How to read this comparison
- Month to month against month to month. When a price requires paying a year up front, both are shown and labeled.
- Units as published. Concurrent viewers, bandwidth, viewer hours or minutes delivered, without converting them; the calculator helps compare.
- Prices in US dollars as published, before local taxes. INOVANEX's prices carry no VAT.
- "Not disclosed" means the figure is not on the provider's public website on the date read.
- Left out: Restream, mainly a service to relay one stream to social platforms, and Flussonic, which publishes no current price list. Wowza Streaming Engine is software you run on your own servers, so its price does not include servers or bandwidth.
Price and units
| Provider | Entry plan with live streaming | What the plan measures | Published overage |
|---|---|---|---|
| INOVANEX | Basic: US$ 18.48/month, month to month (US$ 0.62 a day); annual is 10 monthly payments; no VAT added | Concurrent viewers: 250, 750, 2,000 and 5,000; unlimited transfer | None: transfer is not billed per GB |
| BoxCast | Standard: $119 month to month; $109 a month billed annually | 10,000 viewer hours a month; no limit on viewers | Not published |
| Castr | Starter: $19.99 month to month; $199.99 a year ($16.67 a month) | Player bandwidth a month (Starter 200 GB) and storage; unlimited viewers | At Castr's rates, not published |
| Cloudflare Stream | No plans: $5 a month per 1,000 minutes stored plus $1 per 1,000 minutes delivered | Minutes stored and minutes delivered; bandwidth and encoding included | Usage-based |
| Dacast | Starter: month-to-month price not shown (three-month minimum if paid monthly); $39 a month billed annually | Bandwidth per year (Starter 2.4 TB) and storage | $0.30 per GB of data, $0.15 per GB of storage; streams stop without overage protection |
| IBM Video Streaming | Silver: "starting at" $154 a month ($107.80 with a limited-time 30% promotion); billing term not stated | Viewer hours (Silver 100; the page doesn't say per month), channels and storage | Not published |
| Kaltura | Media Services, pay as you go: $20 one-time annual fee plus usage | $1 per live viewer per hour; bandwidth $0.17 per GB | Usage-based |
| Livepush | Events: $59 month to month; $590 a year | CDN bandwidth a month (Events 1 TB) and storage | $0.033 per GB; streams are never cut off |
| Muvi Live | Standard: $99 month to month; $84 a month billed yearly; plus infrastructure fees | Included each month: 100 GB of bandwidth and 5 streaming hours; 10,000 concurrent users | $0.09 per GB; streaming hours at $0.50 (pricing page) or $1 (fees page) per hour |
| Vimeo | Advanced: $125 month to month; $75 a month billed annually; plus taxes | 2 TB of bandwidth a month and 7 TB of storage; 2 simultaneous streams of up to 12 hours | Not published (you are asked to reduce usage or talk to sales) |
| Wowza | Streaming Engine (software you run on your own servers): $195 month to month; annual on request. Hosted Flowplayer OVP: Growth, $99 one-time | Engine: server licences and transcoded channels. Flowplayer: ingest hours, playback hours and storage | Engine: $195 per extra server, $25 per extra channel. Flowplayer: not published |
What a 24/7 channel costs
Reference channel: on air around the clock at 720p (2 Mbps), 250 viewers at peak and 80 on average. That is about 52 TB of delivery, 57,600 viewer hours or 3,456,000 viewer minutes a month. The figures below are this guide's estimates from each provider's published unit prices, not prices they quote; for this volume many negotiate a custom plan, so ask for a written quote with the same numbers.
| Provider | Estimated monthly cost | 24/7 streaming |
|---|---|---|
| INOVANEX | Basic, US$ 18.48 a month: up to 250 viewers at once, with unlimited transfer | Included on every plan; automatic slate; video AutoDJ as an add-on |
| BoxCast | Not determinable: viewer-hour overage is not published | Service agreement: "primarily for events" under 8 hours; extended-duration add-on up to 24 hours, $100 a month |
| Castr | Not determinable: beyond the largest plan (Events, $749.99 a month with 10 TB) and overage is not published | One 24/7 playout channel per subscription; no hour cap; bandwidth is the limit |
| Cloudflare Stream | About US$ 3,460 a month in delivered minutes, plus storage if recordings are kept | Not stated; reconnecting encoders are supported |
| Dacast | Beyond every plan: about US$ 15,100 a month (Scale plus overage at $0.30/GB); in practice a custom plan | No streaming-hour cap on the pricing page; limited by bandwidth |
| IBM Video Streaming | Custom plan: the largest published plan has 5,000 viewer hours | Supported ("24 hours a day or longer") |
| Kaltura | About US$ 57,600 a month in viewer hours, or about US$ 66,400 if bandwidth is billed on top (not clear) | Not disclosed |
| Livepush | About US$ 1,750 a month (Studio, $139, plus overage) | 24/7 schedule channel from Studio ($139) |
| Muvi Live | About US$ 5,110 to US$ 5,470 a month (Standard plus usage) | Allowed, billed by the hours the server runs |
| Vimeo | Enterprise with the extended-streaming add-on: price not published | 12 hours per stream on Advanced; 24/7 is an Enterprise add-on that turns off DVR and recording |
| Wowza | Engine: $195 licence plus your own servers and bandwidth (Wowza CDN by quote). Flowplayer 24/7: by contact | Engine supports always-on channels; Flowplayer 24/7 by contact |
Quality and ingest
| Provider | Resolution and multi-bitrate | Ingest |
|---|---|---|
| INOVANEX | Basic 720p at 2 Mbps, Plus 1080p at 3.5 Mbps, Premium 1080p at 4.5 Mbps, Multimedia 1080p60 at 5 Mbps; multi-bitrate as an add-on on Multimedia | RTMP and SRT |
| BoxCast | 1080p30 on Standard (up to 4K60 on the 4K plan); up to 4 adaptive bitrate streams | RTMP, SRT and its own Flow protocol |
| Castr | Multi-bitrate from Premium ($199.99), one stream per account; 24/7 playout at 720p30 below Ultra | RTMP, RTSP, HLS, MPEG-TS and SRT on all plans |
| Cloudflare Stream | Multi-bitrate included; H.264 input at 2 to 14 Mbps; maximum output not disclosed | RTMPS, SRT, WebRTC |
| Dacast | Up to 1080p; multi-bitrate included (3 live transcoding channels on Starter) | RTMP, RTMPS, SRT, WebRTC/WHIP |
| IBM Video Streaming | HD transcoding | Not disclosed on the pages read |
| Kaltura | 1080p; 4K by contact | RTMP, RTSP, WebRTC |
| Livepush | Up to 1080p on Events, 4K pass-through from Studio; multi-bitrate as a paid add-on (included on Network) | RTMP and SRT |
| Muvi Live | HD on Standard, 4K from Professional; multi-bitrate on all plans | RTMP |
| Vimeo | Advanced: 1080p30 at 5 Mbps and 720p30; Enterprise up to 1080p60; multi-bitrate included | RTMP/RTMPS, SRT and the browser |
| Wowza | Engine: multi-bitrate; resolution depends on your hardware | Engine: RTMP, RTSP, SRT, WebRTC |
DVR, simulcast and player
| Provider | DVR and recording | Simulcast | Player and monetization |
|---|---|---|---|
| INOVANEX | DVR add-on from 24 hours (US$ 12.50 a month) to 30 days (US$ 52.50) | Add-on: 2, 3 or 5 destinations (from US$ 4.00 a month) | White-label HTML5 player with SSL, no third-party ads; program guide |
| BoxCast | Live DVR; recordings kept 90 days on Standard, 1 year from Deluxe | Facebook, YouTube and X on all plans | White-label embed from Deluxe ($189); ticketing as an add-on |
| Castr | Cloud recording up to 72 hours, kept up to 3 days; rewind from Premium | 6 to 30 destinations depending on plan | Custom player; ads from Standard; paywall with 9% commission |
| Cloudflare Stream | Optional DVR, with reduced performance beyond 3 hours; recordings truncated after 7 days | Up to 50 outputs, billed as delivered minutes | Cloudflare's player or your own; monetization not disclosed |
| Dacast | Live rewind and recording on every plan | From Starter; number of destinations not disclosed | White-label player without ads; paywall and ads from the Event plan |
| IBM Video Streaming | Automatic archiving; DVR not disclosed | Not disclosed | Channel branding, passwords and registration gate |
| Kaltura | Not disclosed | Not disclosed | Player supports ads; paywall not disclosed |
| Livepush | Recordings of 6 to 20 hours per event, kept 28 to 60 days; DVR not disclosed | 30 to 40+ destinations | Brandable player; logo overlay from Studio; ads and paywall not disclosed |
| Muvi Live | Recording on all plans; DVR from Professional | Allowed, with infrastructure charges; destinations not disclosed | Server-side ads and pay-per-view (9% commission) on all plans; your logo from Professional |
| Vimeo | DVR and recording on Advanced (both off with 24/7 streaming) | Up to 10 social destinations plus 20 custom RTMP destinations | No ads; customizable player; live pay-per-view and ads in Vimeo OTT Enterprise |
| Wowza | nDVR included in the Engine | Engine stream targets to YouTube and Facebook; number not disclosed | Engine: bring your own player. Flowplayer includes one |
Apps and TV sets
| Provider | What it publishes about apps |
|---|---|
| INOVANEX | Native Android and iOS apps under the channel's brand, published and maintained by INOVANEX (setup + monthly fee); Android TV app as a one-time add-on (US$ 54.00) |
| BoxCast | OTT app plans from $35 a month month to month ($25 billed annually); a single app $50 a month |
| Castr | TV and mobile apps quoted separately (no published price) |
| Cloudflare Stream | Not offered |
| Dacast | Not disclosed |
| IBM Video Streaming | Not disclosed |
| Kaltura | Mobile and TV development kits, not ready-made apps |
| Livepush | Not offered (an HLS/DASH link for smart TV apps) |
| Muvi Live | Mobile companion apps and TV platforms listed; price not on the pricing page |
| Vimeo | TV and mobile apps in Vimeo OTT Enterprise (price by sales) |
| Wowza | Not offered (player kits for iOS and Android) |
INOVANEX's reference prices are on the channel app page.
Delivery network and uptime
| Provider | Delivery and latency | Published uptime |
|---|---|---|
| INOVANEX | Present in more than 340 cities worldwide, with automatic failover; HLS | 99.998%, measured, with compensation |
| BoxCast | CDN not disclosed; about 30 seconds of delay | Not disclosed |
| Castr | Multi-CDN (Akamai, Fastly, CloudFront); low latency from Ultra | 99.9%; credits not disclosed |
| Cloudflare Stream | Cloudflare's network; low-latency HLS in beta | Not disclosed |
| Dacast | CloudFront and Akamai; multi-CDN as a paid add-on; latency not disclosed | 99.9% a month, with credits of 10% to 50% of the monthly fee |
| IBM Video Streaming | Multi-CDN; latency not disclosed | Not disclosed |
| Kaltura | Not disclosed | "Enterprise SLA" with annual commitments; no figure |
| Livepush | Akamai; HLS and DASH; latency not quantified | No figure; custom SLA on Enterprise |
| Muvi Live | Amazon CDN; HLS; latency up to 9 seconds | 99.9% (99.99% on Enterprise); credits not disclosed |
| Vimeo | CDN not disclosed; low latency mentioned without figures | 99.9% on Enterprise only; credits not disclosed |
| Wowza | Engine: HLS, DASH, low-latency HLS/DASH and WebRTC. Flowplayer: global CDN | Not disclosed |
Takeaways
The unit decides the bill. The other hosted services here measure bandwidth, viewer hours or minutes delivered, with an allowance and a price for the excess; INOVANEX measures concurrent viewers with unlimited transfer. For the reference channel (57,600 viewer hours and about 52 TB a month), the published unit prices give estimates from about US$ 1,750 (Livepush) to about US$ 57,600 (Kaltura) a month; the rest need a custom plan, don't publish their overage, or (Wowza Streaming Engine) leave servers and bandwidth to you. Providers often negotiate custom plans for this volume: ask for a written quote with the same scenario.
24/7 is not a given. Vimeo Advanced caps each stream at 12 hours and its 24/7 add-on turns off DVR and recording; BoxCast's agreement is written for events under 8 hours; Castr and Livepush offer a 24/7 channel within their bandwidth limits; IBM and Wowza Streaming Engine state continuous channels.
Ready-made apps usually cost extra or come by quote. BoxCast publishes OTT app plans, Vimeo includes apps in OTT Enterprise, Castr quotes them and Muvi lists them without a price on its pricing page; Wowza, Kaltura, Livepush and Cloudflare offer development kits or links, not apps. INOVANEX publishes native apps with setup and monthly prices.
Uptime with compensation is rare. Dacast publishes 99.9% with credits; INOVANEX publishes 99.998% with compensation. Vimeo (Enterprise only), Castr and Muvi publish a figure without disclosed credits; the rest publish none.
Basic
250 concurrent viewers · 720p at 2 Mbps
US$ 18.48 /month
no VAT added (export of services)
See it on INOVANEX →Plus
750 concurrent viewers · 1080p at 3.5 Mbps
US$ 26.88 /month
no VAT added (export of services)
See it on INOVANEX →Premium
2,000 concurrent viewers · 1080p at 4.5 Mbps
US$ 45.85 /month
no VAT added (export of services)
See it on INOVANEX →Multimedia
5,000 concurrent viewers · 1080p60 at 5 Mbps
US$ 53.55 /month
no VAT added (export of services)
See it on INOVANEX →All plans include: 24/7 live channel, unlimited transfer (no per-GB charges), automatic slate (never a black screen), white-label HTML5 player with SSL, RTMP and SRT ingest and a program guide. DVR, multi-bitrate, video AutoDJ and simulcast to social platforms are add-ons. Prices as of October 29, 2026.
Sources
Each provider's own public pages, read on October 26, 2026. Named without links on purpose: what matters is that anyone can repeat the reading. If something changed, the contact is on the About page.
- INOVANEX: inovanex.com, video streaming and apps pages
- BoxCast: boxcast.com: pricing, plan add-ons, premium plan, streaming platform and service agreement pages
- Castr: castr.com: pricing, features, live streaming CDN, TV playout and terms pages
- Cloudflare Stream: developers.cloudflare.com: Stream pricing, Stream Live, DVR for live and simulcasting pages
- Dacast: dacast.com: live streaming pricing plans, service level agreement, live streaming platform and switch to Dacast pages
- IBM Video Streaming: ibm.com: video streaming pricing and product pages; IBM support plan overview and encoding settings pages
- Kaltura: corp.kaltura.com: pricing and media services pricing pages
- Livepush: livepush.io: live stream hosting pricing and pricing pages
- Muvi Live: muvi.com: Live pricing, variable fees and Live product pages
- Vimeo: vimeo.com: upgrade plan, live streaming and OTT pricing pages; Vimeo help center: live events, extended streaming and simulcasting
- Wowza: wowza.com: pricing, video pricing, Streaming Engine, trial and nDVR documentation pages