To summarize the differences between Ably/Pusher and Liveblocks, Ably/Pusher use a centralized Redis to broadcast messages to channels. Liveblocks has tiny isolated servers on the edge for every room. These two different architectures create the following trade-offs:

- Ably/Pusher are lower level than Liveblocks. It doesn't have any storage associated to a channel and does not solve any conflicts.

- Liveblocks provides API to migrate existing app into collaborative ones via integration with state management library like Redux/Zustand. I have a POC somewhere that try integrate with Vuex, would love to release that at some point!

- Ably/Pusher charges per WebSocket message sent. Liveblocks charges per WebSocket connection. Because of that, building features like cursors can become quite expensive on Pusher.

- Ably/Pusher lets you connect to multiple channels with a single WebSocket connection (because they're using a centralized Redis IIRC). Liveblocks requires a single WebSocket connection per room. Pusher is good for notifications systems, Liveblocks shines when you need to build an app like Figma or Google spreadsheet.

Hope it helps!