Ably vs Bird

Discover how Bird compares to Ably, and understand which is right for your use case, based on dimensions such as scalability, pricing, security, and their chat features.

What is Ably?

Ably is a realtime experience platform that provides APIs and SDKs to power realtime functionality - with no realtime infrastructure to build and maintain. Our application building blocks and integrations enable developers to quickly create live experiences from live chat and data broadcast, to collaborative UXs and notifications.

What is Bird?

Bird (formerly MessageBird) is a cloud communications platform that offers SMS, voice, chat, and video capabilities. It focuses on enabling omnichannel communication for businesses, allowing them to connect with customers across various channels seamlessly.

Compare Ably and Bird

Let’s compare Ably and Bird, looking at key elements of their offering such as their scalability, pricing, security and chat feature set.

Disclaimer: This comparison was created based on documentation and resources freely available online about Ably and Bird. The content was last updated on 30 Apr 2025 for Ably and on 16 May 2025 for Bird. Be sure to double-check everything before you make any decisions. If you do find anything incorrect or out of date, then please let us know.

Hear from companies gaining their realtime advantage with Ably

“

The core infrastructure for delivering live sports data to our customers is Ably. We sleep easier at night knowing it can be relied on for consistent low latency and message integrity at scale.”

Gary Williams

IT Infrastructure Team Lead

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“

Ably immediately solved our issues around the user experience and scale. It supports our customers’ stringent expectations as well as future product development.”

Max Freiert

Product Group Lead

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“

Ably copes easily with big loads. We don’t have to worry about stability, even when we get huge traffic spikes.”

Johan Bengtsson

CTO

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Try Ably for free to discover the benefits for yourself

Ably has built reliable realtime infrastructure so you don’t have to. On our free plan you benefit from:

6M monthly messages
200 concurrent channels
200 concurrent connections

Get started for free Read our docs

	Ably	Bird	Why this matters
Scalability
Concurrent connections	Number of users that can be supported in a single chat.	Ably Yes Unlimited - no additional charge for concurrency. See pricing for details	Bird Unknown.	Number of users that can be supported in a single chat.
Connections	Number of connections that can be handled across the platform.	Ably Yes Unlimited. See pricing for details	Bird Unknown.	Number of connections that can be handled across the platform.
Channels / rooms	Number of channels or rooms that can be handled across the platform.	Ably Yes Unlimited. See pricing for details	Bird Unlimited.	Number of channels or rooms that can be handled across the platform.
Messages	Number of messages that can be handled across the platform.	Ably Unlimited. See pricing for details	Bird Unlimited.	Number of messages that can be handled across the platform.
Message throughput	Number of messsages that can be published per second.	Ably From: 2.5k messages/second in our Standard plan 10k messages/second in Pro Unlimited for Enterprise plans See pricing for details	Bird Not publicly disclosed.	Number of messsages that can be published per second.
Data integrity
Guaranteed message delivery	Ensures messages are never lost during transmission, even in the presence of network disruptions.	Ably Yes	Bird No	Ensures messages are never lost during transmission, even in the presence of network disruptions.
Guaranteed message ordering	Maintains the sequence of messages as they were sent. This is particularly important in apps where the chronological order of messages is essential for meaningful communication.	Ably Yes	Bird No	Maintains the sequence of messages as they were sent. This is particularly important in apps where the chronological order of messages is essential for meaningful communication.
Exactly-once message delivery	Guarantees that each message is processed exactly once, preventing data inconsistencies that can arise from duplicate processing or missing messages.	Ably Yes	Bird No	Guarantees that each message is processed exactly once, preventing data inconsistencies that can arise from duplicate processing or missing messages.
Performance & availability
Uptime Guarantee	An uptime guarantee instills confidence in the reliability of the service and protects your business from the negative impacts of downtime.	Ably 99.999%.	Bird 99.9% uptime/month for Bird API Voice and Bird Dashboard 99.95% uptime/month for SMS Services Read more	An uptime guarantee instills confidence in the reliability of the service and protects your business from the negative impacts of downtime.
Global edge network	By bringing servers (Points of Presence, or PoP) geographically closer to the devices of end users, and routing requests to the nearest PoP, global latency is reduced to a minimum.	Ably Yes All Ably customer data runs across all our 7 geographically-distributed core routing datacenters by default. Ably's network of 385 edge acceleration points-of-presence is growing day by day.	Bird No	By bringing servers (Points of Presence, or PoP) geographically closer to the devices of end users, and routing requests to the nearest PoP, global latency is reduced to a minimum.
Multi-region data replication (message durability)	By replicating data across multiple regions, the risk of data loss or downtime is greatly mitigated since if data is lost or a server fails in one region, the information can be retrieved from another.	Ably Yes	Bird No	By replicating data across multiple regions, the risk of data loss or downtime is greatly mitigated since if data is lost or a server fails in one region, the information can be retrieved from another.
No single point of failure or congestion	Having no single point of failure means a system is resilient and can continue to operate even if one part fails. Avoiding a single point of congestion ensures messages flow efficiently across the system and avoids bottlenecks that could lead to performance issues under load.	Ably Yes	Bird No	Having no single point of failure means a system is resilient and can continue to operate even if one part fails. Avoiding a single point of congestion ensures messages flow efficiently across the system and avoids bottlenecks that could lead to performance issues under load.
Latency	Low latency is crucial for realtime apps as it ensures swift and efficient data transmissions, providing a smoother and more responsive user experience.	Ably <50ms round trip latency for the 99th percentile <35ms latency once traffic arrives within AWS	Bird Unknown.	Low latency is crucial for realtime apps as it ensures swift and efficient data transmissions, providing a smoother and more responsive user experience.
Server-side batching	Reduces the overall message count, lowers costs, and mitigates the risk of hitting rate limits during high-throughput scenarios.	Ably Yes	Bird No	Reduces the overall message count, lowers costs, and mitigates the risk of hitting rate limits during high-throughput scenarios.
Connection state recovery	Automatically re-establish failed connections and replay missed messages.	Ably Yes	Bird No	Automatically re-establish failed connections and replay missed messages.
Ecosystem support
Supported realtime protocols	Support for multiple protocols provides the flexibility to choose a protocol that best suits your project’s requirements.	Ably WebSockets MQTT Server-Sent Events (SSE) Fallback to Comet (XHR) and Long Polling for older browsers	Bird Bird uses SMPP (Short Message Peer-to-Peer) for SMS messaging. Read more	Support for multiple protocols provides the flexibility to choose a protocol that best suits your project’s requirements.
Supported languages	Supporting multiple languages and platforms offers greater flexibility when building cross-platform realtime apps.	Ably JavaScript React Kotlin Swift	Bird PHP Ruby Go Python C# Java NodeJS Read more	Supporting multiple languages and platforms offers greater flexibility when building cross-platform realtime apps.
Chat room types
Multi-type chat support (group, DM, supergroups)	Enables chat experiences to be tailored to various user needs, from one-on-one to large, scalable group discussions.	Ably 1:1 1:many many:many	Bird Bird does not natively support chat rooms as part of its messaging API.	Enables chat experiences to be tailored to various user needs, from one-on-one to large, scalable group discussions.
Chat room management
Presence	Maintaining a view of which users are connected, and their associated metadata, enables their online status to be updated in realtime.	Ably Yes	Bird Partial You can integrate your Bird app with Pusher Channels, which supports presence channels to track and display users’ online status in realtime.	Maintaining a view of which users are connected, and their associated metadata, enables their online status to be updated in realtime.
Occupancy	High-level metrics about the clients currently connected to a channel make it simple to show things such as connected user count, or display which channels are the most popular.	Ably Yes	Bird Partial You can integrate your Bird app with Pusher presence channels for occupancy tracking.	High-level metrics about the clients currently connected to a channel make it simple to show things such as connected user count, or display which channels are the most popular.
Typing indicators	Show when others are typing in a chat room, enhancing realtime communication flow.	Ably Yes Ably Chat provides typing indicators to show when users are composing messages.	Bird No	Show when others are typing in a chat room, enhancing realtime communication flow.
Room reactions	Customize the chat environment with reactions and other shared room states.	Ably Yes Ably Chat supports room-level reactions with a variety of emojis. Ephemeral reactions are not counted or aggregated.	Bird No	Customize the chat environment with reactions and other shared room states.
Chat message attributes
Message edits and deletes	Allow users to modify or remove messages.	Ably Yes Ably Chat supports soft deletion of messages and message edits.	Bird No	Allow users to modify or remove messages.
Message reactions & emoticons	Boost engagement by enabling users to quickly express emotions or feedback on messages.	Ably Yes Ably Chat supports reactions at the room level and message level.	Bird No	Boost engagement by enabling users to quickly express emotions or feedback on messages.
Rich text support	Enhance messages with rich text formatting in chat.	Ably Yes	Bird No	Enhance messages with rich text formatting in chat.
Media attachments	Support for sharing images, videos, and files in chat.	Ably Partial Links are supported.	Bird Yes Bird's File Storage API enables its Conversations API to send messages with files. Bird also has MMS API that enables you to send and receive MMS messages that include multimedia content but only within the US and Canada. Read more	Support for sharing images, videos, and files in chat.
Chat application and user state
In-app notifications	Notify users of important events from other chat rooms without them leaving the current chat, keeping them engaged and informed.	Ably Yes In-app notifications supported via Ably Pub/Sub.	Bird No	Notify users of important events from other chat rooms without them leaving the current chat, keeping them engaged and informed.
Role-based permissions	Control user roles and permissions to ensure proper access and moderation.	Ably No Ably Chat doesn't current support role-based permissions, but will soon.	Bird Yes Bird uses Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) to ensure that only authorized individuals can access critical systems and information. Read more	Control user roles and permissions to ensure proper access and moderation.
UI kit	Customizable UI elements for a seamless chat integration.	Ably No Ably Chat doesn't currently offer a UI kit.	Bird No	Customizable UI elements for a seamless chat integration.
Storage and history
Synchronous - automated moderation	Detect and manage harmful content automatically, before the message is broadcast to participants.	Ably Yes Ably Chat supports synchronous moderation using Hive AI. You can also integrate with a third-party moderation provider.	Bird No	Detect and manage harmful content automatically, before the message is broadcast to participants.
Asynchronous - automated moderation	Detect and manage harmful content automatically, after the message is broadcast to participants.	Ably Yes Ably Chat supports asynchronous moderation using Hive AI. You can also integrate with a third-party moderation provider.	Bird No	Detect and manage harmful content automatically, after the message is broadcast to participants.
Manual moderation via dashboards	Tools for moderators to detect harmful messages and manage them effectively.	Ably Yes Ably Chat supports manual moderation through Hive Dashboard.	Bird No	Tools for moderators to detect harmful messages and manage them effectively.
Ban users	Remove problematic users from the chat to maintain a healthy environment.	Ably Partial Ably Chat doesn't support banning users outright, but you can approximate user banning by revoking user access tokens.	Bird Yes	Remove problematic users from the chat to maintain a healthy environment.
Dev tools
Programmatic management	Enables the automation of provisioning, management, and testing of service resources, simplifying integration with existing development workflows such as CI.	Ably Yes	Bird Yes Bird offers programmatic management through its programmable SMS API. Read more	Enables the automation of provisioning, management, and testing of service resources, simplifying integration with existing development workflows such as CI.
Pricing
Pricing model	The pricing model should align with your project's expected load, usage patterns, and budget in order to be cost-effective and efficient.	Ably Ably offers a per-minute, consumption-based pricing model. This gives granular control over your costs, eliminating the need to pay for peak users or connections.	Bird Bird pricing is based on your targeted monthly contacts (unique user interactions per month on the app). Read more	The pricing model should align with your project's expected load, usage patterns, and budget in order to be cost-effective and efficient.
Pricing illustration	An example price based on 5 live streaming chat events and 50K attendees.	Ably $1029.95 Cost of messages = $1026.95 Cost of connection minutes = $2.00 Cost of channels = $1 Explore the pricing estimator tool	Bird Unable to confirm that 25k concurrent connections can be supported in a single group. Bird is best suited to 1:1 or small group chats.	An example price based on 5 live streaming chat events and 50K attendees.
Free plan	With a free plan, you can test the service’s functionality and compatibility with your project before committing to a paid plan.	Ably Yes	Bird Yes Bird offers a free support plan called Coach. Read more	With a free plan, you can test the service’s functionality and compatibility with your project before committing to a paid plan.
Pricing plans	The pricing plans offered by cost.	Ably The free and paid plans are: Free plan: Up to 6 million monthly messages and 200 concurrent connections Standard plan ($29/month): Up to 10k concurrent connections and channels, and 2.5k messages/second Pro plan ($399/month): Up to 50k concurrent connections and channels, and 10k messages/second Enterprise plan: For committed use, with custom pricing Learn more	Bird Contact-based pricing: Starts from $45/month for 3,000 contacts. Enterprise pricing: Custom for more than 50,000 contacts.	The pricing plans offered by cost.
Support for additional realtime features
Pub/Sub messaging	Reduces communication code complexity, simplifying the process of building highly functional and architecturally complex realtime apps.	Ably Yes Ably provides robust pub/sub messaging capabilities over serverless WebSockets.	Bird No	Reduces communication code complexity, simplifying the process of building highly functional and architecturally complex realtime apps.
Collaboration capabilities	Enables you to quickly integrate realtime collaborative features like live cursors, member location, avatar stacks, and component locking.	Ably Yes The Spaces SDK provides an opinionated set of abstractions for collaborative environments including live cursors, avatar stacks and component locking. Learn more	Bird No	Enables you to quickly integrate realtime collaborative features like live cursors, member location, avatar stacks, and component locking.
Database sync capabilities	Database sync capabilities enable realtime updates between your database and UI, ensuring the UI reflects changes in the database instantly, with data consistency, and without the need for polling.	Ably Yes Ably provides a self-hostable and managed database connector to stream updates over our serverless WebSocket platform. Ably also provides the Models SDK for seamless connector interactions. Learn more	Bird No	Database sync capabilities enable realtime updates between your database and UI, ensuring the UI reflects changes in the database instantly, with data consistency, and without the need for polling.
Notifications	Send notifications directly to users screens, from chat responses to news alerts, or game updates, whether or not an application is open and running.	Ably Yes Support for Android and iOS push notifications. Improved web push for browsers currently in progress.	Bird Partial Bird can supports push notifications through the Pusher Beams API. Read more	Send notifications directly to users screens, from chat responses to news alerts, or game updates, whether or not an application is open and running.
Asset tracking	State-of-the-art asset tracking across last mile logistics, food delivery applications, and urban mobility services.	Ably Yes	Bird Partial Bird can only supports asset tracking when integrated with Pusher Channels which can display the current location of assets on a map in realtime. Read more	State-of-the-art asset tracking across last mile logistics, food delivery applications, and urban mobility services.
Integrations & interoperability
AI models	Allows you to integrate AI models, like GPT, into your app.	Ably Yes Ably Chat supports the integration of AI models for automatic sync moderation.	Bird No	Allows you to integrate AI models, like GPT, into your app.
Serverless functions	Enables integration with third-party cloud providers by facilitating the execution of custom code against messages to perform business logic like on-the-fly translation.	Ably AWS Lambda Microsoft Azure Functions Cloudflare Workers Google Cloud Functions	Bird No	Enables integration with third-party cloud providers by facilitating the execution of custom code against messages to perform business logic like on-the-fly translation.
Streaming & queueing	Provides a dependable method to reroute messages from the service to third-party streams and queues for further processing.	Ably Egress: Kafka Kinesis AMQP SQS Pulsar Ably-hosted queues Ingress: Kafka Connector Postgress (via Database Connector) The Database Connector is designed for any database in the SQL-family, but at the moment only supports Postgres. Please contact us if you want support in other databases.	Bird No	Provides a dependable method to reroute messages from the service to third-party streams and queues for further processing.
Observability services	Enables realtime monitoring and troubleshooting by offering insights into service behavior directly in your observability platform of choice.	Ably Yes	Bird No	Enables realtime monitoring and troubleshooting by offering insights into service behavior directly in your observability platform of choice.
Security & compliance
API key authentication	Simplifies the authentication code on trusted servers compared to requesting, managing, and refreshing tokens.	Ably Yes	Bird Yes	Simplifies the authentication code on trusted servers compared to requesting, managing, and refreshing tokens.
Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication	SSO streamlines login processes, boosts security by minimizing password use, and meets compliance needs for secure data access management.	Ably Yes	Bird Yes Bird CRM provides SSO via OpenID or SAML SSO integration standards. Read more	SSO streamlines login processes, boosts security by minimizing password use, and meets compliance needs for secure data access management.
Rules for permissions and operations	Provides control over which users can subscribe and publish to certain channels.	Ably Yes	Bird Yes Bird implements user permission control within its Inbox platform, which is mainly intended to support the organization of user access and ticket handling through predefined roles and permissions. Read more	Provides control over which users can subscribe and publish to certain channels.
End-to-end encryption	Ensures that the data transmitted between the client and the API server remains confidential and secure while in transit.	Ably Yes Ably offers SSL/TLS encryption and 256-bit AES encryption using private keys. Message payloads can only be decrypted by other clients that share your secret key. Learn more about Ably's encryption	Bird Yes Bird supports end-to-end encryption for WhatsApp. Bird's WhatsApp Business API offers end-to-end encryption for WhatsApp messages. Read more	Ensures that the data transmitted between the client and the API server remains confidential and secure while in transit.
Compliance	Compliance with regulations can impact your ability to meet legal obligations in your industry.	Ably SOC 2 certified HIPAA compliant EU GDPR compliant Ably also offers EU and US-only data storage.	Bird ISO/IEC 27001:2013 SOC 2 Type I & II GDPR HIPAA Read more	Compliance with regulations can impact your ability to meet legal obligations in your industry.