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Why We Built Heyyo

Jan 31, 2026 • 6 min read • The Heyyo Team

If you’ve ever tried to “just add chat” to a product, you’ve probably discovered the trap: chat looks simple, but delivering a great experience requires a surprising amount of infrastructure.

The problem: chat is deceptively expensive

Chat isn’t one feature — it’s a stack: realtime delivery, message persistence, searchability, unread state, presence, typing, moderation, rate limiting, webhooks, permissions, and multi-tenant isolation.

Teams typically end up choosing between:

  • Building it in-house (months of work, then ongoing operational cost).
  • Integrating a traditional provider (fast start, but complexity and costs add up).
  • Using a general realtime toolkit (great transport layer, but you still build most chat UX primitives yourself).

The solution: chat primitives you can trust

Heyyo is intentionally opinionated: it’s Chat-as-a-Service, not a giant feature buffet.

  • Clean API surface: channels, messages, reactions, threads.
  • Realtime-first: Socket.IO events with a REST fallback.
  • Multi-tenant by default: your customers are isolated.
  • SDKs that feel like product code: TypeScript + React packages.

Transparent pricing (MAU-based)

Pricing should be predictable. Traditional providers often price “per MAU” with add-ons/overages that make it hard to forecast.

A simple comparison

Traditional providers commonly charge on the order of $0.03–$0.06 per MAU at small-to-mid scale (plus extras). Heyyo uses straightforward plan pricing: Starter $29, Pro $99, Business $299.

Traditional providers

Example: 5,000 MAU × $0.05 = $250/mo (before add-ons).
Example: 20,000 MAU × $0.05 = $1,000/mo.

Heyyo

Start at $29/mo (Starter) and scale with $99/mo (Pro), $299/mo (Business).
No surprise “chat tax” for basic primitives.

Numbers above are illustrative for comparison; exact pricing varies by provider and contract.

Who Heyyo is for

We built Heyyo for the people who ship products under constraint:

  • Indie devs who need chat without building a platform team.
  • Startups that want to iterate fast and keep costs predictable.
  • SaaS builders who need multi-tenant isolation from day one.

What we care about

  • Developer velocity: ship in minutes, not months.
  • Operational sanity: reliable realtime delivery, durable storage.
  • Clear limits: predictable MAU plans and clear rate limiting.
Ready to try it?

If you want the fastest path from “no chat” to “real chat,” start with the quickstart.