Hello my YouTube friends.
There are a lot of free alternatives to choose from these days if you
want a live stream.
Now, I know most people don't want to learn each one to see which one
is best for them.
I totally get that.
It takes a lot of time to learn new software and you probably just
want to know what features are available for each one and how they
work so you can decide which one you want to learn.
If that's the case, then you're watching the right video right now.
Today, I'm going to compare the four major full featured live
streaming tools that you can get for free.
I'll tell you about the features, show you how they work and talk
about the learning curve for each one.
We have a lot to get to.
So you know what?
Let's get to it.
All the software I'm going to be talking about today here is totally
free.
And you can click the links in the description and check them out for
yourself.
Let's start with OBS.
There's a good chance you're here because you already found OBS and
you're struggling to figure it out.
You're probably wondering if there's an alternative that's easier to
learn and use.
And I'll tell you right here, there are much easier softwares on this
list to set up and use.
So you may be wondering why it seems like everyone is actually using
OBS.
Well, let me talk about the features.
OBS has built in features that allow you to add multiple video
sources, audio sources like music, sound effects and microphones and
cameras to any scene that you want to create.
And you can add individual audio sources for any application you may
want to hear, including games, music sources like Spotify, Web pages,
and even Discord.
It offers filters to clean up audio and video, as well as multiple
ways to sync those audio sources with the video.
It has a wide variety of built in transitions to create cool effects
when changing scenes and features like studio mode so you can change
scene assets on the fly while you're actually live streaming.
It comes on Windows, Mac and Linux and is updated constantly with new
features.
There is also a massive community of active users who create plug ins
to add additional features to the software.
Above all, that OBS is very stable and light, allowing you to run it
on pretty much about any system, new or old.
Let's talk about Streamlabs desktop.
You may have heard of it referred to as Streamlabs OBS.
They changed the name after a public shaming they got a few years
back.
If you want to know more about what happened, you can do a google
search on your own and it'll tell you right away.
Streamlabs desktop is built on the OBS backbone, so it pretty much has
all the same features as the main difference is that the UI is more
focused on ease of use.
The big addition is the streamlabs widgets that are built right in
Streamlabs widgets allow you to easily add alerts and ending credits,
timers, polls, chat boxes, games and more to your live stream.
You can add all these to any streaming software on the list, but
Streamlabs desktop has it built right in, so it's very easy to
integrate and use.
Streamlabs desktop is available on PC and Mac as well.
The next software is the most unique one on the list.
It takes a completely different approach to live streaming software.
It's called Polypop Live and it allows you to do some absolutely
awesome things with 3D.
With Polypop you can add multiple cameras, video sources, audio
sources and a lot more.
What makes it unique is the way that you can use these sources.
You can just use them like you would on any other software, but you
can also stick them on 3D assets, animate them in all kinds of crazy
ways, and even destroy them.
Polypop has its own dedicated alert system as well that allows you to
create your own custom 3D alerts right in the software that you won't
see on any other platform.
And really the only limit is your imagination.
It's available on PC.
The final software I want to talk about is Prism Live Studio.
Now it's actually based on OBS, so it allows you to do basically all
the same things you can do with OBS based software with the addition
of having a built in way to add and use cell phone cameras and
microphones as well as your actual phone screen and phone audio.
It also has built in camera features like beauty filters and a virtual
green screen.
In addition to that, it offers unique features for animated text, the
ability to draw directly on the screen, add music playlists built in
chat, countdown timers, scene backgrounds, and really a lot more.
It's also designed to be really easy to set up and use very quickly.
It's currently available for PC and the Mac version is set to be
released pretty much any day now.
Let's get to the pros and cons of each of these.
All of these softwares have basically the same base features that OBS
has, with a few minor exceptions that most people will never even
notice.
The OBS pros are that it's really light for pretty much any computer
to use.
It's also available on PC Mac and Linux, and it has an amazing
community of supporters with plug ins that allow you to add pretty
much anything you can think of.
The cons to OBS is that it really is probably the worst of the bunch
when it comes to the learning curve and the UI.
It can be a bit daunting when you first start to use it and the UI is
by far the least attractive.
It also does not offer multi streaming in its basic form.
Streamlabs desktop pros are that it has all the streamlabs widgets
built right in.
It also has a nice, easy to figure out UI built for beginners.
So you can get started pretty quickly.
Now the Streamlabs desktop cons have always been its optimization.
It requires a much more powerful machine to run than the other options
and it also will not use plugins created for OBS.
Streamlabs has also been slightly buggy in the past, but they're
always working to improve it.
Polypop pros are its completely unique approach to streaming that
incorporate the 3D assets.
Also, the ability to create custom alerts right in the software is
really cool.
These factors mean that you can create a live stream that's completely
unique compared to what you're going to normally see.
Polypop's cons are that it has a bit of a learning curve to set up,
but it does have a built in tutorial that can help smooth out the
learning curve a bit.
It uses more resources than OBS and really requires a decent graphics
card for all the 3D elements.
It does not use plug ins created by the OBS community either, and it's
only available on the PC.
Now, last but not least, we've got Prism Live Studio's pros.
There is a massive amount of texts, backgrounds, cameras, chats and
music features that are really easy to use and built right in the ease
of use and the UI are by far the best design of this group, making it
easy to set up and create a live stream so you can go live in just a
few minutes.
It is by far the lightest package outside of OBS that you can use.
It's optimized very well and will run on nearly every computer.
Prism Live Studio's Cons.
It's only for PC right now, but the Mac version will be available any
day now.
It does not use any plug ins that are created by the OBS community
yet.
So here's my breakdown.
If you're running an old machine and you're completely new to
streaming, Prism is a good place to start.
And if your machine struggles to run that, then pretty much OBS is
your only option.
If you want something truly unique with a really cool UI that is a lot
of fun to learn and to use.
Give Polypop a try.
You can create some really awesome stuff right in the software that is
going to absolutely amaze your audience.
Now, if you want premade widgets like alerts and polls and ending
credits built right in and easy to use, Streamlabs is the one for you
if you have a pretty robust machine to run it.
If you're a beginner and you just want to get started quickly or
you've been streaming for a while with a browser based alternative and
you want something easy to learn with a lot more power, prism Live
Studio is the obvious choice.
It's the most well-rounded of the bunch with all the base features of
OBS and an easy learning curve and attractive UI with lots and lots of
additional features only you know for sure where you are in the live
streaming journey, but hopefully this breakdown helped you to figure
out which software is best for you to use.
Is there a software that I missed?
Let me know in the comments and if you want to learn more about Prism
Live Studio's amazing features, you should check this video out.
And if you're always looking for tools, tips and tricks to help make
you a better live streamer or YouTuber, subscribe to the channel.
My name is Michael Feyrer Jr.
Thank you so much for watching.
Have a great day and I'll see you in the next one.