API Management · badges
Ably badges
Ably meets 1 of the 6 badge rules Softwr applies to every product in the directory. Below is each rule, what it actually measures, and the figure on record for Ably measured against it.
What a Softwr badge is
A badge is a rule applied to a catalogue entry. It is not an editorial award, not a certification, and not something a vendor can apply for or buy. Each of the 6 rules reads one or two fields on the Ably record, a rating, a pricing model, a launch date, a phrase in the vendor's own description, and either the figure clears the threshold or it does not.
Two limits are worth stating plainly, because they decide how much a badge is worth. First, the ratings behind Top Rated and Leader are aggregated from third-party sources and imported with the catalogue entry; they are not reviews written on Softwr, and this site marks them up as external aggregates rather than as its own. Second, nobody at Softwr has installed or tested these products, so no badge here is a usability or quality finding. Easy to Use, in particular, records what the vendor says about its own product.
Everything the rules read is shown on this page, so any badge can be checked against the figure that produced it.
Badges Ably holds
Each one below shows the rule, what it measures, and the Ably figure that met it, followed by the code to display it.
Best Value
- The rule
- Offers a free tier or a freemium model.
- How it is computed
- Reads the pricing model and the published plan list. It says the tool can be used without paying, it is not a judgement about whether the paid tiers are good value.
- Why Ably qualifies
- The Free tier costs nothing, on a freemium model.
Take it, in whichever shape fits
Standard The full block, for a sidebar or an about page.
<a href="https://www.softwr.com/badges/ably?ref=badge" target="_blank" rel="noopener">
<img src="https://www.softwr.com/api/badges/ably/best-value"
alt="Ably, Best Value on Softwr" width="150" height="170" />
</a>Wide For a footer strip or a row of logos.
<a href="https://www.softwr.com/badges/ably?ref=badge" target="_blank" rel="noopener">
<img src="https://www.softwr.com/api/badges/ably/best-value?variant=wide"
alt="Ably, Best Value on Softwr" width="320" height="96" />
</a>Wide, dark The same strip for a dark background.
<a href="https://www.softwr.com/badges/ably?ref=badge" target="_blank" rel="noopener">
<img src="https://www.softwr.com/api/badges/ably/best-value?variant=wide&theme=dark"
alt="Ably, Best Value on Softwr" width="320" height="96" />
</a>Badges Ably does not hold
Listed for the same reason the earned ones are: a badge only means something if you can see what it takes to get it, and what stopped this product getting it.
Top Rated
Requires: Average rating of 4.5 or higher. Reads the average rating carried on the catalogue entry. That figure is aggregated from third-party sources, not from reviews written on Softwr.
No rating is recorded, so the rule cannot be met.
Rising Star
Requires: Flagged as trending in the catalogue, or launched within the last three years. Reads the catalogue’s own trending flag and the product’s launch date. It is a freshness signal, not a growth measurement, Softwr does not measure adoption.
Not flagged as trending, and no launch date is recorded.
Users Love Us
Requires: More than 10 reviews published on Softwr. Counts reviews hosted on this site only. Aggregated third-party rating counts do not qualify, however large they are, because they are not reviews Softwr can stand behind.
No reviews have been published on Softwr yet.
Leader
Requires: Average rating of 4.0 or higher, within a listed category. Reads the same aggregated rating as Top Rated, at a lower threshold, and requires the product to be filed in a category. It is not a ranking against the other tools in that category.
No rating is recorded, so the rule cannot be met.
Easy to Use
Requires: The product’s own description or feature list uses the words intuitive, user-friendly or easy to use. A text match against the vendor-supplied copy on the catalogue entry. It records what the vendor claims about its own product. It is not a usability finding, and no one at Softwr has tested it.
The supplied copy does not use any of those phrases.
The Ably figures behind these rules
Every value the rules above read, as it stands on the Ably catalogue entry. A row is absent where we hold no figure, that means we have no record of it, not that the answer is zero.
| Reviews hosted on Softwr | None |
|---|---|
| Pricing model | freemium |
| Entry price | Free, then $29/month |
| Published plans | 3 |
| Features on record | 6 |
| Platforms | web, ios, android, api |
| Category | API Management |
| Published by | Ably |
Pricing detail is broken down tier by tier on the Ably pricing page, and the full feature and platform record sits on the Ably review. If Ably is not the right fit, the alternatives to Ably are ranked on the same figures.
Displaying a badge
Paste the snippet from any earned badge above into your own page. It is one image tag and one link, no JavaScript, no tracking pixel, nothing to install, and nothing that changes as your page loads.
The image is generated when it is requested and cached for a day, so if the underlying figure changes the badge follows without you editing anything. The flip side is that a badge can lapse the same way: if Ably's rating moves below a threshold, the badge stops being served. This page always reflects the current state.
Keep the link back to the Ably listing. It is what lets a visitor check the badge against the figures that produced it, and a badge that cannot be checked is decoration rather than evidence.
Questions about Ably’s badges
- What badges has Ably earned on Softwr?
- Ably holds 1 of the 6 badges: Best Value. Each is computed from the Ably catalogue entry rather than awarded editorially.
- How are Softwr badges decided?
- By arithmetic over the catalogue entry, not by a panel. Each of the 6 badges is a single published rule, a rating threshold, the presence of a free tier, a launch date, or a phrase in the vendor’s own copy, and it is re-evaluated every time this page is rebuilt. No one applies for a badge and no one pays for one.
- Can a product pay for a Softwr badge?
- No. There is nothing to buy and nothing to apply for. The only way a badge changes is if the underlying figure on the catalogue entry changes.
- Is the Ably rating on Softwr from Softwr users?
- No rating is recorded for Ably. Where ratings do appear on Softwr they are aggregated from third-party sources rather than written here.
- How do I add a Ably badge to my website?
- Copy the HTML snippet under whichever badge you want and paste it into your page. It is a plain image tag pointing at an SVG served from Softwr, wrapped in a link back to the Ably listing. There is no script, no tracker and nothing to install.
- Does the badge image update on its own?
- The image is generated on request and cached for a day, so a change to the underlying figures reaches your site without you editing anything. Because of that, a badge can also stop being accurate if the figure moves, this page always shows the current state.
- Do I have to keep the link back to Softwr?
- Yes. The snippet wraps the image in a link to the product listing so a visitor can check the badge against the figures behind it. A badge nobody can verify is decoration, not evidence.
- Why does Ably not have the Top Rated badge?
- Top Rated requires: average rating of 4.5 or higher. No rating is recorded, so the rule cannot be met.
- What does a badge not tell me?
- Anything about how the software feels to use. Nobody at Softwr has tested these products. The badges summarise what is on the catalogue record, a rating aggregated elsewhere, a pricing model, a launch date, the vendor’s own description, and nothing more.
- Where can I see the detail behind these figures for Ably?
- The Ably review carries the full feature and platform record, and the pricing page breaks down every published tier. Both are linked from this page.