Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Float VS Ably

Compare Float VS Ably and see what are their differences

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Float logo Float

The leading resource management software for agencies, studios, and firms. With a simple, drag and drop interface and powerful editing tools, Float saves you time and keeps projects on track.

Ably logo Ably

The realtime platform that just works. We power more WebSocket connections than any other pub/sub platform, serving over 2 billion devices monthly.
  • Float Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-02-11

Float is the world's leading resource management software for agencies, studios, and firms. Since 2012, Float has been helping the worldโ€™s best teams including RGA, VICE, Deloitte, and Buzzfeed schedule and deliver over 5.5million tasks, in more than 150 countries.

With an easy to use, intuitive interface, drag and drop features, and powerful editing tools, Float makes planning your projects and scheduling your team's time visual and simple. Search your schedule for practically anything and track your team's utilization with powerful reporting tools. Forecast your budget spend and plan ahead based on your team's real capacity and resources.

Integrate your schedule with Slack, Google Calendar and 1,000+ of your apps via Zapier. Access and update your Float schedule from anywhere with apps for iOS and Android.

By providing a single view of your real resource capacity and a shared calendar of who's working on what, Float makes team scheduling across multiple projects faster, easier and more efficient.

  • Ably Ably homepage
    Ably homepage //
    2024-08-05

We help teams deliver resilient AI UX and high-performance live experiences that stay fast and in sync worldwide. We provide the global realtime layer for AI agents, chat, notifications, live dashboards, and collaboration - engineered to handle peak demand without self-managed infrastructure.

Teams like HubSpot and Intercom use Ably to avoid the cost and complexity of building and operating realtime systems, while still getting predictable performance at serious scale, handling 2T+ API operations per month. Ablyโ€™s Pub/Sub, Chat, and AI Transport products are unified by design, with developer-friendly APIs and SDKs that integrate across your stack.

Float

Website
float.com
$ Details
$5.0 / Monthly ($5/person scheduled/month)
Platforms
Browser iOS Android
Release Date
2012 February

Ably

Website
ably.com
$ Details
freemium
Platforms
-
Release Date
2016 January
Startup details
Country
United Kingdom
Founder(s)
Matthew O'Riordan, Dr. Paddy Byers
Employees
50 - 99

Float features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    Float offers an intuitive and easy-to-navigate interface, making it accessible for users of all skill levels.
  • Collaboration Tools
    Float provides robust collaboration features, including real-time updates and team communication capabilities, which enhance team coordination.
  • Resource Management
    The platform excels at resource management, allowing for efficient allocation and tracking of team members and project resources.
  • Integrations
    Float integrates with popular tools like Slack, Trello, and Asana, streamlining workflows and improving productivity.
  • Mobile Accessibility
    With mobile accessibility, users can manage schedules and resources on-the-go, adding flexibility to their project management.

Possible disadvantages of Float

  • Cost
    Float may be considered expensive for small businesses or startups due to its subscription pricing model.
  • Limited Customization
    Users may find limitations in terms of customization options for specific needs or preferences.
  • Learning Curve
    Despite its user-friendly design, there may still be a learning curve for users who are new to project management tools.
  • Performance Issues
    Some users report occasional performance issues, such as slow loading times or lag, particularly with larger projects.
  • Reporting Features
    While adequate for basic needs, the reporting and analytics features may not be as advanced as some competitors.

Ably features and specs

  • Scalability
    Ably is designed to handle a massive number of concurrent connections and messages, making it scalable for both small and large applications.
  • Real-time Messaging
    Ably provides robust real-time messaging capabilities with low latency, supporting use-cases like live chat, gaming, and real-time data streaming.
  • Global Presence
    Ably has a globally distributed network, ensuring low latency and high availability for users around the world.
  • Advanced Features
    It offers advanced features such as message history, presence, and push notifications, which can enhance the functionality of real-time applications.
  • Security
    Ably includes built-in security features such as TLS encryption, token-based authentication, and private channels to ensure secure communication.
  • Extensive Documentation
    The service provides extensive and well-organized documentation, making it easier for developers to integrate and utilize its features.
  • SDKs and Libraries
    Ably offers a wide range of SDKs and libraries for different programming languages and platforms, easing the development process.
  • Reliable Delivery
    It ensures reliable message delivery with features like message queuing and message de-duplication.

Possible disadvantages of Ably

  • Complexity
    Due to its wide range of advanced features, the initial learning curve can be steep for new users.
  • Cost
    For large-scale applications or extensive use of advanced features, the costs can add up, making it potentially expensive.
  • Vendor Lock-in
    Relying heavily on Ablyโ€™s platform-specific features may result in vendor lock-in, making it challenging to switch to other services in the future.
  • Dependence on Internet Connection
    As a cloud-based service, Ablyโ€™s performance is highly dependent on the quality and reliability of the internet connection.
  • Third-party Integration
    While Ably offers various integration options, integrating certain third-party services may require additional custom development or may not be as seamless.

Analysis of Float

Overall verdict

  • Float is generally well-regarded and is a strong choice for teams looking for a reliable resource management solution. While it may not suit all businesses, particularly those seeking a broader project management suite, it excels in its niche.

Why this product is good

  • Float is considered good due to its user-friendly interface, robust features, and seamless integrations with various project management tools. It allows teams to efficiently plan, schedule, and track resources, ensuring optimal utilization and project efficiency.

Recommended for

  • Project managers who need to allocate resources quickly and effectively.
  • Small to medium-sized businesses looking for a straightforward resource management tool.
  • Teams that integrate with other popular project management software and need complementary resource scheduling.

Analysis of Ably

Overall verdict

  • Ably is a reliable and efficient real-time messaging platform, well-suited for applications requiring high performance and scalability. It is generally well-regarded within the developer community for its ease of use and robust feature set.

Why this product is good

  • Features
    Ably provides a comprehensive suite of features such as pub/sub messaging, presence, and history.
  • Security
    It implements robust security practices including TLS encryption, token-based authentication, and private channels.
  • Integration
    Supports numerous protocols and provides SDKs for various programming languages, making it easy to integrate with different systems.
  • Reliability
    Ably offers high availability and low latency, ensuring messages are delivered in real-time.
  • Scalability
    The platform can handle millions of active connections and is designed for horizontal scaling.

Recommended for

  • developers building real-time applications like chat apps, dashboards, or multiplayer games
  • businesses in need of a scalable solution for live updates and notifications
  • teams looking for a platform with strong security and compliance credentials
  • organizations requiring integration with existing development workflows and tools

Float videos

Sonic NEW Lemonberry Slush Float Review ๐Ÿ‹๐Ÿ“

More videos:

  • Review - Swimways Baby Float Review | Dude Dad
  • Review - Glorious G Float Review.. Should You Upgrade To Ceramic Mouse Feet?

Ably videos

How to build a collaborative environment around your product

More videos:

  • Demo - How to build an avatar stack with Ably Spaces
  • Demo - Ably 101: Serverless WebSockets at scale

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Float and Ably)
Resource Scheduling
100 100%
0% 0
Developer Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Employee Scheduling
100 100%
0% 0
Realtime Backend / API
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Float and Ably

Float Reviews

20 Best Capacity Planning Software Tools
Why Choose FloatIf you value simplicity and need a visual, easy-to-use tool, Float is one of the best in the market. Perfect for design and creative shops.

Ably Reviews

We have no reviews of Ably yet.
Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Ably seems to be a lot more popular than Float. While we know about 26 links to Ably, we've tracked only 2 mentions of Float. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Float mentions (2)

  • 2022 Accounting/time billing ideas for SW dev consulting? On my second, not really happy
    You wouldn't want something like NetSuite just for time entry. Try float.com, one of my clients uses this and it seems to be work and is simple. Source: over 4 years ago
  • Project/Team Management software/platform assistance needed
    Schedule more than one task to a team member per day i.e. Hours per task per day - float.com and avasa.com allows this. Source: almost 5 years ago

Ably mentions (26)

  • AWS us-east-1 outage: How Ablyโ€™s multi-region architecture held up
    During this weekโ€™s AWS us-east-1 outage, Ably maintained full service continuity with no customer impact. This was our multi-region architecture working exactly as designed; error rates were negligibly low and unchanged throughout. Any additional round trip latency was limited to 12ms, which is below the typical variance in any client-to-endpoint connection, and well below our 40โ€“50ms global median; this is... - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
  • Real-Time Sync Alternatives: Vaultrice vs. localStorage, DIY, Firebase, Pusher
    Services like Pusher and Ably are experts in real-time messaging. They provide robust APIs for pub/sub channels, allowing you to broadcast events to clients reliably. - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago
  • CometChat Alternatives โ€“ Comparing the Top 10 Competitors
    Ably is a real-time infrastructure platform that focuses on delivering low-latency, reliable messaging across global distributed systems. It's designed for developers building event-driven applications, including chat, but also supports broader use cases like live dashboards, GPS tracking, and collaborative tools. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Real-Time Authorization in a Chat Application with Permit.io and WebSockets
    For our web socket-based application, weโ€™ll be using Next.js and Ably, a service that allows us to easily integrate and manage real-time capabilities in our apps powered by web socket. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Curiosity: Using Ably.io Realtime Messaging as a Lightweight Database
    Ably offers various solutions for developers, with their most popular being realtime messaging based on the pub/sub model. When you publish a message to a channel, all devices connected to that channel receive it instantly. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Float and Ably, you can also consider the following products

ResourceGuru - Resource management software that helps teams schedule with clarity, plan with flexibility, and deliver projects with confidence.

Pusher - Pusher is a hosted API for quickly, easily and securely adding scalable realtime functionality via WebSockets to web and mobile apps.

MIDAS - MIDAS is a web based Room Booking & Resource Scheduling Software system. Available to download & run on your server or as an online hosted cloud application

Socket.io - Realtime application framework (Node.JS server)

When I Work - When I Work is an employee scheduling and communication app using the web, mobile apps, text messaging, social media, and email.

PubNub - PubNub is a real-time messaging system for web and mobile apps that can handle API for all platforms and push messages to any device anywhere in the world in a fraction of a second without having to worry about proxies, firewalls or mobile drop-offs.