Facts read November 7, 2026
Ably vs Liveblocks
Liveblocks is Cuely's default realtime pick when your description doesn't favor either one: rooms, presence and shared state for collaborative boards and documents, with React hooks. Pick Ably if you care most about high volume.
Side by side
| Fact | Ably | Liveblocks |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Hosted pub/sub messaging with presence, priced by monthly active users. | Hosted realtime collaboration: rooms, presence, shared state, comments. |
| Free plan | Free: up to 500 monthly active users. | Free: unlimited monthly active users, 500 monthly active rooms, 10 simultaneous connections per room, 3,000 realtime collaboration minutes. |
| Paid from | Pro: from $29/month (1,000 MAU), billed annually. | Pro: $25/month billed annually. |
| At 1,000 users | $29/month | $0/month |
| Open source | No | No |
| Self-hostable | No | No |
| Best for | Live notifications and chat; Apps with many messages per user | Collaborative boards, whiteboards and documents; Presence and live cursors; React apps |
| Watch out | The free plan stops at 500 monthly active users; Pro is billed annually. | The free plan allows 10 simultaneous connections per room and 500 monthly active rooms. |
Where they differ
The published scores, from −3 to +3, that decide which one Cuely picks for each need.
| Need | Ably | Liveblocks |
|---|---|---|
| realtime features | +2 Pub/sub and presence with delivery guarantees. | +3 Rooms, presence and conflict-free shared state are the product. |
| high volume | +1 Billing by users, not messages, suits chatty apps. | 0 No particular strength here. |
| native iOS or Android app | +1 SDKs for iOS, Android and React Native. | 0 No particular strength here. |
| traffic comes in viral spikes | −2 Billed by monthly active users: Free stops at 500, and one viral day can bring tens of thousands. | −1 Built for rooms of collaborators (10 at once per room on Free), not one broadcast to a crowd. |
| Next.js or React | 0 No particular strength here. | +1 React hooks and Next.js examples. |
| sells to businesses (organizations, roles, SSO) | 0 No particular strength here. | +1 A room per team session maps well onto team tools. |
Sources: Ably pricing (read November 7, 2026), Liveblocks pricing (read November 7, 2026). No vendor pays for placement.