Janus 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?
Janus
General-purpose, lightweight, minimalist WebRTC Server
VS
LiveKit
Scalable WebRTC infrastructure for real-time audio and video
| Feature | Janus | LiveKit |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Video Conferencing | Video Conferencing |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | C | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal | docker, kubernetes, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 9,144 | ★ 20,181 |
| First released | 2020 | 2021 |
| Replaces | — | Twilio, Agora |
Why pick each one
Choose Janus if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Mature project with 9.1k GitHub stars
- Written in C
- Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Janus or LiveKit better?
Neither is universally better. LiveKit has the larger community, while Janus is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Janus and LiveKit free and open-source?
Yes. Janus is licensed under GPL-3.0 and LiveKit under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Janus and LiveKit with Docker?
Janus: check the project docs for container support. LiveKit: yes.