| Price from | $29/mo | $1.50/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 4 | 4 |
| Spec score · Chat APIs | 8.7 (#1) | 7.9 (#19) |
| Spec score · Chat Api | 8.7 (#1) | 7.9 (#11) |
| Headquarters | London, UK | Reno, Nevada, USA |
| Integrations | Ably lists integrations including AWS Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloudflare Workers, Google Cloud Functions, Kafka, Zapier, and Terraform. | Developer resources list JavaScript and Java client SDKs plus adapters for authentication, databases, file uploads, gRPC, and push notifications. |
| Product | Ably Chat is a chat API and SDK platform for building realtime chat applications at scale. | Tinode is a free, unlimited, flexible open source messaging platform built mobile-first. |
| Security | Ably states that client-to-server communication is secured by TLS by default and that optional private-key encryption uses 256-bit AES. | Tinode says it communicates over secure WebSockets; its API also supports gRPC and long polling connections. |
| Support | The Free package includes community and email support on a best-effort basis; Standard lists a one-day email support SLA. | Basic includes community support, while Enterprise includes email or chat support and help with production issues. |
| Use cases | Ably describes use cases including live streaming chat, customer service chat, and community in-app chat. | Tinode is offered for company messaging and for friends and family, with Basic described as suitable for small teams and families. |
