Ant Media Server vs Wowza (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Ant Media Server grades higher than Wowza: 1.8 against 1.4 out of 4.0.
Checked Nov 12, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Nov 12, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Ant Media Server grades higher on the free plan and features. They get the same grade on value for money, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Ant Media Server
Low-latency WebRTC streaming server you run or rent by the hour
Wowza
Streaming server software you run yourself, plus a cloud platform
Which one is for you
Pick Ant Media Server if
- Fits if you have developers who will build their own streaming product
- Works for teams that want a license with no viewer cap
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if you want a finished webinar tool, as there are no rooms or reminders
- Pricey if you run it all month: $0.35 an hour is about $255 a month
- Watch out: cloud marketplace prices cover the license only, from $0.49 an hour on AWS
- Watch out: a Black Friday offer of 25% off runs until 27 November 2026
- Too heavy for non-developers, who must run the server
Pick Wowza if
- Fits if your team builds its own streaming service
- Makes sense if you need a server you can run in your own setup
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you stream occasionally: $195 a month, or $295 for a single month
- Not for you if you want webinars with registration and polls
- Watch out: extra transcoded channels cost $25 each beyond the 10 per instance, and extra instances cost $195 each
- Watch out: Wowza Video, the managed cloud, is priced separately, and Perpetual and Enterprise licenses are quoted by sales
How we grade them
| 1.8GPAAnt Media ServerWeak | 1.4GPAWowzaWeak | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | D$109 per instance a month on annual billing, above the $99 dearer-quarter mark. Cloud compute and bandwidth are billed on top. | D$195 a month for Streaming Engine, right at the dearest tenth of the category ($195 and up). One month costs $295. |
| Free plan and trial | C14-day trial with no card, and no free plan. | DA free trial is offered but its length is not stated, and there is no free plan. |
| Features | CWebRTC and other protocols, transcoding, REST API and SDKs. No registration pages, rooms or reminders out of the box. | DIt is infrastructure: it streams and transcodes video, but gives no registration, polls or attendee chat, so you build the rest. |
| Ease of use | DYou deploy and configure a server yourself, which is developer work. | DA server product that needs setup and configuration, with no rating on record. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb and SDKs for Unity, React Native and Flutter, with AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. | BWeb platform listed, with RTMP, SRT, HLS, WebRTC, Docker and an API. |
| Best for | low-latency WebRTC streaming you run yourself | self-run streaming server software |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Ant Media Server and Wowza. How we grade
Price against what you get
Ant Media Server starts at $109 a month and scores 2.0 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Wowza starts at $195 a month and scores 1.7.
Ant Media Server scores higher and starts $86 a month lower. Of the other webinar and live streaming tools on the chart, 25 score higher than Ant Media Server for less, and 38 score higher than Wowza for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Ant Media Server also covers video calls and webinars.
At a glance
| Ant Media Server | Wowza | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free trial |
| Starts at | $109 per instance / month, billed annually ($129 billed monthly) | $195 per month for Streaming Engine, billed monthly |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | 14-day free trial, no credit card required | Free trial for Streaming Engine and for Wowza Video; the page does not state its length |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Ant Media, Inc. | Wowza Media Systems, LLC |
| Price read from | antmedia.io | wowza.com |
| Checked | Nov 13, 2026 | Nov 12, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Ant Media Server
- It is server software: there are no registration pages, webinar rooms or email reminders out of the box.
- Cloud marketplace prices cover the license only; compute, storage and bandwidth are billed by the cloud provider.
- Marketplace listings start from $0.49/hr on AWS, $0.44/hr on Azure and $0.56/hr on Google, with a free trial of 5 to 7 days.
- A Black Friday offer of 25% off the first month or first year runs until November 27, 2026.
Wowza
- It is infrastructure, not a webinar tool: there is no registration page, polls or attendee chat out of the box.
- Additional transcoded channels cost $25 each beyond the 10 included per instance.
- Wowza Video, the managed cloud product, is priced separately; this listing records the Streaming Engine plans shown on the pricing page.
- Perpetual and Enterprise licenses are quoted by sales, with no published price.
Key features
Ant Media Server
- WebRTC and other protocols
- Lists WebRTC, LL-HLS/DASH, CMAF, HLS, RTMP, RTSP, SRT, WHIP/WHEP and Zixi, with about 300 ms latency claimed for WebRTC.
- Transcoding
- Adaptive-bitrate transcoding is included in every paid license listed on the pricing page.
- REST API and SDKs
- REST APIs plus SDKs for iOS, Android, Unity, React Native, Flutter and JavaScript for building your own viewer or publisher apps.
- Flexible deployment
- Runs on-premises, in a private or public cloud, or in air-gapped networks; cloud marketplace images exist for AWS, Azure and Google Cloud.
- No viewer cap in the license
- The FAQ says licensing sets no fixed limit on connections or concurrent viewers; capacity depends on your own infrastructure.
Wowza
- Self-hosted streaming server
- Wowza Streaming Engine runs on premises, in a private or public cloud, behind a firewall or fully offline, and can be deployed as a Docker container.
- Many protocols
- It ingests and delivers WebRTC, SRT, RTMP, RTSP and HLS, and supports low-latency HLS and DASH.
- APIs and SDKs
- A REST API and a Java SDK let developers script the server and add custom modules.
- Transcoding
- Each paid Streaming Engine instance includes 10 concurrent transcoded channels; extra channels are $25 each.
- Security options
- DRM, watermarking and encryption are offered, and the company says it holds a SOC 2 Type II report.
- Managed cloud option
- Wowza Video is a separate cloud platform that handles ingest, transcoding, delivery, analytics and a player without running servers.
Plans
Ant Media Server
Flex$0.35
per instance-hour, metered while the server runs
No signup fee or monthly commitment; idle running time is billed. Transcoding and SDKs included.
Monthly$129
per instance / month, billed monthly
One Enterprise instance with standard support and updates. A 25% first-month promotion is running.
Annual$109
per instance / month, billed annually ($1,308)
One Enterprise instance with standard support and updates for the term.
Perpetual$3,499
per instance, one-time
One-time license with year-one support and updates; support then $499 a year. Offline licensing available.
EnterpriseCustom
Volume and cluster licensing, architecture planning, SLA and managed services by agreement.
Wowza
One Month of Streaming$295
one-time purchase for one month, first instance included
Streaming Engine for occasional events: up to 10 concurrent transcoded channels on the first instance, extra instances $295 each.
Basic Monthly$195
per month, billed monthly, first instance included
Streaming Engine for steady use: up to 10 concurrent transcoded channels on the first instance, extra instances $195 each per month.
EnterpriseCustom
Annual plans and discounted rates, hybrid cloud services (CDN, Flowplayer, analytics), offline keys and professional services.
PerpetualCustom
A license with no expiration for containerized, air-gapped or self-hosted deployments, scoped and quoted by Wowza.
Ways to pay less
Ant Media Server
- Other savings
Black Friday: 25% off first term
Ant Media's site advertises 25% off the first month of the Monthly plan or the first year of an Annual plan, with the offer ending November 27, 2026.
Wowza
No public discounts listed.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Ant Media Server or Wowza?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Ant Media Server is cheaper to start with: $109 a month, against $195 a month for Wowza. Ant Media Server starts at $109 per instance / month, billed annually ($129 billed monthly), and Wowza starts at $195 per month for Streaming Engine, billed monthly.
Which has a free plan, Ant Media Server or Wowza?
As of Nov 13, 2026, neither Ant Media Server nor Wowza has a free plan. Both have a free trial.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.