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Looking for a prebuilt, EU-hosted LiveKit alternative?

Digital Samba Embedded is a prebuilt, EU-hosted video conferencing API. AI features, white-labelling and 2,000-participant scale built in – no DIY infrastructure work, no UI to build from scratch. 

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Switch to Digital Samba Embedded

Video calls – built to be integrated, with a modern API and SDK. Embed a fully featured video room in days, not months. No infrastructure to operate. No US sub-processors in the session-data path. Just video conferencing that works. 

npm install @digitalsamba/embedded-sdk

import DigitalSambaEmbedded from '@digitalsamba/embedded-sdk';
const sambaFrame = DigitalSambaEmbedded.createControl({ url: YOUR_ROOM_URL });
sambaFrame.load();

Forward-thinking teams build with us

Why settle for screenshots when you can experience the real thing?

Step right into our live demo and try it out for yourself.

Please wait until we set up your room

What makes Digital Samba different?

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Turnkey white-labelling

Apply your own branding, layouts and CNAME domain mapping. Your product, end to end – no Digital Samba logo, no Digital Samba domain, no Digital Samba in the experience.

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Privacy-first by design

100% EU-hosted on EU-owned infrastructure. No US sub-processors in the session-data path. GDPR-compliant by design, with a DPA available on request.

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Human support

Migration guides, detailed documentation and real engineers in a private Slack channel. Not a community-forum-only support tier.

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Built-in collaboration features

Interactive whiteboards, polls, Q&A, breakout rooms, hand raise, shared notes, live captions and virtual backgrounds – all in the room, not built by you.

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Solid & dependable

Fully hosted in Europe with no tracking, no bloat, no big-brother stuff. Just rock-solid performance, every call.

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Prebuilt and ready

A modern API and SDK with rich, ready-to-use features. Mix and match what you need – no heavy lifting.

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Flexible integration

Easily connect to your existing stack. Our APIs, SDKs and webhooks are built for developers.

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Scalable by design

From one-to-one calls to 2,000 participants per session – scaling is automatic and seamless, with no single-server ceiling and no DIY clustering work.

Don't take our word for it — create a free developer account and see for yourself.

What does prebuilt vs build-it-yourself mean?

When you evaluate a video API, you are really choosing between three operating models. 

Off-the-shelf embed 

Drop a video room into your product in minutes. Branded for you, hosted by your provider, conferencing UI and engagement features included. Best for teams who need a working video room fast. 

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Low-code and prebuilt 

A managed video conferencing API with prebuilt UI components and rich features out of the box. You control branding, layout, roles, recording flow and integrations through APIs and SDKs. Your engineers ship in days. Your provider handles the infrastructure and the scale. 

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Custom-built

A low-level WebRTC toolkit and agent framework. You design and build the conferencing experience, manage session state, write role logic, build moderator UIs, integrate recording flows and operate (or pay for) the scaling infrastructure. Maximum control. Maximum engineering effort. 

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Digital Samba Embedded vs LiveKit

Digital Samba Embedded
LiveKit
Company ownership and jurisdiction
EU-owned, self-funded.
US-headquartered, venture-funded.
Deployment
Fully managed – just embed our code.
Open-source self-hosted (you manage infrastructure) or LiveKit Cloud (managed).
Hosting and sub-processors
100% EU-hosted on EU-owned infrastructure. No US sub-processors in the session-data path.
LiveKit Cloud runs on a multi-cloud production environment across Google Cloud and Oracle Cloud. Certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework for transfers of personal data from the EU to the US.
Data residency
All application and session data within the EU.
Region pinning configurable on paid tiers.
Compliance posture
GDPR-compliant by design. ISMS structured around ISO 27001:2022 in build. DPA on request.
SOC 2 Type II (Scale tier and above). HIPAA BAA (Scale tier and above). GDPR-aligned. ISO 27001, ISO 27018 and PCI DSS listed as in progress.
Single-room scaling
Managed multi-node architecture; up to 2,000 participants per session out of the box.
Open-source assigns each room to a single node; large interactive rooms with many publishers are bounded by single-node capacity. LiveKit Cloud's distributed mesh removes this ceiling.
Customisation & API
REST API, JavaScript SDK and webhooks. Configure the prebuilt UI or extend via SDK for deep control.
Low-level SDKs across multiple languages (JavaScript, Python, Go, Swift, Rust and more). Deep WebRTC primitive control. UI built by the customer.
Technical expertise required
Moderate – API and SDK knowledge is enough. No WebRTC, infrastructure or scaling experience needed.
High – WebRTC, real-time media and infrastructure fluency expected, especially for self-hosting or building the conferencing UI.
Built-in conferencing features
Polls, Q&A, hand raise, shared notes, whiteboard, breakout rooms, waiting room, virtual backgrounds – all out of the box.
Core A/V/data transport and Agents framework. Conferencing UI and engagement features built by the customer.
Moderator tools
Built-in: push content, remove users, session roles, and analytics.
API and SDK primitives for permissions and participant control; moderator UI built by the customer.
AI capabilities
Native AI transcription, live captions and meeting summaries built into every room.
LiveKit Agents framework for building custom real-time voice and multimodal AI agents in Python or Node.
White-label/branding
Logo, colour palette, custom domain via CNAME, custom HTML title, favicon and removable Digital Samba branding.
Branding built by the customer into the client UI.
Recording & storage
Built-in cloud recording with storage included.
Egress API for recording; storage configured and managed by the customer (S3, GCP and similar).
SIP and telephony
PSTN dial-in support available from the Grow plan.
Telephony billed per minute: US local from $0.0100/min, third-party SIP from $0.004/min.
Support & SLA
Partner-style with free onboarding. Private Slack channel. SLA included on paid plans.
Community (Slack and GitHub) on the free tier. Email on paid tiers. Dedicated engineer on Enterprise.
Analytics & monitoring
Built-in MOS quality scoring, system diagnostics and webhooks. Usage and quality metrics via API and dashboard.
Platform uptime and agent observability tools; meeting-level analytics built by the customer.
Maintenance and updates
Fully managed, zero maintenance. All updates by us.
Self-hosted requires customer maintenance; LiveKit Cloud is fully managed.

Disclaimer: Information about LiveKit is based on publicly available documentation and sources as of May 2026. While we strive to provide accurate and fair comparisons, we recommend contacting each provider directly to verify specific features, technical specifications, or compliance practices relevant to your use case.

Hear it from those who made the switch

saber-maram-4 We couldn't be happier

 

"Our platform was in production, so we were a little concerned about the effect of a switch. But the DS team made themselves available to support the entire transition. It felt like they were part of the WebConnect team. When it comes to quality, we have no complaints, and Digital Samba is superior to tools like Teams or Zoom. We couldn't be happier."

Saber Maram
CEO, WebConnect World

jordan-fleming-4 Samba is really easy to integrate

 

"We made the switch to Digital Samba. Samba is really easy to integrate, and you get direct access to their team, which is a huge plus. They helped us work through the integration. In retrospect, we should have gone with a customisable prebuilt solution from the start."

Jordan Fleming
CEO, smrtStudio Global

Frequently asked questions

What is the best LiveKit alternative for production video in 2026?

It depends on the trade-off you want. LiveKit gives you a powerful open-source toolkit and the responsibility to build the conferencing experience on top. Digital Samba Embedded is a prebuilt, EU-hosted video conferencing API that ships with the UI, recording, AI transcription and large-meeting scale included. 

Can LiveKit an open-source run large webinars?

LiveKit's open-source server assigns each room to a single node. Their own benchmarks confirm this: the largest tested scenario was 1 publisher and 3,000 subscribers in a livestream-style setup on a 16-core compute instance, running at 92% CPU. Interactive rooms with many publishers are bounded by single-node capacity. To scale a single room beyond that ceiling, LiveKit Cloud's distributed mesh of media servers removes the single-node constraint. 

Where is LiveKit Cloud hosted?

LiveKit Cloud runs on a multi-cloud production environment across Google Cloud and Oracle Cloud. LiveKit Inc. is headquartered in San Jose, California, and is certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework for transfers of personal data from the EU to the United States. Region pinning is configurable on paid tiers. Digital Samba Embedded is hosted exclusively on EU-owned infrastructure, with no US sub-processors in the session-data path. 

Is LiveKit certified for ISO 27001 or SOC 2?

LiveKit holds SOC 2 Type II from the Scale tier and above; ISO 27001, ISO 27018 and PCI DSS are listed as in progress. Digital Samba's ISMS is structured around ISO 27001:2022 with certification in progress; we have not completed a SOC 2 audit. For EU-sovereignty buyers the meaningful difference is jurisdiction and sub-processor footprint: Digital Samba runs entirely on EU-owned infrastructure with no US sub-processors in the session-data path. 

What is LiveKit's ownership and funding?

LiveKit Inc. is a US company headquartered in California. The company has raised over $145M across Series A, B and C funding rounds, most recently a $100M Series C in January 2026 at a $1 billion valuation, led by Index Ventures with participation from Salesforce Ventures, Altimeter Capital, Redpoint Ventures and Hanabi Capital. Digital Samba is European-owned, self-funded and has been operating since 2003. 

Does Digital Samba support AI agents like LiveKit Agents?

Digital Samba provides native AI transcription, live captions and meeting summaries inside every room. For custom AI workflows, the Digital Samba API, webhooks and recording outputs let you integrate external LLM and speech providers. We do not ship a real-time agent framework directly equivalent to LiveKit Agents; the trade-off is that core AI capabilities are built in rather than built by you. 

How do I migrate from LiveKit to Digital Samba?

Sign up for a free Developer account, embed the SDK and our team will help you map session, role and recording flows from your existing LiveKit setup. LiveKit customers migrating to a paid plan receive 50% off the base subscription for the first 12 contracted months. 

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Ready to give it a try?

Create a free developer account that you can use to build, test, and even run small-scale deployments.
LIMITED OFFER

Want a 50% discount on a paid plan?

Get in touch if you are looking to switch from LiveKit* 
  • This offer is valid exclusively for companies presently using the LiveKit and intending to migrate their user base to Digital Samba. The discount applies to the base subscription fee of a paid plan for the initial twelve (12) contracted months and excludes all variable or usage-based charges.
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