Dacast vs Wowza (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Dacast grades higher than Wowza: 2.2 against 1.4 out of 4.0.
Checked Nov 12, 2026 · graded Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
Dacast grades higher on value for money, the free plan, features and ease of use. They get the same grade on platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Dacast
Live streaming and video hosting with bandwidth-based plans
Wowza
Streaming server software you run yourself, plus a cloud platform
Which one is for you
Pick Dacast if
- Fits if you stream and host video for a paying audience
- Works for events where you can estimate the bandwidth you will use
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want registration, polls or attendee chat, because none are listed
- Watch out: overage costs $0.30 per GB of bandwidth and $0.15 per GB of storage
- Pricey if you need paywalls or ads, since they start on the $63 Event plan
- Tight if you pay monthly, as that carries a three-month minimum
- Watch out: extra team seats are $10 each a month, and multi-CDN and China streaming are add-ons
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
| 2.2GPADacastFair | 1.4GPAWowzaWeak | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | C$39 a month billed yearly for Starter, between the cheaper quarter ($27) and the middle ($49) of webinar tools, with only 2.4 TB of bandwidth a year. | 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 | CA 14-day trial needs no card, and there is no free plan. | DA free trial is offered but its length is not stated, and there is no free plan. |
| Features | CLive channels with RTMP and HLS, a video library, paywall and ads from the Event plan, and analytics. It lists no webinar tools. | DIt is infrastructure: it streams and transcodes video, but gives no registration, polls or attendee chat, so you build the rest. |
| Ease of use | CWeb only, with no rating on record, and the encoder side is yours to set up. | DA server product that needs setup and configuration, with no rating on record. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb only, but there is a public API and Google Analytics and Google Drive links. | BWeb platform listed, with RTMP, SRT, HLS, WebRTC, Docker and an API. |
| Best for | live streaming and video hosting by bandwidth | 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: Dacast and Wowza. How we grade
Price against what you get
Dacast starts at $39 a month and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Wowza starts at $195 a month and scores 1.7.
Dacast scores higher and starts $156 a month lower. Of the other webinar and live streaming tools on the chart, 2 score higher than Dacast for less, and 24 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
- Wowza is self-hostable, according to its own site.
- Dacast also covers reports, webinars and multistreaming.
At a glance
| Dacast | Wowza | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free trial |
| Starts at | $39 per month, billed annually | $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 | Dacast | Wowza Media Systems, LLC |
| Price read from | dacast.com | wowza.com |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Nov 12, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Dacast
- Overage runs $0.30 per GB of bandwidth and $0.15 per GB of storage.
- Monthly payment carries a three-month minimum, and extra team seats cost $10 per user per month.
- Multi-CDN, China Live and China VOD are paid add-ons.
- The page lists no webinar-specific features such as registration or polls.
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
Dacast
- Live streaming
- Full 1080p broadcasting with RTMP and HLS channels and browser or mobile streaming.
- Video hosting
- VOD library with bulk upload from Google Drive and VOD to Live.
- Monetization
- Paywall and pre, mid and post roll advertising start on the Event plan.
- Security
- Domain and country restriction on all plans; DRM and AES for VOD on Scale.
- Analytics
- Advanced analytics and a Google Analytics integration are listed.
- Support
- 24/7 support on all plans, with phone support on Scale.
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
Dacast
Starter$39
per month, billed annually
2.4 TB bandwidth a year and 500 GB storage, with live streaming, simulcast and VOD hosting.
Event$63
per month, billed annually
6 TB upfront and 250 GB storage; adds paywall, ads, countdown and stream monitoring.
Scale$165
per month, billed annually
24 TB a year, 2,000 GB storage, unlimited channels, DRM, 3 team members and phone support.
CustomCustom
High-volume plans with custom SLAs, migrations and extra support.
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.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Dacast or Wowza?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Dacast is cheaper to start with: $39 a month, against $195 a month for Wowza. Dacast starts at $39 per month, billed annually, and Wowza starts at $195 per month for Streaming Engine, billed monthly.
Which has a free plan, Dacast or Wowza?
As of Nov 12, 2026, neither Dacast 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.