agent-starter-react vs voice-ui-kit
Two of the top voice and realtime, side by side: score, setup, license, activity and what each review found.
agent-starter-react
Next.js voice assistant frontend for LiveKit Agents
voice-ui-kit
React components and templates for Pipecat voice agent frontends
| What we compare | agent-starter-react | voice-ui-kit |
|---|---|---|
| Score parts, out of 100 | ||
| Adoption | 56, popular | 41, known |
| Freshness | 100, active | 100, active |
| Maintenance | 32, patchy | 67, fair |
| Easy to run | 33, some setup | 0, hard |
| Agent-ready | 0, none | 30, minimal |
| Facts from GitHub and the README | ||
| Stars | 949 | 419 |
| License | MIT (permissive) | BSD-2-Clause (permissive) |
| Last commit | Sep 2026 | Oct 2026 |
| Last release | None published | Sep 2026 |
| Language | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Docker | No | No |
| GPU | Not needed | Not needed |
| arm64 or Apple Silicon | Not stated | Not stated |
agent-starter-react
Next.js app on LiveKit Agents UI components and the LiveKit JS SDK: welcome and session views, chat transcript, media tiles, camera, screen share, avatar rendering and five audio visualizer styles. A route at app/api/token issues LiveKit tokens from your project credentials. Frontend only; pair it with a LiveKit agent such as agent-starter-python or agent-starter-node.
Who it is for: Teams shipping a web UI for a LiveKit voice agent
Strengths
- Transcript, media tiles, avatar video and visualizers already composed
- Agents UI components are installed into components/ and editable in place
- Token route included; development token server also supported
- Matching Android, Swift, Flutter and React Native starters exist
Weaknesses
- Needs a separate LiveKit agent and a LiveKit Cloud or self-hosted server
- Token route has no authentication; add one before production
- No tests or Docker
- TypeScript
- Needs LiveKit Cloud or self-hosted LiveKit server, a LiveKit agent
- GitHub template
- env example file
voice-ui-kit
pnpm workspace publishing @pipecat-ai/voice-ui-kit: React components (connect button, control bar, voice visualizer, audio controls), hooks, a ConsoleTemplate debug UI and a ThemeProvider on Tailwind 4. Works over the Pipecat Daily or SmallWebRTC transports; examples cover the console template, custom components, Tailwind and Vite. For teams building a browser frontend for a Pipecat bot; the bot is separate.
Who it is for: Frontend developers building UIs for Pipecat voice bots
Strengths
- Drop-in ConsoleTemplate for testing and benchmarking a Pipecat bot
- Daily and SmallWebRTC transports supported
- Tailwind 4 theme via CSS variables; Storybook included
- Four example apps: console, components, Tailwind, Vite
Weaknesses
- Library plus examples, not a deployable app; you assemble the page
- Requires a running Pipecat server exposing /api/offer or a Daily room
- No auth or persistence
- TypeScript
- Needs Pipecat bot server, Daily account (optional transport)