---
meta:
  title: "Compare realtime tools"
  description:
    "Compare Liveblocks with Supabase, Ably, Yjs, Convex, and other tools.
    Understand the tradeoffs for shared editing, realtime events, and
    application data."
---

Liveblocks is a realtime collaboration platform that allows you to build
multiplayer applications where users and agents can work together. It provides a
sync engine that powers shared documents, text editing, presence, and more.
These guides compare it with the databases, sync engines, messaging services,
and editor back ends you may already use, and say when to pick one, the other,
or both.

## Databases [#databases]

| Comparison                                       | Read it when                                                                                  |
| ------------------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| [Supabase](/docs/compare/liveblocks-vs-supabase) | Postgres is your source of truth and you want a shared document, canvas, or board next to it. |
| [Firebase](/docs/compare/liveblocks-vs-firebase) | You use Firestore or Realtime Database and need collaborative editing, presence, or comments. |
| [Convex](/docs/compare/liveblocks-vs-convex)     | You run on Convex and are weighing its ProseMirror plugin against a full collaboration layer. |

## Sync engines [#sync-engines]

| Comparison                                            | Read it when                                                                                 |
| ----------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| [Electric Sync](/docs/compare/liveblocks-vs-electric) | You stream Postgres shapes to clients and are deciding where editable documents belong.      |
| [Rocicorp Zero](/docs/compare/liveblocks-vs-zero)     | You want client-side queries over a synced cache and need to know where shared editing fits. |
| [PowerSync](/docs/compare/liveblocks-vs-powersync)    | You need a local SQLite database that works offline and also have multiplayer documents.     |

## Messaging infrastructure [#messaging-infrastructure]

| Comparison                                            | Read it when                                                                        |
| ----------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| [Ably](/docs/compare/liveblocks-vs-ably)              | You are evaluating Ably Pub/Sub, Spaces, or LiveObjects for collaboration features. |
| [Pusher Channels](/docs/compare/liveblocks-vs-pusher) | Your server owns the state and you are deciding whether hosted events are enough.   |
| [Socket.IO](/docs/compare/liveblocks-vs-socketio)     | You are considering building the sync layer yourself on WebSockets.                 |

## Collaborative editing [#collaborative-editing]

| Comparison                                               | Read it when                                                                                    |
| -------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| [Yjs](/docs/compare/liveblocks-vs-yjs)                   | You use Yjs and want to know how Liveblocks relates to it, as a provider and as an alternative. |
| [Tiptap Cloud](/docs/compare/liveblocks-vs-tiptap-cloud) | You use Tiptap Editor and are choosing the service behind it.                                   |

## Build vs. buy [#build-vs-buy]

| Guide                                                         | Read it when                                                                                 |
| ------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| [Build vs. buy](/docs/compare/liveblocks-vs-building-with-ai) | You are considering having an AI coding assistant generate a bespoke collaboration back end. |

---

For an overview of all available documentation, see [/llms.txt](/llms.txt).