Live streaming has become increasingly popular. It is a great way to connect with people in real-time. It’s also a great source of revenue generation. A lot of content creators have utilized the concept to their advantage. There are a number of Live Streaming Platforms in 2024 for this same purpose.
Live streaming can be done through a number of applications, websites, software, or devices. Live streaming is unlike uploading a video, allowing creators to start live video broadcasts. It has become much more popular due to the fact that it is hassle-free and requires a stable connection. Live streaming has also grown as an entertainment medium. A lot of people depend on such live streamers for their daily dose of entertainment.
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What is Live Streaming?
Live streaming and video broadcasting software or websites allow people to broadcast live video. This is done through the internet and on a dedicated platform. Most people use live streaming as a means of content creation nowadays. A lot of businesses and individuals use live streaming to promote content and gain a massive following.
Live streaming has also become one of the most sought-after professions in the world, with various organizations hiring people to represent them. Individuals are also making a living out of living streaming and content making.
Importance of Live Streaming
Live streaming has evolved from just educational or corporate work to a more casual and fun environment. People now just live stream to chat and engage with other people. This has led to the rise of a whole new era of Streamers (people depending on live streaming) who live stream almost daily with new content.
Live streaming is also important for a number of other purposes, such as for businesses and other organizations.
How To Find The Best Live Streaming Platform?
It can be a bit tricky to find good live streaming platforms. There are many competitive platforms to choose from. But, finding out which platform or service is best for you is difficult. It depends on the kind of service you want. Depending on the kind of tools, audience, and support you get also play an important role.
Most of the platforms that are mentioned in the list are quite popular, and chances are you must have heard about them before. With the growing use of social media, you can use these live streaming platforms to grow and connect with a diverse audience. Due to the connectivity of various live streaming platforms with social media, this has become a reality.
Which Are The Best Live Streaming Platforms Of 2024?
Below are the best top 21 live streaming platforms you can discover and use in 2021. Make sure to check them all out and figure out the best one for you. Depending on the kind of content you want to make or watch, you might want to explore different kinds of platforms.
Dreamcast
As a reward for making it this far, here is a bonus piece of information for you. Dreamcast is a specialist in delivering virtual experiences. It is a live streaming service that can host customized events as well as standard webinars, webcasting, and much more.
Dream cast has tons of features like AI matchmaking, Access control, Analytics, B2B meeting scheduler, hosting virtual events, and more. Dreamcast has successfully hosted a lot of events and is a growing platform. Make sure to check it out as well.
YouTube Live
YouTube is one the most popular and perhaps the best video hosting platform. It has grown a lot over the last decade and emerged as a great video content platform. Owned by Google, YouTube for a long time focused primarily on video hosting rather than streaming.
However, with time, YouTube has grown a lot. This meant updates that allowed creators to live stream. YouTube has provided a good way for amateurs to familiarise themselves with live streaming. YouTube, however, is not the most refined live streaming platform. Due to certain monetizing restrictions and other issues, YouTube is best used for VOD’s rather than live streaming.
Twitch
We are starting our list with one of the most popular live-streaming platforms. Chances are you must have already heard about Twitch. Twitch has been one of the most successful gaming live streaming platforms. Owned by Amazon, Twitch is quite popular among individual streamers looking to chill and play games.
Twitch has actively worked to make the community better and live streaming more feasible as a life choice. With a variety of genres supported on the platform, it is one of the best streaming platforms of 2024.
Twitch has a strong community and social media presence that will allow you to grow. If you like games, talking to people, and just casually having fun, Twitch is the platform for you. It is also quite fun to follow your favorite live streamer and watch them live and interact with them.
Instagram Live
Instagram Live has recently grown a lot. Instagram as a platform is known for its social media content more than live streaming. This has been shifting slightly, and the platform is developing an affinity for more video-based content.
Content creators, businesses, and even celebrities are popularly using Instagram live to broadcast. As a social media platform, it is not a live streaming platform strictly. However, it is definitely a popular platform that you can try out. It is free to use and has decent features for amateurs to use. However, it doesn’t offer much monetization support, meaning you won’t be earning through it.
Facebook Live
Facebook has grown significantly over the last decade. As the Parent of Instagram, Facebook too developed its live streaming services. Facebook live, just like Instagram live, is not the most appealing feature of the said platform.
While it is a great way to promote content for businesses and individuals, live streaming is not very well supported. As a creator, your main source of revenue cannot be just streaming. The main advantage of streaming on the platform is that Facebook has a good number of people familiar with the platform, leading to greater interaction. It is also quite easy to find something to watch as a consumer.
TikTok Live
TikTok is a really popular platform nowadays. TikTok has become quite famous for its short video formats. Thus, live streaming on it seems counterproductive. But like all social media sites, it too has allowed live streaming.
TikTok is known for its viral style of videos. Making it simpler for individuals and organizations to use live streaming as a great way to engage with their followers, which the short video format does not allow for.
It is a great platform if your audience is young and into the viral culture. If you enjoy such content, then TikTok will help you discover a lot of similar content.
Wowza
Wowza is a relatively older platform than most. Starting in 2005, it was alive on-demand live streaming capable platform. It is compatible with a number of devices and provides great business capabilities.
Wowza has an advanced cloud-based streaming platform whereby people can access the content relatively easily, even with low latency. The platform is quite good for helping developers, entrepreneurs, and other such people broadcast a stream for their customers. Despite the advanced tools you get with the platform, there are little to no monetization options. This could be made up by the support Wowza provides, but it is still a disadvantage.
Restream
Restream is not a dedicated live streaming platform. With that out of the way, let us see what it actually is. It is a live streaming platform but one that provides multi-streaming benefits. This means that it can also support in-browser live streaming.
It is an in-browser live streaming platform geared towards technology, gaming, and entertainment. Apart from boosting engagement, restream helps in multi-streaming and, as mentioned above, in-browser streaming. You would, of course, need live stream hosting since it is not a dedicated streaming platform.
Dacast
Dacast is a highly competitive and commercial live streaming platform. That offers a fully-featured VOD hosting as well as a live broadcast service solution. It is definitely one of the most important platforms when it comes to live to stream.
It is a secure live streaming platform that allows creators to have control over their videos completely. Monetization support, VOD, Secure and trustworthy support allow Dacast to be one of the most famous and useful live streaming platforms out there. However, due to its complexity, it can be a bit overwhelming for amateurs. Be sure to check out its various price plans.
Muvi
An over the Top entertainment platform on this list, Muvi is an OTT platform with live video streaming capabilities. Muvi allows creators to quickly start their own audio or video streams almost instantly. Muvi is a great tool and platform that is present on almost all devices.
Besides functioning as a traditional OTT, Muvi allows businesses to broadcast live streaming, videos on Demand, and audio streaming. There are quite a lot of features and functions that are offered by Muvi. Despite not needing any expertise, it is not really the friendliest platform out there. You can still manage to host videos with relative ease on the platform.
StreamShark
StreamShark was founded in 2011 and has grown quite a bit since then. It is a live streaming platform that specializes in quick, reliable, and interesting delivery of content. Streamshark is a great multifaceted platform that offers great video functionality.
StreamShark is a great tool if you are a big enterprise looking to live stream on a very large scale. As a tech company, Streamshark has good expertise in handling such projects and offers a good reach. It also offers mobile compatibility, viewer reports, video encoding, and good storage space. However, there is a visible lack of analytics and channel support.
Brightcove
Possibly one of the oldest live streaming platforms on this list, Brightcove, was founded in 2004. Brightcove has been offering live streaming services, Video on Demand services as well as cloud encoding.
Brightcove has become known in the industry for its analytics. The platform provides one of the best analytics. This makes it easier for creators to know and understand their audience.
Due to its age and specialization, the price packages are not cheap. It is recommended you use it only if you can afford it since monetization on the platform is not fully fledged. You get content from all over the world, and creators can have their own custom-priced plans.
IBM Cloud Video
IBM Cloud Video or formerly known as Ustream is a live streaming and VOD hosting platform. Initially, it was started as means to connect the military with their family. IBM then purchased the service in 2016.
It is a great cloud-based video hosting platform that provides solutions to enterprises and customers. From professional content to enhanced reach and greater monetization capabilities, IBM Cloud Video is a good tool to use. It really is an round great platform for live streaming.
With a ton of support and features, there are not many cons to using it. Whether you are looking for different content to watch or grow your business, you should check this one out.
Dailymotion
We don’t really hear much about Dailymotion, do we? It could be because YouTube is one of the biggest competitors it has in the industry. But DailyMotion has a decent service that it provides. From basic VOD hosting to Live streaming, it is pretty much your routine video hosting platform.
Dailymotion really has some cons due to its competition. The competition has led traffic away from the platform. This means that you won’t get enough engagement on the service. Live streaming can be fun depending on the content and type of audience you cater to. However, keep in mind that growth options on Dailymotion are fairly limited.
JW player
Back in 2005, when it started, JW player was a popular place to find HTML5 Videos and VOD content. A lot of people might remember having a little software of the same name on their PCs back in the 2000s. That player allowed the playback of music and audio files.
The new and renewed JW players provide a decent streaming platform as well. The JW player allows Simulcast of FB live, provides live stream support, and a good analytical system that provides real-time results. You can even get monetization support through ads. It is a really simple and good platform to use if you are looking for something different.
Resi
Resi is an end-to-end live streaming platform that provides good support for the said task. With a good variety of tools at your disposal, Resi has become a popular option for people to live stream.
Resi offers a plethora of functions such as video encoding, end-to-end stream support, simulcasting, cloud streaming, analytical tools, and much more. Resi is a great and reliable place to live stream your content. If you are looking for a wide range of functionality, then Resi is a great platform to use.
Despite its function, there are certain drawbacks, such as limitations on the analytics you will receive, as well as a UI that is quite old. But if you are a professional, you can certainly start streaming on Resi without many problems.
Kaltura
One of the best corporate Software in the discussion, Kaltura is a great Open Source software that has grown into a platform with live streaming capabilities. Kaltura has utilized its experience and learning from past projects on this platform.
The basic platform access is free and offers cloud-based video hosting services. It can host both Videos on Demand and Live streams. The greatest strength of Kaltura lies in its open software. This means people can freely change and modify the software to their liking.
That’s exactly what makes it quite overwhelming as well. Someone with zero to no prior knowledge will suffer while trying to make it function. Despite that, it has great monetization support and many more features. This makes it one of the best streaming platforms on this list.
Periscope
Periscope is a great live streaming platform that allows users to maintain social engagement. How does it do it? Well, periscope as a live streaming platform is integrated with Twitter. That’s right, a platform with built-in integration to one of the biggest social media sites.
Periscope is a wonderful application for influencers and businesses to use. Periscope provides real-time reactions, meaning you can see comments and notifications of followers while live streaming. With VOD hosting as well, your followers can later enjoy it as well. It is a great free platform that provides a good live streaming service.
Zoom
A zoom is a great tool that almost everyone must be familiar with. It is a great tool for online learning that has been used extensively in the past couple of years. The pandemic made it quite famous, as was the case with other such platforms. Aside from corporate meetings and education, zoom has been used in various other activities such as escape rooms and live streaming.
Zoom offers monetization through its “OnZoom” experience while it has great functionalities such as great support, engagement with the audience, capacity to hold huge crowds, good quality videos. Zoom, however, does not offer VOD hosting. Your live streams would need to be uploaded to a different place for others to view later.
StreamYard
One o the most simple and easy-to-use platforms on this list. Almost everyone with a basic knowledge of the internet would be able to live stream with this platform. StreamYard is a great in-browser streaming platform. If your only purpose is to live stream, it is a great tool to use.
This simple live streaming in-browser platform does not support VOD however provides a good streaming function. There are quite a few features to go through. You can use its graphic overlays and simulcast to engage a large number of audiences over multiple platforms simultaneously. You can even share your screens and have multiple presenters.
The downside is that it is too simple to monetize. There are not a lot of advanced functions on this very simple and basic platform.
LinkedIn Live
Who knew a platform like LinkedIn could make a great live streaming platform. But alas! LinkedIn, the popular professional social media platform, has a live streaming feature. A feature that is usable through its platform, people can now share content in real-time.
LinkedIn Live allows professionals to live stream events, host such events or even create a live stream for casual engagement. It is a great tool since you will be able to engage with a very particular and specific audience. however, this can be detrimental in cases where you are looking to expand your audience.
The problem with LinkedIn Live is that it is not a fleshed-out function. Thus, what you need to live stream is a custom RTMP. This you will get from the use of a third-party application. Monetization options are not possible directly while you can cater to a target audience. the problem is that it requires third-party software to work.
Panopto
If you are looking for a live streaming platform that will address your needs of live streaming for an organization, Panopto is a great platform. Panopto started in 2007 and has grown over the last decade, and now serves millions of customers. The main focus of the platform is to allow businesses and students to make, share, and manage video content.
Panopto is built around the concept of learning and education. It provides quite a lot of useful tools. If you want a much more educative experience rather than a casual or more “live streaming” experience, Panopto is a good idea.
Panopto became popular with universities and organizations due to its interactive features. These features allowed panopto to provide analytics, conduct quizzes, and do a lot more. It is a good platform, but there are many much better out there in this list.
Conclusion
Live streaming has become a really popular way to entertain yourself and others. There are many other practical uses for it as well. However, some of the most popular still remains, creative content and esports.
So if you are looking for new and interesting live streaming platforms, the above-mentioned 21 are some of the best in the market. Make sure you check them out. Whether you are a content creator or an individual looking for content, the above will really help you a lot.
