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Best Ably Alternatives(2026)

We compared 4 alternatives to Ably — so you can find the best option for your needs and budget.

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You're replacing

Ably

freemium

Realtime pub/sub messaging at scale

Starts at $0 (free 6M messages/month)

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Common reasons to switch

More complex than PusherPricing can be hard to predictDocs could be clearer
Pusher logo1

Pusher

freemium

From $49/month

Pusher provides hosted realtime APIs (WebSockets) for adding live features to web and mobile apps.

Pros

+Simple to integrate
+Battle-tested reliability
+Multiple language SDKs

Cons

Expensive for high connection counts
No self-hosted option
Limited message history
WebSocket channelsPresence channelsPrivate channelsWebhooksClient libraries
Soketi logo2

Soketi

open-source

Soketi is an open source, Pusher protocol-compatible WebSocket server you can self-host for free.

Pros

+Free self-hosted
+Pusher drop-in replacement
+Low latency

Cons

Self-hosting overhead
No hosted cloud option
Smaller community
Pusher-compatible protocolSelf-hostedHorizontal scalingRedis adapterHTTP API
Firebase logo3

Firebase

freemium

From $25/month

Firebase is Google's app development platform with realtime database, Firestore, auth, hosting, and cloud functions.

Pros

+Real-time sync out of the box
+Complete backend platform
+Excellent mobile SDKs

Cons

Vendor lock-in
Expensive at scale
NoSQL limitations
Firestore (NoSQL)Realtime DatabaseAuthenticationCloud FunctionsHosting
Supabase logo4

Supabase

freemium

From $25/month

Supabase is an open source Firebase alternative providing a Postgres database, Auth, realtime, storage, and edge functions.

Pros

+Full Postgres with SQL
+Built-in auth and storage
+Open source

Cons

Free tier pauses after 1 week inactive
Self-hosting is complex
Edge functions limited
PostgreSQLAuthenticationRealtimeStorageEdge Functions

Compare Ably Head to Head