ToolJet
ToolJet runs two release trains at once, and neither has changed direction in months
Comparison · Infra & APIs
Ably vs Merge
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Ably and Merge — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Ably vs Merge: at a glance
| Feature | Ably | Merge |
|---|---|---|
| Sector | Infra & APIs | Infra & APIs |
| Velocity score | 6.3 | 5.0 |
| Sparks · 30d | 1 | 0 |
| Top themes | realtime-infrastructure, ai-agents, durable-execution, liveobjects | unified-api, integrations, sync-reliability, accounting |
| Last editorial update | 1d ago | 7d ago |
| Website | — | — |
What is Ably?
Ably is building an agent transport layer on its realtime core, shipping AI SDK versions every ten days.
Two release trains run side by side in this feed. The AI Transport SDK is moving fast and pre-1.0 — durable execution in 0.5.0, mid-run steering in 0.6.0, an OpenAI Responses codec in 0.7.0, each roughly ten days apart and each carrying breaking changes. The Pub/Sub and Java SDKs move at a steadier pace, working through LiveObjects reach, React and React Native support, and now connectivity fallbacks.
What is Merge?
Merge's weekly cadence is all connector depth: no new categories, no agent surface.
Merge ships a dated digest every week, and for the last three months the contents have been uniform: per-connector mapping fixes, pagination and sync-reliability work, and incremental field coverage across Sage Intacct, NetSuite, SharePoint and QuickBooks Online. The one product-surface change in the window is per-integration customization of the Link setup flow, which lets customers hide auth steps and the Selective Sync screen for specific integrations. Everything else is fidelity work on integrations Merge already supports.
Ably vs Merge: editorial side-by-side
Ably
6.3INFRA · APIS
Ably is building an agent transport layer on its realtime core, shipping AI SDK versions every ten days.
◆ Current state
Two release trains run side by side in this feed. The AI Transport SDK is moving fast and pre-1.0 — durable execution in 0.5.0, mid-run steering in 0.6.0, an OpenAI Responses codec in 0.7.0, each roughly ten days apart and each carrying breaking changes. The Pub/Sub and Java SDKs move at a steadier pace, working through LiveObjects reach, React and React Native support, and now connectivity fallbacks.
◆ Where it's heading
Ably is treating agent conversations as a transport problem — sessions, resumability, and multi-client reconciliation — rather than as a model-integration problem, and the primitives shipping in AI Transport keep pointing that way. The Pub/Sub line is being pulled along behind it: LiveObjects path APIs and React hooks are the state layer those agent sessions need. The pre-1.0 SDK will keep breaking as the shape settles, which is a reasonable trade while the category is unsettled.
◆ Prediction
Expect AI Transport to keep adding provider codecs beyond OpenAI Responses and to approach an API freeze as breaking changes get more expensive. LiveObjects support should continue spreading across the language SDKs, following the Java path-based API with other platforms.
Merge
5.0INFRA · APIS
Merge's weekly cadence is all connector depth: no new categories, no agent surface.
◆ Current state
Merge ships a dated digest every week, and for the last three months the contents have been uniform: per-connector mapping fixes, pagination and sync-reliability work, and incremental field coverage across Sage Intacct, NetSuite, SharePoint and QuickBooks Online. The one product-surface change in the window is per-integration customization of the Link setup flow, which lets customers hide auth steps and the Selective Sync screen for specific integrations. Everything else is fidelity work on integrations Merge already supports.
◆ Where it's heading
The arc points at depth over breadth. Merge is spending its release budget making existing connectors survive large accounts — big item catalogs, user-defined dimensions, high attachment volumes — rather than adding new verticals. Accounting and File Storage absorb most of each week's entries, with ATS and CRM getting steady but thinner attention, and nothing in the window suggests a change to the unified-API model itself.
◆ Prediction
Expect the next several digests to continue the Sage Intacct, NetSuite and SharePoint deepening, with further Link-flow configuration options as the main user-visible additions. The entries give no signal either way on whether Merge plans an agent- or MCP-facing surface.
Alternatives to Ably and Merge
Other Infra & APIs products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Ably or Merge.
Honeycomb
Honeycomb bets that the agent, not the engineer, should notice the anomaly first
Jenkins
Jenkins is shrinking its own war file and rebuilding its UI, one weekly release at a time
GitHub
Copilot's model roster churns weekly while GitHub quietly rewires policy and billing plumbing
incident.io
Nexus does the diagnosis; the rest is on-call plumbing
werf
Four channels, one fix stream — werf's releases are mostly concurrency repairs.
Recent activity from Ably and Merge
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1d agoAblyPub/Sub JS SDK v2.27.0: Fallback for networks that block WebSockets
- 11d agoAblyAI Transport JS SDK v0.7.0: OpenAI Responses codec ⚡
- 12d agoMergeQuickBooks webhook format support, NetSuite and Sage speedups
- 18d agoAblyPub/Sub JS SDK v2.26.0: React hook for LiveObjects
- 19d agoMergeLink setup flow becomes configurable per integration
- 21d agoAblyAI Transport JS SDK v0.6.0: Mid-run steering
- 25d agoAblyPub/Sub JS SDK v2.25.0: Push notifications for React Native
- 26d agoMergeSync error and pagination fixes across Greenhouse, Lever, SharePoint
- 29d agoAblyJava SDK v1.8.0: Support LiveObjects Path based API
- 1mo agoMergeXero attachments accept Base64 uploads; NetSuite filter fix
- 1mo agoMergeNew employee and expense filters; NetSuite single-subsidiary writes
- 1mo agoMergeDirect Xero attachment uploads; Teams sensitivity labels
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Ably and Merge?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Ably is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 5.0), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Ably better than Merge?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Ably is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 5.0), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Infra & APIs products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Ably?
Top Ably alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Ably alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/ably for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Merge?
Top Merge alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Merge alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/merge-dev for the full list with editorial commentary on each.