Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

StreamYard VS Ably

Compare StreamYard VS Ably and see what are their differences

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StreamYard logo StreamYard

StreamYard is a live streaming studio in your browser.

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.
  • StreamYard Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-22
  • 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.

StreamYard

Pricing URL
-
$ Details
-
Release Date
-

Ably

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

StreamYard features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    StreamYard has an intuitive user interface that makes it easy for beginners to start streaming quickly without a steep learning curve.
  • Browser-Based
    No need to download or install any software; everything runs directly in your web browser.
  • Multi-Streaming
    Allows you to stream to multiple platforms simultaneously, such as YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, and more.
  • Guest Invitations
    Enables inviting guests just by sharing a link, making it straightforward for them to join your stream.
  • Customization Options
    Offers customizable branding, including logos, overlays, and backgrounds to match your brand identity.
  • Reliable Performance
    High-quality streaming with minimal latency or buffering issues, ensuring a smooth viewer experience.
  • Integrated Chat
    Includes a built-in chat feature that lets you manage comments from all platforms in one place.
  • Recording
    Ability to record live streams for later use or repurposing.

Possible disadvantages of StreamYard

  • Free Tier Limitations
    The free version has limited features and includes StreamYard branding.
  • Pricing
    The subscription plans can be expensive for small creators or hobbyists.
  • Limited Advanced Features
    Might lack some advanced features that professional broadcasters require, such as intricate scene transitions and complex overlays.
  • Dependency on Internet
    As a browser-based tool, a stable internet connection is essential; performance can degrade with poor connectivity.
  • Mobile Functionality
    While StreamYard is accessible via mobile browsers, it lacks the full functionality and ease of use found on the desktop version.

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 StreamYard

Overall verdict

  • Yes, StreamYard is considered to be a good tool for live streaming.

Why this product is good

  • StreamYard is user-friendly, offering a straightforward browser-based platform that requires no downloads. It supports multi-platform streaming, allowing users to broadcast on platforms like Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and more simultaneously. It features customizable layouts, interview capabilities, screen sharing, and live comments. Streaming sessions can also be recorded, adding versatility for content creators.

Recommended for

  • Content creators looking for an easy and effective live-streaming tool.
  • Businesses wanting to host webinars or live Q&A sessions.
  • Educators and trainers conducting online classes or seminars.
  • Podcasters and interviewers who want professional live-streaming capabilities.
  • Social media influencers engaging with their audience across multiple platforms.

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

StreamYard videos

StreamYard REVIEW - Best Live Streaming Software?

More videos:

  • Demo - Best live streaming software? StreamYard Review and Demo
  • Review - Streamyard vs Zoom for Podcasting - What's the difference? Streamyard Review | Zoom.us Review

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 StreamYard and Ably)
Video Streaming
100 100%
0% 0
Developer Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Live Streaming
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 StreamYard and Ably

StreamYard Reviews

Top 26 Alternatives to Vimeo in 2024: Pricing, Features & More
Created to raise engagement, StreamYard is a simple in-browser streaming video platform. Nevertheless, it serves the purpose of broadcasters with basic streaming requirements. StreamYard was created to raise engagement.
Source: www.dacast.com

Ably Reviews

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

Social recommendations and mentions

Ably might be a bit more popular than StreamYard. We know about 26 links to it since March 2021 and only 21 links to StreamYard. 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.

StreamYard mentions (21)

  • The Myth of 'Just Press Record' in Podcasting
    Recording an episode is not just a conversation but a production. With tools like StreamYard, we can connect with guests, capturing both video and audio. New additions like custom layouts and local recordings, have been game changers for CodingCat.dev. If a code sharing session gets blurry we have a copy from the users local device that we can make fixes! But the process doesn't stop there. The raw files are... - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Building a (Virtual) Events Site
    I originally signed up for Streamyard because the streaming options in Crowdcast v1's built in streaming were very limited. This has since improved enormously, but Streamyard has a number of other features that make it useful to me. The ability to do multi-streams is helpful as we've started streaming to both YouTube and Crowdcast at the same time. The customizable displays and branding are useful too. I'm sure I... - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Zen Voltron Assemble!
    Given the state of the world, this is likely the best idea. I have done many video group meetings to talk about Buddhism and Zen using: skype, Zoom, streamyard and OBS studio, and sending in video clips that are later edited in a presentation video. Source: about 3 years ago
  • What's the best software for recording virtual Podcasts?
    I use Streamyard and love it. https://streamyard.com/ (non affiliate link) https://streamyard.com/ (affiliate link - you'll get $10 credit). Source: over 3 years ago
  • Is there a preferred software for virtual video podcasts?
    We've used Streamyard for a couple of years and really like it. Easy to use, nice features and they keep adding more. There's a free plan with some limits as well as paid plans. If you use this link to signup you'll get a $10 credit. Source: over 3 years ago
View more

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 / 10 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 / 12 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
View more

What are some alternatives?

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

Restream - Restream is your live streaming companion. Easily broadcast your content live from your browser to 30+ platforms at the same time.

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

Flutin - Flutin is an online live streaming platform through which you can easily multistream on 40+ platforms.

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

BeLive - Broadcast on Facebook Live with anyone from anywhere

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.