# Ably

Canonical: https://inetgeek.com/realtime/ably/

Realtime messaging metered on three axes at once — messages, channel-minutes and connection-minutes — on top of a package fee.

## Who it suits

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.

Consider something else if 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.

## iScore

77 / 100 (80% interval 68–86), rank 1 of 4 in realtime — interval overlaps the next rank, so this is an ordering, not a finding.

inetGeek's own reading, computed from sourced facts against category peers by disclosed rules. Not a provider claim. Intervals are 80%; a provider with few documented facts is pulled toward the category middle rather than scored on what little is known.
Method: https://inetgeek.com/iscore/. Full output with every criterion's basis: https://inetgeek.com/scores.json. Every realtime peer ranked: https://inetgeek.com/realtime/ably/alternatives/

- Price: 81 (75–88), weight 45%, 3 of 4 criteria scored; scored for peers, not here — undocumented or stated without a number or a yes/limited/no: free_card_required
- Capacity and limits: 63 (40–86), weight 36%, 1 of 1 criteria scored
- Evidence: 95 (95–95), weight 18%, 4 of 4 criteria scored

## What the documentation says

### Pricing

- Free tier: Yes ([source](https://ably.com/pricing), read 2026-09-15)
- Kind of free offer: Free tier ([source](https://ably.com/pricing), read 2026-09-15)
- 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. ([source](https://ably.com/pricing), read 2026-09-15)
- 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. ([source](https://ably.com/pricing), read 2026-09-15)
- 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. ([source](https://ably.com/pricing), read 2026-09-15)

### Observability

- Events included: 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. ([source](https://ably.com/pricing), read 2026-09-15)

### Queues

- Concurrency: 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. ([source](https://ably.com/pricing), read 2026-09-15)

## Compared with

- [Ably vs Pusher Channels](https://inetgeek.com/compare/ably-vs-pusher/)
- [Ably vs PubNub](https://inetgeek.com/compare/ably-vs-pubnub/)
- [Ably vs Liveblocks](https://inetgeek.com/compare/ably-vs-liveblocks/)