Top Related Projects
Jitsi Meet - Secure, Simple and Scalable Video Conferences that you use as a standalone app or embed in your web application.
Quick Overview
LiveKit is an open-source platform for building real-time audio and video applications. It provides a scalable WebRTC SFU (Selective Forwarding Unit) server and client SDKs for various platforms, enabling developers to create high-quality, low-latency live streaming and video conferencing applications.
Pros
- Scalable and performant WebRTC infrastructure
- Comprehensive client SDKs for multiple platforms (Web, iOS, Android, React, React Native)
- Advanced features like selective subscriptions, simulcast, and adaptive bitrate
- Active community and regular updates
Cons
- Steeper learning curve compared to some simpler WebRTC solutions
- Requires server infrastructure setup and management
- Limited documentation for advanced use cases
- May be overkill for small-scale or simple projects
Code Examples
- Creating a room and connecting a participant:
import { Room, RoomOptions } from 'livekit-client';
const room = new Room();
const options: RoomOptions = {
adaptiveStream: true,
dynacast: true,
};
await room.connect('wss://your-livekit-server.com', 'token', options);
console.log('Connected to room:', room.name);
- Publishing local audio and video tracks:
import { createLocalTracks } from 'livekit-client';
const tracks = await createLocalTracks({
audio: true,
video: true,
});
await room.localParticipant.publishTracks(tracks);
- Subscribing to remote participant tracks:
room.on('trackSubscribed', (track, publication, participant) => {
if (track.kind === 'video') {
const element = track.attach();
document.getElementById('remote-video-container').appendChild(element);
}
});
Getting Started
To get started with LiveKit:
-
Install the LiveKit client SDK:
npm install livekit-client
-
Set up a LiveKit server (follow the server setup instructions in the LiveKit documentation).
-
Create a room and connect to it:
import { Room } from 'livekit-client'; const room = new Room(); await room.connect('wss://your-livekit-server.com', 'your-access-token');
-
Publish local tracks and subscribe to remote tracks as shown in the code examples above.
For more detailed instructions and advanced usage, refer to the official LiveKit documentation.
Competitor Comparisons
Jitsi Meet - Secure, Simple and Scalable Video Conferences that you use as a standalone app or embed in your web application.
Pros of Jitsi Meet
- More mature project with a larger community and longer history
- Fully open-source and self-hostable solution
- Extensive documentation and guides for deployment and customization
Cons of Jitsi Meet
- Can be resource-intensive, especially for large-scale deployments
- Less flexible for integration into custom applications
- Steeper learning curve for developers new to WebRTC
Code Comparison
Jitsi Meet (JavaScript):
const options = {
roomName: 'MyConferenceRoom',
width: 700,
height: 700,
parentNode: document.querySelector('#meet')
};
const api = new JitsiMeetExternalAPI(domain, options);
LiveKit (JavaScript):
const room = new Room();
await room.connect('ws://localhost:7880', token);
await room.localParticipant.enableCameraAndMicrophone();
room.on(RoomEvent.ParticipantConnected, participant => {
console.log('Participant connected', participant.identity);
});
Both projects provide APIs for creating and managing video conferencing rooms, but LiveKit offers a more streamlined approach for custom integrations. Jitsi Meet's API is designed for embedding their full-featured conference solution, while LiveKit provides lower-level control for building custom video experiences.
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LiveKit: Real-time video, audio and data for developers
LiveKit is an open source project that provides scalable, multi-user conferencing based on WebRTC. It's designed to provide everything you need to build real-time video audio data capabilities in your applications.
LiveKit's server is written in Go, using the awesome Pion WebRTC implementation.
Features
- Scalable, distributed WebRTC SFU (Selective Forwarding Unit)
- Modern, full-featured client SDKs
- Built for production, supports JWT authentication
- Robust networking and connectivity, UDP/TCP/TURN
- Easy to deploy: single binary, Docker or Kubernetes
- Advanced features including:
- speaker detection
- simulcast
- end-to-end optimizations
- selective subscription
- moderation APIs
- end-to-end encryption
- SVC codecs (VP9, AV1)
- webhooks
- distributed and multi-region
Documentation & Guides
Live Demos
- LiveKit Meet (source)
- Spatial Audio (source)
- Livestreaming from OBS Studio (source)
- AI voice assistant using ChatGPT (source)
Ecosystem
- Agents: build real-time multimodal AI applications with programmable backend participants
- Egress: record or multi-stream rooms and export individual tracks
- Ingress: ingest streams from external sources like RTMP, WHIP, HLS, or OBS Studio
SDKs & Tools
Client SDKs
Client SDKs enable your frontend to include interactive, multi-user experiences.
Language | Repo | Declarative UI | Links |
---|---|---|---|
JavaScript (TypeScript) | client-sdk-js | React | docs | JS example | React example |
Swift (iOS / MacOS) | client-sdk-swift | Swift UI | docs | example |
Kotlin (Android) | client-sdk-android | Compose | docs | example | Compose example |
Flutter (all platforms) | client-sdk-flutter | native | docs | example |
Unity WebGL | client-sdk-unity-web | docs | |
React Native (beta) | client-sdk-react-native | native | |
Rust | client-sdk-rust |
Server SDKs
Server SDKs enable your backend to generate access tokens, call server APIs, and receive webhooks. In addition, the Go SDK includes client capabilities, enabling you to build automations that behave like end-users.
Language | Repo | Docs |
---|---|---|
Go | server-sdk-go | docs |
JavaScript (TypeScript) | server-sdk-js | docs |
Ruby | server-sdk-ruby | |
Java (Kotlin) | server-sdk-kotlin | |
Python (community) | python-sdks | |
PHP (community) | agence104/livekit-server-sdk-php |
Tools
- CLI - command line interface & load tester
- Docker image
- Helm charts
Install
[!TIP] We recommend installing LiveKit CLI along with the server. It lets you access server APIs, create tokens, and generate test traffic.
The following will install LiveKit's media server:
MacOS
brew install livekit
Linux
curl -sSL https://get.livekit.io | bash
Windows
Download the latest release here
Getting Started
Starting LiveKit
Start LiveKit in development mode by running livekit-server --dev
. It'll use a placeholder API key/secret pair.
API Key: devkey
API Secret: secret
To customize your setup for production, refer to our deployment docs
Creating access token
A user connecting to a LiveKit room requires an access token. Access tokens (JWT) encode the user's identity and the room permissions they've been granted. You can generate a token with our CLI:
livekit-cli create-token \
--api-key devkey --api-secret secret \
--join --room my-first-room --identity user1 \
--valid-for 24h
Test with example app
Head over to our example app and enter a generated token to connect to your LiveKit server. This app is built with our React SDK.
Once connected, your video and audio are now being published to your new LiveKit instance!
Simulating a test publisher
livekit-cli join-room \
--url ws://localhost:7880 \
--api-key devkey --api-secret secret \
--room my-first-room --identity bot-user1 \
--publish-demo
This command publishes a looped demo video to a room. Due to how the video clip was encoded (keyframes every 3s), there's a slight delay before the browser has sufficient data to begin rendering frames. This is an artifact of the simulation.
Deployment
Use LiveKit Cloud
LiveKit Cloud is the fastest and most reliable way to run LiveKit. Every project gets free monthly bandwidth and transcoding credits.
Sign up for LiveKit Cloud.
Self-host
Read our deployment docs for more information.
Building from source
Pre-requisites:
- Go 1.22+ is installed
- GOPATH/bin is in your PATH
Then run
git clone https://github.com/livekit/livekit
cd livekit
./bootstrap.sh
mage
Contributing
We welcome your contributions toward improving LiveKit! Please join us on Slack to discuss your ideas and/or PRs.
License
LiveKit server is licensed under Apache License v2.0.
LiveKit Ecosystem | |
---|---|
Realtime SDKs | React Components · Browser · Swift Components · iOS/macOS/visionOS · Android · Flutter · React Native · Rust · Node.js · Python · Unity (web) · Unity (beta) |
Server APIs | Node.js · Golang · Ruby · Java/Kotlin · Python · Rust · PHP (community) |
Agents Frameworks | Python · Playground |
Services | LiveKit server · Egress · Ingress · SIP |
Resources | Docs · Example apps · Cloud · Self-hosting · CLI |
Top Related Projects
Jitsi Meet - Secure, Simple and Scalable Video Conferences that you use as a standalone app or embed in your web application.
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