Comparison of streaming media software

This is a comparison of streaming media systems. A more complete list of streaming media systems is also available.

General

The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of streaming media systems both audio and video. Please see the individual systems' linked articles for further information.

Name Creator First Public Release (yyyy-MM-dd) Latest Stable Version (Release Date) Latest Release Date Cost (USD) license Media
Adobe Media Server Macromedia/Adobe Systems//Veriskope Inc 2002-07-9 5.0.16 (2020-2-15) 2020-2-15 Free Developer and Trial licenses; Subscription Licenses at $33/month; Standard Perpetual License at $995; Amazon Marketplace license starting at $0.13/hour proprietary Video, Audio, Data
Ant Media Server Ant Media Inc. 2017 2.12 / 12-12-2024 2.12 Free Trial License, Monthly, Annual and Perpetual License Offerings Proprietary Video, Audio,Data
atmosph3re Guillaume Carrier 2005-08-15 3.0.7 (2015-10-31) 2015-10-31 $30 perpetual license proprietary Audio
Darwin Streaming Server Apple Inc. 1999-03-16 6.0.3 (2007-05-10) 2007-05-10 Free APSL Audio/Video
Feng LSCube[1] 2007-05-31 2009-10-14 2009-10-04 Free GPL Audio/Video
Firefly Ron Pedde ? 0.2.4.2 (2008-04-19) 2008-04-19 Free GPL Audio
Helix DNA Server RealNetworks 2003-01-22 11.1 (2006-06-10) 2006-06-10 Free RCSL/RPSL Audio/Video
Helix Universal Server RealNetworks 1994-01-01 15.2.1 (2014-09-16) 2014-09-16 Free for 12 months (Basic) and $1,000-$10,000 proprietary Audio/Video
Icecast Xiph.Org Foundation 1998-12 2.4.4 (2018-10-31) 2018-10-31 Free GPL Audio
IIS Media Services Microsoft 2008-11-07 4.1 (2011-11-09) 2011-11-09 Free proprietary Audio/Video/Data
Lyrion Music Server Logitech/LMS Community 2001-09-16 8.5.2 (2024-05-20) 2024-05-20 Free GPLv2 Audio
Nimble Streamer Softvelum 2013 3.7.1-5 (2020-10-27) 2020-10-27 Free proprietary Audio/Video
OvenMediaEngine AirenSoft 2019-05-23 0.16.8 (2024-07-19) 2024-07-19 Free AGPLv3 Audio/Video
OpenBroadcaster OpenBroadcaster 2003 5.0.0 (2018-01-27) 2018-01-27 Free AGPLv3 Audio/Video
Open Broadcaster Software OBS Project 2012-9-01 30.0.2 (2023-12-10) 2023-12-10 Free GPL v2 Audio/Video
Plex (software) Plex Media Server 2008-07-08 1.15.6.1079 (2019-05-15) 2019-05-15 Free proprietary Audio/Video
Red5 (open source) Infrared5/community 2003-09-22 1.0.9 (2017-06-11) 2018-12-13 Free Apache License v2 Audio/Video/Data
SHOUTcast Nullsoft 1998-12 2.4.7 (Build 256) (2015-03-31) 2015-03-31 Free proprietary Audio
Unreal Media Server Unreal Streaming Technologies 2003-09-15 15.0 (2023-01-03) 2023-01-03 $995 perpetual license proprietary Audio/Video
VLC media player VideoLAN ? 2.2.4 (2016-06-05) 2016-06-05 Free GPL v2 Audio/Video
Windows Media Services Microsoft 1996-12-10 9.6 (2010-04-05) 2010-04-05 Free proprietary Audio/Video
Wowza Streaming Engine Wowza Media Systems 2007-02-17 4.8.5 build 20200616153358 (2020-06-17)[2] 2020-06-17 Free Developer and Trial licenses; Subscription Licenses at $125/month;[3] Perpetual Pro License at $1995; Amazon EC2 with embedded license starting at $0.15/hour proprietary Audio/Video/Data

Operating system support

Name Windows macOS Linux Unix
Adobe Media Server Yes Yes Yes No
atmosph3re Yes No No No
Darwin Streaming Server Yes Yes No Yes
Firefly Yes ? Yes Yes
Helix DNA Server Yes ? Yes Yes
Helix Universal Server Yes No Yes Yes
Icecast Yes Yes Yes Yes
IIS Media Services Yes No No No
Lyrion Music Server Yes Yes Yes Yes
Nimble Streamer Yes Yes Yes No
OvenMediaEngine Yes (with Docker) Yes (with Docker) Yes No
OpenBroadcaster No No Yes ?
Open Broadcaster Software Yes Yes Yes ?
Plex (software) Yes Yes Yes Yes
Red5 (open source) Yes Yes Yes Yes
SHOUTcast Yes Yes Yes Yes
Unreal Media Server Yes No No No
VLC media player Yes Yes Yes Yes
Windows Media Services Yes No No No
Wowza Streaming Engine Yes Yes Yes Yes

Container format support

Information about what digital container formats are supported.

Name 3GP AVI ASF QuickTime Ogg OGM Matroska MP4 MPEG-TS FLV ABR WebM
Adobe Media Server ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes No Yes Yes ?
atmosph3re ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? ? ? ?
Darwin Streaming Server Yes ? ? Yes ? ? ? Yes No No No ?
Firefly ? No ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Helix DNA Server ? No No No No No No No No No ? ?
Helix Universal Server Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
Icecast ? Yes ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? No No Yes
IIS Media Services Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
Nimble Streamer No Yes No No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
OvenMediaEngine No Yes No No Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
OpenBroadcaster No Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Yes ? No ? ?
Red5 (open source) Yes No No Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
SHOUTcast ? Yes ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? No No ?
Unreal Media Server Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
VLC media player ? Yes ? Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
Windows Media Services ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? No No ?
Wowza Streaming Engine Yes No No Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes ?

Protocol support

Information about which internet protocols are supported for broadcasting streaming media content.

Name HTTP MPEG DASH WebRTC RTSP MMS RTP RTCP UDP TCP RTMP MPEG TS Real Data Transport Web sockets HLS DASH SRTP
Adobe Media Server Yes
(HTTP Live Streaming, HTTP Dynamic Streaming) 		? No No No No No Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes ? ?
atmosph3re Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Darwin Streaming Server No ? ? Yes No Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ?
Firefly ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Helix DNA Server Yes No No Yes No Yes No Yes Yes ? ? Yes
Helix Universal Server Yes
(HTTP Live Streaming, MPEG-DASH, HTTP Progressive Streaming) 		Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes
Icecast Yes ? ? No No No No ? ? ? ? ?
IIS Media Services Yes ? No No No No No No No No No No
Nimble Streamer Yes (HTTP Live Streaming, Smooth Streaming) Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
OvenMediaEngine Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No
OpenBroadcaster Yes No No Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No ? Yes
Red5 (open source)[4] Yes No In Development No No No No No Yes Yes (RTMP, RTMPE, RTMPTE, RTMPT, RTMPS, RTMP Dynamic Streaming) No Yes Yes ? No
SHOUTcast Yes ? ? No No No No ? ? ? ? ?
Unreal Media Server Yes
(HTTP Live Streaming, Smooth Streaming) 		No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
(RTMP, RTMPT, Dynamic RTMP) 		Yes No Yes Yes Yes
VLC media player Yes ? No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes
Windows Media Services Yes
(WM-HTTP) 		? No Yes
(WM-RTSP) 		Yes, for WMS 9.0 and earlier; removed in WMS 2008 (9.5)[5] Yes
(WM-RTSP) 		No Yes
(WM-RTSP/U and MS-MSB) 		Yes
(WM-RTSP/T and WM-HTTP) 		No No No
Wowza Streaming Engine Yes
(HTTP Live Streaming, Smooth Streaming, HTTP Dynamic Streaming) 		Yes
 Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
(RTMP, RTMPE, RTMPTE, RTMPT, RTMPS, RTMP Dynamic Streaming) 		Yes No No Yes Yes
Name HTTP MPEG DASH WebRTC RTSP MMS RTP RTCP UDP TCP RTMP MPEG TS Real Data Transport Web sockets HLS DASH SRTP

Features

Name Client Playback Synchronization Web Interface Graphical user interface iOS SDK Android SDK Javascript SDK
Lyrion Music Server Yes Yes No
Red5 (open source) No Yes Yes No No No
VLC media player Yes Yes Yes

See also

References

  1. ^ "index : feng". LSCube. Archived from the original on 2013-06-15. Retrieved 2013-03-17.
  2. ^ "Latest software updates for Wowza Streaming Engine".
  3. ^ "Get Estimated Live Streaming Server Prices | Wowza Streaming Engine". Wowza Media Systems. Retrieved 2021-07-30.
  4. ^ "Red5". GitHub. Retrieved 2015-11-05.
  5. ^ David Nelson (10 December 2009). "Windows Media protocol reference". Microsoft Corporation. Retrieved 23 February 2012.
  • See the container and protocol of VLC Media Player from here: [1]