Growing an audience
Running the business
Both cover live streaming. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
| Castr | vMix | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $19.99 | From $60 |
| Pricing model | Paid subscription | One-time purchase |
| Free tier | No | No |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | One-time purchase |
| Free trial | 7 days | 60 days |
| API | Not stated | Not stated |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | Not stated | Not stated |
| Runs on | Web | Windows |
| Covers | Live Streaming, Video Hosting | Live Streaming, Video Editing |
| Works with | YouTube, Twitch, Facebook | YouTube, Twitch, Facebook |
| 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
Windows live production with a licence you keep
vMix is the production switcher people buy when they want mixing, replay, titles and multiple camera inputs on one Windows machine and do not want to rent it. The lifetime licences go from a starter tier to a 4K one, and the difference between them is input count, resolution and the extras a sports crew needs. There is a monthly subscription for people who work in bursts, and a sixty-day trial that is long enough to run a whole season through.
Our note
The lifetime licence is unusual enough in live production to be the reason to choose it, and the sixty-day trial is unusually generous too. It is Windows only, so for anyone on a Mac the real comparison is OBS Studio, Ecamm Live or Wirecast rather than this.
Only on this side
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.