mode (cloud vs on-premise vs webpage); see official product pricing pages for exact breakdowns.
(Information extracted only from Agora official pricing and product pages.)
Seller details
Agora, Inc.
Santa Clara, CA, USA
2013
Public
https://www.agora.io/
https://x.com/AgoraIO
https://www.linkedin.com/company/agora-io/
