LiveKit

Open-source WebRTC SFU + cloud

Free tier + paidRealtime, comments & collablivekit.com

What it is

Open-source WebRTC selective forwarding unit with a managed global cloud layered on top. Handles multi-party video and audio rooms, screen share, server-side recording, HLS and RTMP egress for broadcasting out, and SIP telephony ingress. Its agents framework adds server-side participants for realtime AI voice.

Why it earns a slot

The only serious option that is both a credible hosted product and fully self-hostable, so you can prototype on cloud and move in-house when minutes get expensive. HLS egress turns a four-person panel into a public livestream.

Know before you commit

WebRTC minutes bill per participant, so a 500-viewer live event burns 500 minutes per wall-clock minute — push large audiences to HLS egress rather than into the room. Self-hosting means running TURN servers and scaling the SFU yourself.

Getting started

npm i livekit-client @livekit/components-react

Field notes

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Pricing snapshot

Cloud Build free: 5,000 WebRTC minutes/mo, 100 concurrent connections, 1,000 agent session minutes. Ship from $50/mo (150,000 WebRTC minutes then $0.0005/min, 1,000 connections). Scale from $500/mo (1.5M minutes, 5,000 connections). Self-hosting free and open source

Snapshots move fast — verify at checkout, and post a field note if it changed.

Drop into your Lovable chat

Evaluate LiveKit (https://livekit.com) for this project, then use it only if it fits what we are already building.
Context: Open-source WebRTC SFU + cloud. Open-source WebRTC selective forwarding unit with a managed global cloud layered on top. Handles multi-party video and audio rooms, screen share, server-side recording, HLS and RTMP egress for broadcasting out, and SIP telephony ingress. Its agents framework adds server-side participants for realtime AI voice.
Reviewer notes (general, not written for this codebase): The only serious option that is both a credible hosted product and fully self-hostable, so you can prototype on cloud and move in-house when minutes get expensive. HLS egress turns a four-person panel into a public livestream.
Watch out for: WebRTC minutes bill per participant, so a 500-viewer live event burns 500 minutes per wall-clock minute — push large audiences to HLS egress rather than into the room. Self-hosting means running TURN servers and scaling the SFU yourself.
Pricing: Cloud Build free: 5,000 WebRTC minutes/mo, 100 concurrent connections, 1,000 agent session minutes. Ship from $50/mo (150,000 WebRTC minutes then $0.0005/min, 1,000 connections). Scale from $500/mo (1.5M minutes, 5,000 connections). Self-hosting free and open source
Setup: npm i livekit-client @livekit/components-react
Rules: treat the notes above as background only. Do not assume a theme, style, layout or feature that is not already in this project — inspect the existing code first and ask me before changing visual direction.

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Neighbourhood

How LiveKit sits against the rest of the atlas — swaps, companions and the tools builders actually save alongside it.

Instead of thisGiscus PartyKit Socket.IO Yjs Ably Agora Chatwoot Circle Crisp

Named in the wiringStream

Also in Realtime, comments & collab

Ably

ably.com

Realtime messaging platform

Free tier + paidRealtime, comments & collab

Free: 6M messages/mo, 200 concurrent connections, 200 channels, 500 msg/sec. Standard $29/mo plus usage (10k connections, 10k channels); Pro $399/mo plus usage (50k). Usage: $2.50 per million messages, $1.00 per million connection-minutes, $0.25/GiB transfer

Open dossier

Agora

agora.io

Metered RTC voice and video API

Free tier + paidRealtime, comments & collab

Free monthly: 10,000 combined RTC minutes, 1M signaling messages, 500 chat users, 300 conversational AI minutes. RTC $0.59 per 1,000 minutes; recording $0.99 per 1,000; speech-to-text $16.99 per 1,000; real-time translation $8.99 per 1,000 per language. Analytics add-on from $449/mo

Open dossier

Chatwoot

chatwoot.com

Open-source support inbox + chat

Free tier + paidRealtime, comments & collab

Self-host free under the MIT licence. Cloud Hacker $0 (2 agents, 500 conversations/mo, live chat only, 30-day retention); Startups $19/agent/mo annual; Business $39/agent/mo; Enterprise $99/agent/mo. Extra Captain AI credits $20 per 1,000

Open dossier

Circle

circle.so

Hosted community and courses

PaidRealtime, comments & collab

Professional $89/mo (3 admin seats, 2% transaction fee, 200 GB); Business $199/mo (5 seats, 1% fee, 500 GB); Circle Plus custom (unlimited seats, 0.5% fee, 1 TB). Unlimited members on every plan. 14-day trial, no permanent free plan

Open dossier