Dacast vs Wave.video Comparison 2026
Dacast is a dedicated live broadcast platform: channels, a paywall on the stream itself and white-label playback, bandwidth sold by the terabyte from $39 a month billed annually. Wave.video bundles an editor, a video host and multistreaming to several destinations on one bill, free for a watermarked start or $16 a month for stated hosting allowances rather than Dacast's terabyte-a-year model. Dacast sells access to the broadcast. Wave.video is for somebody who wants to cut the video, host it and go live from one subscription instead of three.
Live streaming and hosting sold by the terabyte
Editing, hosting and streaming on one plan
At a glance
- Wave.video starts cheaper, at $16.
- Only Wave.video has a free tier.
Side by side
Dacast | Wave.video | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $39 | From $16 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free trial, then paid | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier (they differ) | No | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Not stated |
| Free trial | 14 days | Not stated |
| API |
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.
Wave.video
Editing, hosting and streaming on one plan
Wave.video puts three things on one bill that are normally three subscriptions: an editor, a video host with embeds, and live streaming out to several destinations at once. The hosting side states its bandwidth and storage allowances rather than claiming they are unlimited, and charges per gigabyte beyond them. It suits somebody whose video mostly ends up on their own site.
Why people weigh these two
- Wave.video instead of Dacast
- Wave.video puts editing, hosting and streaming on one plan from $16 with a free tier, so the video is made and served in the same place.
- Dacast instead of Wave.video
- Dacast also combines streaming and hosting, sold by the terabyte at $39, no free tier but no separate editor bundled in either.
Which one should you pick
Pick Dacast if the stream itself needs a paywall, pay-per-view or a subscription on the live broadcast, not just the recorded archive. Starter is $39 a month billed annually for 2.4TB of bandwidth a year, and paying month to month instead carries a three-month minimum. It has no built-in editor at all, which is Wave.video's entire other half.
Pick Wave.video if editing, hosting and going live should be one bill instead of three separate ones. Free covers a basic editor with a watermark, and Streamer starts at $16 a month with hosting allowances stated as real numbers, 20 embeds and 150GB of traffic on the entry tier, rather than claimed as unlimited. It does not sell a paywall on the live stream itself the way Dacast does.
Common questions
- Is Wave.video cheaper than Dacast?
- At the entry tier, yes: Wave.video starts at $16 a month against Dacast's $39. They bundle different things though; Dacast's price is built around live broadcast infrastructure with a paywall, and Wave.video's includes a video editor that Dacast does not have at all.
- Can I sell access to a live stream on Wave.video the way I can on Dacast?
- Wave.video multistreams to several destinations at once, but a paywall on the live broadcast itself is not among its described features. Dacast is built specifically for that: pay-per-view and subscriptions on the stream, not just the recorded archive.
- Does Wave.video include a video editor?
- Yes, that is a core part of its pitch: an editor, a host and live streaming replacing three separate subscriptions. Dacast has no editor described; it is purely a broadcast and hosting platform.
- How do the hosting limits compare between the two?
- Dacast measures bandwidth in terabytes a year, 2.4TB on Starter, and rolls unused allowance forward. Wave.video states embeds and traffic per tier, 20 embeds and 150GB on its entry paid tier, then charges 10 cents per extra gigabyte and 20 cents per extra video beyond 200.
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.