{
  "slug": "ably",
  "name": "Ably",
  "url": "https://ably.com",
  "cat": "rt",
  "group": "back",
  "tagline": "Realtime messaging platform",
  "price": "Free: 6M messages/mo, 200 concurrent connections, 200 channels, 500 msg/sec. Standard $29/mo plus usage (10k connections, 10k channels); Pro $399/mo plus usage (50k). Usage: $2.50 per million messages, $1.00 per million connection-minutes, $0.25/GiB transfer",
  "tier": "mixed",
  "pick": false,
  "what": "Global realtime messaging platform with pub/sub channels, presence, message history and connection state recovery so a client that drops offline resumes without gaps. Integrations fan channel data out to webhooks, serverless functions, Kafka and queues. Multi-region by default, with a far larger free allowance than most competitors.",
  "why": "Reach for it when dropped or out-of-order messages would genuinely break something — live scores, an auction, a running liveblog. History rewind after a reconnect is the feature you cannot easily rebuild, and 6M free messages monthly is generous.",
  "warn": "Usage is billed on three separate meters — messages, connection-minutes and channel-minutes — so idle-but-open browser tabs cost money even when nothing is being published. Forecasting the bill takes real modelling rather than a headline price.",
  "install": "npm i ably",
  "category": {
    "key": "rt",
    "name": "Realtime, comments & collab",
    "desc": "Live updates, comment systems, video, community.",
    "group": "back",
    "groupName": "Give it a backend"
  },
  "freshness": null,
  "health": {
    "ok": true,
    "status_code": 200,
    "final_url": "https://ably.com/",
    "checked_at": "2026-08-18T18:09:22.039+00:00"
  },
  "corrected_at": null,
  "upstream_changed_at": null
}