head to head · open source
LiveKit vs magic
LiveKit has 21,000 GitHub stars, 2,354 forks, 189 open issues and last shipped yesterday. magic has 1,192 stars, 176 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. LiveKit leads on adoption by 1,662% (21,000 vs 1,192 stars). LiveKit is written in Go under Apache-2.0; magic is written in C# under MIT. LiveKit has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, magic 15%. 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 | magic | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 21K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | C# |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 176 |
| 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 magic if
- You want the magic feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and magic 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 magic
Magic is an MIT licensed low code platform and MCP server, written in C for .NET 10, that turns plain English into a working full stack application — database, secure API, business logic and frontend — running on your own hardware with no vendor lock in.
read the full magic overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is LiveKit or magic more popular?
LiveKit has 21,000 GitHub stars and magic has 1,192. LiveKit has the larger community by that measure.
Are LiveKit and magic free?
Both are open source. LiveKit is licensed under Apache-2.0 and magic under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between LiveKit and magic?
LiveKit is written in Go and magic in C#. 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 magic?
Choose LiveKit if you want the larger community (21,000 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose magic if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.