Amazon SNS vs Lightstreamer

	Amazon SNS	Lightstreamer
Time to "hello world" Reviewed by 3+ independent developers Ratings were given based on the average amount of time it takes to sign up to a new account and publish the first message.	4 / 5 5 = <30 min 4 = 30 min - 1 h 3 = 1-2 h 2 = 2-4 h 1 = 4+ h View code example	2 / 5 5 = <30 min 4 = 30 min - 1 h 3 = 1-2 h 2 = 2-4 h 1 = 4+ h View code example
Demos / Tutorials A selection of online demos and tutorials so you can test and see the code in action. Explore Ably's tutorials for our pub/sub messaging platform	Send fanout event notifications with Amazon SNS and Amazon SQS Publish Amazon SNS messages privately Filter messages published to topics with Amazon SNS and Amazon SQS	Basic chat demo in iOS / Swift Stock-List demo in Android / Kotlin Portfolio demo with .NET
Documentation Reviewed by 3+ independent developers Explore Ably's documentation for our pub/sub messaging platform	4 / 5 Getting started guides / 5 Information architecture and developer journey / 5 API reference documentation / 5 Readability, design and navigation / 5 Quality of code / 5 Breadth and quality of tutorials / 5 "The Amazon documentation is comprehensive and, unlike many other products, clearly states what you can use Amazon SNS for. Several pages are dedicated to explaining in detail how FIFO topics (which provide superior quality of service) work. Overall, the developer guide might not deserve its name since it’s mostly a product guide. Its primary focus is on explaining things conceptually and performing operations in the AWS console. There’s a limited number of code snippets embedded in the dev guide, and only in a couple of languages. Fortunately, the API documentation is very detailed, although it’s inconsistently presented across languages, and you won’t always find code snippets in your language of choice. The official tutorials are poor, only cover some basics, and focus almost entirely on the AWS console."	2.50 / 5 Getting started guides / 5 Information architecture and developer journey / 5 API reference documentation / 5 Readability, design and navigation / 5 Quality of code / 5 Breadth and quality of tutorials / 5 “Lightstreamer documentation is overall disappointing. First of all, it’s all over the place in terms of format: from GitHub READMEs to the most basic of HTML pages to PDFs. There’s even a slide deck. Resources are seldom cross-linked, which makes the docs hard to follow. The entire design of the website is from the last century. It’s aesthetically hideous, and the navigation experience is underwhelming. The only positive things are the API reference, which is quite comprehensive, and the GitHub tutorials, which are explained well.“
Dashboard or dev console Reviewed by 3+ independent developers Sign up for free and explore Ably's pub/sub messaging platform	4 / 5 Ease of use / 5 Stats and reports / 5 Functionality / 5 "Getting started with the SNS console as a new user can be a confusing and slightly painful experience (unless you look at the documentation in parallel). That’s because the website itself is clunky and not very easy to navigate. On the other hand, the console allows you to configure your pipeline down to the smallest details, so it’s hard to wrap up all the existing features in an easy to use package. The reporting available is good, but there’s always room for improvement. Analytics on message origin would be beneficial."	4 / 5 Ease of use / 5 Stats and reports / 5 Functionality / 5 “Lightstreamer provides a monitoring dashboard that shows various realtime metrics and stats related to the server-side, such as connections, sessions, or throughput. The event log is pretty useful, showing successful operations/events, warnings, and errors. It’s intuitive and straightforward to use, although the UI is dull and ugly. Unfortunately, there’s no dev console or portal with more extensive functionality to allow you to create and manage resources.“
SDKs Note: Only official SDKs were taken into account. Explore Ably's 25+ SDKs for our pub/sub messaging platform	9 SDKs Including: Ruby .NET JavaScript	10 production-ready client SDKs Including: Android iOS Node.js
API structure Reviewed by 3+ independent developers	3.75 / 5 API consistency across SDKs / 5 Well structured / 5 Intuitive / 5 Simple / 5 "The API has a good naming convention, which makes it intuitive. Syntactically, the API structure is mostly uniform across different programming languages. The extensive API reference is an invaluable resource for getting started with Amazon SNS. It’s not the most straightforward service to use - for example, the opt-in process for e-mail and SMS notifications is cumbersome, and there aren’t enough debugging options."	3.25 / 5 API consistency across SDKs / 5 Well structured / 5 Intuitive / 5 Simple / 5 “Lightstreamer provides APIs covering many languages, operating systems, and development platforms, such as Java, .NET, JavaScript, or iOS. There’s a separate API reference page for each SDK - a highlight in otherwise mediocre documentation. The references are pretty detailed, and the APIs are fairly well structured and consistent across SDKs. But they aren’t simple, and it takes some time to wrap your head around them. They perhaps don’t have the most intuitive naming conventions, and the code samples included are not as clear as they could be“.

Amazon SNS

Lightstreamer

Getting started and developer experience

Time to "hello world"

Reviewed by 3+ independent developers

Ratings were given based on the average amount of time it takes to sign up to a new account and publish the first message.

4 / 5

5 = <30 min
4 = 30 min - 1 h
3 = 1-2 h
2 = 2-4 h
1 = 4+ h

View code example

2 / 5

5 = <30 min
4 = 30 min - 1 h
3 = 1-2 h
2 = 2-4 h
1 = 4+ h

View code example

Demos / Tutorials

A selection of online demos and tutorials so you can test and see the code in action.

Explore Ably's tutorials for our pub/sub messaging platform

Documentation

Reviewed by 3+ independent developers

Explore Ably's documentation for our pub/sub messaging platform

4 / 5

Getting started guides / 5

Information architecture and developer journey / 5

API reference documentation / 5

Readability, design and navigation / 5

Quality of code / 5

Breadth and quality of tutorials / 5

"The Amazon documentation is comprehensive and, unlike many other products, clearly states what you can use Amazon SNS for. Several pages are dedicated to explaining in detail how FIFO topics (which provide superior quality of service) work. Overall, the developer guide might not deserve its name since it’s mostly a product guide. Its primary focus is on explaining things conceptually and performing operations in the AWS console. There’s a limited number of code snippets embedded in the dev guide, and only in a couple of languages. Fortunately, the API documentation is very detailed, although it’s inconsistently presented across languages, and you won’t always find code snippets in your language of choice. The official tutorials are poor, only cover some basics, and focus almost entirely on the AWS console."

2.50 / 5

Getting started guides / 5

Information architecture and developer journey / 5

API reference documentation / 5

Readability, design and navigation / 5

Quality of code / 5

Breadth and quality of tutorials / 5

“Lightstreamer documentation is overall disappointing. First of all, it’s all over the place in terms of format: from GitHub READMEs to the most basic of HTML pages to PDFs. There’s even a slide deck. Resources are seldom cross-linked, which makes the docs hard to follow. The entire design of the website is from the last century. It’s aesthetically hideous, and the navigation experience is underwhelming. The only positive things are the API reference, which is quite comprehensive, and the GitHub tutorials, which are explained well.“

Dashboard or dev console

Reviewed by 3+ independent developers

4 / 5

Ease of use / 5

Stats and reports / 5

Functionality / 5

"Getting started with the SNS console as a new user can be a confusing and slightly painful experience (unless you look at the documentation in parallel). That’s because the website itself is clunky and not very easy to navigate. On the other hand, the console allows you to configure your pipeline down to the smallest details, so it’s hard to wrap up all the existing features in an easy to use package. The reporting available is good, but there’s always room for improvement. Analytics on message origin would be beneficial."

4 / 5

Ease of use / 5

Stats and reports / 5

Functionality / 5

“Lightstreamer provides a monitoring dashboard that shows various realtime metrics and stats related to the server-side, such as connections, sessions, or throughput. The event log is pretty useful, showing successful operations/events, warnings, and errors. It’s intuitive and straightforward to use, although the UI is dull and ugly. Unfortunately, there’s no dev console or portal with more extensive functionality to allow you to create and manage resources.“

SDKs

Note: Only official SDKs were taken into account.

Explore Ably's 25+ SDKs for our pub/sub messaging platform

9 SDKs

Including:

Ruby
.NET
JavaScript

10 production-ready client SDKs

Including:

Android
iOS
Node.js

API structure

Reviewed by 3+ independent developers

3.75 / 5

API consistency across SDKs / 5

Well structured / 5

Intuitive / 5

Simple / 5

"The API has a good naming convention, which makes it intuitive. Syntactically, the API structure is mostly uniform across different programming languages. The extensive API reference is an invaluable resource for getting started with Amazon SNS. It’s not the most straightforward service to use - for example, the opt-in process for e-mail and SMS notifications is cumbersome, and there aren’t enough debugging options."

3.25 / 5

API consistency across SDKs / 5

Well structured / 5

Intuitive / 5

Simple / 5

“Lightstreamer provides APIs covering many languages, operating systems, and development platforms, such as Java, .NET, JavaScript, or iOS. There’s a separate API reference page for each SDK - a highlight in otherwise mediocre documentation. The references are pretty detailed, and the APIs are fairly well structured and consistent across SDKs. But they aren’t simple, and it takes some time to wrap your head around them. They perhaps don’t have the most intuitive naming conventions, and the code samples included are not as clear as they could be“.

Amazon SNS	Lightstreamer
//PUBLISH MESSAGE // Load the AWS SDK for Node.js var AWS = require('aws-sdk'); // Set region AWS.config.update({region: 'REGION'}); // Create promise and SNS service object var createTopicPromise = new AWS.SNS({apiVersion: '2010-03-31'}).createTopic({Name: "TOPIC_NAME"}).promise(); // Handle promise's fulfilled/rejected states createTopicPromise.then( function(data) { console.log("Topic ARN is " + data.TopicArn); }).catch( function(err) { console.error(err, err.stack); }); //SUBSCRIBE TO A TOPIC // Load the AWS SDK for Node.js var AWS = require('aws-sdk'); // Set region AWS.config.update({region: 'REGION'}); // Create subscribe/email parameters var params = { Protocol: 'EMAIL', /* required / TopicArn: 'TOPIC_ARN', / required */ Endpoint: 'EMAIL_ADDRESS' }; // Create promise and SNS service object var subscribePromise = new AWS.SNS({apiVersion: '2010-03-31'}).subscribe(params).promise(); // Handle promise's fulfilled/rejected states subscribePromise.then( function(data) { console.log("Subscription ARN is " + data.SubscriptionArn); }).catch( function(err) { console.error(err, err.stack); });	// Lightstreamer server // Data adapter xml file <?xml version="1.0"?> <adapters_conf id="HELLOWORLD"> <metadata_provider> <adapter_class>com.lightstreamer.adapters.metadata.LiteralBasedProvider</adapter_class> </metadata_provider> <data_provider> <adapter_class>HelloWorldDataAdapter</adapter_class> </data_provider> </adapters_conf> // Package.json file for server requirements configuration { "requires": true, "lockfileVersion": 1, "dependencies": { "lightstreamer-client-web": { "version": "8.0.2", "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/lightstreamer-client-web/-/lightstreamer-client-web-8.0.2.tgz", "integrity": "sha512-UFEtoW+K2H+9PZNqdVGD6TqCBZNbsjC3TuZn5M1ee6D/aXlR8yzruKBXfQNdD0pgcpgpcKoMd/dyfeZxOf6EIg==" } } } // Lightstreamer client // HTML file with importing lightstreamer.min.js and require.js <html> <head> <title>Hello World with Lightstreamer</title> <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/require.js/2.3.6/require.js"></script> <script src="lightstreamer.min.js" data-lightstreamer-ns="Ls"></script> </head> <body> <div data-source="lightstreamer" data-grid="hellogrid" data-item="greetings" data-field="message">loading...</div> <div data-source="lightstreamer" data-grid="hellogrid" data-item="greetings" data-field="timestamp">loading...</div>

Amazon SNS

Lightstreamer

"Hello world" code example

//PUBLISH MESSAGE
// Load the AWS SDK for Node.js
var AWS = require('aws-sdk');
// Set region
AWS.config.update({region: 'REGION'});

// Create promise and SNS service object
var createTopicPromise = new AWS.SNS({apiVersion: '2010-03-31'}).createTopic({Name: "TOPIC_NAME"}).promise();

// Handle promise's fulfilled/rejected states
createTopicPromise.then(
  function(data) {
    console.log("Topic ARN is " + data.TopicArn);
  }).catch(
    function(err) {
    console.error(err, err.stack);
  });

//SUBSCRIBE TO A TOPIC
// Load the AWS SDK for Node.js
var AWS = require('aws-sdk');
// Set region
AWS.config.update({region: 'REGION'});

// Create subscribe/email parameters
var params = {
  Protocol: 'EMAIL', /* required */
  TopicArn: 'TOPIC_ARN', /* required */
  Endpoint: 'EMAIL_ADDRESS'
};

// Create promise and SNS service object
var subscribePromise = new AWS.SNS({apiVersion: '2010-03-31'}).subscribe(params).promise();

// Handle promise's fulfilled/rejected states
subscribePromise.then(
  function(data) {
    console.log("Subscription ARN is " + data.SubscriptionArn);
  }).catch(
    function(err) {
    console.error(err, err.stack);
  });

// Lightstreamer server 

// Data adapter xml file

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<adapters_conf id="HELLOWORLD">
    <metadata_provider>
        <adapter_class>com.lightstreamer.adapters.metadata.LiteralBasedProvider</adapter_class>
    </metadata_provider>
    <data_provider>
        <adapter_class>HelloWorldDataAdapter</adapter_class>
    </data_provider>
</adapters_conf>

// Package.json file for server requirements configuration

{
  "requires": true,
  "lockfileVersion": 1,
  "dependencies": {
    "lightstreamer-client-web": {
      "version": "8.0.2",
      "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/lightstreamer-client-web/-/lightstreamer-client-web-8.0.2.tgz",
      "integrity": "sha512-UFEtoW+K2H+9PZNqdVGD6TqCBZNbsjC3TuZn5M1ee6D/aXlR8yzruKBXfQNdD0pgcpgpcKoMd/dyfeZxOf6EIg=="
    }
  }
}

// Lightstreamer client 

// HTML file with importing lightstreamer.min.js and require.js

<html>
  <head>
    <title>Hello World with Lightstreamer</title>
    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/require.js/2.3.6/require.js"></script>
    <script src="lightstreamer.min.js" data-lightstreamer-ns="Ls"></script>
  </head>

  <body>
    <div data-source="lightstreamer" data-grid="hellogrid" data-item="greetings" data-field="message">loading...</div>
    <div data-source="lightstreamer" data-grid="hellogrid" data-item="greetings" data-field="timestamp">loading...</div>

	Amazon SNS	Lightstreamer
Pub/Sub messaging Pub/Sub is a design pattern that lets any number of publishers (producers) push messages to channels (also known as topics). Multiple subscribers (consumers) can subscribe to a channel to consume published messages. Explore Ably's pub/sub messaging implementation
Message queues A message queue is a form of asynchronous service-to-service communication. Messages are stored on a queue until they are processed. Note that each message is only consumed by one subscriber (consumer). Explore Ably's message queues implementation	Limited Amazon SNS integrates with Amazon SQS (Simple Queue Service) in order to offer traditional message queue functionality. However, Amazon SNS does not provide message queues by itself.	Limited Queues are supported only via the Lightstreamer JMS Extender, which connects to any third-party JMS server and makes JMS (Java Message Service) available on the Web. Any HTML page running inside a web browser and any Node.js application instantly become JMS clients, able to publish and subscribe on JMS topics and queues.
Presence Presence enables you to track the online and offline status of devices and end-users in real time and to store their state. Essential for chat apps and multiplayer games. Explore Ably's presence implementation
Message history Message history provides a means to retrieve previously published messages. For this to be possible, message data must be stored (persisted) somewhere. Explore Ably's message history implementation
Connection state recovery (stream resume) In the case of unreliable network conditions, clients may suddenly disconnect.Connection state recovery ensures that when they reconnect, the data stream resumes exactly where it left off. Explore Ably' s connection state recovery implementation	N/A
Guaranteed message ordering Ordering ensures that messages are delivered to consumers in the same order that producers publish them. Explore Ably' s guaranteed message ordering implementation	Limited Amazon SNS guarantees message ordering via FIFO topics. However, ordering is only guaranteed when sending messages to Amazon SQS FIFO queues.
Exactly-once semantics Exactly-once is a system-wide data integrity guarantee that ensures each message is delivered to consumers exactly-once. Explore Ably' s idempotent publishing implementation	Limited Amazon SNS guarantees exactly-once semantics via FIFO topics. However, it only supports exactly-once when sending messages to Amazon SQS FIFO queues.
Message delta compression Message delta compression enables you to only send the changes from the previous message to subscribers each time there’s an update, instead of the entire message. Useful for use cases where there is a significant degree of similarity between successive messages. Explore Ably' s message delta compression implementation
Native push notifications Native push notifications can be used to deliver messages even when clients are offline. Useful for geolocation updates or news alerts. Explore Ably's push notifications implementation
Webhooks Webhooks provide a mechanism to get messages and other types of events (such as clients entering or leaving channels) pushed to your servers over HTTP. Explore Ably's webhooks implementation
Serverless functions A serverless function is essentially an isolated, single-purpose piece of code that is only executed when it’ triggered by an event. For example, you can use serverless functions to send a welcome message to clients when they become present on chat channels. Note that serverless functions are usually fully managed by cloud vendors. Explore Ably's serverless functions implementation	Limited Can only invoke AWS Lambda Functions. Amazon SNS does not support other serverless platforms, such as Azure Functions or Google Cloud Functions.
Built-in integrations Which popular services & systems are Amazon SNS and Lightstreamer integrated with? Explore Ably's library of integrations	Webhooks Custom IFTTT Zapier Serverless functions AWS Lambda Cloudflare Workers Google Cloud Functions Microsoft Azure Functions Streaming Apache Kafka Apache Pulsar Amazon Kinesis Amazon SQS RabbitMQ AMQP	Webhooks Custom IFTTT Zapier Serverless functions AWS Lambda Cloudflare Workers Google Cloud Functions Microsoft Azure Functions Streaming Apache Kafka Apache Pulsar Amazon Kinesis Amazon SQS RabbitMQ AMQP
Known limits and constraints Find out practical limits, such as the maximum message size, or the maximum number of concurrent connections. Explore the practical limits of the Ably pub/sub messaging platform	Publisher throughput Default quota of 20 SMS messages per second, and 10 email messages per second. Maximum message size 256 KB Maximum number of topics Default quota of 100.000 standard topics/account and 1.000 FIFO topics/account Maximum number of subscriptions Default quota of 12.500.000 subscriptions / standard topic and 100 subscriptions / FIFO topic	Throughput Depends on server capacity (Enterprise and Enterprise Ultimate packages). 1 message/second for each subscription done by each client (community/free package). Maximum message size Unknown Maximum number of channels Unknown Maximum number of concurrent connections Depends on server capacity

Amazon SNS

Lightstreamer

Realtime features

Pub/Sub messaging

Pub/Sub is a design pattern that lets any number of publishers (producers) push messages to channels (also known as topics). Multiple subscribers (consumers) can subscribe to a channel to consume published messages.

Explore Ably's pub/sub messaging implementation

Message queues

A message queue is a form of asynchronous service-to-service communication. Messages are stored on a queue until they are processed. Note that each message is only consumed by one subscriber (consumer).

Explore Ably's message queues implementation

Limited

Amazon SNS integrates with Amazon SQS (Simple Queue Service) in order to offer traditional message queue functionality. However, Amazon SNS does not provide message queues by itself.

Limited

Queues are supported only via the Lightstreamer JMS Extender, which connects to any third-party JMS server and makes JMS (Java Message Service) available on the Web. Any HTML page running inside a web browser and any Node.js application instantly become JMS clients, able to publish and subscribe on JMS topics and queues.

Presence

Presence enables you to track the online and offline status of devices and end-users in real time and to store their state. Essential for chat apps and multiplayer games.

Explore Ably's presence implementation

Message history

Message history provides a means to retrieve previously published messages. For this to be possible, message data must be stored (persisted) somewhere.

Explore Ably's message history implementation

Connection state recovery (stream resume)

In the case of unreliable network conditions, clients may suddenly disconnect.Connection state recovery ensures that when they reconnect, the data stream resumes exactly where it left off.

Explore Ably' s connection state recovery implementation

N/A

Guaranteed message ordering

Ordering ensures that messages are delivered to consumers in the same order that producers publish them.

Explore Ably' s guaranteed message ordering implementation

Limited

Amazon SNS guarantees message ordering via FIFO topics. However, ordering is only guaranteed when sending messages to Amazon SQS FIFO queues.

Exactly-once semantics

Exactly-once is a system-wide data integrity guarantee that ensures each message is delivered to consumers exactly-once.

Explore Ably' s idempotent publishing implementation

Limited

Amazon SNS guarantees exactly-once semantics via FIFO topics. However, it only supports exactly-once when sending messages to Amazon SQS FIFO queues.

Message delta compression

Message delta compression enables you to only send the changes from the previous message to subscribers each time there’s an update, instead of the entire message. Useful for use cases where there is a significant degree of similarity between successive messages.

Explore Ably' s message delta compression implementation

Native push notifications

Native push notifications can be used to deliver messages even when clients are offline. Useful for geolocation updates or news alerts.

Explore Ably's push notifications implementation

Webhooks

Webhooks provide a mechanism to get messages and other types of events (such as clients entering or leaving channels) pushed to your servers over HTTP.

Explore Ably's webhooks implementation

Serverless functions

A serverless function is essentially an isolated, single-purpose piece of code that is only executed when it’ triggered by an event. For example, you can use serverless functions to send a welcome message to clients when they become present on chat channels.

Note that serverless functions are usually fully managed by cloud vendors.

Explore Ably's serverless functions implementation

Limited

Can only invoke AWS Lambda Functions. Amazon SNS does not support other serverless platforms, such as Azure Functions or Google Cloud Functions.

Built-in integrations

Which popular services & systems are Amazon SNS and Lightstreamer integrated with?

Explore Ably's library of integrations

Webhooks

Custom
IFTTT
Zapier

Serverless functions

AWS Lambda
Cloudflare Workers
Google Cloud Functions
Microsoft Azure Functions

Streaming

Apache Kafka
Apache Pulsar
Amazon Kinesis
Amazon SQS
RabbitMQ
AMQP

Webhooks

Custom
IFTTT
Zapier

Serverless functions

AWS Lambda
Cloudflare Workers
Google Cloud Functions
Microsoft Azure Functions

Streaming

Apache Kafka
Apache Pulsar
Amazon Kinesis
Amazon SQS
RabbitMQ
AMQP

Known limits and constraints

Find out practical limits, such as the maximum message size, or the maximum number of concurrent connections.

Explore the practical limits of the Ably pub/sub messaging platform

Publisher throughput

Default quota of 20 SMS messages per second, and 10 email messages per second.

Maximum message size

256 KB

Maximum number of topics

Default quota of 100.000 standard topics/account and 1.000 FIFO topics/account

Maximum number of subscriptions

Default quota of 12.500.000 subscriptions / standard topic and 100 subscriptions / FIFO topic

Throughput

Depends on server capacity (Enterprise and Enterprise Ultimate packages).

1 message/second for each subscription done by each client (community/free package).

Maximum message size

Unknown

Maximum number of channels

Unknown

Maximum number of concurrent connections

Depends on server capacity

Supported development platforms, languages, open protocols and cloud models
Development platforms & operating systems Which popular development platforms and operating systems do Amazon SNS and Lightstreamer support via official SDKs? Explore the development platforms supported by Ably	Android Java / JVM iOS macOS iPadOS tvOS watchOS Mono .NET	Android Java / JVM iOS macOS iPadOS tvOS watchOS Mono .NET
Languages Which popular programming languages do Amazon SNS and Lightstreamer support via offical SDKs? Explore the programming languages supported by Ably	JavaScript Node.js TypeScript Java Objective-C Swift Go PHP Python Ruby Flutter Clojure Scala	JavaScript Node.js TypeScript Java Objective-C Swift Go PHP Python Ruby Flutter Clojure Scala
Open protocols Which popular open protocols do Amazon SNS and Lightstreamer support? Explore the open protocols supported by Ably	WebSocket HTTP AMQP MQTT STOMP SSE Webhooks	WebSocket HTTP AMQP MQTT STOMP SSE Webhooks
Cloud models Which popular cloud models do Amazon SNS and Lightstreamer support?	Self-hosted Cloud-managed Serverless Globally-distributed	Self-hosted Cloud-managed Serverless Globally-distributed

Global and reliable edge service
Edge messaging network with latency-based routing Latency-based routing ensures that clients are always routed to the nearest datacenter and point of presence. Explore Ably's routing mechanism that mitigates network and DNS issues
Multi-region data replication (message durability) Multi-region data replication (storage) protects against single points of failure and ensures message data durability. Learn how Ably ensures message durability
Uptime SLAs Here’s what the most common SLAs amount to in terms of downtime over a calendar year: 99.999% SLA = 5m 15s downtime per year 99.99% SLA = 52m 35s downtime per year 99.95% SLA = 4h 22m 58s downtime per year 99.9% SLA = 8h 45m 56s downtime per year 99% SLA = 3d 15h 39m 29s downtime per year Source: https://uptime.is/	99.9%	Unknown
Quality of Service What QoS guarantees do Amazon SNS and Lightstreamer provide natively? Explore Ably's availability and uptime guarantees for our pub/sub messaging platform	Multi-region data replication (storage) Exactly-once semantics Guaranteed message ordering Connection state recovery (stream resume)	Multi-region data replication (storage) Exactly-once semantics Guaranteed message ordering Connection state recovery (stream resume)

Security
API key authentication The simplest way to authenticate. Involves using private API keys that you can usually create and edit via a dashboard. Recommended to be used server-side, as private API keys shouldn’t be shared with untrusted parties. Explore Ably's implementation of API key authentication		Limited Lightstreamer authentication involves the usage of user & password credentials.
Token-based authentication Which popular token-based authentication mechanisms do Amazon SNS and Lightstreamer support? Note that token-based authentication is usually the recommended strategy on the client-side as it provides more fine-grained access control and limits the risk of credentials being compromised. Explore Ably's implementation of token-based authentication	Ephemeral tokens JWTs	Ephemeral tokens JWTs
Configurable rules and permissions Which types of configurable rules and permissions do Amazon SNS and Lightstreamer support? Explore Ably's configurable rules and permissions	API keys rules and permissions Operation rules and permissions Admin rights	API keys rules and permissions Operation rules and permissions Admin rights
Message encryption Which types of message encryption do Amazon SNS and Lightstreamer support? Explore Ably's message encryption mechanisms	Encrypted at rest Encrypted in transit Message payload encryption	Encrypted at rest Encrypted in transit Message payload encryption
Formal certifications Which formal certifications are Amazon SNS and Lightstreamer compliant with? Explore Ably's security and compliance for our pub/sub messaging platform	SOC 2 TYPE I SOC 2 Type II HIPAA EU GDPR	SOC 2 TYPE I SOC 2 Type II HIPAA EU GDPR

Pricing & Support
Free package What do the free packages offered by Amazon SNS and Lightstreamer consist of? Explore Ably's free package for our pub/sub messaging platform	Each month, Amazon SNS offers the following for free, but only for Standard topics: - 1 million requests per month - 100 SMS notifications (sent to US phone numbers) -1.000 Email/JSON notifications - 100.000 HTTP/s notifications Note: with the exception of SMS messages, each 64KB chunk of delivered data is billed as 1 delivery. For example, a single notification with a 256KB payload is billed as four deliveries.	Lightstreamer’s free package (the community edition) provides a license for one server and unlimited clients. However, the message rate is throttled at one message per second, and some features are unavailable (such as clustering or TLS support).
Pricing model How are the Amazon SNS and Lightstreamer pricing models calculated? Explore Ably's pricing model for our pub/sub messaging platform	Amazon SNS pricing is usage-based. Standard topics Once you deplete the free tier usage, the pricing is: - $0.50 per million Amazon SNS requests - $0.50 per million mobile push notifications - $2 per 100.000 email/JSON notifications - $0.60 per million HTTP/s notifications FIFO topics Pricing is calculated based on the number of published messages, the number of subscribed messages, and payload data: - publish requests are $0.30 per 1 million and $0.017 per GB of payload data - subscription messages are $0.01 per 1 million and $0.001 per GB of payload data Data transfer out of Amazon SNS is also charged. Pricing varies depending on the volume of data. For example, the first 1 GB per month is free, while the next 9.999 TB costs $0.09 per GB. Note that we have used US East (Ohio) as a reference point, but the pricing values differ across regions.	Lightstreamer has a complex and confusing pricing model. First, you must choose between the community edition (free) and the enterprise edition (paid). When you select enterprise, you must then opt between the Enterprise or the Enterprise Ultimate package (the latter includes all client APIs, superior message rates, and all features). On top of this, you must choose a licensing scheme, of which there are six options in total. Some examples: Perpetual Upfront per Server License, Monthly Pay-as-you-go Per Core-Hour License, Annual Upfront per Client Licence. Once you choose a licensing scheme, you must also choose a license type, such as Demo, Evaluation, Production, or Hot-Standby. There’s no transparency regarding cost estimation or concrete numbers (at least not on their website).
Enterprise package What benefits do the Amazon SNS and Lightstreamer enterprise packages offer? Explore Ably's enterprise package for our pub/sub messaging platform	There is no Amazon SNS-specific enterprise package.	Lightstreamer has an Enterprise Ultimate package that includes all client APIs (different programming languages), provides unlimited messages without throttling, and grants access to all features.
Community Reviewed by 3+ independent developers Explore Ably's community support channel for our pub/sub messaging platform	4 / 5 Presence on multiple channels / 5 Size and activity / 5 “The global AWS community is present on a multitude of platforms, ranging from Stack Overflow and GitHub to Medium, Discourse, and even Reddit. Of course, the SNS community is significantly smaller in size, but objectively speaking, still pretty big. To be more specific, there seem to be a lot of people interested in the product. If you look at the AWS SNS forum, you can see that some of the threads have even 20.000 or 30.000 views. Unfortunately, there seem to be a lot of questions without an answer. You can find some cool stuff on GitHub, such as an extended client library for Java that enables you to publish messages bigger than 256 KB.“	2 / 5 Presence on multiple channels / 5 Size and activity / 5 “The Lightstreamer community is small. There is some activity going on on the Lightstreamer forums - usually people raising issues and asking for clarifications that arguably should have been clear from the documentation. Beyond forums, the Lightstreamer community is basically non-existent. There are only about 30 threads in total on Stack Overflow, and, although there are over 140 Lightstreamer repos on GitHub, they barely have a few stars or open issues and almost no pull requests.“
Support What types of support options and response times do Amazon SNS and Lightstreamer offer? Explore Ably's support options for our pub/sub messaging platform	General support options Email, support ticket, phone, technical documentation, community support (e.g. forums or Stack Overflow). Enterprise support Amazon offers an enterprise package, which includes 24/7 phone, email, and chat access to Cloud Support Engineers, Infrastructure Event Management support, and a designated technical account manager. Response time < 24 hours for general guidance queries < 1 hour for Production system down incidents (only applies to Business & Enterprise support packages).	General support options Email, support forums, phone, technical documentation. Enterprise support Lightstreamer provides 8x5 and 24x7 technical support for enterprise and enterprise ultimate packages. Response time Unknown

Pricing & Support

Free package

What do the free packages offered by Amazon SNS and Lightstreamer consist of?

Explore Ably's free package for our pub/sub messaging platform

Each month, Amazon SNS offers the following for free, but only for Standard topics:

- 1 million requests per month

- 100 SMS notifications (sent to US phone numbers)

-1.000 Email/JSON notifications

- 100.000 HTTP/s notifications

Note: with the exception of SMS messages, each 64KB chunk of delivered data is billed as 1 delivery. For example, a single notification with a 256KB payload is billed as four deliveries.

Lightstreamer’s free package (the community edition) provides a license for one server and unlimited clients. However, the message rate is throttled at one message per second, and some features are unavailable (such as clustering or TLS support).

Pricing model

How are the Amazon SNS and Lightstreamer pricing models calculated?

Explore Ably's pricing model for our pub/sub messaging platform

Amazon SNS pricing is usage-based.

Standard topics

Once you deplete the free tier usage, the pricing is:

- $0.50 per million Amazon SNS requests

- $0.50 per million mobile push notifications

- $2 per 100.000 email/JSON notifications

- $0.60 per million HTTP/s notifications

FIFO topics

Pricing is calculated based on the number of published messages, the number of subscribed messages, and payload data:

- publish requests are $0.30 per 1 million and $0.017 per GB of payload data

- subscription messages are $0.01 per 1 million and $0.001 per GB of payload data

Data transfer out of Amazon SNS is also charged. Pricing varies depending on the volume of data. For example, the first 1 GB per month is free, while the next 9.999 TB costs $0.09 per GB.

Note that we have used US East (Ohio) as a reference point, but the pricing values differ across regions.

Lightstreamer has a complex and confusing pricing model. First, you must choose between the community edition (free) and the enterprise edition (paid). When you select enterprise, you must then opt between the Enterprise or the Enterprise Ultimate package (the latter includes all client APIs, superior message rates, and all features). On top of this, you must choose a licensing scheme, of which there are six options in total. Some examples: Perpetual Upfront per Server License, Monthly Pay-as-you-go Per Core-Hour License, Annual Upfront per Client Licence.

Once you choose a licensing scheme, you must also choose a license type, such as Demo, Evaluation, Production, or Hot-Standby.

There’s no transparency regarding cost estimation or concrete numbers (at least not on their website).

Enterprise package

What benefits do the Amazon SNS and Lightstreamer enterprise packages offer?

Explore Ably's enterprise package for our pub/sub messaging platform

There is no Amazon SNS-specific enterprise package.

Lightstreamer has an Enterprise Ultimate package that includes all client APIs (different programming languages), provides unlimited messages without throttling, and grants access to all features.

Community

Reviewed by 3+ independent developers

Explore Ably's community support channel for our pub/sub messaging platform

4 / 5

Presence on multiple channels / 5

Size and activity / 5

“The global AWS community is present on a multitude of platforms, ranging from Stack Overflow and GitHub to Medium, Discourse, and even Reddit. Of course, the SNS community is significantly smaller in size, but objectively speaking, still pretty big. To be more specific, there seem to be a lot of people interested in the product. If you look at the AWS SNS forum, you can see that some of the threads have even 20.000 or 30.000 views. Unfortunately, there seem to be a lot of questions without an answer. You can find some cool stuff on GitHub, such as an extended client library for Java that enables you to publish messages bigger than 256 KB.“

2 / 5

Presence on multiple channels / 5

Size and activity / 5

“The Lightstreamer community is small. There is some activity going on on the Lightstreamer forums - usually people raising issues and asking for clarifications that arguably should have been clear from the documentation. Beyond forums, the Lightstreamer community is basically non-existent. There are only about 30 threads in total on Stack Overflow, and, although there are over 140 Lightstreamer repos on GitHub, they barely have a few stars or open issues and almost no pull requests.“

Support

What types of support options and response times do Amazon SNS and Lightstreamer offer?

Explore Ably's support options for our pub/sub messaging platform

General support options

Email, support ticket, phone, technical documentation, community support (e.g. forums or Stack Overflow).

Enterprise support

Amazon offers an enterprise package, which includes 24/7 phone, email, and chat access to Cloud Support Engineers, Infrastructure Event Management support, and a designated technical account manager.

Response time

< 24 hours for general guidance queries

< 1 hour for Production system down incidents (only applies to Business & Enterprise support packages).

General support options

Email, support forums, phone, technical documentation.

Enterprise support

Lightstreamer provides 8x5 and 24x7 technical support for enterprise and enterprise ultimate packages.

Response time

Unknown

Disclaimer: The information presented for Amazon SNS was last updated on 30 November 2020 and on 7 December 2020 for Lightstreamer. It is possible that some details may now be out of date. If you think that’s the case, please let us know so we can update them. In any case, you should not rely solely on the information presented here and must check with each provider before deciding to integrate or buy any of these two solutions.

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