Lightstreamer: real-time data delivery for trading applications

The core product combines server software, adapters and client libraries. Intelligent Streaming can reduce update frequency and combine intermediate changes when a display needs the latest state. Applications can also use event-oriented delivery. Choosing the appropriate behaviour matters: a quote display and a sequence of trade notifications have different information requirements.[2]

IG’s own API guide documents a concrete financial deployment: Lightstreamer carries market prices, trade notices and account-status updates. It uses MERGE for prices and account information, and DISTINCT for trade notifications. Access starts with IG authentication and its returned server address. These are IG-specific service rules, illustrating how the software operates inside a brokerage’s own platform.[4]

A custom Data Adapter supplies item updates. The separate Metadata Adapter manages users, subscriptions, authentication and entitlements. This division lets a firm connect its data feed and its existing identity system without treating every data update as a new login or permission decision.[3]

Custom adapter SDKs are available for Java, .NET, Node.js and Python, with a generic socket protocol for other implementations. Client options include web JavaScript, Android, Swift for Apple platforms, Flutter and other desktop or server-side languages. These are development interfaces: the institution supplies the application, data source and business logic.[5]

The Web Client reference separates connection setup from subscriptions and update listeners. A subscription names the requested items and fields and can request an initial snapshot; the listener receives later changes. The currently listed Web Client 9.2.3 requires server 7.4.0 or later, so client and server versions need to be matched during upgrades.[15]

Paid production licences require a quotation. The public schedule describes annual payment in advance and monthly usage charging, with the following alternatives.[9]

For per-client reconciliation, the standard licence uses ten-minute average sessions aggregated across servers, then the six-month series’ 99th percentile. The offer or purchase order sets excess-use pricing.[10]

Community Edition permits free production use with one server instance per application and one client-library type. Clustering, load balancing, failover and hot standby are prohibited, and the application must prominently attribute Lightstreamer’s copyright.[10]

The pricing FAQ offers a free 20-connection Demo for development and testing. A production licence also includes Non-Production Limited, which stops after 210 minutes; unrestricted non-production licensing is a paid option.[9]

The software can run in a customer’s data centre or cloud infrastructure. Its downloadable server and Docker images are paired with developer examples and deployment guidance. Cloud deployment therefore still involves configuring the customer’s application and its chosen infrastructure; the download route does not establish a fully operated brokerage service.[5]

The Kubernetes guide covers replicas, resource sizing, health checks and session routing. After creating a session, subsequent control and rebind requests need to reach its original replica, either through load-balancer affinity or a specific control-link address. Clustering is an optional Enterprise feature. The guide calls for workload-based capacity testing; its illustrative resource settings are not a throughput commitment.[12]

TLS deployment requires certificates and an appropriate Java keystore. The certificate guide distinguishes the bundled self-signed demonstration certificate from production certificates signed by a certification authority. Certificate names must cover the endpoints actually used by clients, including any separate cluster addresses.[13][12]

Cloud License Manager requires outbound HTTPS access to its published endpoints and working DNS. It sends licensing identifiers, relevant audit data, core counts and peak session statistics. The provider says this exchange excludes customer personal data such as IP addresses. This licensing connection is separate from the application’s market-data stream.[11]

The standard licence requires CLM contact at startup and at least every 45 minutes thereafter; otherwise the server process terminates. Static-file or other verification mechanisms depend on the licence type.[10]

The pricing page includes upgrades and unlimited support tickets, with 24/7 coverage optional. The standard licence separately leaves assistance and maintenance to the applicable support agreement; the contracted schedule therefore matters.[9][10]

Public documentation covers concepts, SDKs, clustering, TLS and load-testing tools, alongside tutorials and a community forum. These resources support implementation work, while a purchased service schedule defines incident handling. The reviewed public pages do not establish a universal initial-response deadline or repair time.[14]

Lightstreamer’s access controls connect to the customer’s authentication and authorisation systems. They determine which user can subscribe to which information and at what service level. The product’s “Broker” name describes message distribution. It supplies infrastructure to financial applications; the brokerage’s customer agreement and trading permissions sit with the financial-service operator.[2]

IG’s published limit of 40 simultaneous subscriptions per connection is one example of a service-specific entitlement. Its guide expressly prohibits using extra connections to bypass that limit and directs users to request a higher quota. A Lightstreamer client library therefore provides a connection mechanism, not unrestricted rights to a broker’s data or account services.[4]

The website privacy notice concerns enquiries, public forums, demonstrations and related web services. It should not be treated as a complete data-processing agreement for an institution’s own production application. For example, the notice describes demonstration-server logging and public-chat data separately from ordinary contact enquiries.[17]

The published operator is Lightstreamer Srl, at Via Panfilo Castaldi 11, Milan, with Italian company/VAT number 03585950102. Its company notice states that it is subject to Par-Tec Spa’s direction and coordination.[16]

Par-Tec’s own group page identifies Lightstreamer alongside Swing, its other group company, and describes Lightstreamer as the software business for data push, messaging and streaming. The broader group’s consulting and managed services are separate offerings and should not be assumed part of every Lightstreamer licence.[19]

Weswit was renamed Lightstreamer in October 2015. The original announcement is explicitly preserved with its publication date; the later webpage date does not make this a recent ownership change.[18]

Now4real is linked from Lightstreamer’s product navigation, but its current terms name a separate operator, Now4real Srl. Its company page identifies Alessandro Alinone as CEO of both businesses. The managed website-chat service has its own contract and should be scoped separately from a Broker software deployment.[20][21]

Operator

Lightstreamer Srl

Service scope

Event-broker software for distributing back-end data to web, mobile and desktop applications.

Customer types

Brokerages; Financial application developers; Enterprise software teams

Delivery

On premises; API; Hybrid

Pricing publication

Public and quoted pricing

Headquarters

Milan, Italy

Platforms

Lightstreamer Broker; Lightstreamer Server; Kafka Connector; MQTT Connector; JMS Connector

Integrations

Kafka Client API or Kafka Connect; MQTT brokers through MQTT Connector; JMS providers through JMS Connector; Custom Data and Metadata Adapters; Web and mobile client SDKs

Pricing scope

Free Community Edition has restricted production use; paid annual and monthly tariffs are quoted.

Implementation

Customer-operated cloud or on-premises deployments, custom adapters or connectors, and client SDK integration.

Support

Published technical support address, developer documentation and contract-specific service coverage.

Permissions and regulatory scope

Messaging software for financial applications. Customer data entitlements and financial-service permissions remain with the respective service operator.

Provider metadata checked 21 Oct 2026Source 1Source 2Source 5Source 16Source 9Source 10Source 14Source 18Source 4Source 6Source 7Source 8Source 22

Server 7.4.9, released on 20 October 2026, changes the initial deployment experience. Demonstration adapters and pages move into an examples directory with dedicated scripts. The base configuration no longer preselects a listening port or broadly accepted browser origins, and monitoring access is restricted. A production launch therefore requires deliberate endpoint and origin configuration; older instructions that assume an immediately running port-8080 demo need to be checked against this release.[22]

Kafka Connector 2.0 adds connector-managed initial snapshots for MERGE, DISTINCT and COMMAND data, allowing new or reconnecting subscribers to receive an initial state before live updates. Snapshot management is disabled by default and requires configuration. The release requires Broker 7.4.8 or later and changes earlier COMMAND-mode parameters, so an existing integration needs the published migration guidance as well as the new connector binary.[23]