Dacast vs SproutVideo Comparison 2026
Dacast is built for live broadcast: channels, a paywall on the stream itself, white-label playback and bandwidth sold by the terabyte, from $39 a month billed annually for 2.4TB a year and 500GB storage. SproutVideo just hosts: no live channels, but storage and bandwidth included rather than metered live, from $12 a month billed annually for 150GB storage and 1.8TB of bandwidth, plus engagement heatmaps down to which seconds were watched. Dacast's own guidance draws the line itself: buy it for selling access to a live stream, and use SproutVideo for hosting recordings instead.
Live streaming and hosting sold by the terabyte
Video hosting with the bandwidth included
At a glance
- SproutVideo starts cheaper, at $12.
- Neither has a free tier.
Side by side
Dacast | SproutVideo | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $39 | From $12 |
| Pricing model | Free trial, then paid | Free trial, then paid |
| Free tier | No | No |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial (they differ) | 14 days | 30 days |
| API | Yes |
Dacast
Live streaming and hosting sold by the terabyte
Dacast is a broadcaster's video platform: live channels, a paywall, white-label playback and a bandwidth allowance measured in terabytes a year. Unused bandwidth rolls forward, which suits anybody whose schedule is a season rather than a week. It sells to events and businesses rather than to social creators, and the interface has never pretended otherwise.
Our note
The three-month minimum on monthly billing is the term to notice, because it makes a single event cost three payments. Buy this when you are selling access to the stream itself; for hosting recordings, SproutVideo or Vimeo is simpler and cheaper.
Only on this side
- Covers live streaming
- Works with YouTube
- Works with Facebook
- Works with Twitch
- Works with Kick
SproutVideo
Video hosting with the bandwidth included
SproutVideo hosts video for businesses that want a player without YouTube's branding, its recommendations or its comment section. Plans include storage and bandwidth rather than metering them, so the bill is predictable until it is not. Analytics go down to heatmaps of who watched what, which is the reason most people move off a free host in the first place.
Why people weigh these two
- SproutVideo instead of Dacast
- SproutVideo includes the bandwidth at $12, which suits steady viewing where paying by the terabyte suits bursts.
- Dacast instead of SproutVideo
- Dacast adds live streaming alongside hosting, billed by the terabyte, starting at $39 with no free tier, for a business that also broadcasts live.
Which one should you pick
Pick Dacast if the stream itself is what is being sold: pay-per-view or subscriptions on a live broadcast, with white-label playback carrying your own branding. Starter is $39 a month billed annually for 2.4TB a year, and unused bandwidth rolls over rather than resetting. Paying month to month instead of annually carries a three-month minimum, which turns a single event into three payments.
Pick SproutVideo for hosting a video library on your own site, with storage and bandwidth included rather than metered separately, and analytics that go down to heatmaps of who watched what. Plans start at $12 a month billed annually for 150GB of storage and 1.8TB of bandwidth, with overage charged per gigabyte if that runs out. There is no live streaming here at all, which is the entire reason Dacast exists.
Common questions
- Is SproutVideo cheaper than Dacast?
- For hosting recordings, yes, by a wide margin: SproutVideo starts at $12 a month billed annually against Dacast's $39. They are not really substitutes though, since Dacast's price includes live streaming infrastructure that SproutVideo does not offer at all.
- Can SproutVideo run a live broadcast the way Dacast does?
- No live streaming is described among its features; it is built for hosting a video library with analytics attached. Dacast is specifically built for live channels, with a paywall that can sit on the stream itself rather than only on the recorded archive.
- Does either one charge for bandwidth beyond the plan?
- Both do, differently. Dacast measures bandwidth in terabytes a year and rolls unused allowance forward rather than charging overage directly. SproutVideo includes a bandwidth allowance per plan and then charges overage per gigabyte, from $0.25 down to $0.06 depending on tier.
- What is the real cost of Dacast's monthly plan versus its annual one?
- The $39 headline price is already the annual-billed rate. Paying month to month instead carries a three-month minimum commitment, so a single one-off event still costs three months of payments rather than one.
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.