| Price from | $29/mo | $400/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 4 | 3 |
| Spec score · Chat APIs | 8.7 (#1) | 8.2 (#7) |
| Founded | 2016 | 2020 |
| Headquarters | London, UK | Toronto, Canada |
| Integrations | Ably lists integrations including AWS Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloudflare Workers, Google Cloud Functions, Kafka, Zapier, and Terraform. | The architecture supports optional push providers, object storage, customer webhooks, existing interfaces, and an open-source integration layer. |
| Moderation | The product lists moderation integrations with Hive, Tisane, and Bodyguard, or the option to bring your own tools. | Safety capabilities include reporting, blocking, moderator controls, and application-specific enforcement paths. |
| Product | Ably Chat is a chat API and SDK platform for building realtime chat applications at scale. | ChatKitty provides a production-ready messaging core with open-source integrations for marketplace and community products. |
| Security | Ably states that client-to-server communication is secured by TLS by default and that optional private-key encryption uses 256-bit AES. | Chat Functions run in a secure cloud environment and can implement custom authentication logic, including Firebase token verification. |
| Support | The Free package includes community and email support on a best-effort basis; Standard lists a one-day email support SLA. | The launch sprint includes production planning, release support, and 14 days of post-launch defect correction for the agreed scope. |
