StreamYard Review
Reviewed by Carlos Gil · Founder & Editor, The Best Network
Updated 6 min readEditorially reviewed
Quick facts
- Starting price
- Free; Core $35.99/mo billed yearly ($44.99 monthly)
- Free plan
- Yes
- Best for
- Individual creators, podcasters and coaches who stream interviews and shows to several platforms from a browser
- Platforms
- Web browser (desktop and mobile); iOS Guest App
BestStacked Score
Weighted average of 5 categories. Methodology below.
Quick answer
What is StreamYard, and is it worth paying for?
StreamYard is a live streaming and recording studio that runs in the browser: guests join from a link, you arrange them on branded layouts, and the show goes out to YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, X, Twitch and other destinations at once. It's worth paying for if you're an individual who streams regularly and wants multistreaming and separate per-guest recordings without installing software. Core costs $35.99 a month billed yearly ($44.99 monthly) for 1080p streams to 3 destinations and 10 people on screen, checked on StreamYard's pricing page on October 14, 2026. Core and Advanced are for personal use only; StreamYard moves accounts it judges to be business use onto its Business plan, which has no public price.
- Best for
- Solo creators, podcasters and coaches who run live interviews or shows and want them on several platforms at once.
- Skip it if
- You're a company buying for marketing or sales webinars on a budget, need live captions, or want to edit recordings heavily in the same tool.
- Strongest capability
- Low-friction live production: guests join from a browser link, and Core streams to 3 destinations with 10 people on screen and unlimited separate local recordings.
- Biggest limitation
- Commercial use needs the unpriced Business plan, and StreamYard's pages give a 7-day or a 20- and 60-day refund window depending on which you read.
The Verdict
StreamYard remains one of the easiest ways to run a live show from a browser. Guests click a link to join, Core multistreams to 3 destinations in 1080p with 10 people on screen, records each participant separately, and turns streams into vertical AI clips; Advanced adds 8 destinations, 4K local recordings and On-Air webinars for 100 viewers. Since Bending Spoons bought it in April 2024, the rules have tightened. Core and Advanced are now for personal use only, company email domains must buy Business, and since December 2025 accounts judged to be business use are moved to Business at renewal. Business has no public price, live streams stop at 1080p, there are no built-in live captions, and individual plans get support through help-center request forms. We score StreamYard 7.8/10.
Best for
Individual creators who stream interviews or shows to several platforms and want guests to join from a browser link.
Skip if
You're streaming for a company and want a published price, live captions, phone or chat support, or deeper post-production.
AlternativesRiverside, Zoom Workplace, Descript
The Background
What Is StreamYard?
StreamYard is a live streaming studio that runs in a web browser. A host invites guests by link, arranges them with screen shares, overlays, logos and backgrounds on a set of layouts, and streams to destinations such as YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, Twitch, Kick and Vimeo, or to any custom RTMP server. It can also record without going live, keep a separate audio and video file for each participant, run pre-recorded videos as if they were live, host registration-based webinars on its own On-Air pages, and cut streams into short vertical clips with AI. Bending Spoons lists StreamYard as acquired in April 2024. StreamYard's terms (updated October 1, 2026) name Bending Spoons Operations S.p.A. in Milan as the contracting company.
The Product
StreamYard Features: What You Actually Get
Browser studio with guests by link
Guests join from a link in their browser, including on a phone, with no download; desktop is recommended and an iOS Guest App exists. Free allows 6 people on screen, Core 10, and Advanced adds 15 backstage participants waiting to come on. Hosts control layouts, overlays, tickers, logos, intro and outro videos and AI backgrounds.
A podcast host sends a link to two guests, brings them on screen one at a time, and shows a lower-third with each guest's name.
Multistreaming and pre-recorded streams
Paid plans stream to several destinations at once: 3 on Core, 8 on Advanced and 10 on Business, including custom RTMP. Free has no multistreaming. Pre-recorded streams let you upload a video and broadcast it as a live event, for 2 hours on Core, 4 on Advanced and 8 on Business. Live streams top out at 1080p on every plan.
A coach runs a weekly Q&A to YouTube, LinkedIn and a Facebook Page at the same time and replies to comments from all three on screen.
Local recordings per participant
Local (ISO) recordings capture a separate audio and video file for each participant, plus screen shares, recorded on their device and uploaded, which protects quality from connection drops. Free gets 2 hours a month for recordings only; paid plans are unlimited. 4K local recordings need Advanced or Business and aren't available on mobile. Single recordings run up to 10 hours on Core and Advanced and 24 on Business.
An interviewer records a 90-minute conversation and hands each speaker's separate file to an editor.
On-Air webinars
Advanced and Business can host webinars on StreamYard's On-Air pages, with registration forms and live chat, embeddable on your own site, for 100 viewers on Advanced. Business can buy more attendees as an add-on.
A consultant runs a registration-only workshop for 80 people on an On-Air page embedded in her website.
AI clips and transcripts
AI clips turn a stream or recording into captioned 9:16 vertical clips, and saying "Clip that" during a stream marks a moment. Transcripts in 15 languages are viewable on paid plans and downloadable (.txt or .vtt) from Advanced. StreamYard has no built-in live captions and points users to platform or browser captions instead.
A streamer says "Clip that" after a strong answer and later posts the captioned vertical clip to Shorts and Reels.
Feature recap
- Browser-based studio; guests join by link with no download
- Multistreaming to 3, 8 or 10 destinations by plan, plus custom RTMP
- Separate local recordings per participant, 4K on Advanced
- Pre-recorded streams of 2 to 8 hours by plan
- On-Air webinars with registration from Advanced
- AI clips in vertical format and transcripts in 15 languages
- Branding, overlays, layouts and AI backgrounds
- Team roles, SSO and up to 1,000 seats on Business
The Numbers
StreamYard Pricing: Every Plan Explained
StreamYard sells two individual plans and a Business plan. Prices below are from StreamYard's pricing page, checked October 14, 2026, in USD; yearly prices are shown as a monthly figure billed once a year. Core and Advanced have a 7-day free trial.
| Plan | Monthly | Annual | Included Features | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | 6 people on screen, 1 destination, StreamYard logo, 2 hrs/mo local recordings, 5 hrs storage, monthly streaming-hour cap shown in your account; live streams aren't recorded and recordings older than 12 months are deleted | Trying the studio |
| CoreBest value | $44.99/mo | $35.99/mo | 1080p, no logo, 3 destinations plus custom RTMP, 10 on screen, unlimited streaming, recording and local recordings, 2 hrs pre-recorded streams, 50 hrs storage, AI clips; personal use only | Individual creators |
| Advanced | $88.99/mo | $68.99/mo | Everything in Core plus 8 destinations, 4K local recordings, 15 backstage, extra camera, 4 hrs pre-recorded streams, On-Air webinars for 100 viewers, custom fonts, transcript download; personal use only | Creators running webinars |
| Business | Not published | Not published | 10 destinations, 8-hr pre-recorded streams, 24-hr recordings, 700+ hrs storage, 2 seats included (up to 1,000), Admin/Creator/Cohost roles, priority email support; SSO, extra workspaces and On-Air attendees are paid add-ons | Companies and teams |
Core at $431.88 a year (our arithmetic) costs more than Restream's entry plan and about the same as Riverside's Pro billed annually, so you're paying for StreamYard's live studio and guest experience. The pricing toggle says yearly billing is 22% off; by our arithmetic Core saves 20% and Advanced 22.5%. The bigger cost question is who may buy Core and Advanced. StreamYard's plan usage policy says they are solely for personal use or for individuals, its billing article says company email domains must buy Business, and a December 2025 article says accounts it judges to be business use are moved to Business at the next renewal, with emails 30 and 15 days before. Business has no public price. Storage add-ons cost $4.99, $8.99 or $17.99 a month for 100, 200 or 400 extra hours. The terms (October 1, 2026) renew plans automatically and say cancelling gives no refund or credit; the refund policy and pricing page describe refund windows that don't match (see below). Nonprofits and education get 10% off.
Read before you buy
Where StreamYard's own pages differ
Refunds: the pricing page offers a 7-day money-back guarantee that only applies to your first charge. StreamYard's refund policy (updated September 22, 2026) gives 20 days on weekly or monthly plans and 60 days on yearly plans, for the most recent charge, and excludes App Store purchases. The terms say cancelling gives no refund or credit. Ask support which applies before you rely on a refund.
Who the plans are for: one billing article says Core and Advanced suit individual creators and small teams, while the plan usage policy says they're solely for personal use or for individuals and a business-use article describes moving business accounts to Business. One help article says individual plans can have up to 1,000 seats; the seats article says individual plans can't add seats and the 1,000-seat ceiling is Business only.
Plans and limits: several help articles still name a Teams plan and weekly billing that the pricing page doesn't show, and two articles say you need a free account to see prices that /pricing shows publicly. The pricing page lists AI clips under Core, while the AI clips article says Free gets a limited version, and it describes Free storage as limited where help articles give 5 hours.
The Tradeoffs
StreamYard Pros and Cons
What we love
- Guests join from a browser link with no download
- Multistreaming to 3 destinations on Core, 8 on Advanced
- Unlimited separate local recordings on paid plans
- On-Air webinars with registration from Advanced
- AI clips with an on-air "Clip that" marker
- Free plan to try the studio
What could be better
- Core and Advanced are personal-use only; Business is unpriced
- Live streams top out at 1080p; 4K is for local recordings only
- No built-in live captions
- Refund terms differ across StreamYard's own pages
- Individual plans get help-center request forms, not chat or phone
- Free plan doesn't record live streams and caps streaming hours
The Audience
Who Should Use StreamYard?
Best for: solo creators and podcasters
Hosts who stream weekly interviews or shows get a polished browser studio, easy guest links, multistreaming and separate per-guest recordings on Core.
Best for: coaches running small webinars
Advanced adds On-Air webinars with registration for 100 viewers, 8 destinations and transcript downloads in one subscription.
Skip if: you're a company on a budget
Businesses must use the Business plan, which has no public price. Teams that want published pricing for webinars and recordings should compare Riverside or Zoom Workplace first.
The Methodology
How We Reviewed StreamYard
This is an editorial review, not a documented hands-on test. We didn't use a StreamYard account for this review. It's based on StreamYard's pricing page, terms of service (October 1, 2026), refund policy (September 22, 2026), product changelog, and help-center articles on the free plan, plan usage, business-use migration, billing, Business plans, seats, storage, the $1 welcome offer, discounts, destinations, local recordings, resolution, On-Air, AI clips, transcripts, captions, mobile use and cancellation, plus Bending Spoons' portfolio page, all checked on October 14, 2026. Where StreamYard's pages differ, we report both statements. No stream quality, latency or AI clip results are claimed.
Our editorial evaluation considers product information, official documentation, pricing, features and professional experience. It is not a claim of documented hands-on testing.
Our review methodology →What changed
- : Fact-check follow-up (checked on riverside.com/pricing on 2026-10-19). Riverside competitor row: monthly Pro is $35 and the pricing page no longer lists a free plan (14-day trial). Score untouched.
- : First published. Editorial review based on StreamYard's pricing page, terms of service, refund policy, changelog and help-center articles on plans, plan usage, business-use migration, billing, Business, seats, storage, discounts, destinations, local recordings, resolution, On-Air, AI clips, transcripts, captions, mobile and cancellation, plus Bending Spoons' portfolio page, all checked October 14, 2026.
The Field
StreamYard vs The Competition
StreamYard competes with remote recording studios, multistreaming services and meeting platforms that run webinars. Prices below were checked on each vendor's pricing page on October 14, 2026, using US pricing.
| Tool | Starting Price | Free plan | Best Feature | BS Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| StreamYard | Free; Core $35.99/mo billed yearly ($44.99 monthly) | Yes | Browser studio with guests by link | 7.8/10 |
| Riverside | Pro $24/mo billed annually ($35 monthly); 14-day free trial | No | Studio-quality recording and an AI editor | 8.9/10 |
| Restream | Free; Standard $16/mo billed yearly ($19 monthly) | Yes | Multistreaming at a lower entry price | 8.4/10 |
| Zoom Workplace | Free Basic plan; Pro $14.16/user/mo billed annually ($16.99 monthly) | Yes | Meetings, webinars and AI in one suite | 8.5/10 |
Riverside: Riverside also records each participant locally and streams live, but it puts more weight on recording quality and post-production editing. Pick it when the recording matters more than the live show.Read our Riverside review →
Restream: Restream's free plan streams to 2 channels with Restream branding, and Standard removes branding and streams to 3 channels at once for less than StreamYard Core.Read our Restream review →
Zoom Workplace: Zoom suits companies that already run meetings on it and want webinars and recordings under one per-user price, though it isn't built for multistreaming branded shows.Read our Zoom Workplace review →
Use cases
Example setups by buyer type
A solo podcaster
Core ($35.99 billed yearly) streams each episode to YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook while saving separate local recordings for editing. Use the 7-day trial to check guest audio before committing.
A coach with a paid workshop
Advanced ($68.99 billed yearly) adds registration-based On-Air webinars for 100 viewers and transcript downloads. Confirm the account counts as personal use, or budget for Business.
A marketing team
Ask StreamYard for a Business quote: it adds roles, priority email, 10 destinations and SSO as an add-on, and company email domains are expected to buy it anyway.
The Ecosystem
StreamYard Integrations
StreamYard's integrations are mostly streaming destinations; it connects to social and video platforms and to any RTMP server.
- →YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, Twitch, Kick and Vimeo
- →Instagram and TikTok (listed in the destinations table)
- →Custom RTMP destinations on paid plans
- →On-Air pages embeddable on your own website
- →Transcript export as .txt or .vtt from Advanced
We found no public API, Zapier app or webhooks documented on StreamYard's pages; recordings and clips leave StreamYard as downloads. Free has no multistreaming or custom RTMP.
Common Questions
StreamYard FAQ
The Final Word
Should You Use StreamYard?
StreamYard is still a strong choice for individuals who run live shows: the browser studio is simple for guests, Core multistreams and records each participant separately, and Advanced adds webinars. Companies face a different product, because the personal-use rule pushes them to an unpriced Business plan. Check which plan your account qualifies for, test guests and destinations in the 7-day trial, and get the refund terms confirmed in writing. We score StreamYard 7.8/10.
Yes, if
You're an individual creator who streams interviews or shows to several platforms and wants guests to join from a link.
No, if
You're buying for a company and need a published price, live captions, chat or phone support, or a built-in editor.
About the reviewer
Carlos Gil
Founder & Editor, The Best Network
Carlos Gil is the Founder & Editor of The Best Network, bestselling author of The End of Marketing, and a LinkedIn Top Voice. His digital marketing career began in 2008 and spans corporate roles at LinkedIn and BMC Software, consulting for global brands, creator partnerships, and building his own businesses.
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