coturn vs LiveKit
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted video conferencing options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
coturn
Open-source TURN and STUN server for WebRTC
VS
LiveKit
Scalable WebRTC infrastructure for real-time audio and video
| Feature | coturn | LiveKit |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Video Conferencing | Video Conferencing |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | C | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, binary | docker, kubernetes, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 14,274 | ★ 20,181 |
| First released | 2012 | 2021 |
| Replaces | — | Twilio, Agora |
Why pick each one
Choose coturn if…
- Released under the BSD-3-Clause license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 14.3k GitHub stars
- Written in C
Frequently asked questions
Is coturn or LiveKit better?
Neither is universally better. LiveKit has the larger community, while coturn is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are coturn and LiveKit free and open-source?
Yes. coturn is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and LiveKit under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run coturn and LiveKit with Docker?
coturn: yes. LiveKit: yes.