---
title: Waku vs. libp2p - What's the Difference?
---

Since Waku is built on top of libp2p, they share a lot of concepts and terminologies between them. However, there are key differences between them that are worth noting.

## Waku as a Service Network

Waku intends to incentivize mechanisms to run nodes, but it's not part of libp2p's scope. Additionally, users or developers do not have to deploy their infra as a prerequisite to use Waku. It is a service network.

However, you are encouraged to [run your node](https://github.com/waku-org/nwaku/tree/master/docs/operators) to support and decentralize the network.

## Waku as a Keyturn Solution

Waku includes various protocols covering the following domains: privacy preservation, censorship resistance, and platform agnosticism, allowing it to run on any platform or environment.

libp2p does not provide out-of-the-box protocols to enable mostly offline/resource-restricted devices, [Waku Store](/overview/concepts/protocols#waku-store)/[Waku Light Push](/overview/concepts/protocols#waku-light-push)/[Waku Filter](/overview/concepts/protocols#waku-filter) caters to those use cases.

## Economic Spam Protection

libp2p does not have strong spam protection guarantees, [RLN (Rate Limit Nullifier)](/overview/concepts/protocols#waku-rln-relay) is a protocol being developed by the Waku team towards this goal.