Softwr

APIs · head to head

Convoy vs Liveblocks

Convoy logo

Convoy

APIs

Open source webhooks gateway you self-host, handling both sending and receiving

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Liveblocks logo

Liveblocks

APIs

Realtime collaboration infrastructure for building multiplayer features

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Convoy the default deployment is self-hosted, so you operate Convoy plus Postgres and Redis and carry the on-call burden for the system that delivers your customers' events.; Liveblocks on the Free plan, each metered feature has a hard cap and simply pauses when exceeded rather than allowing overage.
  • They diverge on capability: Convoy covers Inbound and outbound, Liveblocks covers Realtime presence and cursors.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Convoy and Liveblocks actually diverge.

Attributes where Convoy and Liveblocks differ
AttributeConvoyLiveblocks
Pricing modelPer month, flat rate regardless of volumefreemium
PlatformsLinux, Docker, Kubernetes, Cloudweb, api

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (APIs).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Convoy

  • Inbound and outbound
  • Broker-driven ingestion
  • Payload transformation
  • Portal links
  • Circuit breaking
  • Retry policies
  • OpenTelemetry export
  • Role-based access control

Only in Liveblocks

  • Realtime presence and cursors
  • Comments
  • Version history
  • Custom notifications
  • SSO and SOC 2
  • Management API

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Convoy

  • A fintech that cannot route customer webhook traffic through a third-party SaaS for compliance reasonsnot Liveblocks
  • A high-volume platform for which per-message webhook pricing costs more than the flat premium licencenot Liveblocks
  • A team that also receives webhooks from many providers and wants ingestion, verification and deduplication in the same gatewaynot Liveblocks
  • An engineering group that wants webhook delivery driven directly from an existing Kafka or SQS topicnot Liveblocks

Liveblocks

  • Adding live cursors and presence to a collaborative editornot Convoy
  • Building threaded comments on documents or designsnot Convoy
  • Sending realtime notifications tied to collaborative actionsnot Convoy
  • Restoring previous versions of collaborative contentnot Convoy

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Convoy

  • The default deployment is self-hosted, so you operate Convoy plus Postgres and Redis and carry the on-call burden for the system that delivers your customers' events.
  • Frain Technologies is a small startup, and putting customer-facing delivery infrastructure on it means accepting real vendor continuity risk on a component that is hard to swap out quickly.
  • The premium tier at a flat 999 US dollars a month is poor value below substantial volume, while the community edition omits the portal, transformations and RBAC that most production deployments end up wanting.
  • The hosted cloud trial is capped at one project and 100 events a day, which is too small to properly evaluate the service before committing.
  • Documentation and the third-party ecosystem are thinner than the established webhook services, so unusual configurations often mean reading the Go source.

Liveblocks

  • On the Free plan, each metered feature has a hard cap and simply pauses when exceeded rather than allowing overage.
  • The jump from Pro ($30/month) to Team (starting at $600/month) is steep for teams that outgrow Pro but don't need full Team scale.
  • Multi-region hosting and SCIM provisioning are Enterprise-only and require custom pricing.

Pricing, plan by plan

Convoy

Free
  • CommunityFree
    • Self-hosted open source gateway
    • Inbound and outbound webhooks
    • Automatic retries and message broker support
  • Premium$999/month
    • Flat rate irrespective of message volume
    • Portal links and payload transformation
    • RBAC, circuit breaking and white labelling
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • SAML SSO
    • Dedicated support with SLA
    • On-premises deployment assistance
  • Cloud$undefined/month
    • Hosted by Convoy
    • 14 day trial limited to one project and 100 events a day
    • Usage-based tiers above the trial

Liveblocks

Free
  • FreeFree
    • 10 projects
    • 3 dashboard seats
    • 10 simultaneous connections per room
  • Pro$30/month
    • $30 monthly credits
    • Removes Liveblocks branding
    • 3 dashboard seats
  • Team$600/month
    • SSO and SOC 2
    • 10 dashboard seats
    • 50 connections/room

Which should you pick?

Choose Convoy if

  • You need inbound and outbound.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud.
  • You also want broker-driven ingestion.
Convoy review

Choose Liveblocks if

  • You need realtime presence and cursors.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on web, api.
  • You also want comments.
Liveblocks review

Questions people ask

Is Convoy or Liveblocks better?
Neither clearly leads. Convoy starts at Free and Liveblocks at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Convoy or Liveblocks?
Convoy starts at Free and Liveblocks at Free.
Does Convoy or Liveblocks run on more platforms?
Convoy runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud. Liveblocks runs on web, api.
Can I use Convoy for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Convoy best used for?
Convoy is most often used for a fintech that cannot route customer webhook traffic through a third-party saas for compliance reasons, a high-volume platform for which per-message webhook pricing costs more than the flat premium licence, a team that also receives webhooks from many providers and wants ingestion, verification and deduplication in the same gateway, an engineering group that wants webhook delivery driven directly from an existing kafka or sqs topic. Of those, a fintech that cannot route customer webhook traffic through a third-party saas for compliance reasons and a high-volume platform for which per-message webhook pricing costs more than the flat premium licence are not what Liveblocks is typically brought in for.
What can Convoy do that Liveblocks cannot?
Convoy covers Inbound and outbound, Broker-driven ingestion, Payload transformation, Portal links. Liveblocks covers Realtime presence and cursors, Comments, Version history, Custom notifications.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Convoy: Is Convoy really open source?

Yes, the community edition is open source and self-hostable, covering both inbound and outbound webhooks with retries.

Liveblocks: What does Liveblocks cost?

Liveblocks offers a Free plan with hard usage caps, a Pro plan at $30/month ($25/month billed annually) including $30 in monthly credits, a Team plan from $600/month, and custom Enterprise pricing.

Source
Convoy: What does premium cost?

A flat 999 US dollars a month, self-hosted, regardless of message volume.

Liveblocks: Is there a free plan, and what are its limits?

Yes, the Free plan includes 10 projects, 3 dashboard seats, 10 simultaneous connections per room, 3,000 collaboration minutes, 200 comments, and 1GB of realtime data storage, with features pausing once a cap is hit.

Source
Convoy: Does it receive webhooks as well as send them?

Yes, inbound ingestion with verification and deduplication is a first-class feature, unlike most webhook services.

Liveblocks: How is usage metered?

Paid plans include monthly credits covering collaboration minutes, comments, and storage; usage beyond the credit is billed at metered rates such as $0.002 per collaboration minute and $0.01 per comment, with credits resetting each billing cycle without rollover.

Source
Convoy: Do I have to self-host?

No, there is a hosted cloud, but the trial is capped at 100 events a day and self-hosting is the primary model.

Share

Related pages

More on Convoy

More on Liveblocks

Keep looking

Other head to heads