- This is the complete updated roundup
of the "Best Live Streaming Software for Mac" right now.
We're gonna look at all the leading options,
what's new, talk the pros and the cons,
and then finish up with my top recommendations,
no matter your use case.
Hey, it's Justin Brown here from Primal Video,
where we help you grow an audience
and scale your revenue with online video.
If you're seeing value in this video,
make sure you smash that thumbs up button
and all the links to everything I mentioned in this video,
you can find linked in the description box below.
So let's get into it.
So it's a great time to be a live streamer right now,
with a ton of awesome options out there.
Whether you're looking to go live on YouTube, on Facebook,
or Twitch, or LinkedIn,
or pretty much any other platform too.
But all of those options makes for a hard call
and a lot of wasted time trying and testing what's out there
to see which one is gonna be the best one for you
and I know because I've done just that.
So in this video, we're gonna run through my shortlist
for the leading options right now, one by one,
including the strengths, the weaknesses, the pricing,
and my recommendations, so everything you need to know.
Now, the overall landscape is very saturated,
so we're gonna jump straight into my shortlist
and ignore the options which aren't worth your time.
So you've got options like OBS Studio, Wirecast,
Lightstream, StreamYard, Zoom, Be.Live and Ecamm Live.
And from those, my top shortlist comes down to OBS Studio,
StreamYard, Ecamm Live, and Wirecast.
And just before we dive into each one of these
in more detail,
I do wanna say that all of these options
will let you broadcast to all of the major
and all of the popular platforms,
YouTube, Facebook, you name it,
and they all support RTMP.
So you can pretty much broadcast using these solutions
to pretty much anywhere.
And they also all have built-in recording,
so whether that's just to record your livestream
so that you've got an offline version
or a high quality version of it,
or if you wanna create a mock live,
where you wanna record a video as if you were live
without actually pressing the go live button,
all of these options will have those features.
So let's bring up that progress bar
and jump straight into option number one.
Okay, so the first one then,
OBS or Open Broadcaster Software
is an amazing and free program
that'll work on both Mac and Windows and Linux as well.
Now this one packs in a ton of advanced features
and controls to really help you dial everything in
and to customize everything up
to look and feel the way you want it.
Now OBS is probably
one of the most popular options out there
and I'd say that a lot of that's to do with its price tag,
it is 100% free.
So considering what you're getting access to free,
it's a pretty amazing offer.
Now, OBS isn't just known
for its live streaming capabilities,
it's also a really powerful tool for screen recording
or recording your webcam or video camera as well.
Now the overall interface and the user experience in OBS,
definitely isn't on the simple
or the really intuitive side of things.
So for an absolute beginner,
there is gonna be a decent learning curve
for you to get up to speed with.
Simple things like not having any templates,
or presets for different livestream qualities,
or the different platforms
just means that you actually need to know what you're doing
or go and find out what the correct settings are
to get the best results out of your livestream
and really just to get everything setup and running for you.
Now there's a couple of other things
that you need to be aware of with OBS.
First off, there is no built-in guest feature.
A lot of the other options out there,
actually all the other options in this video,
do have a built-in guest feature.
So if you wanna bring guests into your livestream,
you wanna run an interview, or a group chat,
and broadcast it out live,
that's not something that you can easily do in OBS.
It is possible but it is a technical nightmare,
especially when comparing it side-by-side
with some of the other options
that we're covering in this video.
It is possible but it takes a lot to get it set up
and to get it running right.
There's also no direct multi-streaming
or simulcasting straight out of the box in OBS either.
So if you wanna broadcast live to multiple platforms,
again, this is something that there are workarounds for,
but it's not something that's included
straight out of the box.
Now, as OBS is such a popular option,
there's lots of support out there
with people that can help you
get everything set up and running.
So there's lots of support forums,
including the OBS Support Forum and places like Reddit,
and also a ton of YouTube videos
just to help you get everything sorted.
So overall I think OBS is a good option,
especially considering the price of nothing, free,
it's amazing what you're getting for free.
There are some really advanced features and controls
and stuff in there,
but I will say this is probably best
for someone at that intermediate level,
right through to the advanced side,
someone that is willing to spend that time
to get up to speed and figure it all out
and customize everything up
or someone that is looking for those more advanced features
and controls.
So that brings us to option number two,
which is StreamYard.
Now this one is a completely different offering.
There's actually nothing you need to download and install.
StreamYard just runs in your web browser
which means it's also going to work
on things like iPads and phones,
and pretty much any device out there.
Now, interface-wise and usability-wise,
I'd say this one has the easiest interface,
most intuitive interface,
and it's going to be absolutely perfect for someone,
whether you've live-streamed before or not.
You're going to be able to quickly jump in,
figure out where everything is,
how it works and get great results with it.
They've got a lot of pre-configured layouts and templates
and things that you can literally just click on
while you're live,
to cycle between different things
like having yourself full screen,
being 50 50 split with a guest that you might have on,
or quickly switching over to a screen share
to bring up PowerPoint slides or something like that.
All of which you can access and switch between
so simply literally with a click of a button.
Now one of the standout features with StreamYard
besides the ease of use, is its guest feature
and being able to easily bring in up to 10 guests
onto your livestream.
All you need to do is just hit the Invite button
down the bottom,
it'll generate you a unique link
that you just then send out to whoever
you wanna have join your livestream,
they just open that up in whatever device they're on
and they're able to join
and become part of your live stream.
And another top feature that StreamYard has
and it's really the way that this feature is implemented
as well, besides just having the feature,
is its simulcasting or multi-casting capabilities.
StreamYard makes it probably the easiest
out of all of these options to go live to multiple platforms
at the same time.
And it also makes it really easy to customize up the options
for each of the different platforms
that you're gonna be live streaming to.
So if you wanna have a different title
when you're live on YouTube,
and a different title or different text over for Facebook,
it's really easy just to change that up
before you actually go live.
And while you're live,
all the comments from all your viewers
on the different platforms
are all simply aggregated into a feed
where you can even bring up
and feature those comments on screen,
irrespective of where people are leaving those comments.
So I've already StreamYard's got the most intuitive
and probably the easiest interface out there,
but that also means that there's no real advanced settings.
So if you really wanna dial in a specific bit rate
or have things like video layers and customize things up,
then StreamYard isn't going to be the one for you.
But that's also a big part of the appeal with StreamYard,
is if you don't need that stuff,
then StreamYard makes live streaming really really easy.
Now it's definitely not a deal breaker
but it is something to be aware of,
but StreamYard currently doesn't support keyboard shortcuts.
I'm really hoping that this is something
that they add in really soon,
but just having the ability
to switch between the different camera angles
or the different scene setups,
just using your keyboard shortcuts
or using something like the Elgato Stream Deck,
which runs off keyboard shortcuts,
would be an amazing feature that makes a big difference
while you're live, that all of the other options
we're covering in this video have already.
But StreamYard is definitely one of my top picks,
already to see how far they've come in the last 12 months
is amazing,
so I'm really looking forward to seeing where they take this
in the next 12 months.
Now in regards to pricing, there's three options.
There is a Free plan, which gives you access
to a lot of the features in StreamYard
but it does put the StreamYard watermark or branding
onto your live-streams,
so to remove that
you need to jump on either their Basic plan
or the Professional plan.
And the Basic plan starts at just $20 per month.
And you'll need that one if you wanna bring in
your up to 10 guests for your stream,
or you wanna use multi-streaming or simulcasting
for your live streams.
Or you wanna multi-stream to more destinations,
then that's where the Professional plan
is going to be the one for you.
So StreamYard is gonna be a great option for someone,
whether you're an absolute beginner,
never live-streamed before,
right through to someone at that advanced
and if you're not looking for those really advanced features
and controls and the ability to customize everything up.
It doesn't mean that you can't customize things up
in StreamYard,
you can create amazing looking live streams in StreamYard
but you won't have all of those advanced features
and controls to really dial everything in
like you can with some of the other options.
Next up is Ecamm Live.
Now this is one of my personal favorites
and I've been flying the flag high for Ecamm Live
for a long time.
I absolutely love it
and I love what the guys are doing there.
It's got a really nice intuitive interface,
it's easy to use, it's easy to get up to speed using,
but it's also got a lot of the professional features
in it as well.
So you could kind of look at this as
the hybrid of the usability, something like StreamYard
with a lot of the features and things
that you would find in OBS.
There is currently built in functionality
to allow you to simulcast and to broadcast
to multiple platforms but it is using external services
like Restream or Switchboard.Live.
I have heard that they've got their own version
in the works, so you won't need those other services,
but you can still simulcast from here for now.
Now Ecamm has amazing support for a huge range of cameras
and even DSLRs and mirrorless cameras that you could hook up
just using USB, Ecamm is going to detect those as webcams
and let you use them
to really create professional looking live streams.
There are so many amazing features inside of Ecamm.
Simple stuff, like countdown timers,
or titles that scroll across the bottom of your screen.
They also make it so easy just to move and adjust stuff
on the fly while you're live.
So if you wanna zoom in on a screen share
so that your viewers can really see
what it is you're showing them,
you literally just pinch to zoom on your track pad
and it's gonna zoom in on that screen share.
To do that in other applications,
you'll need to dive into menus
and adjust sliders and things
and it's all really clunky,
especially if you're trying to do it while you're live.
Now, Ecamm has had a great guest feature in
for quite a while that was run through Skype.
So you would just get your guests to join a Skype call
and you could bring them in as a video feed
on your live stream.
They've recently overhauled this now,
so you don't need to rely on Skype
and the quality now looks a lot better
and it's also a lot more user-friendly
and much easier to get your guests in.
And really this is so much closer
to the amazing guest feature that's inside of StreamYard.
But what I like about this guest feature inside of Ecamm
is that you can not only just customize up your shot,
adjusting the colors and all of those sorts of things,
but you can also do it with your guests
and their video feed.
You can adjust their colors, adjust what it looks like,
zoom in and out on their shot,
or even apply a green screen background
or background removal
if that's how you're running your live stream.
So that customization
is something that you can't do in StreamYard
and it's something that's really complicated to do
in things like OBS or our next option.
So I really like that Ecamm is this mix of advanced options
with simplicity and make it so easy to do stuff
with your live streams.
Now this one is not a deal breaker
but again it's something that you should be aware of.
If you're gonna be using that guest feature
inside of Ecamm Live quite a lot,
you might find that you need to purchase additional minutes
as there is a limit as to how much you can use
this guest feature per month.
And in regards to pricing,
you've really got two main options.
There is a free trial to let you test everything out
for 14 days but that will have a watermark
on your live stream.
So the two options really are your Standard plan
and your Pro plan.
Both of these are monthly subscriptions
with an annual pay option as well
which does make it even cheaper.
The standard plan is $20 per month
and it does give you access to most of the features
inside of Ecamm Live.
Or you've got the Pro plan, the Professional plan,
which is $40 per month and this unlocks everything.
So things like the virtual webcam feature,
4K live streaming,
and if you want access to that new guest feature,
then that's only available in the Pro plan as well.
But still, given the price and what's included,
it makes Ecamm an absolute no brainer
if it fits your use case.
So I'd say that Ecamm Live is gonna be perfect for someone
whether you're an absolute beginner
right through to that advanced level.
It's easy enough for anyone to jump in
and start figuring it out,
but there's also all of the advanced options
and things that you would need
to really create a professional
high-end live stream as well.
And also with the price, makes it a pretty compelling offer.
So the last one then on our list is Wirecast.
Now this one I would say
is hands down the most professional,
most advanced live streaming application
on our shortlist here today.
But even with those more advanced
and professional features in there,
it's still got a fairly nice interface.
I would take the Wirecast interface any day over OBS,
especially if you're trying to find something
when you're live,
it's a lot more intuitive and easier to find stuff
and to fix stuff, if something goes wrong.
In terms of features and stuff
and comparing this to something like Ecamm
where I've already told you,
there's a lot of advanced features and stuff in there,
this really is next level.
You've got the ability to really dial in things again
like with OBS, specific bit rates and codecs and things
for recording and live streaming.
And also the ability to add video layers
and to stack clips and titles and things
on top of each other
again, to really customize up the look and feel
of your live production.
But one of the standout features for me is ISO recording
or isolated recording.
This lets you record all of your camera feeds
or video feeds,
whether it's your screen recording or multiple cameras,
all to separate video files.
So after your live stream,
if you do wanna edit down your live event
to something else,
then you've got access to all of the full recordings
from all of the different video feeds
so you're not just left with
one finished completed recording,
you can really jump in and get creative
and re-edit your live stream afterwards.
And that also means that Wirecast
can actually be a great video creation tool
or production tool as well,
allowing you to record multiple camera angles,
regardless of whether you're going live or not.
Now Wirecast does have a really good guest feature
in there as well.
Personally, I don't think it's as good as Ecamm Live
and it's definitely not as good as StreamYard
but you still have the ability to customize everything up.
I almost feel that there's too much customizability
in there, which does make it a bit of a pain
to set everything up.
Much much faster in Ecamm and in StreamYard
if you wanna bring in guests.
So again, Wirecast is aimed more at someone
who does wanna customize everything up
and configure everything to exactly how they would like it.
And really there's just a lot more control over everything,
even your audio, you wanna apply filters and effects
and really dial and tweak that audio
across your different microphones
or even your guest's audio
and you can do all of that in here.
Now in regards to pricing, you've currently got two options,
there is Wirecast Studio and Wirecast Pro.
The Studio version will give you access
to a lot of those pro features
but it will only let you bring in up to two guests
with that guest feature.
And then to unlock everything,
that's where you'll want Wirecast Pro
so you can have up to seven guests on your live stream
and you'll also unlock those additional features
like ISO recording and multi-track audio recording as well.
So I would say Wirecast is really gonna be suited to someone
more at that intermediate to advanced
and really someone who is looking for that granular
advanced control
and wants to be able to configure everything,
tweak everything,
especially down to the level of keying in bit rates
and frame rates and really get specific
on what it is you're creating in there.
Or if you're someone
that would make use of that ISO recording
to have those separate video tracks or video layers,
recorded as separate files for editing
and for mastering afterwards.
But just like OBS, I'd say it's probably not great
for an absolute beginner.
So out of all of those,
what are my top picks and my recommendations?
Out of those two, my top two standouts are StreamYard
and Ecamm Live.
I absolutely love both of those options
and I really think they're game changers
in the live streaming space.
I really like the simplicity of StreamYard
and how easy it is to bring in guests
and how you can literally simulcast or multicast
with the click of a button.
And on the Ecamm side,
I like that it's really the mix between a Wirecast
in terms of feature set
and StreamYard in terms of usability and ease of use.
It really kind of sits in the middle there.
So for me right now,
for most of the live streams that we do,
Ecamm Live is my weapon of choice
unless I wanna bring in a few different people
and use that guest feature,
I still think that StreamYard is winning on that side
for that feature right now.
But I'm really looking forward to seeing what happens
in the next 12 months
because already how fast StreamYard and Ecamm have come
in the last 12 months is just ridiculous.
So what's next?
So now that you've got your live streaming software sorted,
if you're looking for some amazing animations and graphics
and stuff that you can use in your live streams,
then check out the video linked on screen,
where we show you exactly how to create them
and I'll see you in the next one.