liiive is Going Open-Source!

I’m excited I can finally share something that’s been quietly in the works for some time now: liiive is going open-source! I’m currently in the process of cleaning up the codebase and releasing it under the MIT license here:

By the end of February, the repository will provide everything you need to run your own fully self-hosted instance of liiive on your own server.

A big thanks to the Department of Digital Humanities at the University of Graz, who supported parts of this work through the DHInfra.at initiative.

New to liiive?

If you haven’t heard of liiive yet: liiive is a web-based tool that lets users explore and annotate digital images together, in real time. Built on the IIIF (International Image Interoperability Framework) standard, it’s designed for researchers, educators, students, and cultural heritage professionals working with high-resolution images.

Explore visual materials like artworks, manuscripts, maps, or historical documents together–live, in the browser–with shared cursors, synchronized annotations, and rich-text comments. Create region-based annotations using rectangle, polygon, circle/ellipse, and path drawing tools, or use the Photoshop-style Smart Scissors that automatically snap to object edges as you draw. (You can read a full introduction to liiive here.)

Open-Source = More Choice!

The hosted service I’m running at liiive.now (= this website) will stay online as usual. It runs on the same open-source codebase that anyone can now use, meaning that any improvements I make on liiive.now benefit the open-source community – and contributions from the community, in return, benefit everyone!

If you’re working in Digital Humanities, GLAM, education, or on any IIIF-based project that needs collaborative image annotation, the move to open-source means you now have three ways to use liiive, depending on how much control and responsibility you want.

1. liiive.now (this website)

Still the easiest way to get started – and completely hassle-free.

• No setup
• No technical knowledge required
• Just paste a IIIF URL and start annotating together – as usual
• Create unlimited temporary rooms
• Keep one room permanently for free
• Need more long-term storage – or want to support the ongoing development of liiive? Upgrade to a Pro plan.

This option is ideal for quick collaboration, workshops, occasional classroom use, or for anyone who just wants to jump in and start annotating right away.

2. Run your own liiive server

Gives you full control, privacy and ownership – but also means you are responsible for setup, updates, and maintenance. You will need:

• Your own Linux server (4 GB RAM as a bare minimum)
• Your own domain, with the ability to set up multiple sub-domains
• Server administration and networking knowledge
• Familiarity with Docker

Setup instructions will be available by the end of February.

This option is best for technically experienced users or institutions that already run their own services and want full independence and autonomy.

3. Managed hosting: your own liiive server, but without the hassle

The best of both worlds – your own private liiive instance, but I’ll take care of all the technical and administrative work in the background. You get:

• Your own private liiive instance
• Your own annotation storage
• Regular updates and maintenance
• No server setup, no Docker, no system administration

This option is ideal for research projects, more intensive classroom use, or mid- and long-term collaborations that need:

• Reliability
• Data ownership
• A private environment
• No technical overhead

If that sounds like what you need, get in touch! I’m happy to discuss the best hosting option for your project, advise on both hosted and on-premise setups, provide guidance on workflow integration and data management, and help you make the case for liiive in your next grant proposal.

Hi I'm Rainer, a freelance software developer based in Vienna, Austria. I created liiive out of a passion for the Digital Humanities and a fascination with realtime web technologies. I believe that studying historical materials online should feel as natural and engaging as gathering around a table together. For updates and tips, follow me on Mastodon or Bluesky.