# How to Vibe Code Your Own Livestorm (and Stop Paying for It) > All-in-one webinar software for marketing and sales teams - Site: https://livestorm.co - Category: Webinar & Video Conferencing - Verdict: **Serious undertaking** (38/100 vibecodeable) - Estimated effort: 3-5 months of part-time development ## Verdict Build a scaled-down personal subset using managed WebRTC APIs, or keep paying if you need robust enterprise compliance and native CRM syncs. Replicating Livestorm as a solo developer requires orchestrating complex real-time video streams, WebSocket state management for interactive chat and polls, and durable background workers for automated email cadences. While a solo builder can assemble a functional webinar tool using managed components like Daily or LiveKit and Next.js, matching the fault tolerance, deep CRM sync pipelines, and enterprise-grade reliability of a platform scaling to thousands of attendees is a serious engineering undertaking. ### What you can't replicate - Enterprise security certifications and compliance frameworks (ISO 27001, GDPR infrastructure isolation) - Native bidirectional enterprise CRM connectors (Salesforce, Marketo, Pardot) - Battle-tested global SFU video routing infrastructure ## What it does Browser-based video engagement and webinar software platform managing pre-event registration, live room interactive sessions, and post-event analytics. ### Core features - Custom landing page builder and registration forms - Automated email cadence engine (reminders and follow-ups) - Browser-based WebRTC video room supporting multi-speaker streams - Interactive Q&A with upvoting and moderation - Real-time chat with emoji reactions and polls - AI-powered transcription and automated content repurposing - Post-event attendance and conversion analytics ## The business ### Pricing - Pro: €2.50 / attendee — Per active attendee credit over a 12-month period, up to 4 hours per session. - Enterprise: Custom — Tailored for large organizations requiring custom integrations and SLAs. ### Funding $35M to $40M raised. - Seed Round (June 2017): ~$554K - Series A (September 2019): €4.6M - Series B (November 2020): $30M Investors: Aglaé Ventures, Bpifrance, RAISE Ventures, IDInvest Partners Founded 2016. Team size: 100–200. ## The hard parts - Scalable WebRTC Selective Forwarding Unit (SFU) architecture for handling multi-speaker video streams without latency spikes - Reliable transactional email cadence engine with background worker queues to handle scheduling and delivery tracking - Bidirectional webhook synchronization and rate-limit handling for external marketing tools - Real-time chat and engagement state synchronization across hundreds of concurrent viewers via WebSockets ## How to vibe code Livestorm ### Prerequisites - Node.js (free): JavaScript/TypeScript runtime for full-stack web development. - GitHub (free): Version control and CI/CD deployment pipelines. ### Recommended AI tools - Claude Code: Handles multi-file full-stack scaffolding, complex API integrations, and iterative debugging. - Cursor: Ideal for fine-tuning UI layouts, component hierarchies, and real-time frontend states. ### Stack - Frontend: Next.js - Backend: Next.js API Routes - Database: Neon - Auth: better-auth - Payments: none - Other: LiveKit, Resend, OpenAI API, Vercel AI SDK ### Hosting - Vercel (Next.js frontend and serverless API deployment): $0-20/mo - Neon (Serverless PostgreSQL database storage): $0/mo ### Build guide 1. **Project Scaffolding & Database Schema** — Initialize the Next.js application with TypeScript and Tailwind CSS, configure Neon PostgreSQL, and set up the core data models for events, registrations, chat messages, and attendees. ``` Scaffold a new Next.js project with TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, and App Router. Set up Drizzle ORM configured to connect to a Neon PostgreSQL database. Create database migrations and schema definitions for tables: `events` (id, title, description, scheduled_at, duration, host_id), `registrations` (id, event_id, email, name, attended, registered_at), `chat_messages` (id, event_id, sender_name, message, created_at), and `polls` (id, event_id, question, options, active). Implement a basic layout with responsive navigation and establish a clean directory structure. ``` 2. **Authentication & Event Management Dashboard** — Implement authentication using better-auth and build the host dashboard for creating, editing, and listing upcoming and past webinars. ``` Integrate `better-auth` into the Next.js application for secure email/password and social authentication. Build a host dashboard route `/dashboard` that allows authenticated users to create new webinar events with custom titles, descriptions, and scheduled timestamps. Implement event management views to list upcoming events, generate unique public registration landing pages for each event, and view basic metadata and registration counts. ``` 3. **Registration Flow & Automated Email Cadences** — Build public registration pages with custom form fields and set up background jobs using Resend for automated confirmation and reminder emails. ``` Create a public registration page at `/events/[id]` featuring a registration form that captures attendee name and email, writing records to the `registrations` table. Integrate the Resend API to automatically trigger a confirmation email upon successful registration. Implement a background job or cron endpoint using Vercel Cron to send automated reminder emails 1 hour before the scheduled webinar start time, tracking delivery status and handling bounce logging. ``` 4. **Live Video Room & WebRTC Integration** — Integrate LiveKit video conferencing SDK to build the live webinar room supporting multi-speaker video streams, screen sharing, and participant management. ``` Build the live webinar room interface at `/events/[id]/room`. Integrate the LiveKit client SDK to handle WebRTC token generation on the backend and establish real-time video and audio feeds for speakers and attendees. Implement speaker toggle controls, device selection selectors (camera/microphone), screen sharing functionality, and a participant list view displaying active viewers and speakers with role-based permissions. ``` 5. **Interactive Engagement: Chat, Q&A, and Polls** — Add real-time interactive engagement features including live chat, upvoted Q&A questions, and live polls using WebSockets or polling. ``` Implement real-time engagement features inside the webinar room interface. Build a live chat component using WebSockets for instant message broadcasting and emoji reactions. Add a Q&A tab where attendees can submit questions and upvote peer questions, allowing moderators to pin or mark questions as answered. Build a live polling widget enabling hosts to launch custom poll questions and display real-time vote distribution graphs to participants. ``` 6. **AI Transcription & Post-Event Analytics** — Incorporate OpenAI Whisper for automated post-event transcription and build the analytics reporting screen showing attendance rates and engagement metrics. ``` Implement a post-event workflow that processes recorded session audio using the OpenAI Whisper API to generate structured transcripts and summaries. Store the transcript data linked to the event record. Build an analytics reporting page at `/events/[id]/analytics` that computes and displays key performance metrics including registration totals, actual attendance rate, chat activity counts, and poll response summaries with export options. ``` ### Cost vs paying **Starting costs (one-time):** - Custom domain registration: $12 one-time - Total: ~$12 one-time **Ongoing costs (monthly):** - Vercel Hobby / Pro Hosting: $0-20/mo - LiveKit & OpenAI API usage: $5-15/mo - Total: ~$15-35/mo - Paying for the SaaS instead: €2.50 per attendee credit - Build time: 40-60 hours - AI tool credits: $20/mo (Claude Pro) - Break-even: Depends on event volume and attendee credit consumption ## Sources - [Livestorm Official Website](https://livestorm.co) - [Livestorm Pricing & Plans](https://livestorm.co/pricing) - [Livestorm AI Features](https://livestorm.co/ai-features)