100ms: RTMP vs WebRTC vs HLS - Live Video Streaming Protocols Compared

A detailed comparison of RTMP, WebRTC, and HLS protocols, highlighting their differences in latency, scalability, quality, and reach. This resource assists developers in choosing the appropriate protocol based on their specific live video streaming requirements.

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• Harnessing WebRTC for Large-Scale Live StreamingACM SIGCOMM 2025 paper on scaling WebRTC for large-audience low-latency live streaming.
• FOSDEM 2020: Which Video Network Streaming Protocol Should I Use?FOSDEM Open Media devroom talk comparing SRT, RTSP, RIST, WebRTC, HLS and DASH for live video network streaming use cases.
• Low Latency Live Streaming Implementation in DASH and HLSACM MM'22 paper (Bentaleb et al.) on low-latency live streaming implementation, code contributions merged into hls.js.
• FOSDEM 2024: Streaming Live Using RIST On Demand to ThousandsFOSDEM Open Media devroom talk on a real-world RIST architecture achieving 500ms glass-to-glass latency at scale, comparing RIST vs QUIC.
• RIST vs SRT: Technical ComparisonElecard's technical deep-dive comparing RIST and SRT low-latency transport protocols.
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• KTH Thesis: Interoperable Retransmission Protocols for Low-Latency Video (RIST/SRT)Master's thesis academic evaluation comparing RIST and SRT retransmission protocols for low-latency video contribution.
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• RTMP: A Quick Deep-DiveBroadcast Knowledge conference talk video deep-diving RTMP protocol internals and its displacement by SRT/RIST/Zixi in modern contribution…
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