Pick LiveKit if
voice teams who will burn Build for $0 (1,000 agent minutes, $2.50 inference credits, 1 free number) and only open Ship at $50 when they need a second deploy and email support.
Read the LiveKit pageLiveKit vs Redpanda
Our take
Pick LiveKit if voice teams who will burn Build for $0 (1,000 agent minutes, $2.50 inference credits, 1 free number) and only open Ship at $50 when they need a second deploy and email support. Pick Redpanda if streaming teams who will start Serverless on the $100 (AWS trial) or $300 (Marketplace) credit, then stay on pay-as-you-go after credits when they need a production Kafka API without running brokers themselves
Redpanda
Kafka-compatible streaming desk
Best for
LiveKit A voice or video agent with rooms, phones, and traces
Redpanda Topics you start on $100 / $300 credits
Free plan
LiveKit $0 · you host the media server and the agent process
Redpanda $0 · redpanda engine on your machines (GitHub). Cloud Console still bills Cloud
Lowest paid
LiveKit Ship $50/mo
Redpanda AWS / Google Cloud Marketplace $300
Next step up
LiveKit Scale $500/mo
Redpanda
Coding agent
LiveKit Voice Agents
Redpanda
Runs where
LiveKit Hosted
Redpanda Local; you host it
Watch out
LiveKit Build $0 is not free tokens
Redpanda Credits are not a $0 forever card
Last checked
LiveKit 2026-10-22 · livekit.io/pricing
Redpanda 2026-10-23 · docs.redpanda.com/redpanda-cloud/get-started/cluster-types
Which one, then?
Pick Redpanda if
streaming teams who will start Serverless on the $100 (AWS trial) or $300 (Marketplace) credit, then stay on pay-as-you-go after credits when they need a production Kafka API without running brokers themselves — or self-host the engine for $0 license on the binary.
Read the Redpanda page