Quick summary
RTMP (Real Time Messaging Protocol) is the most common, conventional streaming protocol, used widely by platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Twitch, etc. The process of encoding live video, transcoding into multiple bitrates, and delivering it to an end viewer via RTMP takes time, usually 15-30 seconds, which means that there is usually a 15-30 second delay between what happens live on camera and what you see in YouTube, Facebook, etc. RTMP is the most common type of encoding that is available on off-the-shelf video encoders and software.
WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communications) is a nearly real-time protocol, which is most commonly used in applications such as Zoom, Google Meet, and other video conferencing platforms. WebRTC provides a much faster delivery time compared to RTMP, but has a lower quality signal and is more highly compressed. WebRTC usually requires a computer to interface with the CDN, vs. RTMP which can be handled on dedicated hardware.
RTMP | WebRTC | |
Latency | 10-30 seconds | Under 1 second |
Type of encoder | Hardware or software | Software |
Quality | High | Low |
