Restream Review: Best Streaming Software For You?

Want to start live streaming your video content, and you’re considering Restream?

 In this Restream review, I will explore this live video streaming software, its features, pros & cons, benefits, how it works, pricing plans, and its alternatives.

I will also answer the questions you ask about this tool so that you can decide if it’s the best streaming software for you.

Highlights of this Restream review 

• Has its own server and doesn’t rely on third-party servers. So you are guaranteed a strong and stable live stream no matter the duration or the number of audiences.
• Don’t go for the free plan if you want to get the best out of it. The Professional plan offers advanced features you need as an individual, while the Premium Plan is a great fit for large companies and organizations
• Restream Studio is the heartbeat of this software, and it offers branding, audio split track recording, customization, and monetization features. 
• You can upload your pre-recorded video, convert it to a live stream, schedule when it will start, and also record a live stream
• Integrates with your favorite tools and offers an API
• Has a failsafe backup feature to guard against any technical issues during complex live streaming
• You can stream to over 30 platforms, and it also supports live streaming of your Zoom meeting, webinar, conferences, crusades, religious activities, etc.
• Customer Support is superb, fast, and efficient 
• Top-rated companies like Microsoft, Mailchimp, Neil Patel Digital, and AppSumo use Restream 

 

Restream Pricing Plans

Restream has 2 categories of pricing plans: Individuals and Companies:

• Basic, Standard, and Professional pricing plans are for individuals
• Premium, Business, and Enterprise Plans are for companies 

Basic Plan: Free (For Beginners)

This plan is for beginners that want to have a feel of Restream. It doesn’t offer advanced features and has limitations that will restrain you from having a robust live stream. 

The downside of it is that your live stream has a watermark of Restream, you can multi-stream to 2 channels only, and you can’t use the Restream Studio which has a wide range of awesome features.

Standard Plan: $19/month  (Has Basic Features To Get Started) 

This plan is suitable to get started. You enjoy unlimited streaming and can record your streaming for up to 6 hours. No watermark in your live stream, and you can have up to 10 on-screen guests at a time. 

Here are what you get:

• Stream to custom destinations like Facebook groups and pages 
• Stream to guest channels 
• Live stream to 5 channels 
• You can brand your streaming 
• 2 users 

Professional Plan: $49/month (Best For Pro Video Creators)

Restream professional plan is best for pro video creators that want features that will ensure their live stream reaches a wider audience. Its top features are the split audio track recording and full HD live streaming from the Restream Studio. 

Here is what you get:

• Play pre-recorded live stream videos for up to 1 hour
• Stream to custom destinations like Facebook groups and page
• Stream to guest channel
• Full HD in Restream Studio 
• Split track recording 
• Recording your streaming for up to 10 hours 
• Supports 8 channels 
• 4 users can work on your account 
• You can have up to 10 on-screen guests 
• Support custom branding of your live stream 

Premium Plans: $99/month (For Small Companies & Organizations)

This plan is for small companies and organizations that want features that suit their status and size. It has all the features available in the professional plan and also offers the following:

• You can multi-stream to 15 channels 
• Fast support 
• Has website video player
• You can host 1000 website viewers 
• Has a streaming amplifier 
• Upload videos of up to 5 GB and stream for up to 2 hours
• Record your live stream for up to 20 hours 
• You can have a team of 10 users working on your live stream 

Business Plan: $299/month (Best For Large Companies & Organizations)

Restream’s business plan is for large companies and organizations with huge audiences around the world. The features are designed to offer all you need to run a successful live stream, no matter the audience you have.

The key feature that large organizations will enjoy is the failsafe stream backup, which ensures that your live stream will run seamlessly, no matter any technical issue. There’s a backup to retrieve any lost file. 

Here’s what it offers:

• Offers everything in the Premium Plan 
• You can multi-stream to 20 channels simultaneously 
• You can host 10,000 viewers 
• Upload video of up to 10 GB and stream for 4 hours
• Record up to 20 hours per stream 
• You have a team of 10 users

Enterprise Plan

This plan is meant for large organizations that want to be customized, and sophisticated features tailored to the needs of their business. You can contact the sales team for discussions.

Note: Restream offers a 20% discount for an annual subscription to any of the pricing plans. 

What Is Restream?

Restream is a live streaming software that empowers content creators to reach a wider audience through live streaming. Its streaming technology is the best among other live streaming software. 

Andrew Surzhynskyi and Alexander Khuda in a bid to help video content creators reach more audiences and make more money with their content founded Restream in 2015. They started with game live streaming and later transformed their product into a robust live streaming ecosystem. 

Over 5,000 customers including Fortune 500 companies, media personalities, YouTubers, content marketers, course creators, and podcasters use Restream to stream their content on different channels simultaneously. 

To show how robust it is, Restream delivers over 8 million broadcasts and boasts of 600 million engaged viewers monthly.

Who needs Restream multi-channel streaming software?

• A YouTuber that wants to stream their content across other channels
• Social media influencers that create video content 
• Course creators that want to reach more target students 
• Product creators that host webinars to promote their products 
• Celebrities that host online shows
• For game enthusiasts that want to live stream their game
• Podcasters that host podcasts regularly 
• Video content creator and marketer that earn a living through video content 
• Business coaches that host online events to mentor entrepreneurs
• A broadcaster or media personality that wants more audience to listen to their online radio across social media platforms 
• Religious leaders that want their congregation to participate in programs online

Features Of Restream

Let’s look at the features of Restream and how you can use them while live streaming.

1. Restream Studio

Stream your live content to your community across all social platforms from the studio. You can host interviews, and question and answer sessions with your audience. 

As a product creator, you can also launch your new product from the studio and demonstrate to your target audience how it works. This helps you to drive more revenue and expand your customer base.

In addition, you can host webinars, meetings, and conferences and share with your audience across all channels from the streaming studio.

2. Integration

Restream connects with your favorite tools, so you can start streaming your video content with just a click. It integrates with over 25 different channels, and you can sort them based on streaming platforms, broadcasting software, mobile streaming, game console, and add-ons.

If you can’t find the integration you want, you can use a destination that provides RTMP URL and stream key with the Custom RTMP Restream offers.

The technical team of Restream is also willing to consider any integration you want to be added to the list. Use the live chat on their website to reach out to them. 

On default, Restream integrates with the following:

• OBS Studio 
• XSplit
• SLOBS
• Elgato 

3. Multistreaming

You can multiply your view and reach with Restream from a single stream, which allows you to stream to over 30 social media platforms at a time. You can even boost your streaming quality by:

Fallback: Backing up your streaming in case of any interruption, you won’t go offline

Amplifier: To ensure seamlessly streaming from platforms far away from your region

Monitor: You keep tabs on your FPS, bitrate, and frame drops.

How do you multi-stream on different channels?

• Login to your Restream account and go to your dashboard 
• Add 2 or more channels you want your livestream to run on
• Start streaming with your webcam from a browser or streaming software

4. Upload & Stream 

This feature allows you to upload a pre-recorded video and turn it into a live stream. This feature is a remedy if you’re scared of doing a real-time live stream. 

And the benefits are plenty. 

It removes the anxiety that newbies feel during live streaming. It gives you the convenience of editing your video to avoid mistakes that often happen in a live stream.

And you can schedule your live stream, and it will kick-start even while you are away.

 You have the time to engage more with your audience via live chat since the live streaming is real-time. 

How do you upload a video and turn it into a live stream? 

• Upload any recorded video of a maximum duration of 4 hours and 10 GB from your computer to Restream 
• Schedule the date you want to live stream
• Then jump on chat to respond to questions and inquiries from your target audience

5. Restream Chat (Single Dashboard Chat)

You don’t have to switch tabs, chatting with your audience. Restream allows you to read and reply to chat from a single screen. Whether it’s a chat on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, etc., you can respond to them from a single screen. You can even download the single-screen chat dashboard on your Windows, Mac, or Linux operating system or even open it in your browser.

I suggest you use the Restream desktop chat app since it offers the following:

• Notifies you of new messages from your audience and supports text-to-speech alerts 
• You can pin a semi-transparent chat over your window
• You can type, engage and speak with viewers simultaneously
• You can even display your chat box overlay streaming screen. So you see all the chats and respond to them while you live stream. 
• Restream gives you control over your chat box. You can customize using any of the 20 templates to look unique. 
• There is a filter for you to control the kind of messages the audience leaves in the chat. This is to hide or automatically delete foul and offensive languages that can undermine your live stream. 
• Use the mingle feature to bring your viewers on YouTube, Facebook, and other platforms where you are live streaming together in a chat. They will read one another’s messages and your responses. 

6. Screen Sharing

You can share a screen with your invited guest and both of you can make a presentation at the same time using the screen share feature.

Your audience will see anything you display on your monitor, including illustrations, screenshots, photos, or any other type of file used to add value to your live stream.

7. Background Music 

Cool and inspiring music sets the tone of your live stream and could be a hook to keep your audience till the end of the live stream.

Restream allows you to add background music to your live stream. Restream Studio already has some copyright-free music you can add as background music. Choose any that suits you from the music library. 

8. Split Track Recording

This is one feature other streaming tools lack. With Restream split track recording, you can separate audio tracks from each stream participant.

The benefit of this feature is that you can easily convert a live stream to a podcast. This feature is only available for users on the paid plan. 

Here is how to activate it during the live stream:

•  Go to your dashboard and click Enter Live Studio
• Invite the guests for your live stream 
• When you are set, start live streaming 
• Click End Stream button when you are done live streaming 
• All your recordings will be in your video storage; click on the 3 dots in the video and select split track recording

Below is a video of how to convert your live stream to podcast using Restream:

Note: You can do split track recording only from Restream Studio.

9. Analytics

You won’t know if you are achieving the goal of your live streaming unless you analyze and measure. Restream has an advanced analytics feature that gives an insight into the performance of your live streaming across all channels.

You can track and analyze them from a single screen. With this, you uncover which channel generates the most views for your live streaming and the most watched part of your streaming. This will help you decide on which channel to focus more and the type of content to push more to achieve your goals. 

One interesting thing I like about this analytics feature is the chat analytics. 

It shows you how your audience engages you and one another across all streaming channels. You get to know top chatters, common emojis, and languages they use during chat.

How does Restream work?

Restream works this way:

• Open an account 
• Choose your plan
• Choose a platform you want to stream to
• Add the platform as a channel to your live stream account 

You can go live with live Restream after setting up channels by:

• Streaming from your browser
• Using Restream Studio to stream to different locations and invite more guests 
• Streaming from your smartphone 
• Streaming from GoPro camera for outdoor events 
• Streaming via Zoom on multiple channels 
• Running a live broadcast with your team

Here is a video on how to get started with Restream:

Benefits of Restream 

• Easy to set up, and you can go live in minutes 
• You can track and monitor your stream in real-time
• Support for over 30 different channels you may stream on
• Unlimited streaming and bitrate for advanced company plans
• You can stream pre-recorded video
• You can have many users onboard and share a screen with up to 10 guests at a time
• Manage chats from a single dashboard
• Owns its servers and doesn’t rely on third-party to provide a stable stream

Restream alternatives 

Restream has alternatives that in my opinion are not a match for it. But you are also free to check them out:

• Streamyard 
• One Stream 
• OBS
• Streamlabs
• Castr 
• Wirecast
• Dacast
• Splitstream
• Resi
• Videolinq
• BoxCast
• SplitCam

FAQs on Restream 

Is Restream free to use?

Restream has a free plan which you can use to feel what it offers. However, this free plan doesn’t offer advanced features like Restream Studio, split track recording, failsafe stream backup, etc. 

In addition, you can only multi-stream to 2 channels and not in HD. 

So, to get the best out of Restream, I suggest you upgrade to the professional plan – if you’re an individual or Premium Plan – if you are a large business or organization.

What Is Restream used for?

Restream is used for live streaming. 

You can run your live stream on multiple channels with just a click. And have your audience across these channels enjoy your content, interact with you in a live chat and also buy your products and services.

It even saves you time and anxiety with the pre-recorded video feature. This allows you to upload a recorded video and turn it into a live video at any time. 

So you don’t have to worry about making mistakes in a live stream that thousands of your audience will be watching, or not having time to do a live stream when you’re away. 

Does Restream provide an API?

Yes, Restream provides an API that you can access on their developer portal. With it, you can start connecting your favorite tools. The Chat API allows you to manage chats that flow in while you live stream on platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, etc.

Take a look at the screenshot below to see platforms that Restream Chat API supports and actions you can carry out. 

Note: API-dependant features like chat will not work for Custom RTMP channels.

Is Restream better than Streamyard?

Yes, Restream is better than Streamyard and this is without being biased. 

You can’t experience technical issues like content or server drop. In fact, you are free to choose specific servers that aren’t clogged to have the best bitrate while you live stream on multiple channels. Streamyard doesn’t offer this feature. Also, the customization options on Restream are more advanced and give you more control than Streamyard.

What’s the difference between Restream and OBS?

OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) is a powerful open source and free tool which you can use to live stream your video content. But it allows you to stream to only one channel, unlike Restream which allows you to stream up to 30 channels.

Also, it has a learning curve which means a beginner who isn’t tech-savvy might sweat it out installing, setting it up, and using it to livestream. Restream is beginner-friendly and easy to use. 

Below is a table that shows the difference between both of them:

	Restream	OBS
Learning Curve	Has no learning curve	High learning curve which makes the process of using the software time consuming
Integration	Seamless integration with your favorite tools	Integrating with plugins can be cumbersome
Live Streaming	You can live stream to as many platforms as you want at a time	You can live stream to only one platform at a time
Chat Management	Manage chats on multiple platforms from a single screen	You can have to toggle to manage chats
Analytics	Offers robust analytics dashboard	Analytics dashboard is not robust

Can I trust Restream?

Yes, you can trust Restream as it delivers a seamless live stream no matter the channel. It has a failsafe feature that serves as a backup to ensure that your long-hour streaming which you record isn’t lost, no matter the technical issue you face. Its features are more advanced compared to Castr, Streamyard, OneStream, and other live streaming tools. 

Top-rated brands like Microsoft, Payoneer, NeilPatel, Digital Trends, Appsumo, and Mailchimp trust and use Restream.

Final Thought on Restream.io 

Restream is a live streaming software you can trust to deliver great services. It’s easy to use, and its features are top-notch compared to its alternatives.

 I have already explored them and showed you how they work, the pros and cons, and pricing plans. I also showed you some sophisticated features like the failsafe stream backup, and Restream Studio, which stand it out from its competitors in the streaming industry.

 It’s up to you to compare them against what you want in streaming software. And probably try it out with the free plan.