BoxCast vs Castr Comparison 2026
BoxCast bundles a live player, hosting and a website into one subscription built for an organisation that streams every week, from $109 a month with no free tier. Castr is priced far lower to start, $19.99 a month or $16.67 billed annually, but it sells hosting, a 24/7 playout channel and a paywall on a metered bandwidth pool aimed at a publisher charging for access rather than a church running a service. The two rarely compete for the same buyer: one is an operations department in a box, the other is infrastructure a business builds a channel on.
Live streaming for places that stream every week
Live streaming with hosting and a paywall
At a glance
- Castr starts cheaper, at $19.99.
- Neither has a free tier.
Side by side
BoxCast | Castr | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $109 | From $19.99 |
| Pricing model | Paid subscription | Paid subscription |
| Free tier | No | No |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | 7 days |
| API | Not stated | Not stated |
| Data export |
BoxCast
Live streaming for places that stream every week
BoxCast is built around a recurring broadcast rather than an occasional one, which is why its customers are churches, schools and local sport. Streams go out from a phone, a browser or a hardware encoder, and the same subscription covers the player, the hosting and a website to put it on. Branded television and mobile apps are sold as a separate product. Nothing about the pricing rewards streaming once a quarter.
Our note
Compare this against a platform plus a video host rather than against streaming software, because the bundling is the argument and it only wins when you would have bought both. For an organisation streaming weekly with volunteers running it, the thirty-day refund is the cheapest way to find out whether the reliability claim holds on your own connection.
Castr
Live streaming with hosting and a paywall
Castr covers the parts of streaming that sit either side of the broadcast: hosting the recording afterwards, running a 24/7 playout channel, and putting a paywall in front of either. Bandwidth is sold as a pool rather than metered per viewer. It is priced for a business running channels, not for somebody going live on a Sunday.
Why people weigh these two
- Castr instead of BoxCast
- Live streaming with hosting and a paywall from $19.99, a fraction of BoxCast's $109, for broadcasts that need a player more than an operations department.
- BoxCast instead of Castr
- BoxCast serves the same stream-every-week organisation at $109, built for recurring broadcasts rather than one-off streams.
Which one should you pick
Pick BoxCast if a church, school or sports program streams on a schedule and wants one subscription to cover the player, hosting and a site, run by a volunteer rather than a specialist. It starts at $109 a month with no free plan, and the thirty-day money-back guarantee is the practical way to test reliability on your own connection.
Pick Castr if the business is running a 24/7 channel or charging for access to a live stream or its recording, since the paywall and playout scheduling are built for exactly that. Starter is $19.99 a month, a fraction of BoxCast's price, but it is infrastructure for a publisher, not a bundled operations team, and a solo creator streaming occasionally should look at Restream instead of either.
Common questions
- Which one is cheaper?
- Castr, by a wide margin at the entry tier: $19.99 a month, or $16.67 billed annually, against BoxCast's $109. The two are not really priced for the same buyer, since BoxCast bundles a website and player that Castr does not include.
- Can either one put a paywall on a live stream?
- Castr can, on streams and on the recordings afterward, which is central to what it sells. BoxCast is not described with a paywall feature here; its subscription instead bundles the player, hosting and a website for an organisation's regular broadcast.
- Which is built for a weekly church or school broadcast?
- BoxCast is, explicitly. The pricing and workflow assume a recurring broadcast, and the bundled website and player mean one subscription covers what would otherwise be several tools. Castr is aimed at a business running scheduled channels, not a volunteer-run weekly service.
- Does either offer a free trial?
- Castr offers seven days with no card required. BoxCast has no trial before signup, but backs a first subscription with a thirty-day money-back guarantee instead, which works as a trial after the fact.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.