API Management · head to head
Ably vs Apigee
Ably
API Management
Realtime data delivery platform for pub/sub messaging at scale
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
Apigee
API Management
API management platform for designing, securing, and scaling APIs
- From
- $500/monthly
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Only Ably has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- Each has a real cost: Ably standard and Pro plans layer usage-based charges for messages, connection minutes, and data transfer on top of the base subscription, adding cost complexity.; Apigee the free evaluation is a sandbox limited to 60 days
- They diverge on capability: Ably covers Pub/sub messaging, Apigee covers API Gateway.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Ably and Apigee actually diverge.
Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (API Management).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in Ably
- Pub/sub messaging
- Presence
- Message persistence
- Multi-protocol support
- Encryption
- Datadog integration
Only in Apigee
- API Gateway
- API Analytics
- Developer Portal
- Google Cloud services
- Azure
- AWS
- Okta
- Cloud support
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Ably
- Building realtime chat or collaborative appsnot Apigee
- Delivering live data feeds like stock prices or sports scoresnot Apigee
- Broadcasting notifications to many concurrent clientsnot Apigee
- Running mission-critical realtime infrastructure with high uptime SLAsnot Apigee
Apigee
- Publishing, securing and versioning APIs for an enterprise API programnot Ably
- Monetizing APIs and running a developer portalnot Ably
- Analyzing API traffic and defending APIs against bots and abusenot Ably
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Ably
- Standard and Pro plans layer usage-based charges for messages, connection minutes, and data transfer on top of the base subscription, adding cost complexity.
- The jump from Standard ($29/month) to Pro ($399/month) is steep for teams needing more than 10k connections but not full Pro capacity.
- 24/7 mission-critical support and 99.999% uptime SLAs are reserved for the custom-priced Enterprise tier.
Apigee
- The free evaluation is a sandbox limited to 60 days
- Pay-as-you-go has no SLA available at all
- Pay-as-you-go bills environments separately from API calls, with a Base environment costing $365 per month per region
- The Base environment is capped at 50 QPS with an SLA of up to 99%
- Standard API Proxy calls are billed at $20 per 1M calls up to 50M, and Extensible API Proxy calls at $100 per 1M calls up to 50M
- API Analytics is a paid add-on at $20 per 1M API calls and cannot be bought on a Base environment
- Advanced API Security is a paid add-on at $350 per 1M API calls and cannot be bought on a Base environment
- Monetization is unavailable on pay-as-you-go and requires a subscription tier
- Additional API proxy deployments beyond those included cost $0.04 per hour per region on a Comprehensive environment
- Subscription tiers Standard, Enterprise and Enterprise Plus are quote only with no published price
- Google Cloud networking charges for IP addresses, data transfer out and forwarding rules are billed on top of Apigee usage
Pricing, plan by plan
Ably
Free- FreeFree
- 200 concurrent connections
- 500 messages/second
- 6M messages/month
- Standard$29/month
- 10k concurrent channels
- 10k concurrent connections
- 2.5k messages/second
- Pro$399/month
- 50k concurrent channels
- 50k concurrent connections
- 10k messages/second
Apigee
$500/monthly- Starter$500/monthly
- API gateway
- Analytics
- Developer portal
- Professional$2500/monthly
- Advanced security
- Traffic management
- Monetization
- Enterprise$undefined/monthly
- Custom deployment
- SLA
- Dedicated support
Which should you pick?
Choose Ably if
- You need pub/sub messaging.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on web, ios, android, api.
- You also want presence.
Choose Apigee if
- You need api gateway.
- You work on Cloud, Hybrid, On-premises.
- You also want api analytics.
Questions people ask
- Is Ably or Apigee better?
- Neither clearly leads. Ably starts at Free and Apigee at $500/monthly, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Ably or Apigee?
- Ably has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Ably and $500/monthly for Apigee.
- Does Ably or Apigee run on more platforms?
- Ably runs on web, ios, android, api. Apigee runs on Cloud, Hybrid, On-premises.
- Can I use Ably for free?
- Yes. Ably has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Apigee starts at $500/monthly.
- What is Ably best used for?
- Ably is most often used for building realtime chat or collaborative apps, delivering live data feeds like stock prices or sports scores, broadcasting notifications to many concurrent clients, running mission-critical realtime infrastructure with high uptime slas. Of those, building realtime chat or collaborative apps and delivering live data feeds like stock prices or sports scores are not what Apigee is typically brought in for.
- What can Ably do that Apigee cannot?
- Ably covers Pub/sub messaging, Presence, Message persistence, Multi-protocol support. Apigee covers API Gateway, API Analytics, Developer Portal, Google Cloud services.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Ably: What does Ably cost?
Ably offers a free plan with 200 concurrent connections, a Standard plan at $29/month plus usage, a Pro plan at $399/month plus usage, and custom Enterprise pricing with unlimited channels and connections.
SourceAbly: Is there a free plan, and what are its limits?
Yes, the free plan includes 200 concurrent connections, 500 messages per second, and 6 million messages per month with community and best-effort email support.
SourceAbly: How is usage metered?
Beyond plan limits, Ably charges usage-based rates of $2.50 per million messages, $1.00 per million connection minutes, $1.00 per million channel minutes, and $0.25 per GiB of data transfer, with volume discounts available.
SourceRelated pages
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