- Are you ready to up your Facebook Live game
with software for your Mac or PC?
Then here's our take on the best Facebook Live
streaming software available right now to help you decide.
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Hey, it's Justin Brown here from Primal Video.
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and all the links to everything we mention
in this video you can find linked
in the description box below.
So let's jump into it.
Now, there's a lot of Facebook Live
software options available out there,
and we've reviewed a bunch of them individually in the past.
We've also played around with a lot of other ones as well.
The landscape, though, is always changing
with constant updates.
So in this video, we put all the major players
head to head, comparing the pros and the cons
to help you decide which is the best
for your Facebook live streams.
So whether it's multi-person interviews,
live screen sharing, or onscreen chat,
or just fancy branding or animations,
third-party Facebook Live software
can unlock a huge range of functionality
that you just can't get with Facebook standard apps.
So in this video, we're going to tap on my top solutions
for the most popular types of Facebook Live streams,
including two-person, more than two-person,
and live with screen sharing capabilities.
And make sure you stick around to the end
because I'm also going to give you my number one tip
for automatically sharing your Facebook Live links
to get more of your audience
onto your live streams the moment you go live.
So these are in no particular order,
and they range in price from free to $695.
What's best for you will depend on
what you're looking to achieve,
the platforms and devices you're using, and your budget.
So make sure you stick around to hear the full six
so that you don't miss out.
So straight off the bat, the first one
that we need to mention is the Facebook website.
The easiest way to go live in a lot of cases
is just to use the Facebook website with your webcam,
choose to create a new post and click live,
and then you're broadcasting live directly
from your laptop or computer with just your webcam.
So it's probably the easiest way to go live
from your desktop without the need
for any other software or platform.
So the biggest advantage with this
is that you don't need anything else.
You're not paying for any subscriptions.
You've literally got all that you need
in the Facebook website.
And with a recent update, you can now share
your computer screen on your Facebook Lives
just using the Facebook website as well.
So the biggest disadvantage is then
that you don't have any advanced controls,
so you don't have the ability
to bring anyone else in or to really do anything fancy
with your live streaming on Facebook.
Option number two is to use live broadcasting
or live streaming software like OBS
or Open Broadcaster Software, and Wirecast Studio.
Now, both of these are fairly complex solutions.
These will give you a professional range of tools
for creating professional-looking live streams,
things like being able to bring in multiple camera angles
and seamlessly switch between them,
to have multiple screen shares,
to really have a full range of control
and customizability over your live streams.
We have done a full comparison of OBS
and comparing it to Wirecast,
and I will link that up in the cards now
if you're interested in that.
But one of the major differences between the two
is the price.
OBS, which runs on Mac, PC, and Linux,
is free, 100% free.
Wirecast Studio, on the other hand,
which runs on both Mac and PC,
currently sells for $695,
which just actually had a decent price increase from $495.
The biggest difference, though, between the two
is the level of control and customizability
and also the ease of use.
Wirecast at that price point is much, much easier
to set up and use, and it's actually one
of my go-to solutions for professional live streams.
It's what we use for all our client projects.
In the latest update, though, from Wirecast,
where they got their price increase as well,
they've actually announced a really decent feature,
a really cool feature which lets you bring in guests
to interview them live seamlessly
using the Wirecast software.
So it would be similar to bringing someone in
on a Skype call so that you can bring someone in
and interview them and go live through Wirecast as well.
Now, you can do a similar sort of thing
with OBS and bring in guests using applications
like Skype and screen sharing that Skype call,
but it can get pretty complicated and pretty messy,
especially when you're trying to sort out
your audio issues and removing echo and, yeah.
It's possible, but it's definitely complicated.
And that's probably the biggest thing with these two.
They're not for the fainthearted.
You definitely need to invest some time
into OBS or Wirecast to get up to speed
because you've got so much control
over your live streams in there.
But both of these will not only let you broadcast
to Facebook Live, they'll both let you
also broadcast to other live streaming platforms
like YouTube Live, Twitch, Periscope,
and a heap of others out there as well.
So both great solutions if you want
a really professional-looking live stream
with multiple cameras and, yeah, complicated setups.
Solution number three is a piece
of software called Ecamm Live.
Now, Ecamm Live will work on Mac only,
and you can pick it up for $29.99, so crazy cheap,
especially when you're comparing it to Wirecast at $695.
So what Ecamm Live will let you do
is broadcast live currently just to Facebook Live,
but they have announced that they will have RTMP
or opening up their broadcasting capabilities
to other streaming platforms like YouTube,
Periscope, and others as well very, very soon.
They've also just announced that they're going
to be integrating Skype into Ecamm Live as well.
So you will have that ability to use Skype
to make calls and live interviews without all the headaches
that you can have using Wirecast and OBS.
So that is an amazing feature.
And it's crazy that you're getting
all of this for under $30.
It's actually one of the most complete ways
or most polished ways to go live
on Facebook Live and to be able
to see and monitor all your interactions
and hearts and comments and things as you're live
that you wouldn't normally get
on the Facebook Live mobile app,
to go live from the app.
So it is amazing that you get this in a desktop app.
Again, it's currently Mac only.
Hopefully somewhere in the future
they'll also release a PC version.
But if you're on Mac,
this piece of software is an absolute no-brainer.
Ecamm Live also lets you easily share your computer screen
or play back videos as well.
So if you've got videos queued up
that you want to play in your live stream,
with the click of a button you can be playing those out.
And it also supports local disk recording as well.
So whatever you're broadcasting live,
you're also saving that live stream to your computer
with a one-click upload to YouTube
once you've finished your Facebook Live stream.
So that's pretty cool.
Solution number four is a really popular
web platform called BeLive,
so the website's BeLive.tv.
So what this lets you do is run everything
from your web browser so you don't need
to download any software or install anything,
which means that you can use this
on pretty much any computer.
It seamlessly connects through to any webcam or microphone
that you've got set up and running on your computer
but also makes it really, really easy
for you to bring guests into your live stream.
So no one needs to download or install any software.
You literally just send out the link.
People can join a waiting room
where you can see while you're live
that they're there waiting, and you can invite them on.
So you're not limited to just bringing one guest on.
You can actually have two guests on,
so three people live on your Facebook Live stream currently.
You also get some amazing control
over your Facebook Live stream.
So once again, you get to see
from the BeLive interface all your Facebook comments.
You get to see how many people are watching.
You can actually promote or feature comments
on your live stream.
All you have to do is when someone's made a comment
that you want to feature or promote,
you click on it, and it will be made big
on the live stream for everyone to see.
So that's an amazing feature,
especially if you're going to be doing live Q&As
with your audience.
You can bring up the question or the comment
that you're going to be addressing.
So a really cool feature.
And it's so easy to use.
This is probably the easiest app
out of all the ones we've mentioned
and going to be mentioning besides number one,
the Facebook website itself.
This is the easiest one to use.
It's the most intuitive interface.
It's really for anyone, beginner through to advanced.
BeLive also lets you share your computer screen
easily as well.
And there's also templates that are set up
or presets that are set up in BeLive.
So when you click them, you can change what the view
or the display is like for your viewers.
So with the click of a button,
you can switch between a full-screen view of yourself
to a 50/50 screen split with yourself
and someone that you've got on your live stream
or you can easily split to a three-way split
where you've got three people side by side.
So not only is this an amazing platform for going live,
it's also really amazing how easy it is to use.
To set up something like this in OBS or in Wirecast
would take a huge amount of time to set up
but also to manage while you're live.
Now, there's four pricing options for BeLive.tv.
There is a free plan which gives you 20 minutes
free broadcasting twice a week.
There's a lite plan for $12 per month
which lets you do things like add a custom logo,
branded colors, and you've got a limit
of 16 broadcasts per month.
Then above that, you've got your standard package
which is $20 per month.
And here the biggest difference
is that it's unlimited broadcasts per month.
And you also get access to the advanced features
like screen sharing, custom branded frames,
and also early access to new features
as they become available.
And the other plan above that is the enterprise plan,
which at $500 per month is probably going
to rule this out for a lot of people here
with the additional features listed
as telephone support, custom graphics,
and custom formats as well.
So I would imagine for most people,
the lite plan or the standard plan
would be what you're after.
Number five is Zoom.
Now, Zoom is another online platform,
but this one has the big advantage of being able
to bring in a heap of guests into your live streams.
Live streaming to Facebook and YouTube from Zoom
is actually a relatively new feature that they've added.
It did start out as video conferencing software.
And now they've brought in some more
webinar-style tools as well,
which obviously let you go live
on places like Facebook and YouTube.
In Zoom, you get a heap of advanced controls
over the people that you're bringing into your call,
whether it's just you and you've got other people as guests
or whether you want to bring other people in
as panelists or co-hosts,
whether their webcams are on by default or muted,
where you can control all of that while you're live as well.
It's also got built-in polling.
It's got a built-in chat window
so you can interact with your audience while you're live
from inside the Zoom call as well.
One of the big advantages with Zoom
is how easy it is to create the live call or the live link
and get that sent out to your participants
or guests that are going to be on the call,
so you have the call automatically scheduled
and entered into your calendar.
So there's a heap of really professional functionality
and reminders that are built in
all around scheduling the call
and making sure that your guests are there
and in the right place
and also helping them test their audio
and their webcam as they join the call
to make sure that everything is working.
One of the other really powerful features of Zoom
is not only does it let you record your call
or your live directly to your local computer,
but it also gives you the ability to record your calls
and save them in the cloud as well.
And when you enable the cloud recording,
it actually records two files for you.
It records the speaker view, which is the default view,
which changes based on whoever is talking,
so it's the full-screen version
of whoever is speaking and switches automatically,
but it also gives you the gallery view as well.
So if you've got a few people on there,
then it would show everyone
on the screen for that recording.
So to have that ability that you're able
to record in two separate files
the two different camera views is amazing.
So in regards to pricing,
in order to use Zoom for live streaming,
you need to be on their pro plan,
which costs $14.99 per month,
but you're also going to need
to add the webinar add-on to actually go live,
which costs an additional $40 per month.
So in order to go live on Facebook with Zoom,
you will be spending $55 per month.
So now on to number six, which is Crowdcast.
Now, Crowdcast and Zoom are fairly similar
in regards to product offering.
Both of them will let you have live polling
so you can ask questions to your people watching
and see the results in real time.
They'll both have chat.
They'll both handle questions.
But Crowdcast is probably a more polished solution
at least for webinars, anyway.
What you get in Crowdcast, though,
after your live stream is some really advanced detail
and analytics about the people that were there,
how long they stayed for, where they came in from.
So the level of analytics and data
that you're able to capture in Crowdcast is pretty amazing.
Crowdcast also has integration with Zapier and with Drip,
meaning you can get some great data and analytics through
from your live calls into your CRM,
which is a really cool feature.
Crowdcast also has a multi-stream feature
which is actually what you'll need
to be able to broadcast your Crowdcast call
or meeting onto Facebook Live.
But this multi-stream feature also lets you broadcast
to multiple live platforms as well.
So whether that's multiple Facebook Live pages,
accounts, groups, events,
or you could broadcast live to Facebook
and YouTube at the same time.
In regards to pricing, Crowdcast has three pricing options.
The first is their live package at $49 per month.
Then they've got a professional package at $89 per month,
and that's actually the one that you're going to need
if you want to be doing lives
to Facebook Live or YouTube Live.
And there's also a business plan as well for $195 per month.
So it's definitely not on the cheaper end of things.
So the main difference when you're comparing
the professional package to the business package
is the number of live attendees.
It goes from 250 up to 500,
and the cost for an extra live attendee goes
from 30 cents down to 15 cents on the business plan.
But keep in mind that these numbers for attendees
aren't in relation to Facebook Live.
This is only for people that are attending your call
or your webinar on the actual platform.
If you're going to be using this for Facebook Live,
which is what we're talking about in this video,
then there may not be anyone that's actually attending
on the actual platform.
They'll be watching and interacting with you
through Facebook Live.
So if all you're interested in
is using Crowdcast for Facebook Lives,
then you'll definitely be able
to get away with the professional plan.
So those are our top six solutions
for creating awesome Facebook Lives,
whether it's bringing in screen share,
bringing in one guest, two guests,
or a heap of guests into your live streams.
Now, as we said, there was a huge range in price.
There's also a huge range in features
and capabilities for the different solutions.
Now, before we get to my number one tip
to automatically getting more of your audience
on your live stream as soon as you go live,
let's do a quick recap of the options
and who I'd recommend each for.
So if you just want to go live on Facebook,
the simplest and easiest way with no additional guests,
then you can just use the Facebook website.
If you're after the most amount
of control for your live streams
and you want to bring in multiple screen shares,
multiple cameras and guests and things as well,
then you can look at OBS or Wirecast
as a professional solution there.
If you're on a Mac and you're looking
for a really cheap and easy way
to create a professional live stream
where you get the full interaction
with Facebook comments and interactions,
then check out Ecamm Live.
If you're looking for a really easy way
to do a two-person live, a three-person live,
and again, be able to monitor the comments
and feature your comments,
then BeLive.tv might be the answer for you.
And if you want to do a Facebook Live
with two people, three people, four people,
or a lot more, then you can look at something like Zoom,
which is a cheap alternative to Crowdcast
which will also let you do the same thing,
but it's also going to give you more analytics
and integrations with things like Zapier.
So now for my tip to help you get more of your audience
onto your Facebook Lives automatically.
The solution is to use Live Leap.
Now, Live Leap is a service that helps you
automatically share out your Facebook Lives
automatically the moment that you go live.
So whether you're going live
to a Facebook page, a group, or an event,
it's automatically going to share it out to your audience
on whatever pages, groups, Twitter even,
or even put a link on your website saying
that you're currently live on Facebook.
So this is something, if you're serious
about doing Facebook Lives
that I can't recommend strongly enough.
It is the easiest way to automatically share out
your lives the moment that you go live
without you needing to do anything
across a heap of different social platforms,
including your website.
So I'll put a link down in the description below
if you want to check out Live Leap.
Now, if you're going live on Facebook
from your smart phone,
there are some simple, low-cost gear
that can help you get much better results.
Check out the video linked on screen now
for the best Facebook Live gear
for both iPhone and Android.
I'll see you soon.