Alby Alternative: Lightning Wallet API for Developers and Agents

Alby built some of the most important developer tooling in the Lightning ecosystem — the browser extension, Nostr Wallet Connect, Alby Hub. That matters, and this page isn't going to pretend otherwise.

But in January 2025, Alby shut down its custodial wallet service and moved everyone to Alby Hub, a self-custodial Lightning node you either self-host or pay $9.90/month for cloud hosting. A few months later, legacy accounts that had been inactive for 12 months had their balances removed under updated terms of service. Some users lost funds without realizing the policy had changed.

If you're a developer who used Alby's custodial API, or a service that needs programmatic wallets without running node infrastructure, here's how ln.bot compares and how to migrate.

What changed at Alby

• March 2024 — Alby stops creating new custodial accounts.
• November 2024 — Limits imposed on remaining custodial wallets.
• January 4, 2025 — Custodial wallet service shut down. Remaining balances converted to fee credits for Alby Hub.
• March 2025 — Terms of service updated with inactivity clause: 12 months of no activity, balance removed.
• May–June 2025 — Users report balances gone from legacy wallets. SlowMist co-founder Yu Xian publicly reports ~$192 removed without explicit consent. Others report larger losses.

Alby now offers Alby Hub (self-custodial node), Alby Go (mobile), and the browser extension connecting to external wallets. These are solid products. The friction was the custodial transition and how inactive funds were handled.

What developers actually needed

Most developers using Alby's custodial API wanted a short list of things:

• Create wallets programmatically
• Generate invoices to receive sats
• Send payments to Lightning addresses or BOLT11 invoices
• Lightning addresses for users and services
• Webhooks or real-time events on payment settlement
• A simple API — no node management

Alby Hub can do all of this, but it requires running a Lightning node. For many developers, that's the opposite of what they signed up for. They wanted an API call, not a Docker container.

How ln.bot compares

ln.bot doesn't replace everything Alby does. Here's where they overlap and where they don't.

If your primary use case is the Nostr browser extension, NIP-07 signing, or NWC connections to apps like Damus — Alby is still the better fit. That's their strength.

If your primary use case is programmatic wallets, API integration, AI agent payments, or L402 — ln.bot is simpler, cheaper, and requires zero infrastructure.

Migrating from Alby

If you used Alby's custodial API in your app:

Replace Alby API calls with ln.bot SDK calls. The concepts map directly:

from lnbot import LnBot

ln = LnBot(api_key="key_...")

# Was: POST https://api.getalby.com/invoices
invoice = ln.invoices.create(amount=1000, memo="Payment")

# Was: POST https://api.getalby.com/payments/bolt11
ln.payments.create(target="alice@getalby.com", amount=500)

Wallets, invoices, payments, Lightning addresses, webhooks — all covered by the SDK. Five languages: TypeScript, Python, Go, Rust, C#.

If you used Alby for Lightning addresses:

Create an ln.bot wallet — you get an address immediately. Or host your own Lightning address on your domain with ln.bot handling invoices on the backend. The Lightning address guide walks through both.

If you used Alby for Nostr zaps:

ln.bot doesn't replace Alby's browser extension for Nostr. But if you're building a Nostr service that needs to send zaps programmatically, ln.bot's payment API works — same BOLT11 invoices, same Lightning addresses. NWC support is on the roadmap. Once live, ln.bot wallets will connect to any NWC-compatible app.

Getting started

curl -fsSL https://ln.bot/install.sh | bash && lnbot init
lnbot invoice create --amount 1000 --memo "First invoice"

Full setup in the quickstart guide. SDKs and API reference in the docs.

The short version

The move to self-custody was the right call for sovereignty — Alby's team has said as much, and they're probably right. But running a node isn't for everyone, and not every use case calls for it. If what you need is an API that gives you a wallet in one call, no infrastructure, no monthly bill — ln.bot is that.