Is Ably or Sanity better?

Neither clearly leads. Ably starts at Free and Sanity at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Ably or Sanity?

Ably starts at Free and Sanity at Free.

Does Ably or Sanity run on more platforms?

Ably runs on web, ios, android, api. Sanity runs on Web.

Can I use Ably for free?

Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.

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 Sanity is typically brought in for.

What can Ably do that Sanity cannot?

Ably covers Pub/sub messaging, Presence, Message persistence, Multi-protocol support. Sanity covers Content API, Collaborative editing, Structured content, Webhooks.

APIs · head to head

Ably vs Sanity

Ably

APIs

Realtime data delivery platform for pub/sub messaging at scale

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

Sanity

APIs

Headless CMS with real-time collaborative editing and structured content APIs

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

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.; Sanity free plan limited to 10,000 documents and 100GB assets
They diverge on capability: Ably covers Pub/sub messaging, Sanity covers Content API.
Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Ably and Sanity actually diverge.

Attributes where Ably and Sanity differ
Attribute	Ably	Sanity
Platforms	web, ios, android, api	Web
Founded	Unknown	2011

Identical on both: starting price (Free), pricing model (freemium), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (APIs).

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 Sanity

Content API
Collaborative editing
Structured content
Webhooks
Third-party services
GROQ query language
Cloud support
JavaScript SDK support

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Ably

Building realtime chat or collaborative appsnot Sanity
Delivering live data feeds like stock prices or sports scoresnot Sanity
Broadcasting notifications to many concurrent clientsnot Sanity
Running mission-critical realtime infrastructure with high uptime SLAsnot Sanity

Sanity

Headless CMS for structured content managementnot Ably
Collaborative content editing with real-time multiplayer supportnot Ably
API-driven content delivery with GROQ query languagenot 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.

Sanity

Free plan limited to 10,000 documents and 100GB assets
Free plan supports only public datasets
Growth plan capped at 50 seats maximum
Private datasets, scheduled drafts, and comments/tasks require paid plans
Annual billing unavailable for Growth plan; Enterprise-only

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

Sanity

Free

FreeFree
- Up to 20 seats
- 2 public datasets only
- 10,000 documents included
Growth$15/month
- Up to 50 seats per seat
- 2 private or public datasets
- 25,000 documents included
Enterprise$null/month
- Custom seats
- Custom datasets
- Custom document limits

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.

Ably review

Choose Sanity if

You need content api.
You want to start without paying.
You also want collaborative editing.

Sanity review

Questions people ask

Is Ably or Sanity better?: Neither clearly leads. Ably starts at Free and Sanity at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Ably or Sanity?: Ably starts at Free and Sanity at Free.
Does Ably or Sanity run on more platforms?: Ably runs on web, ios, android, api. Sanity runs on Web.
Can I use Ably for free?: Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
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 Sanity is typically brought in for.
What can Ably do that Sanity cannot?: Ably covers Pub/sub messaging, Presence, Message persistence, Multi-protocol support. Sanity covers Content API, Collaborative editing, Structured content, Webhooks.

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.

Source

Sanity: What does the Sanity Free plan include?

The Free plan includes up to 20 seats, 2 public datasets, 10,000 documents, 1 million API CDN requests per month, and 2 permission roles.

Source

Ably: 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.

Source

Sanity: How much does Sanity Growth plan cost per user?

The Growth plan costs $15 per seat per month, with up to 50 seats, and includes 25,000 documents, 1 million API CDN requests, and 5 permission roles.

Source

Ably: 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.

Source

Sanity: What is included in Sanity Enterprise pricing?

Enterprise pricing is custom and requires contacting sales. It includes custom seat limits, custom datasets, Single Sign-On, and dedicated support.

Source

Sanity: Does Sanity offer annual billing discounts?

Annual and invoice payment options are available exclusively for Enterprise customers. Self-serve plans (Free and Growth) use monthly billing only.

Source

Ably vs Sanity

Ably

Sanity

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Ably

Only in Sanity

What people use each for

Ably

Sanity

Where each one falls short

Ably

Sanity

Pricing, plan by plan

Ably

Sanity

Which should you pick?

Choose Ably if

Choose Sanity if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Ably

More on Sanity

Keep looking

Other head to heads