Which livestream software should you choose? I cover my recommendations on which live stream software and apps work for different setups and tech-levels.
馃晵Timestamps馃晵聽
1:56 Livestreaming software that I reviewed
**2:39 BeLive TV (I said eCamm in the first few minutes..but I meant BeLive..don’t yell at me please…I’m aware)**
3:08 Using BeLive
5:53 Why BeLive may not be for you
4:35 BeLive pricing
7:07 Streamyard
8:23 Why I love Streamyard
8:40 Streamyard Pricing
9:51 Adding multiple guests to your livestream
11:48 Why Streamyard may not be for you
13:28 A look at Ecamm Live
16:13 Why Ecamm live may not be for you
17:15 ECamm Live pricing
19:58 In summary
馃敶Get your free Facebook Live Cheat Sheets馃敶: https://saranguyenonline.com/special/facebook-live-cheat_sheets/
馃幀 Best Livestream Software Playlist馃幀 (for ALL the deep dive reviews) https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiqAD0OPX91b7LTgnd3Bkr0gYxQ9gyNwy
馃摉 Resources mentioned 馃摉
ECamm Live Review: https://youtu.be/HygV4itzzzs
BeLive Review: https://youtu.be/vShfG3yIrjs
StreamYard Review: https://youtu.be/gZFjFu6bwIg
How to use Streamyard on mobile tutorial: https://youtu.be/29X8bVJk-LI
Best Live Streaming Software and Apps – Video Transcription
In today’s video, I’m going to be talking about what are the best types of live streaming software for you to use. Specifically, I’ve done a couple of reviews of different live streaming software and I had a lot of comments and I had a lot of messages where people said, “Okay, that’s great that you’ve reviewed them, but which one is the best one for my needs?”
I thought, okay, let’s get into it because I’m going to talk about the different live streaming software that I have reviewed and make sure that you check out the links in the description because I’ll put the link to the entire replay there, but we’re also going to cover all these different types, so that you can understand the ease of use, the functionality that you get with them, how resource intensive they are, so what type of computer you need to have in order to run it efficiently, costs, and what I think would be the best for you or if it’s not for you. We’re going to look at that for each one.
For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Sara Nguyen and I live stream about live streaming and I help coaches, consultants, and creative professionals build their business using video with ease. Now, I said it at the beginning, but I’m going to say it again, please check out the links in the description. I’m going to go back and add all of the timestamps, so that you can go back and watch things if you’ve missed anything. Also, I’ll add links to any of the resources that I mentioned in this video.
Let’s talk about all of the different live streaming software options because there are lots of options. I reviewed BeLive, I reviewed StreamYard, and Ecamm, so I’m going to break it down and make it really, really easy for you to understand, if I can talk probably today, what the different options are and how they work best for you.
I thought that I would not only talk about it, I’d also show you as well, so that it’s not this interpretive dance of me explaining things and you visualize. You can actually see what I’m talking about. Let’s go over to my computer now and let’s have a look at, I’m going to go from what I think is the easiest software option to the more complex and involved one.
Let’s start with, This is a look at BeLive, so behind the scenes of Belive. Hopefully, you can see my screen and according to the software you can. I really like BeLive because it’s incredibly easy to use. After you’ve logged in, this is a background that I uploaded, but it’s really easy to use. You can add the camera sources easily on the top left here. Everything happens on the left hand side. You can add screens. You can share your screen. That’s a big question I get asked all the time, “How do you share your screen?” BeLive makes it really, really easy to do it. You’d select screen, and then you can choose either an entire screen or you can choose an application window.
You can also add overlays and meteor as well. It really is a simple option to use, particularly if you have a bit of an older computer. It’s web based, so you run it off your browser as opposed to downloading software and using I guess your computer’s processing power. In terms of resource intensiveness, it doesn’t require a lot because it’s browser based and gives you a lot of functionality. It lets you brand yourself really easily, so you can add overlays. You can add videos. You can add different people to the live stream as well.
At the time of this recording, you can add two guests on if you’re on the free plan or you can add four people on, if you’re on the next level up, which is the paid plan. I really love BeLive, if one you’re not incredibly technical or you don’t really have time to learn software and you just want live streaming software that works, so BeLive. I’ve been really impressed with how easy they are to use and the functionality that you have to use them.
In terms of pricing, I think they’re pretty fair. You can pay monthly or annually as you do with most software providers and they’ve got a free version and they also have a paid version as well. In terms of the free version, it’s pretty generous really for the software solution that you get. You can do three shows a month, you can add assets and overlay. It just has their branding on it.
But with their paid version, which is 29.99 a month, you get unlimited live streaming options, as well as the ability to add your own branding and overlays. Really love BeLive as an option in terms of how easy it is to use, how much functionality you have, the cost for what you get, and how you don’t need to have a really fancy computer to have lots of functionality on your livestreams.
Now, I think it definitely is for you, if you enjoy all of those things. I think it’s not for you if you want to add lots more people to the live stream. Let’s just say you want to add more than four people to the live stream, you can’t do that with BeLive at the time of this recording. I know they’re constantly working on things, so I think that this may be in the works, but I may be spreading rumors. Don’t take that as golden.
The other reason that BeLive may not be for you, I found with BeLive, I really loved how easy it was to use, but one of the restrictions that you have with BeLive is when you’re adding your additional people or you’re sharing your screen, you’re locked into the presets that they have, right? The sizing and what you see is essentially what you get. You can’t customize the size of the picture on picture and the overlays as much as other providers, but do you really need to do that to have a great live stream? Not really. You can live with it.
In terms of being easy to use and the restriction, like there’s a little bit of that give and take there, but I really still love it. It’s also not for you if you want to multi-stream. At the time of this recording, you can stream directly to Facebook Live. You can stream to YouTube Live using it, but you can’t multi-stream at the moment. Once again, they could be working on it, but if you don’t want to multi-stream, it’s not a problem, but it’s just a reason why you may or may not want to use it but I definitely love BeLive and think that they’ve come a long way.
I remember seeing them when they first came out and they’re just constantly adding new features to the app. I use them, I love them, and I think that you’d love them to, if you want something really easy to learn and easy to use. The next one that I wanted to talk about and that I’ve reviewed in depth as well is … Oh, that’s picking up a lot of sound. StreamYard, they’re a bit of a mover and shaker in this space.
I really like StreamYard. They’re also web based, like BeLive, and you can use them via your browser and recently in the last, I want to say two weeks, about two weeks ago, they rolled out the ability for you to use their software, so that you could live stream from your mobile device. The reason that you’d want to do that is that you have the option to add all your overlays and you have your option to add all of the things that you do on desktop, but from your mobile device, which you can’t do using just your Facebook Live app.
That is something that I really, really love about them. They’re constantly adding functionality. This here is the desktop version of the app and everything is really easy to use. All of the action happens on the right hand side, adding your banners.
Everything is literally quite elegant and clean and they’ve got everything you need whilst giving you lots of flexibility, but there’s not too much there, if that makes any sense. That’s why I really, really love them. Ease of use and a lot of functionality. You can brand it with your own logos. You can add text, you can add overlays, you can play videos and files to, if you want to do during the live stream.
In terms of pricing, let’s talk about pricing. It’s an important thing. They’ve got the free plan as well and they’ve also got paid plans because they’re a software company and they need to make money in order to pay developers and staff in order to provide the service to us.
The paid plans I feel are also really fair. I am a big believer in paying for software if you want to actually see it improve and it be sustainable. That’s just me. Pricing is pretty fair. They have the monthly plans and the annual plans. With the paid plans, you get more flexibility of course, compared to the free one. You get to add your own branding. You get to add more guests.
With StreamYard, they recently allowed you to add 10 guests. I’m like, wow, I don’t know if I can handle 10 guests on a live stream. I can barely handle one. I can barely handle myself on a live stream, let alone dealing with 10 people. But if you wanted to have a live stream where you have lots of guests, maybe you’re doing a podcast, or maybe you’re just having a big discussion about important things, you can have 10 guests on your StreamYard live stream, which is a pretty cool feature because it’s also really easy to do.
All you have to do in order to add a guest is you would click on the invite button here and then you’d give them this link, right? You’d send it to them however you send links, by messenger, by email. Your guest just has to click on that link, allow it, and then you can add them to the live stream really easily.
You don’t need to fiddle around with trying to get Skype to work with something and connect it to something else. It’s really easy to use, particularly if you want to have guests on your live stream. Yeah. I think in terms of ease of use, really elegant. The functionality, really amazing functionality. The ability to add guests so easily is something that you take for granted until you have to do it and realize how hard it is in some software like OBS.
I’m not going to talk about that. Resource intensiveness. StreamYard, like BeLive is also run off your browser regardless if you’re working on it, using it from your desktop or from your mobile device. If you’re using it from your mobile device, I do have a link to the tutorial on how to use it from your mobile device. You also run it off of Safari on your phone. It doesn’t require you to have a suped-up computer and that’s good because not everyone does, but that doesn’t mean just because you don’t have a suped-up computer that you shouldn’t live stream because I believe everyone should live stream and get their message out there.
It’s really good in that sense that if you don’t have massive investment, don’t have a DSLR, don’t have a really fancy computer, you can still live stream using your phone and you can still live stream using the browser and just a simpler setup, whether that’s a webcam and a microphone and just your laptop. I really love what they’ve done with the software there and I really think that they’re a great option for live streaming as well.
I really found it hard when I was coming up with the, why is it not for you? It’s for you because it’s amazingly easy to use. You have so much functionality, but it’s not for you if, and this was really a stretch, it’s not for you if you really want to multi-stream to more than five destinations at a time. I’m like, why would you do that? I don’t know.
I multi-stream to two destinations and that probably gives me enough anxiety, let alone managing five destinations, but maybe you have multiple YouTube accounts that you want to live stream to at the same time or maybe you’re a Twitcher, a YouTuber, a Facebook Liver, and everything else.
If you want more than five, StreamYard doesn’t allow you to do that yet. But once again, they could be adding these features in the future. The other thing that you can’t do with StreamYard is that at the moment, you can’t add your iPad as a source.
One of the things that I like to do in my live streams is I like to switch to the view of the iPad and then draw and then engage and talk through content that way. You can’t do that at the moment with StreamYard and I haven’t figured it out. If you figure out how to do that, please drop a comment and let me know how because it’d be great. But at the moment, you can’t do that.
But it was a real stretch to find reasons why it’s not for you because I really think they’re really coming out in this race, in terms of being a really great provider of software, that’s easy to use, that has a lot of functionality, that gives you so much options to create your live streams really easily. That is StreamYard.
Let’s talk about the third option and the one that I use and I have a lot of mixed feelings about this one, but we’re going to talk about it anyway. The option that I use with my live streams is I use Ecamm. Ecamm Live. Let me take a deep breath for Ecamm Live because I love them because they are give you a lot of functionality. I use Ecamm. I probably use them because I want to do things like animated overlays. I want to do things like really, I wouldn’t say complex, but I have lots of scenes that I want to add.
I like to use my iPad to connect to the live stream and engage with the iPad. These are all very nice to have things, but they’re not essential things that you need to have in order to live stream. I think the thing with Ecamm Live is you have so much functionality, but the downside to Ecamm Live is that there’s a learning curve. This is a screenshot of Ecamm Live. It takes a minute to figure out everything and there’s a learning curve to it.
It can be very frustrating because it changes all the time. I found with Ecamm Live, particularly when you want to add guests, you have to go through Skype and that is really hit and miss sometimes with the audio. They have a couple of issues that make me go, oh, but they are a really good provider, but it’s this give and take, right? A lot of functionality, but then sometimes just not really easy to use.
In terms of ease to use, I don’t personally think Ecamm Live is the easiest to use especially compared to StreamYard, especially compared to BeLive. Figure that out. Figure out what you see on the screen now. Just visually, it just takes a minute and you have to really … There’s a learning curve to it. Right? Then once you get through that, you’re okay, but just, can you really be bothered to learn it? A lot of people can’t. If you can. Great. In terms of ease of use, I think it’s not the easiest one to use.
In terms of functionality, 10 out of 10, so much functionality, more functionality than an average person would probably even use and that’s okay too, but not everyone wants animation. Not everyone wants all the complicated scenes and music and things like that. Some people just want to live stream, share their desktop, so they can show a PowerPoint presentation and talk and engage that way. The rest of it isn’t important to them. In terms of functionality, Ecamm Live probably offers the most out of all of the ones that I’ve talked about, but is this really required? That’s the question for you to answer.
Now in terms of resource intensiveness, Ecamm Live is the biggest process hog I’ve ever seen. This year, when I decided to level up my live streams and start live streaming more, I invested in a new iMac and got as much as I could afford. The most processing power, the best graphics card, everything, and that’s not an option for everyone. I feel a little bit like you shouldn’t have to invest in order to live stream because it’s not necessary.
I chose to do this because it was in the plan anyway. But I just think in terms of being resource intensive, Ecamm Live is very resource intensive and a lot of people don’t have newer computers that can handle it. It will struggle with older computers, particularly if you want to use a capture card. You really need a suped-up computer in order to get it to work really well. It can be really buggy if you’re running off an older computer.
In terms of costs, let me see if I got the price up. I did. In terms of pricing, they’ve got monthly and yearly plans and you get a discount if you pay yearly as all of them do. I think their pricing is really fair. I think in terms of … I’m on the pro plan, because I like to live stream in 4K. I think it’s a vanity thing. I like how I look in 4K. What can I say? That’s definitely a benefit of Ecamm Live, but once again, it’s not a necessary thing if you want to live stream.
I think for the price that you pay, you get so much functionality and I think it’s pretty reasonable; $12 a month on their standard plan, $20 a month on their pro plan, which gives you 4K streaming, if you really want to, and just some other options as well. All that in mind, I do think Ecamm is a great option, but it’s not for you if you don’t want to bother with a software where there’s a learning curve because there is definitely a learning curve.
I don’t care what all the Ecamm dedicatees and devotees say. There’s a learning curve. I’m pretty technical. But I remember getting into it and going, where is all of this? It takes a little bit of a while to understand Ecamm Live and how to make it really work for you. If you have an older computer, it’s very resource intensive, so just keep that in mind if you are considering Ecamm Live. They do have pretty good support that you could send them information and say, “Hey, this is my computer. Is it going to run well with Ecamm Live?” They’ll be able to answer that.
But I just found with my older computer, before I upgraded, it was on struggle street for a lot of my live streams, so just keep that in mind. It’s another reason why it may not be the best one for you. Ecamm Live really isn’t for you if you just want something that’s quick and easy to use because there’s a lot of fiddling that goes around with Ecamm Live. You have so much functionality, but yet there’s so much to set up. I find that a little bit frustrating, but it’s that give and take. You want functionality? You’ve got to set it up. You got to tweak it. You got to do this. You got to do that.
That’s why Ecamm Live may not be for you. I don’t feel that Ecamm Live is for everyone. Once again, it’s also a Mac only app. If you’re a PC user, you can’t access it. The equivalent would be OBS and I don’t want to talk about OBS. It’s too hard for me. I am not an OBS person. I just think that Ecamm Live can be great, but it’s not for everyone. That essentially wraps us up. Let’s go back to me.
I talked about three, Facebook or live streaming software options. I talked about BeLive, which I really love. Easy to use, reasonable price. No fuss, no muss. Great one to use if you don’t want to get stuck in software and you just want a live stream. They’re a really great option. StreamYard is becoming one of my favorites. Definitely a contender in terms of ease of use and functionality that you get and just a really elegant solution that they are constantly improving.
They all are. They are all constantly improving, but I’m having feelings of StreamYard. What can I say? Then there’s Ecamm, which I use, but there’s a learning curve. You have a lot of functionality, but it’s not for everyone and you can get a lot out of it, but there is a learning curve and it’s really resource intensive as well.
That’s my little breakdown of all of the different options when it comes to live streaming software. Obviously, there are more, but I’m only covering the ones that I’ve created reviews and demos for, the ones that I’ve actually used. Hopefully, that gives you an understanding of these options, which one would be better for you. If you want a deeper dive into each of the options, check out the playlist because I go step-by-step into each one of them. I also show you a tutorial that shows you how to set them up as well as all of the features and all that jazz.
Hopefully, that covers live streaming software, which one to use for your situation, and yeah, I think that’s it. I think I’ve covered everything. If you found this video useful, give me a thumbs up, and don’t forget to subscribe to my channel. If you’re looking for more ways to grow your business with live streaming, make sure you check out my Facebook live cheat sheets. It’s a super simple way to get up and streaming on Facebook Live even if you’ve never hit record before. To get your hands on it, simply click on the link in the description box below. Thanks for watching.
