Replace / Ably
Best free Ably alternatives (open source, self-hosted) 2026
The best open-source alternative to Ably is Centrifugo or AnyCable, self-hosted on Railway. Realtime you host. Centrifugo is Apache-2.0; AnyCable is MIT — Pusher and Ably without the connection meter.
Estimated save $1,200 a year.
Open the stackStart on Railway
How Ably compares
| Ably | Centrifugo / AnyCable | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Hosted subscription | Open-source or fair-code license; you pay the host |
| Hosting | Vendor cloud | Self-hosted on Railway or any VPS |
| Rough monthly cost | Public list price not verified this run | Hosting only — no SaaS seat meter in this repo |
- Centrifugo
Apache-2.0 scalable realtime messaging server
- AnyCable
MIT realtime server if you want that lineage
FAQ
- What is the best free open-source Ably alternative?
- The best open-source alternative to Ably is Centrifugo or AnyCable, self-hosted on Railway. Realtime you host. Centrifugo is Apache-2.0; AnyCable is MIT — Pusher and Ably without the connection meter.
- Is it free?
- The Centrifugo / AnyCable licenses are open source or fair-code. You still pay hosting (Railway or any VPS) and any APIs the stack calls. There is no Ably seat or task bill on this path.
- Can I migrate from Ably?
- Yes. Start with the workflows or data you actually use, then cut over. The Centrifugo / AnyCable stack page has the agent prompt and the cost table; most teams rebuild the slice that matters and leave old Ably links until they expire.
- How do I deploy it?
- Open the Centrifugo / AnyCable stack, copy the agent prompt, and deploy on Railway (one service, PORT, and a volume when the app needs disk). Placeholder: Centrifugo (or AnyCable) as a Railway service. Redis if you scale beyond one node. Bind HTTP/WebSocket to 0.0.0.0:$PORT. No one-click template in this repo yet — Start on Railway. Push notifications stay on /stacks/ntfy-push.
- What does this replace?
- Pusher / Ably. The published small-team estimate on this stack is $1,200 a year.
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