Live streaming platforms have enabled users to connect with their audiences more impactfully and effectively. These platforms deliver content in real-time, allowing users to share a range of live events happening with remote users through interactive live streaming.
Latest statistics from 2024 show that internet users globally spend a lot of time watching video content on the internet. Of these users, 27.6% spend time watching live video content weekly. According to Backlinko, Twitch, a popular live streaming app in the US has 240 million unique visitors every month.
Moreover, this increase in demand is not limited to entertainment use cases. Here is a surprising webinar statistic: Research reveals that webinars are attended weekly by around 54% of B2B professionals.
Both your organization's internal teams and external stakeholders might prefer watching live streams for various purposes. It would be best if you did not lose out on the countless benefits of live streaming platforms.
There are countless live streaming platforms on the market. Choosing the best one can be a very strenuous task – the answer is not straightforward.
This article will help you choose a live streaming platform that is best for your corporate needs and goals. Let’s dig right in!
Live streaming is when you create and share videos with your audience to watch in real time. A live video streaming platform has the complete infrastructure to allow you to deliver an optimized live video feed in real time from a recording device to a player at the user's end.
Here is our simple definition of live streaming:
"The process of transmitting video content in real-time over the internet."
Live streaming platforms have become rapidly advanced and feature rich. Today, live video platforms are equipped with many additional features. They offer 360-degree solutions by providing live and on-demand capabilities, allowing users to record their live video streams and so much more.
The concept is quite like video conferencing. But unlike video conferencing tools, live video streaming allows one-way communication, with interactive integrations like live chat, quizzes, and other elements.
Live streaming can also accommodate a much larger audience, depending on how scalable your live streaming platform is. This gives you the power to stream large-scale events in broadcast-grade quality, with your stream accessible globally.
Read our blog on what live video streaming is, how it works, and the process behind it.
It is necessary to understand what is offered by live streaming platforms and how you will go about choosing the best one for yourself. Here are some important questions you might stumble across on your way to finding the perfect online video streaming platform:
There are various types of top live streaming platforms out there, and to compare them, here's a list of the features that we think are important:
One of the most important factors to consider when choosing a live streaming platform is that it must have an easy and adaptable user interface. So, even as a newly inducted user, you can orchestrate the capabilities and utilize the features to the fullest.
On G2 and TrustRadius, we found a large pool of reviews from unsatisfied customers of top live streaming platforms. Interestingly, we found out that most of the low-rated reviews complained about frequent buffering, limited integrations, complex interfaces, lack of multi-platform support, and not having bandwidth-adaptive functionality.
Most top live streaming platforms don't offer capabilities for video streaming optimization, making the playback experience a mess with continuous buffering and loading errors.
It's essential to look for automatic video transcoding in live streaming platforms, where multiple video quality options (240p, 720p, and so on) are created for users to choose from.
There can even be automatic quality selection using adaptive bitrate streaming (just like YouTube).
For corporate networks, it's essential to look for a solution that intelligently routes videos through means of an eCDN, or else your network will be overloaded.
Cybersecurity Ventures predicts cybercrime damage will go up to $10.5 trillion annually by 2025.
It is essential to secure your online video streaming by limiting and managing access based on your user groups and protocols.
This is especially important if your live stream has confidential data – a breach of which could lead to a violation of compliance, loss of reputation, competitive disadvantage, and so on.
Your organization might need to increase the number of participants in online video streaming. There could also be random surges in viewership. Such foreseen or unforeseen instances require you to stay prepared and atop things.
Therefore, it's essential to look for a platform with a live streaming cloud infrastructure that uses intelligent load balancing to scale up servers as viewership increases. It's all done automatically, without you having to stress out.
Being able to create engaging and captivating content is your first and foremost priority while conducting a live event.
For that purpose, choose a video streaming platform with different interactivity options, like Q&A windows, live chat functionality, quizzes, polls, surveys, and so on.
A live video streaming platform that is equipped with advanced and robust capabilities will allow you to enjoy a load of features and privileges. Enterprises need a platform that uses the latest technologies to ensure compatibility with all devices, browsers, and streaming servers.
An important thing to look for is either the HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) protocol, MPEG-DASH, or Microsoft Smooth Streaming for streaming, as most operating systems and devices support these streaming protocols.
This is not an essential consideration unless you are a large enterprise that operates under strict compliance and security requirements or prefers directly managing cloud services.
However, if you are an organization with stringent security needs or are operating in highly regulated industries like healthcare or in regions like China or Europe, you would most certainly look for a secure online video streaming platform that meets compliance standards.
It must also allow you to host video data and the live streaming infrastructure in your Azure, AWS, or any other secure cloud of your choice. Your organization’s chosen video streaming platform should support on-premises video streaming in your own data center.
Read | AWS Services for Live Streaming
Before we compare: There are two ways to conduct an online video streaming platform comparison:
You can either opt for a live streaming platform - one where you connect an encoder and broadcast your stream.
Or you could use a simple webcast solution - like the one offered by Zoom.
Considering the factors that we discussed above, here is a compiled list of the best nine live streaming platforms.
These are top live streaming platforms using modern streaming protocols, and you need to push or pull a stream through an encoder. This helps you show the feed from multiple cameras, insert a video during a live stream, or stream a live meeting between panelists.
VIDIZMO EnterpriseTube is an easy-to-use live video streaming platform - a Gartner-recognized enterprise video platform (kind of like YouTube for enterprises).
Its top-notch secure live streaming capabilities for both internal and external audiences make it helpful in conducting enterprise-wide private live streams.
You can choose to stream securely inside an organization or broadcast live events to large audiences publicly. Do everything from educational webinars to company town halls to industry conferences with VIDIZMO.
It offers a video portal where you can host multiple live streams, and users can join the ones that they want.
You can play a stream from an incoming HLS URL, or schedule pre-recorded webinars or on-demand videos to stream live at a particular time.
Securely live stream while fulfilling all the major regional and industry compliances like GDPR, HIPAA, CJIS, and many more.
VIDIZMO’s complete enterprise video
is suitable for your organization if you want to stream on-demand videos (for trainings or recorded work meetings) and conduct frequent live sessions (such as a town hall).
Record these sessions and then publish them to your on-demand video library instantly. These on-demand videos can be restricted to an internal audience, to specific users or groups, or can be set to allow anonymous users access to the videos.
Custom brand the video portal and the video player through which the stream plays – add a logo, use your brand colors, and make other changes through custom CSS.
You can choose to use VIDIZMO as a separate live streaming platform or in combination with on-demand streaming.
VIDIZMO helps XcitED, one of the most significant EdTech startup events, to go live virtually - Read the Complete Case Study
With immense market penetration, YouTube is the most popular online video streaming platform in the entire world, with more than 2.49 billion monthly active users.
Being the second most visited website globally, it allows your live stream to reach a large audience. This makes it highly suitable for public broadcasts, primarily by influencers and content creators looking to monetize their content.
With all the significantly positive qualities mentioned below, YouTube also comes with its share of drawbacks, primarily for businesses – especially for streaming private live content. Some of these issues include latency issues, privacy limitations, limited analytics features, compliance issues, limited scalability, and restrictive live streaming time.
YouTube live streams can be viewed by anyone out there, and the streams aren't the most secure – not at the level most businesses require. This is not a good option if you need to stream confidential information to an internal audience.
Moreover, there are various stringent compliances applicable to video data that YouTube's public platform fails to meet, such as YouTube videos not being obedient to Europe's GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation).
Additionally, according to YouTube terms and conditions, when uploading content on their site, you are giving them rights to essentially distribute and make countless copies of your content, too. Therefore, enterprise-level security requirements are not met by YouTube.
However, some essential factors can really streamline the entire experience for small-scale live streams for users like influencers.
Top Features
Vimeo acquired a live streaming platform, "Mogulus," and merged it with Vimeo's on-demand video streaming services. It is an ad-free alternative to YouTube, with an enterprise version available. However, Vimeo's online video streaming service is only available in Vimeo premium, enterprise, and OTT plans.
The platform has a few drawbacks, though. With just a 2.6 rating on a 5-point scale on Trust Pilot, it is undoubtedly expected not to get the most optimal experience from Vimeo. It does, however, have lots of public users and has proven to be one of the most popular platforms for UGC (User-Generated-Content).
Vimeo is a simple online video streaming SaaS application with no options to choose where your data is stored and how it's handled – no cloud deployments or on-premises deployments. Large organizations may require this.
Vimeo’s livestream service is not famous for its customer support. You might hit a snag with the service but not find any reliable or timely technical assistance.
If you wish to store a considerable number of videos, you must subscribe to the highest-paid plan.
Top Features
Learn more about Vimeo and alternatives here.
You must note that Kaltura’s live streaming platform is open-source software – requiring a great amount of technical expertise to stitch together this platform, deploy it, and conduct a live stream. Having an in-house tech team dedicated to doing it all is a must.
However, that results in the platform being customizable with enterprise-level security.
The platform offers its services in diversified packages and plans, catering to either business-level or individual-based needs.
The self-service customer support feature means no professional services team and no phone/chat support is available for queries and consultations – your team will have to go over the detailed documentation to understand the platform and run it.
With so many complexities, also keep in mind that the deployment time for Kaltura’s live streaming platform is longer than you might like it. So, plan ahead of time!
Top Features
It does lack the features to securely stream videos internally and is also not the best for recording and streaming your recorded sessions as on-demand videos later.
It also lacks certain live streaming features, such as a live chat and the ability to set up backup streams.
It is a simple live streaming SaaS application. However, Dacast does not allow you to choose where your video data is stored and how it's handled – no cloud deployments or on-premises deployments.
Large organizations will have a tough time working with Dacast. It might get the job done, but it will remain a basic streaming tool for larger organizations. It’s a decent option for small or mid-sized audiences.
With Dacast, event scheduling is not possible, and it lacks
live interactivity elements (like live chat and Q&A) – so viewers can't engage as you would expect them to.
Top Features
Learn more about Dacast and alternatives here.
Hence, Brightcove, too, doesn't give you the option to choose where your data is stored and how it's handled. It also lacks many features for private internal live and on-demand video streaming.
With Brightcove, private online video streaming is barely possible, with very minimal options. The only way you can restrict access is by controlling the registration of users on the platform.
Top Features
Learn more about Brightcove and its alternatives.
Marketing their platform as a secure option, many educational institutions and schools use Panopto for online learning.
Top Features
You can multi-stream to up to 8 channels, including social media platforms like YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, Twitch, or a custom RTMP destination. With an almost 5-star rating on G2 with 240+ reviews, this one deserves a review.
StreamYard is excellent for someone who isn't well acquainted with encoders and the complexities of a professional broadcast.
It is an excellent pick for content creators and businesses wanting to conduct simple public webinars on their social channels but don't want to leave out an audience from specific platforms.
It offers a simple interface to initiate a professional broadcast, add videos from multiple sources, stream a pre-recorded video, and so on. All of this can be done from your browser.
For broadcast-grade live events or internal private streams, this video streaming platform may not be suitable. It is also mainly a live streaming service, not designed for on-demand video streaming. StreamYard also lacks eCDN technology, so geographical barriers may be a challenge for organizations that want to make their stream globally accessible.
With StreamYard, you can't live stream a video from Zoom, MS Teams, Cisco Webex, and other video conferencing tools. It also has limited security features, so it might not be the best for security-sensitive video streams hosted by enterprises.
Top Features
It comes as no surprise that IBM Cloud Video has managed to make an efficient live-streaming video platform as well. However, technologies like SSO and controlled content access are not available, so the security aspect of this streaming platform may be limited.
Top Features
Learn more about IBM Cloud Video and its alternatives.
Small-Scale Webinars
If you are looking to conduct a small-scale private webinar, the above options of top live streaming platforms might not be considered fit. Here are our recommendations for the two best webinar solutions.
The panelists can talk amongst themselves while the viewers will be in watch-only mode for the entire meeting. The advantage of using Zoom is that it is super easy to conduct a webinar, and most people are aware of how to use it. They are also working on improving their security.
There's no need to set up an encoder, and you can quickly get started. You can record webinars and make them available as on-demand videos. However, Zoom is a meeting solution not designed to manage on-demand videos.
Read More | Managing Recorded On-Demand Webinars in Zoom
After going through TrustRadius, we found that a few users were complaining about video playback issues when their internet speed was low or when they were on specific devices. This happens because Zoom doesn't offer transcoding that most live streaming platforms do.
It offers live polling and Q&A for interactivity. You can also schedule pre-recorded live events or webinars for up to 20,000 attendees.
Like Zoom, it does not offer transcoding, HLS delivery, or eCDN support, which are required to optimize delivery for various bandwidths and devices.
Looking for the top live streaming platforms that offer more than just live streaming? Need video content management, video sharing, recorded meetings management, on-demand, and online video streaming as well?
VIDIZMO EnterpriseTube is a complete video content management system for both live and on-demand streaming that eliminates the need to use separate platforms for separate video use cases.