Azure SignalR Service vs Lightstreamer

	Azure SignalR Service	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	Build a serverless realtime app with authentication Build a Blazor Server chat app Use JavaScript to create a chat room with Azure Functions and SignalR Service	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	3.67 / 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 existing documentation is largely OK, most things are explained clearly, and the information is structured logically. Sometimes you may come across pages that were clearly written fast, so the quality of writing may not always be great. There are quickstarts in about seven languages, which is always nice to see, and there’s a diversity of handy how-to guides. Now, for the less positive things. First of all, the API reference seems to be a relatively short page on GitHub and nothing more. Secondly, there are only two tutorials embedded in the docs - and they both focus on building a chat room. More tutorials and more use cases, please! The UI is minimalistic. While sometimes this is a good thing, in this case, it just makes the SignalR documentation (and indeed the product) look and feel like an unimportant or second-hand solution.”	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	4.33 / 5 Ease of use / 5 Stats and reports / 5 Functionality / 5 “The Azure portal is intuitive and pretty easy to use. It provides diverse functionality that allows you to view, create, and manage all the resources you need, such as SingalR instances and connection keys. Among other things, you can also control IAM roles, set up integrations and alerts, and view various logs and metrics, such as the number of connections. More contextual help such as tooltips would be nice, as it’s sometimes unclear what some settings can do."	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	4 SDKs Including: .NET Java JavaScript	10 production-ready client SDKs Including: Android iOS Node.js
API structure Reviewed by 3+ independent developers	4 / 5 API consistency across SDKs / 5 Well structured / 5 Intuitive / 5 Simple / 5 “The API structure is decently consistent, intuitive, and simple across most SDKs. The Python SDK is a bit obscure, especially when you want to make use of Azure Functions. The entire API reference documentation seems to be available only on GitHub (perhaps not the best platform), and there’s not much API documentation in general. There is a Swagger spec, though, which makes testing the API easier.”	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“.

Azure SignalR Service

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

3.67 / 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 existing documentation is largely OK, most things are explained clearly, and the information is structured logically. Sometimes you may come across pages that were clearly written fast, so the quality of writing may not always be great. There are quickstarts in about seven languages, which is always nice to see, and there’s a diversity of handy how-to guides. Now, for the less positive things. First of all, the API reference seems to be a relatively short page on GitHub and nothing more. Secondly, there are only two tutorials embedded in the docs - and they both focus on building a chat room. More tutorials and more use cases, please! The UI is minimalistic. While sometimes this is a good thing, in this case, it just makes the SignalR documentation (and indeed the product) look and feel like an unimportant or second-hand solution.”

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

4.33 / 5

Ease of use / 5

Stats and reports / 5

Functionality / 5

“The Azure portal is intuitive and pretty easy to use. It provides diverse functionality that allows you to view, create, and manage all the resources you need, such as SingalR instances and connection keys. Among other things, you can also control IAM roles, set up integrations and alerts, and view various logs and metrics, such as the number of connections. More contextual help such as tooltips would be nice, as it’s sometimes unclear what some settings can do."

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

4 SDKs

Including:

.NET
Java
JavaScript

10 production-ready client SDKs

Including:

Android
iOS
Node.js

API structure

Reviewed by 3+ independent developers

4 / 5

API consistency across SDKs / 5

Well structured / 5

Intuitive / 5

Simple / 5

“The API structure is decently consistent, intuitive, and simple across most SDKs. The Python SDK is a bit obscure, especially when you want to make use of Azure Functions. The entire API reference documentation seems to be available only on GitHub (perhaps not the best platform), and there’s not much API documentation in general. There is a Swagger spec, though, which makes testing the API easier.”

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“.

Azure SignalR Service	Lightstreamer
// CREATE A HUB public class ChatHub : Hub { public Task SendMessage(string user, string message) { return Clients.All.SendAsync("ReceiveMessage", user, message); } } // SEND MESSAGES TO CLIENTS public Task SendMessage(string user, string message) { return Clients.All.SendAsync("ReceiveMessage", user, message); } public Task SendMessageToCaller(string user, string message) { return Clients.Caller.SendAsync("ReceiveMessage", user, message); } public Task SendMessageToGroup(string user, string message) { return Clients.Group("SignalR Users").SendAsync("ReceiveMessage", user, message); } // CLIENT CONNECTING TO HUB using System; using System.Threading.Tasks; using System.Windows; using Microsoft.AspNetCore.SignalR.Client; namespace SignalRChatClient { public partial class MainWindow : Window { HubConnection connection; public MainWindow() { InitializeComponent(); connection = new HubConnectionBuilder() .WithUrl("http://localhost:53353/ChatHub") .Build(); connection.Closed += async (error) => { await Task.Delay(new Random().Next(0,5) * 1000); await connection.StartAsync(); }; } private async void connectButton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) { connection.On<string, string>("ReceiveMessage", (user, message) => { this.Dispatcher.Invoke(() => { var newMessage = $"{user}: {message}"; messagesList.Items.Add(newMessage); }); }); try { await connection.StartAsync(); messagesList.Items.Add("Connection started"); connectButton.IsEnabled = false; sendButton.IsEnabled = true; } catch (Exception ex) { messagesList.Items.Add(ex.Message); } } private async void sendButton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) { try { await connection.InvokeAsync("SendMessage", userTextBox.Text, messageTextBox.Text); } catch (Exception ex) { messagesList.Items.Add(ex.Message); } } } } // RECEIVE MESSAGES FROM HUB connection.On<string, string>("ReceiveMessage", (user, message) => { this.Dispatcher.Invoke(() => { var newMessage = $"{user}: {message}"; messagesList.Items.Add(newMessage); }); });	// 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>

Azure SignalR Service

Lightstreamer

"Hello world" code example

// CREATE A HUB

public class ChatHub : Hub
{
    public Task SendMessage(string user, string message)
    {
        return Clients.All.SendAsync("ReceiveMessage", user, message);
    }
}

// SEND MESSAGES TO CLIENTS

public Task SendMessage(string user, string message)
{
    return Clients.All.SendAsync("ReceiveMessage", user, message);
}

public Task SendMessageToCaller(string user, string message)
{
    return Clients.Caller.SendAsync("ReceiveMessage", user, message);
}

public Task SendMessageToGroup(string user, string message)
{
    return Clients.Group("SignalR Users").SendAsync("ReceiveMessage", user, message);
}

// CLIENT CONNECTING TO HUB

using System;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Windows;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.SignalR.Client;

namespace SignalRChatClient
{
    public partial class MainWindow : Window
    {
        HubConnection connection;
        public MainWindow()
        {
            InitializeComponent();

            connection = new HubConnectionBuilder()
                .WithUrl("http://localhost:53353/ChatHub")
                .Build();

            connection.Closed += async (error) =>
            {
                await Task.Delay(new Random().Next(0,5) * 1000);
                await connection.StartAsync();
            };
        }

        private async void connectButton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            connection.On<string, string>("ReceiveMessage", (user, message) =>
            {
                this.Dispatcher.Invoke(() =>
                {
                   var newMessage = $"{user}: {message}";
                   messagesList.Items.Add(newMessage);
                });
            });

            try
            {
                await connection.StartAsync();
                messagesList.Items.Add("Connection started");
                connectButton.IsEnabled = false;
                sendButton.IsEnabled = true;
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                messagesList.Items.Add(ex.Message);
            }
        }

        private async void sendButton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            try
            {
                await connection.InvokeAsync("SendMessage", 
                    userTextBox.Text, messageTextBox.Text);
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {                
                messagesList.Items.Add(ex.Message);                
            }
        }
    }
}

// RECEIVE MESSAGES FROM HUB

connection.On<string, string>("ReceiveMessage", (user, message) =>
{
    this.Dispatcher.Invoke(() =>
    {
       var newMessage = $"{user}: {message}";
       messagesList.Items.Add(newMessage);
    });
});

// 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>

	Azure SignalR Service	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	Limited You can use Azure SignalR in combination with backplanes such as Redis or Event Grid, which support the pub/sub model. Azure SignalR service is essentially a proxy for client-server communication and does not provide pub/sub capabilities by itself.
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 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
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
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
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	Limited You can send webhooks to Azure SignalR Service via bindings for Azure Functions. However, SignalR Service can only consume webhooks, but it cannot send webhooks to other systems.
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 trigger Azure Functions. Azure SignalR Service doesn’t have in-built support for other serverless platforms, such as AWS Lambda or Google Cloud Functions.
Built-in integrations Which popular services & systems are Azure SignalR Service 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	Throughput Unknown Maximum message size No size limit. Large messages are split into smaller chunks (max 2 KB), transmitted separately, and reassembled on the consumer side. Maximum number of units 100 SignalR Service units (sub-instances) per instance (applies to the Standard tier). Maximum number of concurrent connections 1000/unit (applies to the Standard tier)	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 Azure SignalR Service 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 Azure SignalR Service 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 Azure SignalR Service 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 Azure SignalR Service 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/	99.95% for premium accounts 99.0% for non-premium accounts	Unknown
Quality of Service What QoS guarantees do Azure SignalR Service 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 Azure SignalR Service 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 Azure SignalR Service 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 Azure SignalR Service 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 Azure SignalR Service 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 Azure SignalR Service and Lightstreamer consist of? Explore Ably's free package for our pub/sub messaging platform	The Free plan includes one free Azure SignalR Service unit, which has a cap of 20.000 messages per day and can sustain 20 concurrent connections.	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 Azure SignalR Service and Lightstreamer pricing models calculated? Explore Ably's pricing model for our pub/sub messaging platform	In addition to the Free plan mentioned above, Azure SignalR Service comes with a Standard plan that has the following costs: - $ 1.61 price per unit per day - $1 per million messages (first million free)	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 Azure SignalR Service and Lightstreamer enterprise packages offer? Explore Ably's enterprise package for our pub/sub messaging platform	There is no Azure SignalR Service-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	3.50 / 5 Presence on multiple channels / 5 Size and activity / 5 “Azure SignalR Service has community engagement on various different channels, such as Stack Overflow, Gitter, Microsoft & ASP .NET Forums, or GitHub. The community doesn’t seem to be very large. As an example, if you look at the ASP.NET SignalR forum, you will notice there aren’t all that many conversation threads. However, as a plus, most questions do have at least a reply. GitHub also seems to have some activity around troubleshooting issues.”	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 Azure SignalR Service 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 StackOverflow). Enterprise support The Professional Direct (ProDirect) plan includes 24/7 support, a Support API (to create & manage support tickets programmatically), and operational & architectural guidance from delivery managers. Response time Within 8 business hours for Developer customers Between 1 and 8 hours initial response time (depending on severity) for Standard and ProDirect customers	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 Azure SignalR Service and Lightstreamer consist of?

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

The Free plan includes one free Azure SignalR Service unit, which has a cap of 20.000 messages per day and can sustain 20 concurrent connections.

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 Azure SignalR Service and Lightstreamer pricing models calculated?

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

In addition to the Free plan mentioned above, Azure SignalR Service comes with a Standard plan that has the following costs:

- $ 1.61 price per unit per day

- $1 per million messages (first million free)

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 Azure SignalR Service and Lightstreamer enterprise packages offer?

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

There is no Azure SignalR Service-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

3.50 / 5

Presence on multiple channels / 5

Size and activity / 5

“Azure SignalR Service has community engagement on various different channels, such as Stack Overflow, Gitter, Microsoft & ASP .NET Forums, or GitHub. The community doesn’t seem to be very large. As an example, if you look at the ASP.NET SignalR forum, you will notice there aren’t all that many conversation threads. However, as a plus, most questions do have at least a reply. GitHub also seems to have some activity around troubleshooting issues.”

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 Azure SignalR Service 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 StackOverflow).

Enterprise support

The Professional Direct (ProDirect) plan includes 24/7 support, a Support API (to create & manage support tickets programmatically), and operational & architectural guidance from delivery managers.

Response time

Within 8 business hours for Developer customers

Between 1 and 8 hours initial response time (depending on severity) for Standard and ProDirect customers

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 Azure SignalR Service was last updated on 5 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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