head to head · open source
LiveKit vs btw
LiveKit has 21,000 GitHub stars, 2,354 forks, 189 open issues and last shipped yesterday. btw has 1,257 stars, 102 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. LiveKit leads on adoption by 1,571% (21,000 vs 1,257 stars). LiveKit is written in Go under Apache-2.0; btw is written in JavaScript under GPL-3.0. LiveKit has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, btw 8%. LiveKit was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| LiveKit | btw | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 21K | ★ 1.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-08-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 102 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick LiveKit if
- You weight community size — 21K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick btw if
- You want the btw feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and btw fits your workflow better
About LiveKit
LiveKit is an open source realtime infrastructure project for voice, video, and physical AI agents, and it lives in the WebRTC, media server, and voice AI ecosystem. The repository contains the LiveKit server, a scalable distributed WebRTC SFU written in Go and built on Pion WebRTC. It moves realtime audio, video, and data between people, devices, and AI models, while SDKs, agent frameworks, and companion services are provided separately.
read the full LiveKit overview →
About btw
btw is an open source personal website and blog builder, positioned as a Medium alternative, that lets a writer publish a personal blog in minutes either through the hosted service at btw.so or by self hosting the GPL 3.0 codebase.
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Frequently asked questions
Is LiveKit or btw more popular?
LiveKit has 21,000 GitHub stars and btw has 1,257. LiveKit has the larger community by that measure.
Are LiveKit and btw free?
Both are open source. LiveKit is licensed under Apache-2.0 and btw under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between LiveKit and btw?
LiveKit is written in Go and btw in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, LiveKit or btw?
Choose LiveKit if you want the larger community (21,000 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose btw if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.