Try Agora for Free
Sign up and start building! You don’t pay until you scale.
This blog summarizes the testing results of Agora versus Vonage for one-on-one mobile video calls. The testing covers the most important considerations when assessing video SDKs, from analyzing performance under constrained network conditions to maximizing throughput given available bandwidth while keeping central processing unit (CPU) and random-access memory (RAM) usage as low as possible.
For more Vonage comparisons, check out:
Before we take a deep dive into the results, let’s review the test setup, configuration and scenarios covered in the testing of Agora and Vonage for 1:1 mobile video calls.
For Agora, we tested using Agora Video SDK 4.2.0 for iOS. For Vonage, we tested leveraging Vonage Video API 2.25.3 for iOS, and ensured that Vonage best practices were properly implemented for comparison.
Here’s a quick overview of the results for each testing scenario before we dive into the full details for each one:
In these tests, we again focused primarily on the effect of packet loss and limiting network conditions on the send and receive frame rates.
With the network functioning under normal conditions, the frame rate was steady at 24 FPS for Agora and 20 FPS for Vonage. The overall experience for end users was slightly smoother with Agora under normal network conditions.
When introducing 25% uplink packet loss, Agora remains steady at 23 FPS while Vonage lags at 13 FPS.
With 25% downlink packet loss the results are the same, with Agora maintaining 23 FPS while the performance of Vonage is impacted significantly, dropping all the way down to 1 FPS.
A significant variation in latency can occur when sending traffic over an IP network. When simulating conditions of a highly congested network having an uplink jitter of 600ms, Agora outperforms Vonage, holding steady at 23 FPS. In comparison, Vonage drops to 6 FPS with choppy video.
When downlink jitter of 600ms was added, Agora held steady at 22 FPS with Vonage dropping to 7 FPS with choppy video.
This test starts without any bandwidth limitations, and then after 60 seconds the network is throttled to 500 Kbps in the upstream direction, and then in the downstream direction for a total of 30 seconds. Under these challenging conditions, Agora performed better than Vonage while the limitation was applied, maintaining consistent 24 FPS while Vonage dropped below 10 FPS at the start of the limitation and remained variable until the limitation was removed. After the limitation was removed, both Vonage and Agora recovered immediately to their initial FPS, with Agora at 24 and Vonage at 20.
This test starts without any bandwidth limitations or simulated packet loss. After 60 seconds, the network is throttled to 500 Kbps in the upstream direction along with 25% simulated packet loss. These conditions are then applied in the downstream direction for a total of 30 seconds. While the limitation was applied, Agora performed better than Vonage, fluctuating between 19 FPS and 24 FPS while the limitation was applied while Vonage dropped down to 0 FPS and only recovered to 5 FPS for a short time, resulting in frozen video. Once the limitation was removed, Agora had already recovered to an average of 24 FPS while Vonage recovered quickly, but only back to around 20 FPS.
Agora has several ways to combat network disruptions and costly packet loss. Most notably, these include leveraging our SD-RTN™ network as an overlay to the public internet, which routes traffic around impairments on the internet using AI algorithms and optimally routes real-time traffic for the best performance.
Agora also implements technologies to smooth out the effects of packet loss to optimize the end-user experience.
Agora consumed less CPU resources than Vonage across scenarios, with Agora consuming an average of 41.5% vs. Vonage’s average of 57.2% across all scenarios.
Agora consumed more RAM than Vonage in all scenarios, between 115 MB and 117MB compared to of Vonage’s average of 59 MB, respectively.
While Agora showed a 4 FPS advantage over Vonage under normal network conditions, Agora’s ability to maintain consistent performance and frame rate in common scenarios involving network limitations, jitter, and packet loss conditions dramatically outperformed Vonage. In many situations where limitations were applied, Vonage's FPS dropped to a level that resulted in choppy, stuttering, and at times, completely frozen video. In the same scenarios, Agora’s video remained smooth, without noticeable changes in performance. Vonage consumed less RAM than Agora, while Agora consumed less CPU resources than Vonage across scenarios.
When it comes to providing real-time communication tools, the ability to deliver a high-quality and consistent end user experience under constantly changing network conditions is critical.
At Agora, our customers—ranging from some of the largest social media companies in the world to bootstrapped startups—continue to leverage our SDKs to easily integrate video, voice, and interactive live streaming experiences into any app. We empower developers to deliver best-in-class real-time experiences, with global delivery and scale.
Sign up for free today to start building or contact us for a free consultation.
