8 Top Alternatives To Restream

Restream is a live streaming software that is used to stream video content across multiple social media platforms such as Facebook, Youtube, Twitch, and 30+ others. It offers a unified platform with customizable live streams and chat boxes to easily connect with your audience.

Restream has a free version and a paid version. The standard plan costs $16 a month and offers streaming up to 5 channels, and the Professional plan costs $41 that can stream up to 8 channels. There are also business plans costing from $83 to $249 a month.

Why Use Restream Alternatives?

When multicasting to different platforms, it is important to look for several features that will help build your brand and visibility:

1. Pricing – Most of the streaming software are for free but the features that you pay for a premium will help you take your live streaming to the next level. The monthly subscription should be priced competitively and should offer plenty of advanced features.
2. Video storage – The live streaming software should support VODs(video on demand), this helps your audiences replay your previous streams and also lets you store your content for future use or publish it elsewhere. Consider the number of videos the platform can save, what file formats are supported, and how much you can upload to the platform.
3. Advanced features – When looking for a streaming software, consider the advanced features that it offers. Does it allow you to multiple streaming websites at once? Is the interface customizable? Does it offer high-definition streaming? These are important to make sure your live streams are as competitive as possible.
4. Customer support – Customer support is important to consider when looking for a streaming software. Does it have live customer support? Can they be reached through telephone, chat, or email? How fast are their response times?

Limitations With Restream

Restream is a great platform to publish your live stream across different streaming platforms, however, it also experiences challenges in some areas that could make you look for an alternative:

1. It has limits on almost everything – It has limited storage, video length, platform numbers, chat messages, and simultaneous live streams. If you feel that these limitations do not suit your needs, then it is better to find a different platform
2. Chat bot is unreliable – A lot of users complain that the Chat bot tends to mess up sometimes or just stop working randomly.
3. 1080p streaming is only available on Pro plan – Having a crystal-clear stream resolution is very important when building your audience. Restream only offers 720p streaming on both the free and basic plans.
4. Watermark can’t be removed without paying for a Pro subscription – Some people find it expensive to pay $41 just to remove the watermark from their live streams.

8 Alternatives To Restream

1. StreamYard

StreamYard is a web-based streaming service that allows you to record and stream videos using your web browser. Unlike Restream, StreamYard only supports 6 streaming platforms natively including Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Twitch, and Hopin Stages. It can also support destinations such as Vimeo or Wix but the features are limited.

StreamYard is best used to stream to a larger audience since it can easily hold virtual meetings or events. It also allows you to collaborate with up to 10 broadcasters at a time with whom you can share screens, controls, and interactions.

StreamYard has a free version with streaming and participants limits. The paid versions cost $20 to $39 a month for the individual plans, or $79 to $239 for the business plans.

PROS:

1. Free version has decent features
2. Clean interface
3. Easy to learn and use
4. Cloud-based – no need to install a software locally to your computer
5. Allows download of previous streams in audio or video format

CONS:

1. Limited supported streaming platforms
2. No native video captions for live content
3. 1080p support is locked behind a $39 paywall
4. Multistream is only available on paid plans

2. Streamlabs OBS

Streamlabs is one of the most popular live streaming software on the market. It integrates with OBS(Open broadcast software) to interact with viewers, manage chat with your audience, and tip donations.

It offers high customizability, allowing you to use overlays to design your live stream and donation alerts with custom sounds. There are also plenty of ways to monetize your stream with various payment processor integrations.

Streamlabs have a lot of premium features completely for free. Steamlabs Ultra is an optional paid version that costs $19 a month, or $149 a year, it gives you access to more customization features, app add-ons, multistream capability, larger video storage, and access to all overlays and themes.

PROS:

1. Premium features for free
2. Premium package is cheap
3. Easy to set up
4. Plenty of add-ons, overlays, and themes

CONS:

1. Free version does not have multistream.
2. Need to update to the most recent version for it to work
3. Uses a lot of computer resources

3. Resi

Resi is a business-grade live streaming platform that allows streaming even with limited internet connectivity. Resi can be used to schedule recurring meetings or events in just one unified interface.  The platform boasts uninterrupted playback, 4k UHD streaming, multisite decoders for both realtime capture and DVR, and excellent customer support.

Resi is mainly used by businesses, schools, churches, and other organizations that target a large audience. Resi does not have a fixed pricing but you can get a quote at https://resi.io/pricing/.

PROS:

1. Extremely reliable streaming
2. Supports limited internet connectivity
3. Supports up to 4k UHD resolution
4. Best for businesses and organizations

CONS:

1. Exclusive for organizations
2. Expensive

4. Vimeo Livestream

Vimeo Livestream is another business-grade live streaming platform. It is primarily used by corporations, organizations, churches, and businesses. It offers 1080p live streaming, ad-free broadcasts, unlimited live events, VODs storage, and monetization features such as putting up a fee to view your videos or pay-per-view services.

Vimeo Livestream starts at $65 a month, and a quoted price for the enterprise subscription.

PROS:

1. Ad-free
2. 1080p support for all plans
3. Interactive features such as live polls, Q&A, and audience chat.
4. Very secure and reliable
5. Intuitive

CONS:

1. Uses a lot of resources that could cause the stream to crash
2. Expensive
3. Can only send streams to one platform at a time

5. Castr

Castr is a professional-grade live streaming platform that caters to individuals and businesses. Castr allows streaming to multiple social media and streaming sites and supports over 30 platforms. It offers uninterrupted streaming, streaming to other platforms on the fly without having to restart your encoder, large storage capacity, unlimited viewers, streaming up to 10 destinations, monetization features, and many more.

Castr starts at $12.50 up to $104.5 per month for individuals and $250 to $500 for businesses.

PROS:

1. Intuitive interface
2. 24/7 customer support
3. Multistreaming capability
4. Large storage and bandwidth
5. Integration with multiple social media platforms

CONS:

1. No free version
2. Expensive
3. Broadcast stats are limited

6. Switchboard Live

Switchboard Live is a video streaming software that allows you to simultaneously stream to multiple streaming platforms, much like Restream. It offers unlimited destinations for your streams, unlimited team members and inputs, stream sharing to other content creators, and embed players to use on your own website. It offers solutions to individuals and organizations alike.

Switchboard live costs from $29 up to $99 a month.

PROS:

1. Unlimited destinations
2. Unlimited team members
3. Stream sharing – allows others to publish your stream in real time without any complicated setup
4. Easy to use and set up

CONS:

1. Expensive
2. 1080p streaming is only available on a $99 plan and above
3. No unified chat across streaming platforms

7. Onestream Live

Onestream Live is a cloud-based platform that can multicast to multiple platforms simultaneously and supports more than 40 social media and streaming platforms. It offers the ability to schedule pre-recorded videos of up to 60 days, cloud-storage integration, embed live streams, unified chat across platforms, and personalized web pages.

Onestream offers a free plan and costs $10 to $99 for the premium plans.

PROS:

1. Easy to use
2. Supports many platforms
3. The ability to schedule pre-recorded videos
4. Prompt customer support

CONS:

1. Limited streaming duration per live session
2. 1080p streaming is only available on Professional plan
3. Most important features are locked behind the Professional plan

8. Dacast

Dacast is a cloud-based stream hosting platform that allows individuals and organizations to broadcast their live streams from their websites. Like Streamlabs, Dacast uses OBS as its encoder. Dacast provides embed links that you can use to add any of your live streams to your website. Dacast also allows users to create their own VOD channel for their audience to revisit previous live streams. Users can upload their videos directly to Dacast and be put together in a playlist. Dacast also offers monetization features such as subscription-based or pay-per-view paywall.

Dacast costs from $39 up to $188 a month.

PROS:

1. Easy to set up
2. Prompt customer support
3. Ease of monetization
4. Great value for money

CONS:

1. Could get expensive if you require more bandwidth
2. Limited live chat customization
3. Sometimes experiences latency issues

FAQs

Is there a free version of Restream?

Restream offers a free version which allows you to stream to up to 2 channels.

Does Restream have a time limit?

On Restream, there is no limit on the number of hours you can stream even on the free plan.

How can you stream to multiple platforms for free?

If you are looking for a software that allows you to stream to multiple platforms at once for free, Restream and Onestream Live offer a free plan that is capable of streaming to multiple platforms simultaneously. Unfortunately, this feature is locked behind a paid plan for other competitors.

What is the cheapest streaming service with local channels?

The cheapest streaming service that offers local channels is Paramount+ by CBS. For only $9.99 a month, you can get CBS local channels, Sports HQ, CBSN, and ET live.

Does Restream reduce quality?

Restream does not change the quality of your stream.