Restream vs StreamYard: Six-Destination Price Crossover

At three and five simultaneous destinations, Restream has the lower monthly plan price; at six through eight, StreamYard’s individual Advanced plan becomes cheaper. The sixth output forces a move from Restream Professional to Business, while StreamYard Advanced already allows eight destinations.

That crossover applies to someone eligible for StreamYard’s individual plans. An organization needs a Business price, and a creator may reasonably pay more for the studio, recording or encoder workflow that suits the show. Destination count answers the price question only after those needs are clear.

What three, five and eight destinations cost

On its monthly pricing display, Restream lists Standard at $19 for three simultaneous channels, Professional at $49 for five, and Business at $239 for eight. Its free plan allows two channels. There is no listed tier between Professional and Business, so a sixth simultaneous channel moves the buyer to the $239 plan.

StreamYard lists Core at $44.99 per month for three destinations and Advanced at $88.99 for eight, both on its individual pricing display. The page warns that promotions, renewal terms and custom offers can change the price a buyer sees. The figures here use the displayed monthly rates, without mixing in annual billing discounts.

Three destinations: Restream Standard costs $19 a month against $44.99 for StreamYard Core, a $25.99 difference.
Five destinations: Restream Professional costs $49 against $88.99 for StreamYard Advanced, a $39.99 difference.
Eight destinations: Restream Business costs $239 against $88.99 for StreamYard Advanced, a $150.01 difference in StreamYard’s favor for an eligible individual.

Six and seven destinations require the same plans as eight, so the reversal begins at six. These are the cheapest listed plans that accommodate each destination count, not identical feature bundles. At five destinations, for example, the StreamYard price includes room for three more outputs; at six, Restream’s higher tier includes business features that a solo broadcaster may never use.

What the browser studio changes

Both services offer browser production with guests and visual layouts, but their distribution paths differ. Restream accepts a feed produced in an external encoder such as OBS and sends it to the selected channels. StreamYard’s multistreaming runs through its browser studio, where the host manages guests, layouts, branding and destinations. For someone who already produces a finished show in an encoder, that distinction can matter more than the plan’s guest count.

StreamYard can still bring OBS video into its studio as a camera source: its OBS Virtual Camera instructions describe selecting that feed in the browser. This preserves an OBS visual scene, but the broadcast still passes through StreamYard’s studio. It is a different arrangement from sending an encoded feed directly to a multistreaming relay.

For a host starting a guest interview without an existing encoder setup, StreamYard’s studio may be worth the higher bill at three or five destinations. Restream Studio also offers browser production, so the choice is not between having a studio and having none. The more useful question is whether the show depends on direct encoder input or on the particular guest, layout and recording tools bundled with StreamYard.

Resolution can reverse the entry-level price comparison for a browser-produced show. Restream Standard’s studio is limited to 720p, with 1080p starting on Professional; StreamYard Core includes 1080p. At three destinations, a creator who requires 1080p from the browser studio is therefore comparing Restream’s $49 Professional plan with StreamYard’s $44.99 Core plan. Restream lists separate quality conditions for external encoder feeds, so its studio limit should not be applied to every stream routed through the service.

Recording and branding are part of the bill

StreamYard Core includes unlimited local recordings and 50 hours of permanent recording storage; Advanced adds 4K local recording. The storage allowance gives a producer more room to keep past episodes online, while local recording is useful when episodes will be edited after the broadcast. “Permanent” describes how long recordings remain available within that allowance, not an unlimited archive.

Restream describes its cloud storage as a retention window: recordings remain available for download for 15 days on Standard and Professional, or 30 days on Business. Professional also lists 4K recording. A producer who downloads every episode soon after going live may be comfortable with that window. Someone who regularly returns to older interviews should treat the shorter retrieval period as a workflow cost, even if the monthly subscription is lower.

Both paid entry plans remove the service’s visible branding from streams: Restream does so on Standard and StreamYard on Core. Their free plans are therefore useful for trying a basic broadcast, but they are not equivalent substitutes for a paid, unbranded show. At three destinations, StreamYard’s higher price also brings its Full HD studio and recording allowances; a buyer who needs those features is purchasing more than an additional distribution endpoint.

Why an organization needs a different comparison

StreamYard’s Plan Usage Policy assigns Free, Core and Advanced to individuals, including freelancers using the service in their work and their collaborators. It assigns professional, commercial and collaborative use by organizations to business-tier plans. An organization cannot assume that the advertised $88.99 Advanced price is its eligible eight-destination price; StreamYard directs business buyers to account-specific plan information rather than publishing a comparable Business figure on its public pricing page.

Restream publishes a clearer seat calculation. Professional and Business each include two team seats, and additional seats cost $25 per seat per month. As a conditional example using those listed rates, a three-seat team needing five destinations would pay $74 per month on Professional; if it needed eight, the Business total would be $264. Business also lists co-producer mode and team workspaces. Optional additions would change those totals.

A guest appearing on camera is different from a teammate who needs account access to schedule, manage destinations or produce the show. Count operational seats separately from on-screen participants. For an individual, Restream is the lower-cost destination choice through five outputs and StreamYard becomes the lower-cost listed choice at six. For an organization, the comparison remains open until its eligible StreamYard Business price and required seats are known.