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.
| Streamlabs | vMix | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $19 | From $60 |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | One-time purchase |
| Free tier | Yes | No |
| Billing | Not stated | One-time purchase |
| Free trial | Not stated | 60 days |
| API | Not stated | Not stated |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | Not stated | Not stated |
| Runs on | macOS, Windows, iOS, Android | Windows |
| Covers | Live Streaming, Monetization & Payments, Tips & Donations | Live Streaming, Video Editing |
| Works with | YouTube, Twitch | YouTube, Twitch, Facebook |
| Founded | Not listed | Not listed |
| Reader rating | No reviews yet | No reviews yet |
| Live deals | None right now | None right now |
Streaming with alerts, overlays and tipping
Streamlabs wraps OBS in something friendlier and adds alerts, overlays and a donation page. Setup takes minutes rather than an evening. It is heavier on system resources than plain OBS.
Our note
Start free and stay there until a specific Ultra feature is blocking you. The resource cost against plain OBS is real, and on a mid-range machine it is the difference between a smooth stream and a stuttering one.
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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.
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.
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