# Ably vs PubNub

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

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

## At a glance

| Criterion | Ably | PubNub |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Kind of free offer | Free tier | Always free |
| 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. | 200 monthly active users or 1 million transactions, whichever comes first, plus 1 GB of data storage retained for 7 days. Described as suitable for testing and prototypes. |
| 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. | $98 a month for the Starter plan, which includes 1,000 monthly active users. The highest entry price of the four, and the only one where the entry unit is people rather than messages or connections. |
| 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. | Per monthly active user, and PubNub presents that as the point rather than as a detail: one metric, unlimited channels on every plan, and core features included rather than tiered. A product with many short-lived users costs more here than one with few users sending constantly — the reverse of every message-metered competitor. |

## Where they differ

### Kind of free offer

- Ably: Free tier ([source](https://ably.com/pricing))
- PubNub: Always free ([source](https://www.pubnub.com/pricing/))

### 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))
- PubNub: 200 monthly active users or 1 million transactions, whichever comes first, plus 1 GB of data storage retained for 7 days. Described as suitable for testing and prototypes. ([source](https://www.pubnub.com/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))
- PubNub: $98 a month for the Starter plan, which includes 1,000 monthly active users. The highest entry price of the four, and the only one where the entry unit is people rather than messages or connections. ([source](https://www.pubnub.com/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))
- PubNub: Per monthly active user, and PubNub presents that as the point rather than as a detail: one metric, unlimited channels on every plan, and core features included rather than tiered. A product with many short-lived users costs more here than one with few users sending constantly — the reverse of every message-metered competitor. ([source](https://www.pubnub.com/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 PubNub if Products with heavy users rather than many of them. Billing is per monthly active user with unlimited channels on every plan, so a small audience sending constantly costs the same as a small audience sending rarely.

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: PubNub — You have many short-lived users. MAU billing inverts every message-metered competitor here: a product with a large, lightly-engaged audience pays for all of them, and at $98 the entry price is twice the next highest.

## Documented by only one

- Credit card to start: PubNub: 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 PubNub?**

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.
PubNub: $98 a month for the Starter plan, which includes 1,000 monthly active users. The highest entry price of the four, and the only one where the entry unit is people rather than messages or connections.

**Should I choose Ably or PubNub?**

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 PubNub if Products with heavy users rather than many of them. Billing is per monthly active user with unlimited channels on every plan, so a small audience sending constantly costs the same as a small audience sending rarely.