XtreamCast vs Wowza
Wowza charges $2.50 per streaming hour, and costs add up quickly. A 24/7 channel can cost $1,800+/month in streaming hours alone. XtreamCast offers a fixed price from $25/month with 1 TB of bandwidth, a 24/7 channel and 24/7 support.
Fixed Price vs Pay-Per-Use: Which Do You Prefer?
Wowza charges you for every hour and every GB. With XtreamCast you know exactly how much you pay each month.
Started+ Plan - Predictable fixed price
- Bandwidth: 1 TB/month
- Fully managed — no servers to configure
- Unlimited viewers
- Streams up to 4K
- Automated 24/7 channel (Live Station)
- Restream to 10 destinations
- Recording + auto-upload
- 24/7 support in English and Spanish
- Global Multi-CDN
- White-Label Player
- No contract
- Variable price — hard to predict
- + $0.10/hour of viewing
- + $0.20/GB/month storage
- + $0.25/hour per additional stream target
- 4K: $20/hour streaming + $0.40/hour viewing
- Engine: $195/month per server (self-hosted)
- No automated 24/7 channel with a grid
- No auto-upload to social networks
- Support in English only
- Requires technical knowledge
- Enterprise APIs and SDKs
- Enterprise scalability
Example: 24/7 Channel — Estimated Monthly Cost
How Much Bandwidth Do You Get for Every Dollar?
First: what is bandwidth? (explained simply)
Imagine your video travels down a highway to reach each viewer. Bandwidth is the size of that highway: the bigger it is, the more people can watch your broadcast at the same time without drops or buffering.
It is measured in GB (Gigabytes) or TB (Terabytes) — 1 TB = 1,024 GB. With a fixed monthly price you know exactly how much you can stream. With a consumption model like Wowza's, every hour and every viewer is billed separately.
What do you get for a $25 investment?
The longer the bar, the more streaming you get for your money
Similarities
Both XtreamCast and Wowza are professional streaming platforms that support RTMP, HLS and ABR transcoding. Both offer quality up to 4K, an embeddable HTML5 player, analytics and guarantee high availability with CDN infrastructure.
Key Differences
Wowza is designed for enterprise operations with a pay-per-use model that can be extremely expensive. XtreamCast offers a predictable fixed-price model ideal for small and medium operations. In addition, XtreamCast is fully managed (no servers to configure), includes Live Station (24/7 channel) and 24/7 support in English and Spanish.
Why choose XtreamCast over Wowza?
Fixed Price vs Pay-Per-Use
With Wowza you never know how much you will pay. With XtreamCast you pay a fixed $25/month for your Started+ plan and there are no surprises. A 24/7 channel on Wowza can cost $1,800+/month.
See plans →Fully Managed, No Servers
Wowza Engine requires administering your own servers. Wowza Video is cloud but complex to configure. XtreamCast is completely managed — everything works from your panel with no technical knowledge.
See features →24/7 Channel with a Programming Grid
Live Station lets you operate a 24/7 online TV channel with pre-recorded content organized in an automatic grid. On Wowza, keeping a 24/7 stream costs thousands of dollars a month.
See features →24/7 Support in English and Spanish
Wowza only offers support in English, and for enterprise. Our team assists you 24/7 via WhatsApp, Slack, chat and email regardless of your plan.
Talk to support →Multistreaming Included
XtreamCast includes restream to 10 destinations on all plans. On Wowza, each additional stream target costs an extra $0.25/hour, racking up costs quickly.
See destinations →Start in Minutes, Not Days
While Wowza can take days of technical setup, with XtreamCast you configure your first stream in under 5 minutes. Our team guides you step by step if you need it.
Start now →XtreamCast vs Wowza: Full Feature Comparison
| Feature | | Wowza |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing Model | ||
| Pricing type | Fixed monthly price | Pay-as-you-go (consumption) |
| Streaming | Included in the plan | $2.50/hour (1080p), $20/hour (4K) |
| Viewing | Included (unlimited viewers) | $0.10/hour per viewer |
| Storage | Included in the plan | $0.20/GB/month |
| Additional stream targets | 10 destinations included | $0.25/hour per target |
| Min. monthly cost (8h/day streaming) | $25/month | ~$600+/month |
| 24/7 channel cost | $25/month | ~$1,830+/month |
| Platform and Management | ||
| Type of service | Fully managed (SaaS) | Self-managed / Cloud API |
| Initial setup | < 5 minutes | Hours/Days (requires a technician) |
| Technical knowledge required | None | High (APIs, servers, CDN) |
| Control panel | Intuitive | Technical dashboard |
| Streaming | ||
| Maximum quality | 4K UHD | 4K (at $20/hour) |
| Concurrent viewers | Unlimited | Unlimited (pay per viewer-hour) |
| 24/7 streaming | Live Station | Possible (very costly) |
| Automated channel with a grid | ||
| Multistream / Restream | 10 destinations included | Additional cost per target |
| Infrastructure | ||
| CDN | Global Multi-CDN | Wowza CDN + AWS |
| Input protocols | RTMP, SRT, HLS, RTSP | RTMP, SRT, RTSP, WebRTC |
| Output protocols | HLS, M3U8 (IPTV) | HLS, DASH, CMAF, LL-HLS |
| APIs / SDKs | REST API | Full APIs + SDKs |
| Uptime SLA | 99.99% | 99.95% |
| Advanced Features | ||
| Cloud recording | ||
| Auto-upload YouTube/Facebook | ||
| White-Label Player | All plans | |
| ABR transcoding | ||
| Low-latency streaming | LL-HLS/WebRTC | |
| Geo-restriction | ||
| Real-time analytics | with GeoIP | |
| Support and Experience | ||
| Support language | English + Spanish | English only |
| Support channels | WhatsApp, Slack, Chat, Email | Tickets, Email (Enterprise: phone) |
| 24/7 support at no extra cost | Enterprise only | |
| Years of experience | 15+ years (since 2011) | ~21 years (since 2005) |
| Regional focus | Global | Global enterprise |
| Contracts | ||
| Price from | $25/month USD | $0 base + consumption (or $195/month Engine) |
| Free trial | 3 days | |
| Contract | No contract | No contract (pay-as-you-go) |
| Money-back guarantee | 7 days | |
| Predictable invoice | Always | Variable |
Frequently Asked Questions
Can't find your answer? Visit our Help Center
Why choose XtreamCast instead of Wowza?
Wowza uses a pay-per-use pricing model where each streaming hour costs $2.50, each viewing hour $0.10 and storage $0.20/GB/month. For a moderate operation (8 hours a day), you can easily end up paying $600+/month. XtreamCast offers a fixed price from $25/month with 1 TB included, a 24/7 channel, multistreaming and support in English and Spanish. It is ideal for operations that need predictable costs.
How much does a 24/7 channel on Wowza really cost?
A 24/7 channel on Wowza Video (Cloud) at 1080p would cost: 720 hours × $2.50 = $1,800/month in streaming hours alone, plus viewing hours ($0.10 per viewer-hour) and storage. With an audience, it easily exceeds $2,000-3,000/month. On XtreamCast, Live Station is included in your $25/month plan.
Do I need technical knowledge to use XtreamCast?
No. Unlike Wowza, which requires configuring servers, APIs and a CDN, XtreamCast is a fully managed platform (SaaS). Everything is operated from an intuitive panel and our technical team helps you with the initial setup. Your first stream can be on air in under 5 minutes.
Is XtreamCast suitable for enterprise operations?
Yes. While XtreamCast is accessible for small operations, we also serve TV stations, universities and large organizations around the world with custom Enterprise plans that include a 99.99% SLA, dedicated IPs and priority support. Contact us for a tailored plan.
Can I migrate from Wowza to XtreamCast?
Yes, the migration is simple. If you use Wowza with OBS, vMix or another RTMP/SRT encoder, you simply change your streaming server URL to XtreamCast. Our support team helps you with the whole transition at no additional cost.
Is there a free trial?
Yes, we offer a free 3-day TestDrive+ plan with all features enabled. No credit card required. In addition, all paid plans have a 7-day money-back guarantee.
Last verification of Wowza pricing: May 2026. Wowza data taken from its public site (wowza.com/pricing). If you find a discrepancy, write to us at contacto@xtreamcast.co and we will correct it.
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