Wowza review (2026): is it worth $195 a month?
Streaming server software you run yourself, plus a cloud platform
Black Friday: is there a Wowza sale?
Wowza report card
Weak · out of 4.0 · graded Nov 12, 2026
Best for self-run streaming server software
Wowza makes streaming server software you run yourself, plus a cloud platform. It starts at $195 a month, and there is no registration, polls or chat, so it is infrastructure for engineers rather than a webinar tool.
Who Wowza is for
- Fits if your team builds its own streaming service
- Makes sense if you need a server you can run in your own setup
Who Wowza is not for
- 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
Why Wowza gets a 1.4
Five grades, each with its reason. The GPA is their average: an A is 4 points, an F is none.
- DValue for money$195 a month for Streaming Engine, right at the dearest tenth of the category ($195 and up). One month costs $295.
- DFree plan and trialA free trial is offered but its length is not stated, and there is no free plan.
- DFeaturesIt is infrastructure: it streams and transcodes video, but gives no registration, polls or attendee chat, so you build the rest.
- DEase of useA server product that needs setup and configuration, with no rating on record.
- BPlatforms and integrationsWeb platform listed, with RTMP, SRT, HLS, WebRTC, Docker and an API.
What these grades rest on. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Wowza's own pages on 12 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. How we review and grade.
Make Wowza? Put this grade on your site
Paste this where you want the badge. It links here and follows the grade if it changes. About badges
<a href="https://toolgpa.com/tools/wowza#review"><img src="https://toolgpa.com/badge/wowza.svg" alt="Wowza: 1.4 GPA on ToolGPA" width="196" height="56"></a>Where Wowza stands among webinar and live streaming tools
Wowza's GPA of 1.4 is higher than 0 of the 34 other webinar and live streaming tools we grade, and level with 1.
It stands best on platforms and integrations (B, above 10 of 34) and worst on features (D, above 0).
Its paid plans start at $195 a month, against a middle price of $50 for the category: 26 of the 28 others that charge start lower.
On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 1.7 out of 4. 24 tools score higher and cost less.
Each grade against the category
Every bar is all 35 webinar and live streaming tools we grade, cut by the letter each got. Wowza’s own letter is outlined.
- DValue for moneyAbove 1 of 34, level with 7
- DFree plan and trialAbove 6 of 34, level with 5
- DFeaturesAbove 0 of 34, level with 1
- DEase of useAbove 0 of 34, level with 2
- BPlatforms and integrationsAbove 10 of 34, level with 20
Price against what you get
Each dot is one of 30 webinar and live streaming tools. Further left costs less, and higher up scores better on features, ease of use and platforms. Point at a dot to see which tool it is.
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
Keep Wowza, or make your own?
Keep it
Nothing Wowza does is plain enough to make in a weekend. The 2 things listed below take a company.
That makes this kind of software worth paying for, not this one in particular: 33 of the 34 other webinar and live streaming tools grade higher. It costs $2,340 a year.
What you could not
- It plugs into other products, WebRTC, SRT and RTMP among them, and has an API.
- What a company asks for before it lets staff use something: SOC 2.
What this rests on. Wowza’s listing: what it does, where it runs, what it plugs into and what it costs. It is a judgement about the kind of software this is. We have not built a replacement for it, and making your own means looking after it too. How we decide, and every tool’s verdict.
What is Wowza?
Wowza sells live and on-demand video streaming infrastructure. Wowza Streaming Engine is a server you run on your own hardware or cloud account, and Wowza Video is its managed cloud platform with its own player. It is aimed at developers and organizations building streaming into their own services, not at people who want a ready-made webinar room.
Worth knowing
- 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
- 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.
Wowza pricing
As of Nov 12, 2026, Wowza is a paid product with a free trial, starting at $195 per month for Streaming Engine, billed monthly.
- Starts at
- $195 per month for Streaming Engine, billed monthly
- Free plan
- None
- Free trial
- Free trial for Streaming Engine and for Wowza Video; the page does not state its length
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| One Month of Streaming | $295one-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 | $195per 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. |
| Enterprise | Custom | Annual plans and discounted rates, hybrid cloud services (CDN, Flowplayer, analytics), offline keys and professional services. |
| Perpetual | Custom | A license with no expiration for containerized, air-gapped or self-hosted deployments, scoped and quoted by Wowza. |
Read from wowza.com on Nov 12, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Wowza before you buy.
Works with
- WebRTC
- SRT
- RTMP
- HLS
- Docker
Wowza alternatives
- Wowza vs Dacast
Free trial · from $39/mo
- Wowza vs Castr
Free trial · from $16.67/mo
- Wowza vs Restream
Free plan · from $19/mo
- Wowza vs BoxCast
Free trial · from $109/mo
- Wowza vs vMix
Free trial · from $60 one-time
Common questions
Does Wowza have an Android app?
No Android app was listed when its pages were read on Nov 12, 2026. Wowza is listed for Web.
Does Wowza have an iPhone app?
No iPhone app was listed when its pages were read on Nov 12, 2026. Wowza is listed for Web.
Is Wowza open source?
Wowza is not described as open source on its own site, as read on Nov 12, 2026.
Can Wowza be self-hosted?
Yes. Wowza's own site says it can be run on a server of your own.
Does Wowza have an API?
Yes. Wowza offers a public API, according to its own site.
Sources for this page
The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 12, 2026.