Head-to-head · AI Voice Agents
Tone vs LiveKit Agents
Tone leads on 0 checks, LiveKit Agents on 0, and 5 are even. Who comes out ahead on the 5 yes/no, price and count checks where we have data for both products. The editor score weighs everything else too.
Our verdict
- Highest scoreTone · 9.3/10
- Free planboth
Tone scores higher on our rubric for ai voice agents: 9.3 against 9.2 out of 10; our editors rank them #2 and #3.
Tone is the better fit for teams wanting a complete open-source voice platform. LiveKit Agents is the better fit for developers building realtime voice agents.
- Tone fits best
Teams wanting a complete open-source voice platform
- LiveKit Agents fits best
Developers building realtime voice agents
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Side by side
| Feature | Tone 9.3/10 Visit ↗ | LiveKit Agents 9.2/10 Visit ↗ |
|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||
| Editor score | 9.3 | 9.2 |
| Ranking | #2 in AI Voice Agents | #3 in AI Voice Agents |
| Best for | Teams wanting a complete open-source voice platform | Developers building realtime voice agents |
| Pricing model | Free plan + paid | Free plan + paid |
| Starting price | $0.09 usage-based | $50/mo |
| Free plan | ✓ | ✓ |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Deployment | Cloud, Self-hosted | Self-hosted |
| Integrations | 20 integrations | 11 integrations |
| Features Tone 4/4 · LiveKit Agents 4/4 | ||
| Inbound calls | ✓ | ✓ |
| Outbound calls | ✓ | ✓ |
| Human handoff | ✓ | ✓ |
| Custom phone numbers | ✓ | ✓ |
| Specs | ||
| Supported languages | 29 languages | Not checked yet |
| Concurrent calls | Not checked yet | 20 calls |
| Our review | ||
| Pros |
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| Cons |
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| Our verdict | Tone is an open-source platform for teams building phone and other conversational agents. It supports inbound and outbound calls, web widgets, chat, and SMS, with a runtime, workflow builder, knowledge base, testing tools, and… Read the review → |
LiveKit Agents is an open-source framework for building programmable, realtime voice and multimodal AI agents. It is aimed at developers and teams creating conversational voice applications or other realtime AI experiences. Agents can run… Read the review → |
Strengths and trade-offs
Tone — where it wins
- Self-hosting includes unlimited agents, calls, workflows, and integrations.
- Visual workflows support conditional branches and human handoff.
- Testing, call observability, and knowledge citations are built in.
Where it doesn't
- Self-hosting requires teams to bring their own LLM, voice, and telephony.
- Cloud usage is billed per minute rather than through a fixed plan.
- Enterprise pricing is not specified in the published plan details.
LiveKit Agents — where it wins
- Connects pluggable LLM, STT, TTS, and realtime model providers
- Supports inbound and outbound telephony, transfers, and agent handoffs
- Includes testing, recordings, transcripts, traces, and logs
Where it doesn't
- Building with the framework requires developer-led implementation
- Ship starts at $50/month; Scale is $500/month
- The listed feature set may be broader than needed for simple voice bots
- Tone9.3/10 · Free plan
A full voice-agent toolkit with free self-hosting and cloud usage priced per minute.
Visit ToneFull verdict → - LiveKit Agents9.2/10 · Free plan
An open framework for building realtime voice agents, with optional managed cloud plans.
Visit LiveKitFull verdict →
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All AI voice agents comparisons → · Full ranking →
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
Last updated · How we research and update







