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APIs · head to head

Janus Gateway vs Longhorn

Janus Gateway logo

Janus Gateway

APIs

WebRTC gateway and media server for real-time communication

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Longhorn logo

Longhorn

Cloud

Open source distributed block storage for Kubernetes, incubating at the CNCF

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Janus Gateway no commercial pricing published; open-source project without official commercial offerings; Longhorn there is no vendor and no SLA, so a production incident at three in the morning is your own problem unless you buy SUSE Rancher Prime support separately.
  • They diverge on capability: Janus Gateway covers WebRTC Gateway, Longhorn covers Per-volume controllers.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Janus Gateway and Longhorn actually diverge.

Attributes where Janus Gateway and Longhorn differ
AttributeJanus GatewayLonghorn
Pricing modelopen-sourceOpen source, no licence fee
PlatformsLinux, MacOS, BSDLinux, Kubernetes
CategoryAPIsCloud
Founded2010Unknown

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

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 Janus Gateway

  • WebRTC Gateway
  • Media Routing
  • Video Conferencing
  • RTP
  • SRTP
  • REST API
  • Linux support
  • MacOS support

Only in Longhorn

  • Per-volume controllers
  • Synchronous replication
  • Snapshots and backups
  • Volume expansion
  • Disaster recovery volumes
  • Web interface

What people use each for

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

Janus Gateway

  • API Developmentnot Longhorn
  • API Gatewaynot Longhorn
  • API Testingnot Longhorn
  • API Documentationnot Longhorn
  • Microservicesnot Longhorn

Longhorn

  • An on-premises Kubernetes cluster with local disks and no SAN that needs replicated persistent volumesnot Janus Gateway
  • Edge sites where shipping a storage array is impractical and three nodes is the whole clusternot Janus Gateway
  • A K3s deployment where the storage layer must be light enough to run alongside the workloadsnot Janus Gateway
  • A team that wants snapshots and S3 backups of persistent volumes without paying per-node storage licencesnot Janus Gateway

Where each one falls short

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

Janus Gateway

  • No commercial pricing published; open-source project without official commercial offerings
  • Community-supported only; no vendor commercial support or SLA available

Longhorn

  • There is no vendor and no SLA, so a production incident at three in the morning is your own problem unless you buy SUSE Rancher Prime support separately.
  • Synchronous replication across nodes means write latency depends on the slowest replica and the network between nodes, which makes it a poor fit for latency-sensitive databases.
  • Every replica is a full copy, so three-way replication consumes three times the raw capacity, unlike erasure-coded systems that are far more space efficient.
  • It is designed for block storage on modest clusters and does not scale to the node counts or throughput that Ceph or a commercial array handles, so growth eventually forces a migration.
  • Recovery from certain degraded states, such as a volume stuck detaching or replicas failing to rebuild, requires manual intervention and knowledge of Longhorn internals that is not widely held.

Pricing, plan by plan

Janus Gateway

Free
  • Open SourceFree
    • Core WebRTC gateway
    • Community support

Longhorn

Free
  • LonghornFree
    • Apache 2.0 licensed, no licence fee
    • Community support via GitHub and Slack only
    • No vendor SLA or escalation path

Which should you pick?

Choose Janus Gateway if

  • You need webrtc gateway.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, MacOS, BSD.
  • You also want media routing.
Janus Gateway review

Choose Longhorn if

  • You need per-volume controllers.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Kubernetes.
  • You also want synchronous replication.
Longhorn review

Questions people ask

Is Janus Gateway or Longhorn better?
Neither clearly leads. Janus Gateway starts at Free and Longhorn at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Janus Gateway or Longhorn?
Janus Gateway starts at Free and Longhorn at Free.
Does Janus Gateway or Longhorn run on more platforms?
Janus Gateway runs on Linux, MacOS, BSD. Longhorn runs on Linux, Kubernetes.
Can I use Janus Gateway for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Janus Gateway best used for?
Janus Gateway is most often used for api development, api gateway, api testing, api documentation. Of those, api development and api gateway are not what Longhorn is typically brought in for.
What can Janus Gateway do that Longhorn cannot?
Janus Gateway covers WebRTC Gateway, Media Routing, Video Conferencing, RTP. Longhorn covers Per-volume controllers, Synchronous replication, Snapshots and backups, Volume expansion.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Janus Gateway: How much does Janus Gateway cost?

Janus Gateway has no pricing model; it is a free open-source WebRTC server developed by Meetecho. The general-purpose server is available for download at no cost. There are no subscription tiers or commercial licensing fees.

Source
Longhorn: Who do we call when it breaks?

Nobody, unless you buy SUSE Rancher Prime, which includes commercial support for Longhorn. This is the decisive question for production use.

Janus Gateway: Is Janus Gateway supported commercially?

Janus Gateway is community-supported open-source software with no official commercial support or SLA from the vendors. While Meetecho developed the project, users must rely on community documentation and forums for assistance.

Source
Longhorn: How much capacity does replication cost?

Full copies, so three replicas means three times the raw capacity. Budget accordingly rather than assuming erasure coding efficiency.

Longhorn: Is it suitable for production databases?

For modest workloads yes, but synchronous replication adds write latency and high-transaction databases usually want something faster.

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