# Ably vs Liveblocks

Canonical: https://inetgeek.com/compare/ably-vs-liveblocks/

Every value below is read from Ably's and Liveblocks's own documentation. See https://inetgeek.com/methodology/ for how.

## At a glance

| Criterion | Ably | Liveblocks |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Kind of free offer | Free tier | Free tier |
| What the free plan includes | 200 concurrent connections, 500 messages a second and 6 million messages a month, with community and best-effort email support. No commitment, and no time limit stated. | A monthly credit allowance, plus the realtime infrastructure, collaboration features and pre-built components. The page says "free monthly credits" without naming the amount, so the size of the allowance is not sourced from here. |
| Entry paid plan | $29 a month for Standard, and the "+ usage" matters: the package fee buys capacity ceilings and every message, channel-minute and connection-minute is billed on top of it. | $25 a month billed annually for Pro, which carries $30 of monthly credits — so the plan returns more credit than it costs. Team is $500 a month with $600 of credits, the same shape at twenty times the size. |
| Pricing model | Three meters at once on top of a package fee: $2.50 per million messages, $1.00 per million channel-minutes and $1.00 per million connection-minutes, each falling to $0.50 or $0.20 with volume. A per-MAU model is offered as an alternative. A connection that sits idle still accrues connection-minutes, so time connected is billable whether or not anything is sent. | Credits, not units. A plan buys a monthly credit balance — $30 on Pro, $600 on Team — spent against whatever the product consumes, and the credit figure exceeds the plan price in both cases. Higher tiers also raise simultaneous connections and webhook event frequency rather than only the balance. |

## Where they differ

### What the free plan includes

- Ably: 200 concurrent connections, 500 messages a second and 6 million messages a month, with community and best-effort email support. No commitment, and no time limit stated. ([source](https://ably.com/pricing))
- Liveblocks: A monthly credit allowance, plus the realtime infrastructure, collaboration features and pre-built components. The page says "free monthly credits" without naming the amount, so the size of the allowance is not sourced from here. ([source](https://liveblocks.io/pricing))

### Entry paid plan

- Ably: $29 a month for Standard, and the "+ usage" matters: the package fee buys capacity ceilings and every message, channel-minute and connection-minute is billed on top of it. ([source](https://ably.com/pricing))
- Liveblocks: $25 a month billed annually for Pro, which carries $30 of monthly credits — so the plan returns more credit than it costs. Team is $500 a month with $600 of credits, the same shape at twenty times the size. ([source](https://liveblocks.io/pricing))

### Pricing model

- Ably: Three meters at once on top of a package fee: $2.50 per million messages, $1.00 per million channel-minutes and $1.00 per million connection-minutes, each falling to $0.50 or $0.20 with volume. A per-MAU model is offered as an alternative. A connection that sits idle still accrues connection-minutes, so time connected is billable whether or not anything is sent. ([source](https://ably.com/pricing))
- Liveblocks: Credits, not units. A plan buys a monthly credit balance — $30 on Pro, $600 on Team — spent against whatever the product consumes, and the credit figure exceeds the plan price in both cases. Higher tiers also raise simultaneous connections and webhook event frequency rather than only the balance. ([source](https://liveblocks.io/pricing))

## Which should you choose?

Pick Ably if Workloads where the ceiling has to move without a plan change: 50,000 concurrent connections at $399, three meters that scale with what you actually send, and volume rates falling to $0.50 per million messages.

Pick Liveblocks if Building collaboration rather than transport — presence, comments, version history and pre-built components, with $30 of monthly credits on a $25 plan so the balance exceeds the fee.

Consider something else: Ably — You need to know the bill in advance. Three meters run at once — messages, channel-minutes and connection-minutes — and an idle connection still accrues connection-minutes, so time connected costs money whether or not anything is sent.

Consider something else: Liveblocks — You want a plain websocket. This is collaboration infrastructure with opinions about what you are building, and the free plan advertises credits without naming the amount, so the allowance cannot be sized before signing up.

## Documented by only one

- Credit card to start: Liveblocks: No
- Events included: Ably: 6 million messages a month on the free package, with a 500-per-second rate ceiling alongside it. Paid packages raise the rate ceiling — 2,500 a second on Standard, 10,000 on Pro — and bill message volume as usage rather than including it.
- Concurrency: Ably: 200 concurrent connections on Free, 10,000 on Standard at $29 and 50,000 on Pro at $399, alongside matching concurrent-channel ceilings of 10,000 and 50,000.

## Questions this comparison answers

**Entry paid plan: Ably or Liveblocks?**

Ably: $29 a month for Standard, and the "+ usage" matters: the package fee buys capacity ceilings and every message, channel-minute and connection-minute is billed on top of it.
Liveblocks: $25 a month billed annually for Pro, which carries $30 of monthly credits — so the plan returns more credit than it costs. Team is $500 a month with $600 of credits, the same shape at twenty times the size.

**Should I choose Ably or Liveblocks?**

Pick Ably if Workloads where the ceiling has to move without a plan change: 50,000 concurrent connections at $399, three meters that scale with what you actually send, and volume rates falling to $0.50 per million messages.
Pick Liveblocks if Building collaboration rather than transport — presence, comments, version history and pre-built components, with $30 of monthly credits on a $25 plan so the balance exceeds the fee.