Growing an audience
Running the business
Both cover video hosting. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
| Castr | Mux | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $19.99 | From $20 |
| Pricing model | Paid subscription | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | No | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Usage-based |
| Free trial | 7 days | Not stated |
| API | Not stated | Yes |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | Not stated | Not stated |
| Runs on | Web | Web |
| Covers | Live Streaming, Video Hosting | Video Hosting |
| Works with | YouTube, Twitch, Facebook | Nothing in particular |
| Founded | Not listed | Not listed |
| Reader rating | No reviews yet | No reviews yet |
| Live deals | None right now | None right now |
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.
Only on this side
Video hosting and streaming as an API
Mux is the video layer for somebody building their own product: you post a file or a stream to the API and get back encoding, storage, delivery and a player, billed by the minute. There is no dashboard for uploading a marketing video, and that is the point. Its analytics product measures playback quality for people who already have video working and want to know why it buffers.
Our note
Model your delivery minutes before committing, because delivery rather than storage is what moves the bill on a video anyone watches. api.video and Cloudflare Stream are the direct comparisons, and the choice usually comes down to which player and analytics you want.
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.