XSplit Broadcaster

XSplit Broadcaster is the paid alternative to OBS on Windows, and the money buys polish rather than capability: scene handling that does not fight you, background removal without a green screen, and a plugin store for the things a stream ends up needing. There is a free version that streams. The lifetime licence is the unusual part of the pricing, and it is aimed squarely at somebody tired of another monthly bill.

The free version streams and is described as having everything needed to start. Premium is $14.99 a month, $59.99 a year, or $199.99 once for a lifetime licence that the page states covers all premium features and new versions. The yearly plan works out around five dollars a month, and the lifetime figure pays for itself against the monthly plan inside about fourteen months. Minimum requirements are Windows 10 64-bit, so this is not a cross-platform purchase.

A Windows streamer who has tried OBS, got it working, and decided the hours spent configuring it were worth paying to avoid. The money buys polish and support rather than capability OBS lacks. Anybody on macOS or Linux is excluded outright, and anybody happy inside OBS is being asked to pay for a problem they do not have.