---
meta:
  title: "Liveblocks vs. Tiptap Cloud for collaborative editing"
  parentTitle: "Compare"
  description:
    "Compare Liveblocks and Tiptap Cloud for collaborative editing, comments, AI
    changes, and shared application state. Choose around the complete product
    experience."
---

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.
Tiptap Cloud is the hosted collaboration service for the Tiptap editor: it syncs
Yjs documents and adds comments, version history, document APIs, and AI
features, billed per document.

## Which should you choose? [#which-should-you-choose]

Tiptap Cloud and Liveblocks overlap on one thing: keeping a Tiptap document in
sync between people. Tiptap Cloud is a back end for that editor, whereas
Liveblocks is a back end for everything people edit together, including the
editor.

Choose Liveblocks when the editor is one part of a larger shared product, such
as a workspace where a brief, a planning board, and review threads all update
live, or when you want to swap editors later without changing the back end.
Choose Tiptap Cloud when the document is the product, you are committed to
Tiptap Editor, and its comments, history, and AI extensions cover what you need
to ship. Because Liveblocks has an
[official Tiptap integration](/docs/products/sync/integrations), you can also
[keep Tiptap Editor and change only the service behind it](#can-i-keep-tiptap-editor-and-use-liveblocks).

## Compare the service around the editor [#compare-the-service-around-the-editor]

| Area                     | Liveblocks                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                | Tiptap Cloud                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               |
| ------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Editor support           | Tiptap, BlockNote, Lexical, and more. <InfoTooltip>Official packages for popular editors, plus Yjs guides for others. <a href="/docs/products/sync/integrations" className="font-medium text-product-brand">Learn more.</a></InfoTooltip>                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 | Tiptap Editor. <InfoTooltip>The Collaboration extension connects Tiptap Editor to a hosted Yjs document. <a href="https://tiptap.dev/docs/collaboration/getting-started/overview" className="font-medium text-product-brand">Learn more.</a></InfoTooltip> |
| Document model           | Storage, LiveText, or Yjs. <InfoTooltip>LiveText keeps the text inside a Storage document alongside your other data; the Yjs integrations use a separate Yjs document. <a href="/docs/guides/livetext-vs-yjs" className="font-medium text-product-brand">Learn more.</a></InfoTooltip>                                                                                                                                                                                    | Yjs documents. <InfoTooltip>Each collaborative document is a Yjs document stored in Tiptap Cloud. <a href="https://tiptap.dev/docs/collaboration/documents" className="font-medium text-product-brand">Learn more.</a></InfoTooltip>                       |
| Conflict resolution      | CRDT-based. Concurrent edits to objects, lists, maps, and text merge automatically. <InfoTooltip>Writes to the same single value are last-write-wins. <a href="/docs/guides/how-conflict-resolution-works-in-liveblocks-sync" className="font-medium text-product-brand">Learn more.</a></InfoTooltip>                                                                                                                                                                    | Yjs CRDT, same as the Liveblocks Yjs integrations.                                                                                                                                                                                                         |
| Shared application state | Storage for boards, canvases, and any structured data next to the editor. <InfoTooltip>A CRDT-based document store. Concurrent edits merge automatically, and data is kept until you delete it. <a href="/docs/products/sync/storage" className="font-medium text-product-brand">Learn more.</a></InfoTooltip>                                                                                                                                                            | Not covered. Data outside the document needs its own storage and sync.                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Comments and history     | Comments, Notifications, and version history as separate products. <InfoTooltip>Version history captures Storage and Yjs documents in a room. <a href="/docs/products/comments" className="font-medium text-product-brand">Comments</a>, <a href="/docs/products/notifications" className="font-medium text-product-brand">Notifications</a>, <a href="/docs/products/sync/version-history" className="font-medium text-product-brand">Version history</a>.</InfoTooltip> | Document comments and version history. Version comparison on Team and above. <InfoTooltip>Features are tied to plans. <a href="https://tiptap.dev/pricing" className="font-medium text-product-brand">See plans.</a></InfoTooltip>                         |
| Server-side editing      | REST API to read and edit Storage and Yjs documents from your server. <InfoTooltip>Useful for AI agents, imports, and migrations. <a href="/docs/products/sync/server-side-editing" className="font-medium text-product-brand">Learn more.</a></InfoTooltip>                                                                                                                                                                                                              | Document REST API on Team and above. <InfoTooltip>Retrieve and update document content from your back end. <a href="https://tiptap.dev/docs/collaboration/documents" className="font-medium text-product-brand">Learn more.</a></InfoTooltip>              |
| Ready-made UI            | Cursors, avatar stacks, comments, and notifications. <InfoTooltip>React components you can drop in, plus hooks for building your own. <a href="/docs/products/comments" className="font-medium text-product-brand">Comments</a>, <a href="/docs/products/notifications" className="font-medium text-product-brand">Notifications</a>.</InfoTooltip>                                                                                                                       | Editor UI components and comments. <InfoTooltip>UI components for Tiptap Editor, including collaboration cursors and comment threads. <a href="https://tiptap.dev/docs" className="font-medium text-product-brand">Learn more.</a></InfoTooltip>           |
| Authentication           | Your server issues access tokens using your existing auth.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                | Your server signs JWTs with the Tiptap app secret.                                                                                                                                                                                                         |
| The main question        | Which parts of your app should people edit together?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      | Is the document the whole collaborative product?                                                                                                                                                                                                           |

## Can I keep Tiptap Editor and use Liveblocks? [#can-i-keep-tiptap-editor-and-use-liveblocks]

Yes. Liveblocks maintains
[`@liveblocks/react-tiptap`](/docs/api-reference/liveblocks-react-tiptap), an
[official integration](/docs/products/sync/integrations) that connects Tiptap
Editor to a Liveblocks room. You keep the editor, its schema, and your
extensions; only the collaboration service behind it changes.

For an existing application, keep three migration steps separate:

| Layer                        | Migration work                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             |
| ---------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Editor schema and extensions | Keep your nodes and marks. Test custom extensions against the integration.                                                                                                                                                                                                                 |
| Document content             | Move each document into the Liveblocks document model you picked and check a sample of real documents. <InfoTooltip>Both LiveText and the Yjs integration are supported. <a href="/docs/guides/livetext-vs-yjs" className="font-medium text-product-brand">Compare them.</a></InfoTooltip> |
| Service-owned data           | Map document IDs, access rules, comments, and history one by one. Moving content does not move these.                                                                                                                                                                                      |

Keep the original data until the new integration has been checked against real
documents. Then switch providers.

## How do comments and version history compare? [#how-do-comments-and-version-history-compare]

Both offer them, scoped differently. Tiptap's
[document services](https://tiptap.dev/docs/collaboration/documents) include
comments, snapshots, snapshot comparison, and server-side content injection, and
which of these you get depends on the plan.

Liveblocks [version history](/docs/products/sync/version-history) captures
Storage and Yjs. Restoring Storage restores that document; it does not also
restore a separate Yjs document. For a canvas with embedded text, keeping the
text in Storage through [LiveText](/docs/guides/livetext-vs-yjs) gives the
content and layout one document boundary.

For a workspace with a brief, a board, and review threads, give each part of
your app an owner: the editor holds the brief, Storage holds the board, Comments
holds discussion, and Notifications brings people back. Tiptap Cloud is a good
fit when its editor-centered services cover the product. Liveblocks fits when
the workflow spans several shared parts of your app.

## Editing with people and AI agents [#editing-with-people-and-ai-agents]

Tiptap's
[AI tooling](https://tiptap.dev/docs/content-ai/capabilities/agent/overview) can
stream edits into a live cloud document through Collaboration. Liveblocks
provides [server-side editing](/docs/products/sync/server-side-editing) for
Storage and Yjs documents, so an agent running on your server can change content
while people are editing it and everyone sees the merged result.

## Self-hosting with Hocuspocus [#self-hosting-with-hocuspocus]

[Hocuspocus](https://tiptap.dev/docs/hocuspocus/introduction) is Tiptap's
open-source Yjs collaboration server. It is the option when you want to run that
part of the stack yourself, and it can sync any Yjs document, not only a text
editor. Tiptap also offers
[managed collaboration](https://tiptap.dev/docs/collaboration/getting-started/overview)
and enterprise on-premises deployment.

With Hocuspocus, your team runs the collaboration server, its database, backups,
and scaling. Count that work when comparing it with a managed service.

## How does document billing differ from collaboration billing? [#how-does-document-billing-differ-from-collaboration-billing]

Tiptap bills per document; Liveblocks bills usage. Tiptap's
[Start plan](https://tiptap.dev/pricing) is $49 per month and Team is $149 per
month, both billed annually ($59 and $179 on monthly billing). Start includes
500 cloud documents per environment and Team includes 5,000; more documents are
a paid add-on. Liveblocks uses a plan with credits and usage-based pricing.
Compare the services you need, not only the base subscriptions. Prices checked
September 28, 2026.

As an example, take an application with 200 editable briefs and 20,000 read-only
logs. Tiptap counts only the
[documents stored in its cloud](https://tiptap.dev/docs/collaboration/documents);
documents kept in your own database do not count, and editing an existing cloud
document does not add one. Keeping the logs outside Tiptap Cloud therefore
changes the estimate a lot.

For Liveblocks, count collaboration time, updates, and stored data rather than
treating every stored document as an active editing session. Add comments and
notifications if the workflow uses them. Your
[plan's credits](/docs/pricing/plans) apply once across all Liveblocks usage.

Tiptap can be [self-hosted](https://tiptap.dev/docs/hocuspocus/introduction)
with Hocuspocus, and on-premises deployment is an Enterprise option. Liveblocks
offers [self-hosting](/docs/platform/data-storage#Self-hosting) as a paid add-on
on the Enterprise plan. Either way, your own servers, database, backups, and
operations are part of the budget.

## Get started [#get-started]

Try the
[editor example](/examples/collaborative-text-editor-advanced/nextjs-tiptap-advanced)
for a working application with Sync, Comments, and Notifications, then check
your editor against the
[supported integrations](/docs/products/sync/integrations).

[Start building with Liveblocks for free](https://liveblocks.io/dashboard).
Follow the [setup guide](/docs/get-started) for your project.

---

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