Understanding Live Streaming Costs: A Detailed Breakdown 

From social media to education and business to entertainment, video streaming has revolutionized how we connect, learn, and consume content.  As of June 2024, a staggering 3.9 billion users worldwide engage with OTT video content, with projections suggesting this number will reach 4.9 billion by 2029 – a 25.46% increase. 

The power of video content is evident in the rapid growth of subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services like Disney+ and Netflix. These reached 1.3 billion subscriptions globally in 2023 and are expected to grow by over 300 million in the next four years. 

As this digital revolution continues to reshape media consumption, a crucial question emerges for those looking to enter the market: what are the actual costs involved in launching a video streaming service?

We break down the costs and provide you with a picture of the actual costs of working with a video streaming service. We also compare some of the top video streaming platforms. We then finalize with a look at the other costs associated with video streaming like equipment and professional services. By the end, you’ll have a stronger, more lucid understanding of the total benefits and costs of video streaming.

Table of Contents

• Creating a Professional Streaming Experience
• 3 Major Factors in Video Streaming Costs
  • 1. Streaming Server Costs
  • 2. Live Streaming Equipment Prices
  • 3. Professional Services and Additional Costs
• 10 Best Streaming Service Providers
• FAQ
• Conclusion

Creating a Professional Streaming Experience

Live streaming costs should be factored in to manage costs of every broadcasting solution.

Video content can help you build a sense of community around your brand, market your products, communicate with shareholders, directly generate revenue, and more. For video content to work for your business, you need to use the right approach for hosting your content.

Many businesses use free video hosting platforms to get started with video content. The most significant advantage of working with a free platform is that it doesn’t involve any upfront costs to use the platform.

Free platforms are not without drawbacks. The way you can use a free video hosting platform is usually very limited, and several factors are outside of your control, such as:

• Branding
• Video player controls
• Embed options
• Privacy settings
• Advertising

The platform’s branding is central to free platforms, not your own. The platform’s watermark and branding are all over the page, not your branding.

You don’t have control over how the video player is set up, the embed options, or even the privacy settings. You don’t control who or what is advertised next to your content, as that’s how most free platforms make money.

Free video streaming platforms give you limited control over privacy, security, monetization, and even analytics.

You need to work with a paid video hosting platform to produce video content with fewer restrictions and more freedom.

There are some significant benefits of working with a paid video streaming service:

• Branding control: Change the video player’s colors to match your branding. Add your watermark. Put your brand front and center.

• Engagement control: Keep viewers engaged with playlists and watch the following recommendations based on your content and website.

• Overlays: Add clickable call-to-action buttons to your videos, directing viewers towards actions you want them to take, such as buying a product, leaving a review, or signing up for your email list.

• Monetization options: Make money with your content. Choose an advertising network to work with, and run ads. Charge a subscription fee to access your content. Offer pay-per-view tickets for specific purchases.

• Privacy control: Some content you want open access to, other content you want to keep more private. For example, you need privacy controls if you are charging money for content. Paid video streaming services offer a range of privacy controls.

• Analytics: Videos can be a powerful tool for your business, especially if you can analyze the analytics of your video content and use that information to move your content strategy forward. Access to detailed analytics can be compelling.

• No content restrictions: With paid platforms, you can show whatever content you want to your viewers. You control what is acceptable and what isn’t for your viewers.

As a professional broadcaster, we recommend you avoid free video hosting platforms and instead work with a paid video hosting service that can offer you benefits you can’t get with a free platform.

Paying for streaming costs gives you greater control over your content and allows you access to professional-grade streaming tools. At Dacast, we highly recommend a paid video hosting solution over a free one for a professional experience.

3 Major Factors in Video Streaming Costs

Several factors contribute to the cost of live streaming services, and ultimately, your streaming setup will be determined by your specific needs and goals.

The cost of live streaming services can vary significantly due to differences in features, scalability, and target markets. 

Some services cater to individual content creators, while others are designed for large enterprises, resulting in a wide range of pricing options. 

Key features that often influence video and app streaming pricing include streaming quality, number of concurrent viewers supported, multi-platform streaming capabilities, and advanced analytics.

These fall under the three main factors that influence video streaming costs, namely streaming server costs, live streaming server cost and equipment prices, and professional service costs.

Let’s break down each of these factors to identify the online streaming costs.

1. Streaming Server Costs

Various factors determine the cost of streaming solutions. The two most significant factors are bandwidth and features.

Bandwidth 

Bandwidth is a measurement of how much information you send and receive. Most online video platforms implement live streaming charges based on how much bandwidth you use.

The amount of bandwidth you use is based on two different factors:

• How much content do you have on your website
• How many people are watching that content

Amount of Content 

For example, if you only have one video on your website, and it only gets about 1-5 watches per day, you send minimal information or a small amount of bandwidth.

On the other hand, if you have 100 videos that get five views a day, you would send 100X the amount of data as if you had one video with the same number of views; thus, you would need more bandwidth.

Viewership

How many people watch your content also impacts overall value of your bandwidth. Your bandwidth needs will be much higher if you get a hundred video views per day versus 10,000 video views per day.

Essentially, the more people watching your videos, the more information sent, increasing streaming site prices due to the higher bandwidth usage you need to cover.

Some providers offer unlimited bandwidth; however, those plans often come at a premium price, which is why paying for set bandwidth usage is the method we suggest you go with.

Features

The second most significant factor that impacts the cost of streaming services is what types of features you need access to. Some streaming services offer tiered plans, with access to more advanced features for higher-paying programs.

Some streaming services offer a limited number of professional features, and others provide numerous features. The key is to find a streaming service provider that offers the parts you need at a price point your business can afford.

Here is a quick list of various features that you may want access to:

• Customizable HTML5 video player
• API video access
• Monetization options
• Advanced privacy features
• China VOD and live streaming
• Multistreaming capabilities
• Integrated chat features
• Advanced analytics

The key is to figure out what features your business needs and to find a provider that offers those features.

2. Live Streaming Equipment Prices

There are several pieces of equipment that you’ll need for a professional live-streaming setup. These include:

• One or more cameras (ranging from webcam to professional camcorder)
• A good desktop computer or laptop
• Capture cards or devices
• Audio capture equipment
• Lighting equipment, greenscreens, backdrops, etc. (optional)

The cost of live streaming equipment varies depending on how complex a streaming setup you need to reach your online broadcasting goals.

For example, the equipment will be very cheap if you have a smartphone and only need to produce a simple stream. You can probably even use things that you already have.

However, most people want to upgrade to a better mic and video camera. A basic setup can start at just a couple hundred dollars—mid-range streaming costs in the several thousand dollars range.

High-end productions will generally work with professional video engineers to develop a plan and list equipment needs. This will likely include higher-end cameras and audio equipment, mixers, workstation computers, hardware encoder(s), and more.

Costs for a basic high-end production studio start around $10K, depending on many factors

3. Professional Services and Additional Costs

The final category of costs to consider is the cost of professional services. This may include building a website, creating a video portal, assisting in developing mobile apps, and other similar tasks.

Here at Dacast, we offer various professional services to broadcasters at affordable prices.

The highest additional cost that we haven’t covered here is the cost of staff and operators for your live event streaming. This cost will vary depending on your specific needs and is essential to consider in addition to the cost of streaming solutions.

10 Best Streaming Service Providers 

Just how much does it cost to stream? The answer depends on your specific needs and goals. Some providers offer starter plans for as low as $39 per month, while others may charge thousands for customized enterprise solutions. It’s crucial to assess your requirements and budget carefully before choosing a service.

Let’s examine live streaming pricing for a few top video streaming solutions, including Dacast, Brightcove, IBM Cloud Video, Livestream, and more. All of these are capable, professional-grade platforms. However, pricing and functionality vary widely.

1. Dacast

Dacast delivers high-quality streaming worldwide at very competitive pricing. Dacast is located in San Francisco, with offices around the world. Our unified streaming solution is an excellent option for broadcasters who want to create professional-grade streams for audiences of any size.

Pricing plans with Dacast include four packages:

• Starter: $39/month (billed annually)
• Event: $63 per month (billed annually)
• Scale: $250/month (or $165/month, billed annually)
• Custom: Custom pricing

Interested broadcasters can contact Dacast directly to learn more about any of these plans. Dacast offers video streaming server costs at various price points to meet the needs of various businesses.

2. Brightcove

Brightcove encourages interested parties to contact sales to see how its offering might work for them. However, while pricing is largely customized depending on user needs, Brightcove provides details on the different products one can choose from.

The Marketing Studio, for instance, offers video cloud with SSO, a web-based editor, CMS integrations, and reporting. It includes the following tiers: 

• Starter
• Essential 
• Premium

The Communications Studio supports 10 live hours, tier 1 playback restrictions, and offers standard video cloud analytics, among other features. Its tiers include:

• Essential 
• Premium

Brightcove’s Media Studio has similar tiers to Communications Studio (Essential and Premium), though it has different offerings. These include web, iOS, and Android integrated player management and SDKs. 

You also get more room to play with in terms of playback restrictions, starting from geo, IP, domain, and proxy restrictions. The Premium plan adds delivery rules, multi-CDN dynamic delivery, a gallery, and gallery security. 

So, while Brightcove’s pricing is no longer posted, its plans include basic video marketing tools and data analytics with HD streaming quality for unlimited viewers.

3. IBM Video Streaming

IBM Video Streaming is the platform formerly known as IBM Cloud Video. This platform offers video hosting and streaming services, as well as a variety of features. Founded originally as Ustream in 2007 to connect military service members with family, the company was purchased by IBM in 2016, which is when it was named IBM Cloud Video.

The basic functionality of IBM is live streaming. However, this live-streaming solution also hosts video-on-demand files.

You can test drive IBM’s professional and enterprise video features for 30 days, where you can enjoy a single administrator and viewer seat. Enterprise accounts allow for complete custom branding and offer analytics, multiple live channels, content syndication, and more.

IBM pricing plans range from $137 to $1,380 per month and include the following:

• Silver: $137/month
• Gold: $688/month
• Platinum: $1,380/month

Meanwhile, IBM Enterprise Video Streaming plans include: 

• Enterprise Silver: $799/month
• Gold: $1,999/month
• Platinum: $4,999/month
• Custom: Contact sales

IBM Cloud Video offers a range of video streaming server costs based on the type of plan you select, with plans available for both small and large enterprises.

4. Vimeo Livestream

In 2017, Vimeo acquired Livestream and launched its live streaming service, Vimeo Live. Previously, Livestream was a company that offered live streaming and video hosting solutions. Since the acquisition, the two companies have merged their services.

Vimeo Livestream offers three main pricing plans, including:

• Advanced: $65/month, billed annually
• Enterprise: Custom pricing
• Vimeo OTT, with custom pricing, includes:
• Starter OTT
• Growth OTT
• Enterprise OTT

For more details, check out our comprehensive guide to Vimeo Livestream pricing

5. Wowza

Wowza Video Cloud Streaming is feature-rich and provides a customizable platform for broadcasters of all sorts.

Wowza Video offers three different pricing plans and services in its Cloud Streaming offering, including:

• Pay As You Go: Pay for usage, where it costs $2.50 per streaming hour and $.10 per viewing hour
• One Month of Streaming: $149 one-time purchase and includes 15 hours of live streaming and 500 viewing hours, with additional streaming and viewing hours costing $2.50 and $0.10 per hour, respectively
• Enterprise: Custom pricing and includes annual plans, discount rates on storage and hours, and 24/7 real-time streaming at scale

All of these Cloud Streaming plans include complete brand control, multi-bitrate streaming, and UHD and HD streaming

Wowza Streaming Engine has its own pricing plan packages. Its professional-grade live streaming server price plans include:

• One Month of Streaming: $295 per instance and $295/month for each additional instance
• Basic Monthly: $195/month + $195/month for each additional instance
• Enterprise: Contact Wowza directly for access to their custom-tailored high-volume custom solutions

Wowza offers various pricing plans for streaming server costs based on your individual streaming needs.

6. Kaltura

Kaltura is an open-source solution offering customized streaming plans for various use cases.

Some of these custom video hosting pricing plans offer a pay-as-you-go streaming structure, while others have yearly commit packages (with annual discounts) that come with set credit allotments to redeem for bandwidth and feature integrations. For natively integrated live streaming, VOD, and real-time video experiences, Kaltura Media Services is the solution you want.

Here is are the pricing plans for Kaltura:

• Webinars:
  • Free trial: $0 for two webinars
  • Business: $150/month billed annually (when billed annually or $199 when billed monthly)
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing
• Virtual classroom:
  • Free trial: 14 days
  • Standard: $19/month up to 10 participants per session and up to 10 hrs of cloud recording
  • Pro: $45/month up to 100 participants per session and up to 25 hrs of cloud recording
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing for up to 10+ classrooms
• Media Services:
  • Annual discounts: Discounted pricing packages are available for any scale and use-case, enterprise SLA, and developer support. For more information, please contact sales
  • Free trial account: $100 worth of credits for 30 days for testing and experimentation with no commitments
  • Pay as you go: You pay only for what you use at these credit levels:
  • Base plan: $20 one-time annual fee + monthly usage fees

Other services include virtual events, video portal town halls, video messaging, meetings and more

Setup costs are built into each unique video hosting pricing plan. Kaltura also offers a free trial, so you can try the platform before you make any sort of commitment.

Kaltura’s video streaming server costs depend upon how many credits you purchase and use. To get a discount on credits, you must spend big.

7. StreamYard

StreamYard is an in-browser streaming and storage service. As the name implies, it operates entirely in-browser as opposed to the other platforms that work with a downloaded app or software.

StreamYard’s top features include multistreaming to up to 8 destinations simultaneously, support for up to 10 people on screen, and full HD streaming quality. The platform provides versatile customization options with logos, backgrounds, and overlays. 

For those requiring more advanced options, StreamYard supports green screens, custom RTMP destinations, downloadable recordings, and offers 24/7 support. So, how much does streaming cost with this platform? Interested users need to contact StreamYard directly for video streaming pricing information. 

StreamYard offers professional streaming plans for businesses looking for a simple in-browser streaming solution.

8. Panopto

Panopto is a streaming solution that is focused on education and corporate training. This platform includes live streaming, video management, stream recording, video organization, intelligent search, innovative integrations, mobile streaming, and more.

Panopto is designed for streaming to an internal audience. To get a personalized demo and see it in action, as well as learn how Panopto can help out, you need to contact Panopto. 

9. StreamShark

StreamShark is another powerful platform that offers both live events and on-demand video streaming.

StreamShark’s top features include 360 live streaming, SSO security, customized branding, peer-to-peer streaming, multistreaming, and encoder management.

StreamShark’s pricing plans include:

• Standard: $199/month
• Team: $499/month
• Business: $999/month
• Enterprise: Custom pricing 

StreamShark’s video streaming server pricing is designed for larger enterprises with broadcasting needs.

10. Hippo Video

Hippo Video is a streaming service that offers a wide variety of professional streaming solutions with many features. These features include video analytics, stream recording, editing tools, video API, email, template builder, and brand customization.

Hippo Video has a wide variety of pricing plans for different users. These include:

• Free: $0/month
• Pro: $20/month/user (billed annually)
• Teams: $75/month/user ($60/mo, billed annually)
• Enterprise: $80/month/user (billed annually)

Hippo Video offers many different types of packages. Its video streaming prices vary from meager rates to much higher monthly rates, which is great for a broadcaster who wants a video hosting solution they can grow with.

FAQs

Q1. How much does it cost to host a live stream?

The cost of hosting a live stream varies widely depending on the platform and features needed. Prices can range from free (with limited functionality) to over $4,999/month for enterprise solutions. Many providers offer tiered pricing, which scales up based on features and usage.

Q2. Which server is best for live streaming?

Your specific requirements, budget, and target audience inform the choice of server for your live streaming needs. For instance, Dacast is great for high-quality streaming worldwide, Panopto is a good choice for educational purposes, and StreamYard is highly rated for in-browser streaming. 

Q3. What does a streaming server do?

Streaming servers deliver video content to viewers over the internet. They handle tasks like encoding, transcoding, and content delivery, ensuring smooth playback across various devices and internet speeds.

Q4. How much does it cost to watch streaming?

While some platforms offer free ad-supported tiers, watching streaming content usually involves subscription fees. For example, services like Netflix and Disney+ fall under SVOD, with varying costs based on the plan. 

Q5. Is there a totally free streaming service?

Yes, there are totally free streaming services, such as Sling TV and Amazon Freevee, often supported by ads. However, these usually have limitations in features or content. For broadcasters, many platforms offer free tiers with basic functionality, but advanced features generally require paid plans.

Conclusion

As we’ve explored, live video streaming costs, and video streaming services cost, in general, vary based on needs. Many factors including live events, simultaneous viewers, video quality and more are all worth considering when comparing solutions. For the most cost effective solution, select the platform whose application streaming service cost and pricing tiers best align with your specific needs.

Dacast is an excellent option for broadcasters and businesses looking for a powerful, complete solution. With Dacast, you can set up and start hosting your live stream in high-definition quickly and easily. Dacast’s professional-grade platform is customizable and can be tailored to any need.

Fortunately, you can try Dacast completely free. Sign up today and test drive Dacast’s video streaming solution for a full 14 days.

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We’d love to hear about your experience. In the chat section below, let us know about your setup, challenges, and how it’s all working out! We’ll do our best to get back to you as soon as possible and incorporate relevant ideas and insights into future articles.

For regular tips on live streaming and exclusive offers, you can join the Dacast. Thanks for reading, and best of luck with your broadcasts!