Buyer's guide · Updated July 2026Best LiveKit Alternatives in 2026
LiveKit’s open-source core is excellent, but building a product on it means assembling telephony, recording pipelines, UI, and agent workflows yourself — and LiveKit Cloud usage costs grow with session minutes. Here are six alternatives across managed platforms and self-host options.
Third-party rates below are published/advertised figures — always verify against current vendor pricing and model your own usage before deciding.
Why teams look for LiveKit alternatives
- You want a product surface (meetings UI, recording, transcripts, telephony) instead of assembling primitives.
- Cloud session-minute costs compound across agents and participants.
- You need SIP/PSTN, translation, or widgets without building the integration layer.
The 6 best LiveKit alternatives at a glance
| Platform | Best for | Published pricing |
|---|
| MediaSFU | Teams that want LiveKit-class media control with the product layer already built | Audio $0.10 per 1K minutes; video from $0.375 per 1K minutes; agent infra $0.002/min; BYOK providers stay direct. |
| Daily | Fast integration of managed video rooms | Published rates around $4 per 1K video participant minutes; audio lower. |
| Agora | Large-scale global audio/video with edge presence | Published from ~$0.99 per 1K audio minutes and ~$3.99 per 1K HD video minutes. |
| 100ms | Template-driven video experiences (edtech, events) | Published rates around $4 per 1K video minutes; audio lower. |
| Jitsi (self-hosted) | Free, self-hosted meetings where you control everything | Free open source; you pay hosting and ops. |
| Vonage Video (OpenTok) | Enterprises with compliance requirements | Usage-based enterprise CPaaS pricing. |
Each alternative in detail
#1
MediaSFUOur platform
Managed real-time platform with product surface included: rooms, telephony, agents, translation, widgets
Disclosure: MediaSFU is our platform. We have kept this entry factual and linked published pricing so you can verify every claim.
Strengths- Complete meeting features out of the box: breakout rooms, whiteboard, polls, recording, chat
- Native SIP/PSTN, cloud phone, campaigns, and AI-human handoff
- Live translation with translated audio playback (not just captions)
- 10 SDKs with prebuilt UI or headless control; self-hosting options available
Trade-offs- Core is not open source like LiveKit’s
- Smaller open-source community
#2
Daily
Managed WebRTC with prebuilt UI and bots
Strengths- Polished prebuilt components
- Good docs and DX
- Pipecat ecosystem for voice AI
Trade-offs- Per-minute costs at scale
- Less low-level media control
#3
Agora
Global real-time network at scale
Strengths- Massive global infrastructure
- Broad platform SDK coverage
- Proven at consumer scale
Trade-offs- Pricing complexity across features
- Proprietary stack, less transparency
#4
100ms
Managed live video with templates
Strengths- Fast template-based setup
- Good mobile SDKs
Trade-offs- Less flexible for custom media pipelines
- Smaller ecosystem
#5
Jitsi (self-hosted)
Open-source video conferencing you run yourself
Strengths- Fully open source
- No per-minute fees
- Mature meeting UI included
Trade-offs- Ops burden is real at scale
- Less suited as an app-embedding SDK platform
#6
Vonage Video (OpenTok)
Enterprise-grade video API
Strengths- Mature, compliant, enterprise support
- Long production track record
Trade-offs- Higher costs
- Aging developer experience
When staying with LiveKit makes sense
- Open-source self-hosting is a hard requirement and you have the team to run it.
- You are building a deeply custom media product where primitives are the point.
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest LiveKit Cloud alternative?
On published managed rates, MediaSFU is the lowest on this list ($0.10 per 1K audio minutes, video from $0.375 per 1K). Self-hosting LiveKit or Jitsi can be cheaper on paper at scale if you already carry the ops cost.
Which alternatives include telephony (SIP/PSTN)?
MediaSFU includes native SIP/PSTN workflows, cloud phone, and AI phone agents. On LiveKit, Daily, Agora, and 100ms, telephony is an integration project or add-on.
Can I get LiveKit-style agent workflows elsewhere?
MediaSFU runs AI agents (voice, vision, multimodal) at $0.002/min infrastructure with BYOK providers; Daily’s Pipecat is another strong agents path. Compare agent-minute economics, not just media rates.
Is open source a must-have?
If yes, LiveKit and Jitsi are the honest answers. If what you actually need is control plus low cost, managed platforms with headless SDKs and self-host options (like MediaSFU) often get there with far less ops work.
Test the cheapest option on this list in minutes
Start free with 50,000 developer minutes, call a live phone-agent demo, or model your exact workload on the pricing page.