LiveObjects

LiveObjects is a serverless, real-time data synchronization service built on Ably's global edge network, designed to synchronize mutable, shared data across millions of clients with low-latency updates, global availability, and conflict-free concurrency. It targets developers building applications that require live, collaborative state—such as voting and polling features, live leaderboards, multiplayer game state, shared configuration, and collaborative editing—by providing a durable, conflict-free shared data layer that automatically propagates changes to all subscribed clients in real-time. The service eliminates the need to build or manage complex distributed systems infrastructure, allowing teams to focus on core product experiences. LiveObjects is currently experimental, with features still in active development, and is accessible via the Ably Pub/Sub JavaScript SDK, with support for other platforms including Swift coming soon.

LiveObjects stores data as objects on Ably Pub/Sub channels, automatically synchronizing changes across all connected clients and resolving conflicts from concurrent updates in the background. It supports two fundamental object types: LiveCounter, a synchronized numerical counter for increment/decrement operations, and LiveMap, a key/value data structure for storing primitives (numbers, strings, booleans, raw bytes) and nested objects. Complex, hierarchical data structures are built through composability—a LiveMap can store references to other LiveMap or LiveCounter instances, enabling nested hierarchies like a reactions counter feature using LiveCounter objects inside a LiveMap. The service leverages Ably's global edge network, which guarantees no single failure point, a 99.999% uptime SLA, and proven reliability with 7+ years of 100% uptime, supporting up to 2 trillion API operations per month and 1 billion connected devices per month.

LiveObjects competes directly with real-time synchronization and collaboration platforms such as Velt, Pusher, Firebase, PubNub, and Liveblocks. While Velt offers 25+ complete collaboration features with frontend components that can be integrated in as few as 10 lines of code, LiveObjects provides a lower-level, purpose-built API for real-time state synchronization without pre-built UI components. Pusher and Firebase handle basic real-time needs but lack advanced collaboration features, whereas PubNub handles enterprise-scale messaging but with complex pricing. LiveObjects differentiates itself by being built on Ably's proven global network, offering conflict-free concurrency and eventual consistency at scale, and eliminating infrastructure management. However, it is currently experimental and may not yet match the feature completeness of established competitors like Liveblocks for collaborative editing.

The honest trade-offs with LiveObjects include its experimental status, meaning features are still in active development and subject to change, which may deter production use. Pricing is consumption-based—$2.50 per million messages, $1.00 per million connection minutes, and $1.00 per million channel minutes—with package options starting at $29 per month for Standard and up to $399 for Pro, but this can be complex to predict and may become expensive at high volumes. The service currently supports only JavaScript via the Ably Pub/Sub SDK, limiting platform availability, and lacks built-in UI components, requiring teams to build their own frontend for collaboration features. Additionally, while LiveObjects handles conflict resolution automatically, developers have limited control over merge strategies, which may not suit applications requiring custom conflict logic.

Consumption-based: $2.50 per million messages, $1.00 per million connection minutes, $1.00 per million channel minutes. Package options: Standard at $29/month, Pro at $399/month. Enterprise plans include 24/7 mission critical support and 99.999% uptime SLAs.