head to head · open source
LiveKit vs btw
LiveKit has 22,027 GitHub stars, 2,529 forks, 189 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. btw has 1,253 stars, 101 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. LiveKit leads on adoption by 1,658% (22,027 vs 1,253 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 | ★ 22K | ★ 1.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-08-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.5K | ⑂ 101 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick LiveKit if
- You weight community size — 22K 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: Realtime infrastructure for voice, video, and AI agents LiveKit is an open source platform for building voice, video, and physical AI agents. This repository is the LiveKit server: a scalable, distributed WebRTC SFU that moves realtime audio, video, and data between people, devices, and AI models. The SDKs, agents frameworks, and companion services are linked in the table at the bottom of this page. LiveKit's server is written in Go, using the awesome Pion WebRTC implementation. [!IMPORTANT] If you're building Voice AI, LiveKit Agents is the SDK for code first realtime voice agents. STT, LLM, TTS, turn…
read the full LiveKit overview →
About btw
btw btw is an open source personal website builder. You can sign up and use btw without installing anything. You can also use the open source version to self host. Demo blogs published using btw: deeptichopra.com siddg.com Table of contents Getting Started Pre requisites Installation Development Community Coming next License Getting started These instructions will help you to get a copy of the project up and running on your local machine Pre requisites Install the latest version of Docker, Docker compose on your system Working postgres instance SMTP credentials (Ex: from mailgun) Installation Set ADMIN EMAIL and…
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Frequently asked questions
Is LiveKit or btw more popular?
LiveKit has 22,027 GitHub stars and btw has 1,253. 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 (22,027 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.