10 Best Live Streaming Apps: Features, Pros & Cons
Shailesh Gujjar
Published: Oct 07, 2022|Updated: Dec 05, 2025
Table of Content Table of Content
The live stream concept came from the idea of YouTube broadcasting live videos and Reality TV. You must have seen celebrities, cricketers, gamers, influencers and many other famous and non-famous personalities go live on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tango, and many other best live streaming apps.
If you are thinking about a Live streaming app for the growth of your business, you need to know everything about this type of app. Being a top app development company, we get many app and web-building queries. Our developers of a professional live streaming platform will make you aware of all the crucial points before you go to hire an app development team for your project.
It is shocking, but live streaming has reached 70 billion in 2021. Moreover, you will find that 50% of the live streaming content belongs to eSports and gaming. These are not only two fields of live streaming platforms, people can make any kind of video related to anything.
Check out the image below. It shows the most popular video content type worldwide during the 4rth quarter of 2021.
So many types of video streaming take place on different platforms. In this blog, you will know the top live streaming apps and other important information that will help you build an amazing social media network with live streaming features.
What Is a Live Streaming App?
Let’s begin exploring the blog by understanding what is a live streaming app. When you can create, share and watch videos in real-time it is called live streaming. For this, you need a smartphone or a smart device and an internet connection. It is different from the pre-recorded videos that can be edited.
Live streaming videos are uncensored. So, people have to be ready with the content. Many brands show their new products by going live. It is an easy, safe, and cheap way to popularize the new product launch. Viewers can comment and interact with the product. They can ask questions about the product in the comment section.
On the other hand, some live streaming videos are private that generally held on Skype and Zoom. They are office conferences and meetings.
For private live streaming, the password is protected and it is not shared with the person who you don’t want to invite. While public live streaming is for thousands of people and even more than that.
5 Most Important Features of Live Streaming Apps
The development of live streaming apps requires time and resources. Most importantly competitive features attract people to use the app. Although there are many other features, I will present you with only 5 features. It is because these features are so important. Scroll down to know them.
Live Stream Option
In-App Purchases
Embed Video Content
Sharing on Social Media
APIs for Integration
Original Content
Recommendation Engine
1. Live Stream Option
It is the most important feature of your app. So, being an owner of an app, you must include this feature. This feature allows the app users to go live with the content they want. You can give a dramatic design to this obvious option on your live streaming app. For this, you can use any device with a camera, internet connection, and a live streaming app.
You can go live for one-on-one communication, product release, sales, events, demonstrations, and others. Several businesses are expanding their reach with the help of the best live streaming apps.
2. In-App Purchases
In-app purchases are for those people who want extra content. For this, they have to buy subscriptions. It offers them more advanced features. It is one of the important monetization models. Since live streaming apps mostly work on the live videos of people, so making money is quite difficult.That’s why many people who have millions of followers collaborate with brands and the app becomes a demanding platform for brands. A lot of businesses use TikTok to reach a large audience with fewer expenses on marketing. Check out the cost of a short video app like TikTok to guess your app cost.
3. Embed Video Content
Embed video content is a common feature in most apps. Businesses and brands have to embed video content on different websites and apps. It is an essential thing for expanding the reach of the business. However, this feature depends on the service provider. So, before you embed video content check whether it is allowed or not.Adding videos to the website and app brings value to the business. Because most people like to watch videos rather than read long texts.
4. Sharing on Social Media
If you miss out on this feature and can miss a large audience for your brand and products. Since a lot of people use social media, you should allow sharing of live videos on other social networking platforms. With increasing the reach of the content, your product will have more exposure.It also helps in building customer brand relationships which is crucial for any business to build brand loyalty. Sharing on social media leads to likes and followers and as they increase reach of the business also increases
5. APIs for Integration
It allows the integration of streamlined operations. They are important and needed by enterprise video platform users. Creating a customized video streaming platform is possible with the help of a suitable Application Programming Interface developers can build customized video platforms and apps for on-demand video content.
6. Original Content
If you want viewers to come and see your content, you need to come up with unique and original content. Otherwise, why would anyone use your streaming app when there are so many other apps? Audiences always look for something new because no one wants to see repeated content. So, you should make sure that your streaming app provides original content. This type of content satisfies the app users and makes it worthwhile to use the app.
7. Recommendation Engine
The recommendation system improves the quality of what we watch. For example, 75% of what you watch on Netflix comes from recommendations. It helps to engage users with the content and saves their time to search for their genre. Moreover, live streaming apps can save millions of bucks with the help of a recommendation engine. App users can find their favorite content in the blink of an eye. It can be an amazing feature for marketing different content on the best live streaming platforms.So, always look for a full-featured API if you want your app to offer great benefits to users. Professional developers understand your requirements and request as many APIs as you want impeccably.
Top 10 Live Streaming Apps in 2022
There are many types of live streaming apps. You must have used some of them and seen brands promoting their products on these apps. Moreover, some influencers, celebrities, and other famous personalities do ads on live streaming platforms. Anyone can be a creator and presenter with the help of live streaming platforms.
Check out some of the most important and used best live streaming apps. Know about their pros and cons also. It will help you find ideas for your live streaming app and similar type of apps.
According to Statista, Twitch was the most popular platform to watch live streams in the United States and YouTube is the second most popular live streaming platform.
I considered Statista and other websites to find the best live streaming apps for you. You can know about them in the space below and find which is the best for your app development.
Twitch
YouTube Live
Tango
Stream Labs
Facebook Live
Instagram Live
Vimeo
Broadcast Me
Live Stream
Hakuna
1. Twitch
Image Credit: Twitch
Video game players know what is Twitch TV. It is a video live streaming service in the USA. You can broadcast live videos, watch them, and share them on the app. It allows music video content, real-life streams, and much more. Several people use it for entertainment, sports, gaming, and for live streaming of other content.
Millions of people come together on Twitch and they create an environment of entertainment. You can also go live with content related to Food, chatting, game, sports, special events, drinks, travel, and many more types of content. Here are the pros and cons of the Twitch live streaming app.
YouTube gaming live has more than 500 thousand current viewers. It is the most popular live streaming app for live-streaming games. It is an amazing channel to make money through live streaming. It has live stream features that you would enjoy while on the app. YouTubers can broadcast any type of content in real-time on the app.
It offers many other interesting features like live rings, cross-channel live redirects, uninterrupted split-screen viewing, and live Q&A. Users can enjoy making live videos with different features.
You need at least 10,000 subscribers and more to make money. Well, the earnings depend on the type of content you offer while live streaming. All in all, you can interact and discuss with people in real time. From cross-channel live redirects to uninterrupted split-screen viewing, you can many features on this app.
Pros:
The app is free to use
Reach a huge audience
Cost-effective
Best for establishing brand
Cons:
A choice between viewing high-quality video and real-time engagement
Tango is a live streaming app and video chat platform. It is fun to use this app, according to the comments on the app by people. Tango is a social live community with around 400 million people. A lot of people make new connections and friends on this app every minute. Tango is a new wave of social communication.
Moreover, broadcasters can use effective features in the best possible way and achieve their broadcasting goals. For this, before going live broadcasters can check the list of people who are online to watch live streams.
You can go live at any time and invite friends and others to your live streaming and live chat. Content creators can earn online by streaming apps. You can make videos for their businesses and urge people to subscribe to the channel. The more people see the video, the more money you can make. Moreover, you can create great live streaming experiences by collaborating with your friends.
Stream app is an easier and friendlier platform for live streaming at any time. You can chat with people in real-time. It allows you to go live even if you are busy playing games and chatting. Moreover, you can swap rear and front cameras easily while streaming. The effective features of the app let you connect with friends easily and go live at any time.
If you want to make your career through live streams, you can use a Tip Page. By doing so you can start earning from the first video. After many live streams, you can earn a handsome amount from the Tip Page. It offers a chance to monetize your page early.
In addition, it is an interesting app for streaming games and other types of content. It offers all of this without buffering. So, the performance of the app is also amazing. It lets you broadcast content from any smartphone camera. You can hire an on-demand app development company if you want such an app.
Over 82% of people like to watch live videos rather than read a blog post to know something. Facebook live is a big name in the broadcasting channels. Billions of people use it across the globe.
You can live broadcast the videos from the Facebook mobile app whenever you want. Initially Facebook launch this feature for only VIP users. It was first launched for Apple users. Facebook has 2.45 billion monthly users. You can interact with a large audience by going live and promoting your business products easily.
It is surprising that around 1/3rd of the world’s population uses Facebook. It is the best live streaming platform. App users can directly live to the social network in a couple of seconds. It is fun to use the live streaming capabilities of Facebook and communicate brand stories the way you want to. It allows for building reliable relationships with fans and followers.
Instagram needs no introduction. It has around 1.4440 billion users across the world. You can use Instagram live to stream live videos and broadcast them to your followers in real-time. The features of Instagram are intuitive so you can easily understand them and navigate effectively throughout the app. Users find Instagram engaging because of attractive filters for going live.
Several people have become influencers and made their careers because of this feature. So, it has changed the lives of many people in the world. It has introduced a “practice mode”. It is for people who want live video streams without mistakes. They can test the connection, manage lighting, and location, and do pre-show preparation before going for live video.
Vimeo members can create, upload, and share videos. This live streaming app offers various features. If you want more advanced features you have to go for paid subscription. Many people are aware of the popularity of Vimeo the best live streaming app. It is because of beautifully crafted artistic videos that inspire audiences.
For such videos, Vimeo offers powerful tools trusted by professionals. The reason for the popularity is high-quality videos for live streams. It offers some video review tools as well for example private sharing, integration with Adobe, premiere pro, final cut pro, and more.
Unlike YouTube, you will not find ads on Vimeo. So, it’s a free live streaming app.
However, it provides paid subscriptions for gaining revenue. From video creation to editing and broadcasting, Vimeo, a live streaming platform offers you many features. You can create high-quality professional videos on the subject you want.
Broadcast Me users can live stream on any social media network. They can use Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and others. Developers have integrated many other applications into Broadcast Me, a video streaming app. It has multi-bitrate streaming in which it automatically adapts the quality according to the network bandwidth. So, it can offer high quality irrespective of unstable network.
You can start the visual and audio media in landscape or portrait mode. Moreover, switching between the front and back camera is possible without interrupting a live stream. It allows saving videos locally that you can use to stream in the future. In addition, you can use any media server or provider using the RTMP protocol.
Live Stream is second last on my list of best live streaming apps is Live Stream app. It is one of the best live streaming apps. These types of streaming apps are costly for individuals because of their features. It is the best live video streaming platform for business partners, groups, teams, and others who can contribute equally.
It offers amazing streaming services with Facebook live, YouTube apps, Tango, and others. It makes streaming easy and fast for the broadcaster. Many people don’t have time to live streams for each platform separately, so for them, it is a useful feature. You can add more features to your on-demand app similar to live stream or any other application. However, it is called Vimeo stream because it is acquired by Vimeo.
Pros:
Advanced features like multi-bitrate streaming and white labeling
Hakuna is also one of the popular streaming platforms through which you can create, share, and upload videos. You can invite multiple guests to your live session and create a community for your regular live sessions. Hakuna lets you switch from video to radio mode while streaming.
Moreover, you can watch exclusive content on Hakuna. Various new and funny content stream on the Hakuna app. It lets you convert gifts into money. The gifts are given by the viewers of your video. If they like it, they leave with a gift and comments.
It is an interactive social live app. You can join the conversation with multi guests. This is an engaging feature of the Hakuna app that attracts many people to use the app. You can invite up to 3 guests at a time. Moreover, it offers an easy radio mode in which you can change audio and video from anywhere you are streaming. If you want to edit the video use the best video editing app like Magisto.
The market growth of live streaming platforms will accelerate at a CAGR of 13.47%, as per the PRNewswire. The video streaming app industry has reached a revenue of more than $70 billion in 2021. After seeing the profit generated by live streaming platforms, you must be thinking of how it is possible.
What ways do these app owners follow to make money? Well, there are many ways to make money with an app. It is important for you to know so that you can begin your app development with a bang.
Advertisement
Premium Features
Subscriptions
In-app Purchases
Partner Program
1. Advertisement
You must have seen YouTube in which many ads come when you watch a video. YouTube earns money by showing different advertisements. It follows an amazing algorithm for showing a relevant advertisement to the viewers. Well, the revenue is proportional to the number of ads shown.You know that no one likes to watch ads. So, live streaming apps like YouTube and Twitch provide a chance to skip the video in 5 seconds or any other fixed time. Ads are for the people who have not taken the paid subscription.So, you can use this method of monetization. But for this, you have to increase the traffic of people on the app because companies only those apps that have a huge user base
2. Premium Features
As the name implies, this type of feature is for paid members. You can develop advanced and more useful features for your app users and allow them to use these features after buying the subscription. If they find the features worthful, more people will buy them and you can make money this way.You can watch a variety of content, analytics tracking, and distraction-free streaming. Mobile broadcasting support such features to improve the user experience.
3. Subscriptions
Many users want to enjoy the videos without the interruption of ads. Moreover, various businesses also buy paid subscriptions to get access to more advanced and useful features of live streaming apps. There are different types of subscriptions. You can enable monthly or weekly subscriptions as per the need of the audience.This way, you can provide special services to the subscribed users and generate good revenue. Special services and advanced features attract users to buy paid subscriptions.
4. In-app Purchases
Whatever you buy inside the app comes under the category of in-app purchases. Not all live streaming apps provide an in-app purchase feature because it requires a huge audience and several products and services to buy inside the app.many apps offer products related to the content their apps are based on. Many Yoga applications sell healthy food and diet plans because they know whoever uses an app for yoga to stay fit, can also buy diet food. So, this way, you can find related services and products to offer your app users.
5. Partner Program
Your app users can partner with other streaming apps in this partner program. However, these should be streaming apps only. It helps to bring a good and different variety of content for the audience, and the streamers also get paid.Let’s take the example of Twitch, a live streaming app. It is for people who want to level up from affiliate marketing. Twitch allows you to live stream with a variety of content. You can share the videos with a live community of viewers while being on the app.Have a look at the image to quickly understand how to monetize streaming services.
Top 10 Use Cases of Live Streaming Platforms in 2022
Live streaming apps allow users to upload different types of videos and invite people to watch them. On the best live streaming app, you can make a live community with which you can share videos. From small to big brands, and ordinary people to celebrities most people like to live stream.
So, there are many use cases for the live streaming platform. We will know about the important ones in the space below.
Executive Communication
Social Media Influencers
Product and Feature Launch
Employee Training
Live Events
Games
Live Shopping
Online Live Classes
Human Resource
Governance
1. Executive Communication
A well-defined internal communication is evident for any business. In the entire Product Development Cycle, communication plays an important role. Since the WFH culture got promoted many employees work from different corners of the world. Live streaming apps bridge the geographical gap and allow effective and real-time communication.
2. Social Media Influencers
Social media influencers can interact with their followers at any time with a live stream. many influencers take the help of live streaming to earn money and become famous. Moreover, several businesses hire influencers who have millions of followers to promote their products. It helps to reach a larger audience in a short time.
3. Product and Feature Launches
Live streaming platforms have become the easiest and most effective way to promote products online in a short time. Now businesses don’t have to spend much on marketing and launching new features of products. They can use live streaming apps and reach millions of people easily with live streaming platforms.
4. Employee Training
Many employees are working from home. In this situation communication gap can lead to problems and loopholes in product development and other operations in a company. Live streaming platforms have resolved this problem. With a high-speed network, employees can get training from a company in real-time.
5. Live Events
Live events can be music shows, art exhibitions, and others. Dua Lipa’s live show in 2020 is the best example of utilizing live streaming platforms effectively. The show got 5 million viewers in a short time. Artists can live stream to perform for their online audience. The best live streaming platforms offer many advanced features as well that artists can utilize to connect with the audience effectively.
6. Games
Well, the concept of live streaming platforms came from online gaming. Gamers can live stream and play with fellow gamers on the app in real-time. Some of the gamers also share their screen to let other gamers know about their gaming techniques. Moreover, they use streaming services with video management.
7. Live Shopping
Live shopping events have changed the way people used to shop. It generated around $5.6 billion in sales in 2020 in the US. The sale can go up to 12 billion in 2021. There are many advantages of live shopping which is why many people are showing trust in it. Users can get brick and mortar shopping experience from anywhere they want to. Likewise, it accelerates the process of shopping.
8. Online Live Classes
There are different types of online classes, namely exercise, cooking, skill development, education, and more. These types of online classes run on the best live streaming apps. The market value of online live classes is going to be $325 billion by 2025. Live doubt-solving sessions are effective on live streaming platforms. Many teachers use live streaming platforms and interact with students in real-time. Virtual classroom software helps many students sitting in different corners of the world.
9. Human Resource
From streamlining the global talent to onboarding them, a Human Resource team has to manage various things. Communication gaps can lead to problems, but live streaming apps have made it easy. HR can tell about the company culture, values, and other related information to the employee with a live stream. It speeds up the hiring process and helps to complete HR tasks effectively even for remote workers.
10. Governance
The best live streaming apps are used in governance as well. Knowledge sharing across many public sectors is possible with a live stream. Live streaming parliament sessions and presentations by representatives of different countries on the global platform take place with the help of the best live streaming platforms.
What Is the Cost of Live Streaming App Development?
Whether it is a live streaming platform or other apps, many factors affect the final cost of the app. An estimated cost of live streaming app development is $10,000-$50,000. Without knowing the factors you may face difficulties to understand the variation in the live video streaming app development cost. Once you know the factors that determine the cost of app development, you can think of the budget and should decide on it.
For the best live streaming platforms, you have to hire an in-house team of freelancers. So, first, decide on it. Now move ahead and check out the below factors that affect the cost of live video streaming apps. Here they are.
Experience & Skills of Developers
Project Size
Feature Types
Technology Stack
UX/UI Designs
1. Experience & Skills of Developers
Do you want unskilled developers for your project? I think no. Although freshers charge less than experienced developers, they can take more time to complete your project. Experienced developers charge $100-$200/hour in the USA while freshers charge only $50-$100/hour. Well, the geographical location of the developers also affects the cost of developers.
2. Project Size
The more big is the project the more time and effort it will take to complete. So, if your project size is big, you should be ready with enough budget. A proper team is required to handle this type of project. In this case, hiring an in-house team can be a good idea. You can find full-stack developers in the agency. However, the salary of developers also affects the final cost. Have a look at the salaries of full-stack developers in the world.
3. Feature Types
How many and what types of features do you want in your app? it also affects the cost of the best live streaming platforms. For standard features, you will not have to spend much. Because developers use various tools to include the basic features and this takes not a long time. If you want some innovative features, developers have to research, build logic from scratch, and integrate the features effectively, which is why it can be costly.
4. Technology Stack
The choice of technologies, tools, and frameworks for app development affects the cost of app development. It is because some tools are free while some are paid. Many frameworks offer advanced features in the paid version. So, your development company has to buy them for your project which indirectly increases the cost of your app. To build the best live streaming platforms an impeccable IT infrastructure is a must. Moreover, for app maintenance also some tools are used.
5. UX/UI Designs
Designing an app is not an easy task. It requires research, analysis, and study of app development trends. So, the cost of UX and UI designs highly depends on the process developers follow. The more complex and innovative designs you want for your app the more costly it would become. All in all, the cost of app design depends on the number of hours developers spend designing.
Conclusion
This is all about the live streaming platforms. If you like the features and concept of some live streams, you can use them in your app. You can know how live streaming apps work by using one. If you need professional developers for the best live streaming platforms, Technource can help you. It has experienced developers who have worked on many live streaming platforms to date. They use various technologies to produce cutting-edge solutions. Don’t worry about the prices as the agency keep them reasonable.
Frequently Asked Questions
There are many live streaming apps available for free. Some of the popular ones are as follows.
YouTube Live
Facebook Live
Instagram Live
The answer to the question lies in your project requirements. If you have a small project, going for freelancers can be the right option, or if you have a large and complex project, an in-house team can help you effectively.
Live stream app development takes around 6-12 months to complete. However, the development time depends on various factors like the size of the project, features, technology stack, development method, and team.
Shailesh Gujjar is a Team Leader at Technource with over 10 years of experience as a web and mobile development expert. He specializes in JavaScript technologies like Node.js, React, and Angular, as well as mobile platforms including native Android, Flutter, and React Native. Shailesh leads end-to-end development projects, ensuring secure, high-performance solutions through strong technical and leadership capabilities.
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If you miss out on this feature and can miss a large audience for your brand and products. Since a lot of people use social media, you should allow sharing of live videos on other social networking platforms. With increasing the reach of the content, your product will have more exposure.It also helps in building customer brand relationships which is crucial for any business to build brand loyalty. Sharing on social media leads to likes and followers and as they increase reach of the business also increases
