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APIs · head to head

Liveblocks vs Soketi

Liveblocks logo

Liveblocks

APIs

Realtime collaboration infrastructure for building multiplayer features

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Soketi logo

Soketi

Developer Tools

Self-hosted, Pusher-compatible WebSockets server with a stalled maintenance record

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Liveblocks on the Free plan, each metered feature has a hard cap and simply pauses when exceeded rather than allowing overage.; Soketi maintenance has effectively stalled: the maintainer has said time is severely limited, releases are infrequent, and the community has been discussing whether the project is abandoned, which means security fixes may not arrive.
  • They diverge on capability: Liveblocks covers Realtime presence and cursors, Soketi covers Pusher protocol compatibility.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Liveblocks and Soketi actually diverge.

Attributes where Liveblocks and Soketi differ
AttributeLiveblocksSoketi
Pricing modelfreemiumOpen source, no licence fee
Platformsweb, apiLinux, macOS, Windows
CategoryAPIsDeveloper Tools

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 Liveblocks

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

Only in Soketi

  • Pusher protocol compatibility
  • Presence and private channels
  • Horizontal scaling
  • App management backends
  • Webhooks
  • Prometheus metrics

What people use each for

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

Liveblocks

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

Soketi

  • A Laravel application that already uses Echo and wants to stop paying a hosted realtime providernot Liveblocks
  • Realtime notifications or presence indicators where data must not leave your own infrastructure for compliance reasonsnot Liveblocks
  • A local or CI environment that needs a Pusher-compatible server without hitting a paid accountnot Liveblocks
  • A high-connection-count application where hosted per-connection pricing has become the largest line in the infrastructure billnot Liveblocks

Where each one falls short

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

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.

Soketi

  • Maintenance has effectively stalled: the maintainer has said time is severely limited, releases are infrequent, and the community has been discussing whether the project is abandoned, which means security fixes may not arrive.
  • Dependency drift on Node and uWebSockets.js will eventually force you to fork or migrate, and that cost is unbudgeted at the point you adopt it.
  • There is no commercial support to buy, so a production incident at three in the morning is entirely your problem with no escalation path.
  • Scaling beyond a single node needs Redis and careful configuration, and getting presence channels correct across nodes is a genuine source of subtle bugs.
  • It implements the Pusher protocol rather than tracking it, so any protocol feature Pusher adds later will not appear, and the compatibility guarantee slowly decays.

Pricing, plan by plan

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

Soketi

Free
  • SoketiFree
    • MIT licensed
    • Unlimited connections subject to your own hardware
    • No vendor billing

Which should you pick?

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

Choose Soketi if

  • You need pusher protocol compatibility.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Windows.
  • You also want presence and private channels.
Soketi review

Questions people ask

Is Liveblocks or Soketi better?
Neither clearly leads. Liveblocks starts at Free and Soketi at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Liveblocks or Soketi?
Liveblocks starts at Free and Soketi at Free.
Does Liveblocks or Soketi run on more platforms?
Liveblocks runs on web, api. Soketi runs on Linux, macOS, Windows.
Can I use Liveblocks for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Liveblocks best used for?
Liveblocks is most often used for adding live cursors and presence to a collaborative editor, building threaded comments on documents or designs, sending realtime notifications tied to collaborative actions, restoring previous versions of collaborative content. Of those, adding live cursors and presence to a collaborative editor and building threaded comments on documents or designs are not what Soketi is typically brought in for.
What can Liveblocks do that Soketi cannot?
Liveblocks covers Realtime presence and cursors, Comments, Version history, Custom notifications. Soketi covers Pusher protocol compatibility, Presence and private channels, Horizontal scaling, App management backends.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

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
Soketi: Is Soketi still maintained?

Barely. The maintainer has stated that available time is very limited and releases have been sparse; treat it as community-maintained.

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
Soketi: Do I need to change my client code?

No. Pusher client SDKs and Laravel Echo work by changing the host, port and credentials.

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
Soketi: What does it cost?

Nothing in licence fees. It is MIT licensed; you pay for the server it runs on.

Soketi: What are people moving to?

Laravel Reverb for Laravel applications, and Sockudo, a Rust reimplementation, for others.

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