Agora and ZEGOCLOUD are capable, established platforms. This is why some app teams pick Gravix Cloud instead, and the questions we think you should ask any provider before you sign.
Pricing and features checked October 2026. Providers change their prices and terms, so check each provider’s own site for the current details before you decide.
Why we wrote this
We make Gravix Cloud, so we are not neutral. We also build video calling and live streaming apps for clients, and the question we hear most from founders is simple: “Which one should we use?”
There is no single right answer. Agora and ZEGOCLOUD both have large product catalogues, long track records and good documentation. What we can do is lay out what each provider publishes, explain where Gravix Cloud is different, and give you a list of questions that will make any sales call more useful.
Everything we say about Agora and ZEGOCLOUD below comes from their own public pricing and product pages. Where we could not find something published, we say so rather than guess.
What each provider publishes on price
All three providers publish starting prices on their websites. The units are not the same, so the numbers do not compare one to one.
| Gravix Cloud | Agora | ZEGOCLOUD | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry price | Starter: $1 per 2,000 minutes | RTC (voice and video): from $0.59 per 1,000 minutes | Voice call: $0.99 per 1,000 participant minutes; video call: $3.99 per 1,000 participant minutes |
| Free minutes | 10,000 free minutes when you sign up | First 10,000 combined minutes free every month | 10,000 free minutes when you sign up |
| Larger plans | Professional: $200 per 150 concurrent participants; Enterprise: $7,999, terms and conditions apply | Custom pricing available | Volume discounts for enterprise customers |
A few things are worth calling out.
Free minutes work differently. Agora’s free allowance repeats every month. Gravix Cloud gives a one-time sign-up bonus of 10,000 minutes, and ZEGOCLOUD’s pricing page offers 10,000 free minutes when you sign up. If your app will stay small for a long time, a monthly allowance can matter more than the headline rate.
“Minute” is not one thing. Providers count usage differently, for example per participant, per stream or by video quality. Before you compare, ask each provider to price the same scenario: say, 1,000 daily users making ten-minute one-to-one video calls. Gravix Cloud’s sales team will walk you through how your app’s usage is measured before you choose a plan.
Concurrent pricing is an option. Gravix Cloud’s Professional plan is sized by concurrent participants rather than minutes. For apps with long sessions, such as audio rooms that stay open for hours, that can be easier to budget.
Beauty filters: included or added on
For social, dating and live creator apps, a beauty filter is not a nice-to-have. Hosts expect it, and viewers notice when it is missing. This is where the three providers differ the most.
Gravix Cloud includes its real-time beauty filter free with every subscription. There is no separate filter fee and no per-minute charge for using it. It runs on Android and the web, with a Flutter plugin, and it works in one-to-one calls, group calls and live streams. Teams can also design their own looks in Gravix Studio, a browser-based look editor. We go into more detail in our post on the Gravix beauty filter.
ZEGOCLOUD offers beauty as a separate product called AI Effects, with skin smoothing, face retouching, makeup, filters and background segmentation. Its pricing page lists AI Effects as a monthly fee per pair of platforms ($584 per 2 platforms per month for the plan shown at the time we checked), separate from call minutes.
Agora offers beauty through its Extensions Marketplace, which includes first-party extensions and partner extensions such as FaceUnity and BytePlus Effects. Agora’s documentation also describes its own Beauty Effect, marked as beta, which that page says is supported only on the web. Agora says you can pay for all your extensions in one place; we did not find published prices for the beauty extensions themselves, so ask Agora for a quote.
None of these approaches is wrong. A separate beauty product can offer a deeper catalogue of effects. But if you want good-looking video without a second licence to budget and renew, an included filter removes a line from your bill and a decision from your roadmap.
SDKs and platforms
Gravix Cloud provides SDKs for Flutter, Web, Android and iOS. The Flutter package is gravix_rtc, which matters to us because most of the apps we build are Flutter apps. Calls, audio rooms, live streams and AI agents all use the same rooms and SDKs, so adding a product later does not mean adding a second integration.
Agora and ZEGOCLOUD publish their own lists of supported platforms and frameworks. If your product needs a platform outside Flutter, Web, Android and iOS, check each provider’s documentation before you commit.
Support: who answers when something breaks
Calls are live. When a call fails, your users notice in seconds, so it matters who you can reach and how fast.
Gravix Cloud is a smaller provider, and we treat that as a strength. Prices are on the website, not behind a form. If you call or WhatsApp our team on +880 1703-449000, a person picks up. You can also email sales@gravixcloud.com.
Larger providers have support plans, documentation portals and partner networks. If your company needs a long vendor history or a specific compliance paperwork pack, ask for it directly. That is a fair reason to choose a larger provider.
Security basics to check with any provider
These are the questions we ask on behalf of every client, whichever provider they choose:
- Are calls encrypted in transit? With Gravix Cloud they are.
- Who decides who can join a call? Your own app should, not anyone who has your app ID. With Gravix Cloud, your app decides who joins each room.
- Can you get the security details in writing? Ask for them before launch, not after an incident.
Questions to ask any video calling provider
Before you sign with anyone, including us, get written answers to these:
- How exactly is a minute counted for my use case: per participant, per stream, by resolution?
- Are free minutes a one-time bonus or a monthly allowance?
- Is a beauty filter included, or is it a separate product with its own price?
- Which SDKs are supported for the platforms I ship today, and the ones I plan to ship next year?
- Can calls, audio rooms, live streams and AI agents share one integration?
- Who do I call when a launch goes wrong, and will a person answer?
- What does it cost at ten times my current usage?
When Gravix Cloud is a good fit
Gravix Cloud tends to suit teams that:
- Build in Flutter, or ship on Android, iOS and the web.
- Run social, dating, live creator or audio room apps, where a beauty filter is expected.
- Want prices they can read on a website and a person they can call.
- Want calls, audio rooms, live streams and AI voice and video agents from one provider.
If that sounds like your product, you can start with the 10,000 free minutes and test on your own networks with your own users. If you are not sure, tell us what you are building and we will give you a straight answer, even if that answer is a different provider. You can also read more on the Gravix Cloud product page, or see how we build video calling apps for clients.