Dacast vs StreamYard Comparison 2026
Dacast hosts and monetizes a live channel: white-label playback, a paywall on the stream itself, bandwidth sold by the year from $39 a month billed annually. StreamYard produces the show itself, live in a browser with no install, sending one broadcast to several platforms at once for $44.99 a month, or $35.99 billed yearly. One distributes and sells access to a stream. The other runs the show that gets streamed.
Live streaming and hosting sold by the terabyte
Go live to several places from a browser tab
At a glance
- Dacast starts cheaper, at $39.
- Only StreamYard has a free tier.
Side by side
Dacast | StreamYard | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $39 | From $44.99 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free trial, then paid | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier (they differ) | No | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial (they differ) | 14 days | 7 days |
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.
StreamYard
Go live to several places from a browser tab
StreamYard runs a live show from a browser with no software to install, which is why it is the default for interview streams and for guests who will not download anything. Multistreaming to several destinations is the feature people pay for. Anybody who wants scenes, plugins and local capture is describing OBS instead.
Only on this side
Why people weigh these two
- StreamYard instead of Dacast
- StreamYard puts the live production in a browser tab and sends it to several places at once, free tier then $44.99, lighter than a terabyte-metered platform.
- Dacast instead of StreamYard
- Dacast sells live streaming and hosting by the terabyte, starting at $39 with no free tier, sized for a business broadcast rather than an interview show.
Which one should you pick
Pick StreamYard if the job is producing an interview show or a panel that goes out to more than one platform at once, with guests joining from a browser link and nothing to install. The free plan carries a logo and two hours of local recording a month, and Core removes the logo at $44.99 a month, or $35.99 billed yearly, for three multistream destinations.
Pick Dacast if the job is hosting and monetizing the stream once it exists: a paywall on the broadcast itself, white-label playback and bandwidth sold in yearly terabytes. There is no free tier, only a 14-day trial, and monthly billing carries a three-month minimum, so budget for that if the plan is a single event.
Common questions
- Can StreamYard put a paywall on a live stream the way Dacast does?
- No. StreamYard is a production tool for going live to several platforms at once with guests joining from a browser; it has no paywall or pay-per-view feature of its own. Dacast is built around exactly that, charging for access to the broadcast itself.
- Does Dacast let guests join a show the way StreamYard does?
- That is not what Dacast is for. It hosts and distributes a channel with white-label playback and a paywall; producing the show, including guests joining from a browser, is StreamYard's job.
- Which one has a free plan?
- StreamYard does, with a logo on the stream and two hours of local recording a month. Dacast has no free tier at all, only a 14-day trial before Starter's $39 a month begins.
- Is StreamYard built for a single streamer or a team?
- Its paid plans are stated as for individual use only, which is worth checking against how a show is actually run. Dacast sells to events and businesses rather than individual creators, and does not carry that same individual-use restriction.
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.