When to choose Daily, Agora, or LiveKit

Daily.co — the safe default

Daily.co is what we recommend for 80% of integrations. Their JavaScript SDK is the cleanest of the three, the React bindings (@daily-co/daily-react) are first-class, and their pre-built call object handles all the edge cases (network drops, device permission flows, autoplay restrictions) that you would otherwise build yourself over weeks.

Pricing is per-participant-minute, which scales linearly. For most apps under a few thousand monthly minutes, this is competitive. Above that, you should model the spend.

Agora — the scale play

Agora wins when you need 50+ concurrent participants in a single room, or you need their RTM (signaling) for chat alongside RTC. Their global edge network is genuinely better for cross-continent calls; we have measured it.

The trade-off is API complexity. Their SDK surface is large, the docs are uneven, and you will spend more upfront on integration. We typically allocate an extra 3-5 days for an Agora build versus Daily.

LiveKit — when you need to self-host

LiveKit is open source, which means you can run it on your own infrastructure. For healthcare, finance, or any industry with data-residency requirements, this is often non-negotiable.

The cost: you now own the operational complexity. You are running a media server, a TURN cluster, and managing capacity. We always include an infra runbook with LiveKit deliveries because that handoff matters.

How we pick

If you ask us, we ask three questions:

1. Will you ever exceed 25 concurrent participants in one room? → Agora.
2. Do you have a data-residency requirement? → LiveKit.
3. Otherwise → Daily.

Simple. Argued.