Restream vs StreamYard
An independent, review-free comparison compiled by the SaaSTracker editorial team. Both products are profiled in full, and neither can pay for placement here.
The short answer
Editorial assessmentRestream compared with StreamYard
The closest comparison in the category and a genuinely tight one. StreamYard has the better-loved studio interface and a stronger brand among creators; Restream has the deeper destination list, better per-destination analytics, dual vertical output, and the website player. Both do unified chat and both let guests join by link. Choose StreamYard for the production experience, Restream when the number and variety of destinations, or the analytics across them, is what you are optimising.
Choose Restream if
Marketing teams, podcasters, churches, educators, and small businesses whose live content is public and needs to be on LinkedIn and YouTube simultaneously, plus anyone who wants a polished browser-based studio with guests and overlays without learning OBS.
Choose StreamYard if
Creators, podcasters, and marketing teams running a recurring public live show on YouTube and LinkedIn who want it to look produced, need guests to join by link with nothing installed, and value multi-destination reach over gated lead capture.
Side by side
13 attributes| Attribute | Restream | StreamYard |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Webinars | Webinars |
| Starting price | $0 (Free, two destinations with branding); $19 per month for Standard (free plan available) | $0 (Free), then $35.99 per month billed annually (Core) (free plan available) |
| Pricing model | Subscription tiers priced primarily on the number of simultaneous destinations, with Clips and Webinars sold as separate monthly add-ons whose price depends on your base tier. | Freemium per-user subscription. Feature gates are on output quality, destination count, participant count, storage, and webinar capacity. Team use requires a separate Business plan. |
| Free plan | Stream to two channels simultaneously, with Restream branding on the output. | Six on-screen participants, standard definition output, limited streaming destinations, two hours of local recording per month, limited storage, and a StreamYard logo on every broadcast. |
| Free trial | No fixed-length trial; the permanent free plan is the evaluation path | No fixed-length trial; the permanent free plan is the evaluation path |
| Best for | Marketing teams, podcasters, churches, educators, and small businesses whose live content is public and needs to be on LinkedIn and YouTube simultaneously, plus anyone who wants a polished browser-based studio with guests and overlays without learning OBS. | Creators, podcasters, and marketing teams running a recurring public live show on YouTube and LinkedIn who want it to look produced, need guests to join by link with nothing installed, and value multi-destination reach over gated lead capture. |
| Setup time | Twenty minutes to a first multistream. Connecting destinations is an OAuth click each, and Studio needs no configuration to produce a watchable broadcast. Building branded overlays and a repeatable show format is the part worth an afternoon. | Fifteen minutes to a first broadcast. Connect a destination, set your brand colors and logo, invite a guest by link, and go live. There is nothing to install and no encoder to configure, which is the entire reason the product exists. |
| Learning curve | Low in Studio, moderate if you bring your own encoder. Anyone who has run a video call can produce a decent Restream broadcast on the first attempt. OBS or vMix ingest follows normal streaming conventions and is well documented. | Very low for basic streaming and moderate for polished production. Composing layouts live, managing a backstage green room, and running chat promotion while presenting takes a few shows to feel natural. Budget one rehearsal broadcast before anything public. |
| Platforms | Browser-based Restream Studio for hosts and guests, Encoder ingest from OBS, Streamlabs, vMix, and hardware encoders, iOS and Android apps, Embeddable website player (Business and above) | Web browser (hosts and guests, desktop), Mobile viewing on the destination platforms, Custom RTMP output to any compatible endpoint |
| Compliance | GDPR, Standard SaaS security controls, Encrypted RTMPS ingest on paid plans | GDPR |
| Founded | 2015 | 2018 |
| Headquarters | Austin, Texas, United States | Milan, Italy (as part of Bending Spoons); originally founded in the United States |
| Ownership | Venture-backed, independent | Owned by Bending Spoons following an April 2024 acquisition |
Strengths and limitations
Restream
Strengths
- Best-in-class multistreaming, with more than thirty destinations, custom RTMP, guest channels, and per-destination health monitoring in one place.
- Unified cross-platform chat is the standout feature: merging comments from every destination into one moderated window changes how a public live show actually runs.
- Restream Studio is good enough that most businesses never need OBS, and guests join by link with nothing installed.
- A genuinely usable free plan at two destinations, plus a self-serve paid ladder from 19 dollars, so evaluation costs nothing and commitment is gradual.
Limitations
- Webinars are an add-on rather than a feature, and the resulting cost of a 500-attendee gated room, 538 dollars a month, is well above dedicated platforms with far deeper webinar functionality.
- No evergreen or automated webinar mode, no just-in-time scheduling, and no scheduled replay of a recording as a live event.
- Registration, reminders, and lead data are thin compared with any real webinar platform; there is no behavioural email sequencing and no native CRM object sync.
- The jump from Professional at 49 dollars to Business at 239 dollars is very steep for what is largely three extra destinations, two seats, and the website player.
StreamYard
Strengths
- The best browser-based production studio available: layouts, brand overlays, banners, and on-screen chat promotion that make a stream look genuinely produced with no software installed.
- Guests join by link with nothing to install, which is why external experts actually show up rather than cancelling over a technical prerequisite.
- Simultaneous multi-destination streaming with unified cross-platform chat in a single panel, which is one of the better implementations in any product.
- A permanent free tier that is usable for learning the tool and for internal broadcasts where a vendor logo does not matter.
Limitations
- Core and Advanced are individual-use licences, so a team's actual entry price is the Business plan at a reported 299 dollars a month, which is a much bigger step than the published tiers suggest.
- The on-air webinar mode caps at 100 viewers until Business, making StreamYard poor value for any gated webinar of meaningful size.
- Registration, reminder emails, and CRM sync are thin compared with Demio, Livestorm, or Contrast; this is a studio with a webinar feature, not a webinar platform.
- No evergreen automation: pre-recorded streams are scheduled broadcasts, with no timed interactions, conditional logic, or just-in-time sessions.
Pricing compared
Restream
Subscription tiers priced primarily on the number of simultaneous destinations, with Clips and Webinars sold as separate monthly add-ons whose price depends on your base tier.
- Free$0
- Standard$19
- Professional$49
- Business$239
- EnterpriseCustom
Priced as a multistreaming and production tool, Restream is very good value. Professional at 49 dollars a month for five destinations, 1080p output, 4K recording, dual horizontal and vertical streaming, and a browser studio your guests can join by link is difficult to beat, and the free plan is a real evaluation path rather than a demo. Priced as a webinar platform it is poor value: 148 dollars a month gets you a hundred gated attendees on Professional plus the add-on, which Demio, ClickMeeting, or Zoho Webinar beat outright with far more registration, reminder, and reporting capability. The correct way to read the Webinars add-on is as a convenience for a company that already lives in Restream and occasionally needs a gated version of the same production, not as a reason to choose Restream over a dedicated tool.
StreamYard
Freemium per-user subscription. Feature gates are on output quality, destination count, participant count, storage, and webinar capacity. Team use requires a separate Business plan.
- Free$0
- Core$44.99 monthly or $35.99 billed annually
- Advanced$88.99 monthly or $68.99 billed annually
- BusinessReported at around $299 per month
For an individual creator, StreamYard at 35.99 dollars a month billed annually is excellent value and the best browser studio available at any price. Unlimited streaming and recording, 1080p, three destinations, brand overlays, and unified chat for less than a Demio seat is a strong offer, and the free tier lets you learn the tool before paying. The value proposition inverts sharply for teams and for webinars. The individual-use licensing on Core and Advanced means a two-person team's real price is the Business plan at a reported 299 dollars a month, and the on-air webinar mode caps at 100 viewers until you reach that same tier. Judged as a production studio for one person, it is a bargain. Judged as a webinar platform for a company, it is expensive for what it does, and a dedicated webinar tool at half the price will serve you better.
Editorial verdict on each
Restream
Restream is the best answer in this category to a question most webinar tools do not ask: how do I get one live production onto every platform my audience uses, and then talk to all of them in one chat window? The browser studio is capable enough to replace OBS for most businesses, guests join by link, dual vertical output and automatic clipping match how short-form distribution actually works, and there is no attendee cap because the destination platforms carry the audience. Professional at 49 dollars a month is genuinely strong value. Just do not buy it as a webinar platform. The Webinars add-on is a 99 or 299 dollar monthly convenience for teams already living in Restream, and at 538 dollars a month for a 500-seat gated room it loses badly to GoTo Webinar, Demio, or ClickMeeting on both price and capability. Buy Restream for public broadcast and reach; buy a webinar tool for registration, reminders, and leads.
Read the full Restream profileStreamYard
StreamYard is the best browser live studio there is and, for one person running a public show, a genuine bargain at 35.99 dollars a month annually. Layouts, brand overlays, link-join guests, multi-destination streaming, and unified chat make a laptop broadcast look produced with no software and no learning cliff. Buy it if your output is a public stream on YouTube and LinkedIn and you care how it looks. Do not buy it as your webinar platform: the on-air webinar mode caps at 100 viewers until the Business tier, registration and CRM tooling is thin, and the individual-use licensing on Core and Advanced means a two-person team's real price is a reported 299 dollars a month rather than the 69 they were reading.
Read the full StreamYard profileRestream profile last reviewed 2026-08-22; StreamYard last reviewed 2026-08-22. Pricing is compiled from public sources and can change without notice. See our methodology.