Spaces

Spaces is a product of Ably, designed to let developers embed real-time collaborative features into web applications without building the underlying infrastructure from scratch.

Reviewed by 7wData

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Spaces is a product of Ably, designed to let developers embed real-time collaborative features into web applications without building the underlying infrastructure from scratch. It targets product teams that need to ship multi-user experiences—like shared whiteboards, design tools, or project management boards—quickly, without managing WebSocket servers or conflict-resolution logic. By abstracting away the complexity of state synchronization and presence management, Spaces aims to reduce the time from concept to production for collaborative features.

The platform provides four purpose-built APIs: avatar stacks (showing who is currently viewing a document or page), live cursors (displaying the real-time position of other users' pointers), member location (indicating where each collaborator is within the app, such as a specific section or panel), and component locking (preventing two users from editing the same element simultaneously to avoid merge conflicts). These APIs are delivered as React Hooks and come with starter kits, allowing a developer to integrate a live cursor feature in roughly 10 lines of code. Under the hood, Spaces runs on Ably's global edge network, which guarantees 99.999% uptime (five nines) and provides per-message delivery guarantees, ensuring that cursor movements and lock requests are not lost even under high concurrency.

In the real-time collaboration infrastructure market, Spaces competes with Velt, Pusher, Firebase, PubNub, Liveblocks, Agora, Amazon API Gateway, Amazon EventBridge, Amazon SNS, Amazon SQS, Arrowchat, AWS AppSync, and Azure SignalR Service. Its primary differentiator is being purpose-built for collaboration rather than general pub/sub messaging; competitors like Pusher and Firebase require developers to manually implement presence and locking on top of a generic message bus. However, Velt offers 25+ pre-built collaboration features (including video huddles and screen recording) that Spaces does not, and Liveblocks provides a similar high-level API but with a different pricing model. Spaces is best suited for teams that want to retain control over their UI while relying on Ably's proven infrastructure.

The honest trade-offs: Spaces is a thin abstraction over Ably's pub/sub system, so developers still must build their own UI components for avatars, cursors, and locks. It does not include out-of-the-box commenting, video calls, or screen sharing—features that competitors like Velt provide as turnkey modules. Pricing is consumption-based (pay per minute of connection and per message), which can become unpredictable for applications with many idle users or high-frequency cursor updates. Finally, because Spaces is tied to Ably's platform, migrating to another provider would require rewriting the collaboration layer from scratch.

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How it works

  1. Avatar stack

    Shows a stack of user avatars indicating who is currently viewing the same document or page, enabling quick awareness of active collaborators.

  2. Live cursors

    Displays the real-time position of other users' cursors on the page, allowing teams to see exactly where colleagues are pointing or editing.

  3. Member location

    Tracks and displays which section, panel, or view each collaborator is currently interacting with inside the application.

  4. Component locking

    Prevents two users from editing the same UI element simultaneously, avoiding merge conflicts and data loss in collaborative editing.

  5. React Hooks support

    Provides pre-built React Hooks (e.g., useSpaces, useCursors) that reduce integration code to roughly 10 lines per feature.

  6. Starter kits

    Includes ready-to-run starter templates that demonstrate full collaboration workflows, cutting initial setup time from days to hours.

  7. Powered by Ably infrastructure

    Runs on Ably's global edge network with 99.999% uptime SLA and per-message delivery guarantees for high reliability.

Strengths and trade-offs

Strengths

  • Delivers four purpose-built collaboration APIs (avatar stacks, live cursors, member location, component locking) that abstract away real-time state synchronization.
  • Provides React Hooks and starter kits that enable a developer to add live cursors in roughly 10 lines of code, reducing time to market.
  • Backed by Ably's infrastructure, which guarantees 99.999% uptime (five nines) and per-message delivery guarantees for high reliability.
  • Offers granular consumption-based pricing (pay per minute of connection and per message) with volume discounts down to $0.20 per million units.

Trade-offs

  • Does not include pre-built UI components for avatars, cursors, or locks; developers must build and style their own frontend elements.
  • Lacks out-of-the-box collaboration features like commenting, video huddles, and screen recording that competitors such as Velt provide.
  • Consumption-based pricing (pay per minute and per message) can become unpredictable for apps with many idle users or high-frequency cursor updates.
  • Tightly coupled to Ably's platform; migrating to another real-time provider would require a complete rewrite of the collaboration layer.

Pricing context

Free tier (up to 200 concurrent connections, 500 messages/sec, 6M messages/month). Standard package at $29/month + usage. Pro package at $399/month + usage. Usage billed per million messages ($2.50, down to $0.50 with volume), per million channel minutes ($1.00, down to $0.20), and per million connection minutes ($1.00, down to $0.20).

Getting started with Spaces

  1. Sign up for Spaces

    Go to the Ably website and create a free account. This gives you access to the Spaces dashboard and a free tier with 200 concurrent connections, 500 messages per second, and 6 million messages per month to start building.

  2. Install the Spaces SDK

    In your React project, run `npm install @ably/spaces` to add the Spaces library. This package includes the React Hooks and core APIs needed to integrate real-time collaboration features into your application.

  3. Configure your API key

    From the Ably dashboard, copy your API key. In your app, initialize the Spaces client with this key using `new Spaces({ apiKey: 'your-key' })`. This authenticates your app to the Ably edge network.

  4. Add live cursors

    Use the `useCursors` hook in your component to enable real-time cursor tracking. Call `useCursors('my-space')` and render the returned cursor positions as colored dots. This takes roughly 10 lines of code to display other users' pointers.

  5. Deploy and monitor usage

    Deploy your app to production. In the Ably dashboard, monitor connection minutes and message counts to track consumption. Adjust your pricing plan if usage exceeds the free tier limits, and scale as needed.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Spaces and how does it work for real-time collaboration?

Spaces is a product by Ably that provides APIs for adding real-time collaborative features like live cursors and avatar stacks to web apps. It handles state synchronization and presence management, so developers don't need to build WebSocket servers or conflict-resolution logic from scratch.

What collaboration features does Spaces offer with its APIs?

Spaces offers four APIs: avatar stacks showing active viewers, live cursors displaying others' pointer positions, member location tracking which section users are in, and component locking to prevent simultaneous edits. These are delivered as React Hooks with starter kits for quick integration.

How does Spaces pricing work and what are the costs?

Spaces uses consumption-based pricing: pay per minute of connection and per message. The free tier includes 200 concurrent connections and 6 million messages monthly. Paid plans start at $29 per month plus usage, with volume discounts down to $0.20 per million units.

How does Spaces compare to competitors like Velt and Liveblocks?

Spaces is purpose-built for collaboration, unlike generic pub/sub services like Pusher. However, Velt offers 25+ pre-built features including video huddles, which Spaces lacks. Liveblocks provides similar high-level APIs but with a different pricing model. Spaces gives more UI control but requires custom frontend work.

What are the limitations of using Spaces for collaborative apps?

Spaces does not include pre-built UI components for avatars or cursors; developers must build their own. It also lacks out-of-the-box commenting, video calls, or screen recording. The consumption-based pricing can be unpredictable for apps with many idle users or high-frequency cursor updates.

Can I migrate from Spaces to another real-time provider easily?

Migrating from Spaces to another provider is difficult because Spaces is tightly coupled to Ably's platform. Switching would require a complete rewrite of the collaboration layer, as Spaces abstracts away state synchronization and presence management using Ably's infrastructure.

Alternatives

How Spaces compares

Direct head-to-head against 3 competitors. Picked by 7wData.

This tool

Spaces

Pricing
Free tier (up to 200 concurrent connections, 500 messages/sec, 6M messages/month). Standard package at $29/month + usage. Pro package at $399/month + usage. Usage billed per million messages ($2.50, down to $0.50 with volume), per million channel minutes ($1.00, down to $0.20), and per million connection minutes ($1.00, down to $0.20).
Target
Spaces is a product of Ably, designed to let developers embed real-time collaborative features into web applications without building the underlying infrastructure from scratch.
Strength
Delivers four purpose-built collaboration APIs (avatar stacks, live cursors, member location, component locking) that abstract away real-time state synchronization.
Watch for
Does not include pre-built UI components for avatars, cursors, or locks; developers must build and style their own frontend elements.

Yoffix

Pricing
Custom pricing, contact sales
Target
Mid-sized EU companies (200-5,000 employees) using Microsoft 365
Deployment
Cloud, Microsoft Teams/Outlook integrated
Strength
Deep Microsoft Teams integration for desk and room booking
Watch for
Limited to Microsoft ecosystem; no standalone web app

Robin

Pricing
$10/user/month (Starter), custom for Enterprise
Target
Mid-sized to large hybrid offices focused on meeting room management
Deployment
Cloud, mobile app, Slack/Teams integrations
Strength
Best-in-class meeting room booking and calendar sync
Watch for
Weak desk sharing and policy controls; US-centric security

Envoy

Pricing
$13/user/month (Standard), custom for Enterprise
Target
Mid-sized to large offices prioritizing visitor management
Deployment
Cloud, mobile app, iPad kiosk, Slack/Teams integrations
Strength
Strong visitor workflows and security compliance
Watch for
Limited desk booking and hybrid policy features

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Sources

Reporting on this tool draws on these publicly available sources.

  1. ably.com
  2. www.youtube.com
  3. ably.com
  4. velt.dev
  5. ably.com
  6. ably.com