Church live streaming software is no longer a luxury. Pew Research found that 27% of Americans who attend religious services watched a worship service online in the past month. Lifeway Research found that the majority of Protestant pastors stream services on Facebook or YouTube. The decision now is not whether to stream — it is which platform to spend on, and how much.
Most platform comparisons online are written by vendors or by SEO sites that earn an affiliate commission. This guide is written by a post-production studio that edits ministry video every week. We do not sell streaming hardware, we do not earn commissions on the platforms below, and our recommendation defaults to the option that costs your church the least money for the result you actually need.
Here is the orientation before the platform-by-platform breakdown.
What you need to decide before picking a platform
- Where do you want viewers to watch — on YouTube and Facebook, on your church website, or both?
- How important is engagement on your domain — chat, prayer requests, and a visible giving CTA in the player frame?
- How reliable does the stream need to be — can a dropped service ruin the week, or is a few minutes of buffering acceptable?
- How much production control does your team want — single camera and one operator, or multi-camera, lower-thirds, replays, and program-feed switching?
- Do you need a managed VOD library, or are you fine uploading the recording to YouTube after each service?
- What is the realistic monthly budget — including hardware, software, and the time of the volunteer who runs it?
- Are you a single location, multi-room, or multisite?
All 9 church live streaming platforms compared
Church Online Platform
- Best for: Small to mid-size churches that want a free embed with chat, prayer, and giving on their own site
A free hosted watch page from Life.Church, the most-used church streaming platform in the United States. Embed the player on the church website, manage chat hosts and prayer responders, and link giving. You bring the video source — most churches feed it from OBS Studio or YouTube Live.
Trade-off: Not an encoder or production switcher. You still need a video source. Branding is light. Engagement features are excellent for the price (zero).
OBS Studio
- Best for: Tech-comfortable churches that want full production control without monthly fees
Open-source under GPLv2. Multi-scene switching, multi-camera input via NDI or capture cards, lower-thirds, browser sources for ProPresenter and chat overlays, direct stream-key output to YouTube Live, Facebook Live, or any RTMP destination. The most-used free option in church streaming.
Trade-off: Reliability depends on the host computer staying stable for the entire service. No automatic failover. No managed VOD — you record locally and upload separately. Add a hardware encoder if your service cannot risk a desktop crash.
BoxCast
- Best for: Mid-size to large churches that want a managed end-to-end pipeline
Bundles a hardware encoder (BoxCaster), an embeddable player on your church domain, automatic multistream to YouTube and Facebook, automatic VOD recording and library, automatic captions on higher tiers, and analytics. Built specifically for houses of worship and serves over 5,000 organizations.
Trade-off: Hardware-tied workflow. Streaming-minutes pricing scales with audience size. Less flexible than OBS or vMix for unusual production setups (multi-room, complex switching). Best when you want managed reliability over production control.
Resi
- Best for: Larger churches and multisite networks that need stream resilience and multisite distribution
Built around a Resilient Streaming Protocol that recovers from network drops mid-stream — the strongest reliability story in the church livestream world. Multisite stream-to-screen distribution, embeddable player, social multistream, automatic captions on higher tiers, and Pushpay giving integration.
Trade-off: Higher entry price than BoxCast. Best return is in multisite or critical reliability use cases. For a single-location 200-attendee church, the resilience is overkill versus BoxCast or even OBS plus Church Online Platform.
Streamyard
- Best for: Churches that want browser-based simplicity and frequent guest interviews
Browser-based studio. Bring guests in via shared link. Lower-thirds and overlays in the UI. Multistream to YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, and a custom RTMP destination on the All Access tier. No hardware required. Easy to learn for volunteer teams.
Trade-off: Less powerful for multi-camera Sunday production than OBS, vMix, or BoxCast. Subscription pricing scales with stream destinations. Better for midweek shows, podcasts, and interview formats than for full Sunday production.
Vimeo Livestream / Vimeo Premium
- Best for: Churches that already use Vimeo for VOD and want a single platform for live and on-demand
Live streaming with an embeddable player, automatic VOD library, automatic captions, custom branding, and ad-free playback on the Vimeo player. Strong choice for churches that prioritize a clean, professional player on the church website and a polished archive.
Trade-off: More expensive than church-specific options for similar live capabilities. Engagement features (chat, prayer, giving) are not built in the way Church Online Platform offers. Stronger for VOD library than for live engagement.
Easyworship Cloud
- Best for: Churches already running EasyWorship for in-room presentation that want streaming inside the same product
Adds streaming output to the EasyWorship presentation product. Useful when the same operator runs slides and stream from one tool. Pairs with YouTube Live or Facebook Live for the public destination.
Trade-off: Streaming feature set is lighter than dedicated platforms. Strongest as a presentation-plus-streaming combo for one-operator setups, not as a standalone livestream platform.
vMix
- Best for: Churches that want the most production control on Windows and prefer one-time licensing
Windows-only video production switcher with deep capabilities — unlimited inputs on the Pro license, NDI, multi-corder recording, replay, virtual sets, and direct streaming to any RTMP destination. The most-used paid switcher in serious volunteer-run church AV booths.
Trade-off: Windows only. Not Mac-compatible. Steep learning curve. One-time license is generous, but you also need a capable Windows production PC. Pair with Church Online Platform or YouTube for the watch page.
Restream
- Best for: Churches that want to multistream to many destinations from one source
Browser-based studio plus a multistreaming relay that pushes one stream to YouTube, Facebook, X, LinkedIn, Twitch, and custom RTMP simultaneously. Often paired with OBS as a multistream destination instead of as a primary studio.
Trade-off: Less of a church-specific platform. Engagement features (chat, prayer, giving) are not the focus. Best treated as a multistream layer alongside OBS or another studio.
Real monthly cost in 2026
Pricing changes. Vendor pages are the source of truth, and we link them under each platform above. The honest tiers right now:
Hidden costs people forget: a hardware encoder if you go BoxCast or a separate machine, a stable wired internet connection, a backup internet connection if reliability matters, a capture card if you switch on a Windows PC, automatic captions on higher tiers, and the volunteer hours to run the stream every week.
Decision matrix by church size
The right pick depends on size, budget, and team capacity. The defaults that hold up across most churches:
Best free church live streaming software
Free options are not a compromise. The combination most churches under 500 attendance can run for $0 per month:
- Video source: OBS Studio on a stable laptop or production PC. Multi-camera input via NDI or a capture card if you have more than one camera.
- Public destination: YouTube Live or Facebook Live as the public stream. Both are free.
- Watch page on your domain: Church Online Platform from Life.Church. Free embed with chat, prayer requests, and giving link.
- Recording: OBS records locally to MP4. Upload to YouTube after the service for VOD.
- Captions: YouTube Live generates automatic captions on most live streams without extra setup.
If your team can keep OBS stable for 90 minutes every Sunday, this stack is honestly competitive with paid options for churches under 500 attendance. The trade-off is operational overhead — you own the reliability of the stream.
Best paid church live streaming software
When the $99-$129 monthly entry fee is justified:
- Service reliability is critical — a dropped stream costs the church meaningful trust or attendance.
- You want one bill that covers encoder hardware, an embed player, multistream, VOD, and captions instead of stitching free tools together.
- You want viewers to watch on the church domain and you want analytics that show actual viewing minutes and retention.
- The volunteer team turning over every year cannot relearn OBS — a managed pipeline is easier to hand off.
Picks at this tier: BoxCast for managed end-to-end. Resi if multisite or stream resilience is the requirement. Vimeo Premium if VOD library polish matters more than live engagement.
Live streaming software for church versus presentation software
Two different tools — sometimes confused, sometimes bundled. The clean separation:
- Presentation software drives lyrics, sermon slides, scripture, and announcements on the in-room screens. ProPresenter, EasyWorship, and Church Online Platform Presenter are the dominant tools. See our church presentation software comparison.
- Live streaming software sends the program feed to YouTube, Facebook, your church domain, or a managed platform. OBS, BoxCast, Resi, vMix, and Streamyard are the dominant tools.
- Many churches run both: ProPresenter on a presentation machine for the room, OBS or BoxCast on a separate machine for the stream. The presentation machine sends a clean output via NDI to the stream machine.
- EasyWorship Cloud blends both at a lighter feature set for the streaming side.
Multistreaming to YouTube and Facebook at the same time
Most churches want viewers to find them on the platform they already use. Multistream sends one source to multiple destinations at once. Options ranked by complexity:
- BoxCast and Resi — multistream is built in. One operation in the dashboard.
- Streamyard All Access — multistream to YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, and a custom RTMP. Browser-based.
- Restream — relay one source to many destinations. Often paired with OBS as the multistream layer.
- OBS Studio with multi-output plugins — possible but resource-heavy on the host computer. Cleaner to send OBS to Restream or a similar relay.
What we recommend if you read this far
- Under 100 attendance, free stack: Church Online Platform plus OBS Studio plus YouTube Live. Total cost zero.
- 100 to 500 attendance, modest budget: BoxCast entry tier or Streamyard Basic. Add Church Online Platform if you want a watch page on your domain.
- 500 to 2000 attendance, reliability matters: BoxCast mid tier or Resi entry tier. Hand the operational reliability to the platform.
- 2000-plus or multisite: Resi. The Resilient Streaming Protocol earns its price at this scale.
- Strong volunteer AV team, Windows-based: vMix Pro for the production switcher. Pair with Church Online Platform or YouTube for the watch page.
- Midweek shows, podcasts, interviews: Streamyard or Restream Studio. Lower setup time than Sunday production.
Stats and sources
Numbers and facts cited above, with their primary sources:
- Pew Research found 27% of Americans who attend religious services watched a worship service online in the past month, including a substantial share of regular attenders who supplement in-person attendance with the livestream. Source: Pew Research Center — Online Religious Services 2023
- Barna research on the post-pandemic church found that the majority of Protestant churches still offer a live or recorded online service, and digital attendance remains a meaningful share of total weekly engagement. Source: Barna — The Trends Defining the Post-Pandemic Church
- Lifeway Research reported that 64% of US Protestant pastors say their church streamed services on Facebook in the past year and 36% streamed on YouTube, making YouTube and Facebook the two largest livestream destinations for churches. Source: Lifeway Research — Pastor Views on Livestreaming
- OBS Studio is open-source and free under the GPLv2 license, with no premium tier, watermark, or paywall on any feature including streaming output to YouTube Live and Facebook Live. Source: OBS Project — License & FAQ
- Church Online Platform from Life.Church is free for churches of any size and includes chat, prayer requests, video host moderation, and an embeddable player on the church website. Source: Church Online Platform — Life.Church
- BoxCast was founded in 2013 in Cleveland, Ohio, and serves more than 5,000 organizations including thousands of churches, with a managed streaming pipeline that pairs hardware encoders with a hosted player and VOD library. Source: BoxCast — About
- Resi (formerly Living As One) was acquired by Pushpay in 2020 and offers a Resilient Streaming Protocol that recovers from network drops mid-stream, marketed specifically for houses of worship. Source: Pushpay — Resi acquisition
How we rank church live streaming software
Our scoring weights — applied to every platform in the comparison above:
- Reliability of the stream during a 90-minute service — 25%
- Total cost honesty including hardware and viewing-minutes overage — 20%
- Engagement features on the church domain (chat, prayer, giving) — 15%
- Multistream and destination flexibility — 10%
- VOD library and post-service archive quality — 10%
- Captions and accessibility — 10%
- Volunteer learning curve and handoff difficulty — 10%
Related guides
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best live streaming service for churches?
For most churches, BoxCast is the best paid live streaming software because it bundles encoder hardware, an embeddable player, multistream to YouTube and Facebook, and a VOD library at one monthly price. For free, OBS Studio paired with a free Church Online Platform watch page is the strongest combination. For very small churches, the Church Online Platform from Life.Church is free forever and good enough for most weeks.
What is the best free church live streaming software?
OBS Studio is the best free church live streaming software. It is open-source under GPLv2, runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux, with no watermark, no time limit, and no resolution cap. Pair it with the free Church Online Platform from Life.Church for an embeddable watch page with chat, prayer requests, and a giving link. Total cost is zero and the combination handles most small to mid-size churches.
How much does church live streaming software cost?
Real monthly cost in 2026 runs from free to about $599. Church Online Platform is free. OBS Studio is free. Restream Standard is around $19 per month. Streamyard Basic is around $25 per month. Easyworship Cloud streaming bundles run around $39 per month. vMix is a one-time license from $60 to $1200. Vimeo Premium is around $75 per month. BoxCast plans typically start near $99 per month and scale with viewing minutes. Resi entry plans typically start near $129 per month and scale with concurrent viewers and features.
What is better than EasyWorship?
ProPresenter is the most common upgrade from EasyWorship for in-room presentation, and it pairs with any livestream software. For livestream-specific upgrades from EasyWorship Cloud, churches typically move to BoxCast for a managed streaming workflow, to vMix for full production control, or to OBS Studio plus Church Online Platform for a free combination. The right pick depends on whether the upgrade need is presentation, production switching, or stream delivery.
Can I use OBS Studio for church live streaming?
Yes. OBS Studio handles multi-camera switching, lower-thirds graphics, scenes for sermon and worship, and direct stream-key output to YouTube Live or Facebook Live. It is the most-used free option in the church livestream world. Pair it with a stable wired internet connection and a hardware encoder if reliability is critical, since OBS depends on the host computer being stable for the entire service.
What is the most popular live streaming software?
Across all churches, OBS Studio is the most popular free option and BoxCast and Resi are the most popular paid platforms specifically built for houses of worship. ProPresenter is the most common church presentation software and is often used alongside one of the streaming platforms above. Vimeo and Streamyard are the most popular general-purpose paid options that churches adopt.
Do we need both streaming software and a church website embed?
Not always. If you stream to YouTube Live or Facebook Live only, you can simply link to those platforms from the church website. If you want viewers to watch on the church domain with chat, prayer requests, and a visible giving CTA on the same page, you need a watch-page tool. BoxCast, Resi, and Church Online Platform all provide embed players. The trade-off is reach on third-party platforms versus engagement on the church site.
Do live streaming platforms include closed captions?
Most modern church-specific platforms include automatic captions or offer them on higher tiers. BoxCast, Resi, and Vimeo Premium include or add automatic captions. YouTube Live generates captions on most live streams automatically. OBS Studio does not generate captions on its own, but the destination platform usually adds them. Captions are an accessibility requirement worth treating as table stakes, not an upgrade.
Ruah Creative House is a post-production studio. We do not sell streaming hardware or installation. We help churches turn the footage they already capture — from any of the platforms above — into Sunday-to-Social reels, impact films, and a polished archive that compounds reach week after week.