GravityKit
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Comparison · Infra & APIs
Ably vs Depot
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Ably and Depot — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Ably vs Depot: at a glance
| Feature | Ably | Depot |
|---|---|---|
| Sector | Infra & APIs | Infra & APIs |
| Velocity score | 7.5 | 6.3 |
| Sparks · 30d | 2 | 0 |
| Top themes | ai transport, realtime messaging, agents, mau-billing | ci-cd, github-actions, observability, arm64 |
| Last editorial update | 21h ago | 2mo ago |
| Website | — | — |
What is Ably?
Ably's AI Transport hits 1.0 and plugs straight into Vercel's useChat with resumable streams.
Ably is repositioning its realtime pub/sub network as the transport layer for AI agent output. AI Transport JS 1.0 runs on ordinary Pub/Sub channels and ships adaptors for the Vercel AI SDK, OpenAI Responses API and AG-UI, plus a useChat transport that resumes a stream after a reload. It lands a week after the switch to monthly-active-user pricing and breaking SDK majors that split every client into device and server packages.
What is Depot?
Depot is closing the last gaps between its CI and the GitHub Actions it wants to replace
Depot CI keeps absorbing the things a team would otherwise stay on GitHub-hosted runners for: Arm64 sandboxes up to 64 CPUs, native stacked pull request handling, macOS 26 on M4 hardware, rebuilt Windows Server images carrying Visual Studio 2026, and a us-east-1 Ubuntu package mirror. Behavior details are being tuned too — pull request runs no longer cancel on a new commit unless a concurrency group says so. The newest release moves Datadog CI Visibility out of private beta, exporting every run as a pipeline with jobs, steps, and retries intact.
Ably vs Depot: editorial side-by-side
Ably
7.5INFRA · APIS
Ably's AI Transport hits 1.0 and plugs straight into Vercel's useChat with resumable streams.
◆ Current state
Ably is repositioning its realtime pub/sub network as the transport layer for AI agent output. AI Transport JS 1.0 runs on ordinary Pub/Sub channels and ships adaptors for the Vercel AI SDK, OpenAI Responses API and AG-UI, plus a useChat transport that resumes a stream after a reload. It lands a week after the switch to monthly-active-user pricing and breaking SDK majors that split every client into device and server packages.
◆ Where it's heading
The November releases fit one plan: split clients so MAU billing can count end users, then make the AI layer a thin adaptor on top of the same channels used for chat, presence and LiveObjects. Server-side additions in Java and JS (HTTP LiveObjects, channel pools, a Temporal plugin) point at agent backends as the intended publisher.
◆ Prediction
Expect more agent framework adaptors and server SDKs reaching AI Transport parity, with Chat and LiveObjects examples built around agents joining human conversations.
Depot
6.3INFRA · APIS
Depot is closing the last gaps between its CI and the GitHub Actions it wants to replace
◆ Current state
Depot CI keeps absorbing the things a team would otherwise stay on GitHub-hosted runners for: Arm64 sandboxes up to 64 CPUs, native stacked pull request handling, macOS 26 on M4 hardware, rebuilt Windows Server images carrying Visual Studio 2026, and a us-east-1 Ubuntu package mirror. Behavior details are being tuned too — pull request runs no longer cancel on a new commit unless a concurrency group says so. The newest release moves Datadog CI Visibility out of private beta, exporting every run as a pipeline with jobs, steps, and retries intact.
◆ Where it's heading
The strategy is substitution rather than differentiation: match the incumbent's compatibility surface, beat it on hardware and cache, then let existing tooling see Depot as just another pipeline. Datadog export is the clearest expression of that — it makes Depot legible to the monitoring a team already runs instead of asking them to adopt a new dashboard. The CLI work on project get, update, and cache retention points the same way, toward scripts and agents managing Depot without the UI.
◆ Prediction
Expect the us-east-1 package mirror to expand to other regions, and the observability work to extend past Datadog to other OpenTelemetry-compatible destinations.
Alternatives to Ably and Depot
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 Depot.
Payload CMS
Payload's v4 beta.9 keeps every past image crop and raises the Node floor again.
Nautobot
Nautobot 3.3 alpha 2 adds test helpers and a cable location filter after 3.2.9's token-leak fix.
Clair
Clair 4.10 RC can read SBOMs to match Java vulnerabilities.
Shuffle
Shuffle tags builds almost daily, but the notes are empty.
KrakenD
KrakenD's community edition is shipping only dependency bumps.
Recent activity from Ably and Depot
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1d agoAblyAI Transport 1.0 makes Ably a resumable transport for AI chat ⚡
- 2d agoAblyJava SDK 2.1 reads and updates LiveObjects over HTTP
- 2d agoAblyJS SDK 3.1 adds channel pools and a Temporal plugin
- 4d agoAblyAbly Kafka Connector v4.2.1
- 8d agoAblyMonthly active user (MAU) pricing ⚡
- 8d agoAblyAbly Chat React UI Kit v0.4.0
- 2mo agoDepotDatadog CI Visibility is now generally available
- 2mo agoDepotAdded an Ubuntu package mirror for us-east-1 runners
- 2mo agoDepotDepot CI supports Arm64 sandboxes
- 2mo agoDepotUpdated Windows Server runner images
- 2mo agoDepotPR runs now continue after a new commit instead of cancelling
- 3mo agoDepotmacOS 26 is now the default macOS version for GitHub Actions runners
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Ably and Depot?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Ably is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 7.5 vs 6.3), with 2 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 Depot?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Ably is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 7.5 vs 6.3), with 2 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 Depot?
Top Depot alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Depot alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/depot for the full list with editorial commentary on each.