Dacast vs 5centsCDN

Zoom Workplace

TikTok

Ant Media Server

With Team Chat, Phone, AI Companion, and more, Zoom Workplace is the platform for your best work. With Zoom Workplace, you can share your calendar availability, connect with your team, access your work phone on any device, and more.

TikTok is a video entertainment application that allows users to pause recording multiple times, edit videos, broadcast live streams, and more.


Ant Media Server is a highly scalable real-time video streaming solution configured for live video streaming needs, providing playback and recording on-premises or on public cloud networks like AWS, Azure, and Alibaba Cloud. It is designed to enable customers to deploy live video streaming solutions quickly without having to worry about how it works behind the scenes.

In the sales process, they promised a robust customer-service experience, and instead we got off-shore people who weren't willing to help, get on calls, zooms, talk through things, nor really even knew much about what they're talking about.   When did they did know things, they weren't able to explain them to us, which made for even more confusion.  

Head of Tech/media

It didn't do anything fancy which made it solid, and they did make things easy to change on my end when they upgraded their distribution services.   Once you set it up, you kind of forgot about it because it just sat in the background and worked, which was ideal.  

Traffic and Utilities Automation Engineer

This helps travelers make decisions for avoiding congestion and trips during inclement weather.

Broadcast in real time with the innovative live streaming platform from Dacast. Video API, privacy, security, monetization and more.

Access Controls/Permissions

Audience Analytics

Audience Engagement

Brand Overlay

Bulk Uploading

Closed Captions

Content Library

Content Management

Customizable Branding

Event Scheduling

Inside the Video Search

Labeling

Live Streaming

Live Streaming Production

Mobile Screen Support

Multimedia Support

Multistreaming

On-Demand Webcasting

Performance Monitoring

Privacy Options

Rapid Creation

Real-time Broadcasting

Reporting/Analytics

Scheduling

Search/Filter

Session Recording

Social Media Streaming

Social Sharing

Video Conferencing

Video Looping

Video Management

Video Monetization Tools

Video Streaming

By industry, Dacast reviewers are most commonly professionals in religious institutions (19%). The most frequent use case for Dacast cited by reviewers is live streaming (95% of reviewers).

Users and use cases

The Dacast integration most frequently cited by reviewers is OBS Studio, a screen recording product rated 4.8 out of 5 for its integration with Dacast.

Integrations

Dacast is a live streaming tool with key features that include real-time broadcasting, access controls and permissions, live streaming production, and more.

Dacast

Web-based

iPhone

iPad

Android

Windows

Linux

Vimeo

Castr

Vidyard

Restream

Wistia

Brightcove

JW Player

Starter

Event

Scale

Custom

Difficult pricing and billing

Visual Artist

They have a auto renew membership with no consent policy before they charge. And there is no way for a customer to cancel it even on the same day you get charged.

Director 

However, we were charged for another year and the company refused to return even a portion of the $200+ fee.

36% of reviewers feel negative about Dacast’s pricing and billing practices. Users think the platform is expensive compared to competitors and report that annual fees and tier jumps are hard for small businesses to manage. Some reviewers find the auto-renewal policy problematic, saying it’s difficult to cancel subscriptions or obtain refunds. They indicate that earning and accessing funds from pay-per-view sales is restrictive, and say the lack of flexibility in payment options and high costs can lead to frustration. Reviewers caution others to monitor billing closely due to unexpected charges.

Flexible live streaming options

Videographer, Editor, Partner

We needed a simple and affordable platform for live streaming events. While Dacast isn't perfect, the streams are reliable and that is very important to us.

Videographer

We were looking to quickly deploy a Dacast workflow for a football team that wanted to charge online viewers and Dacast worked well in that application, both reliability and monetization  features.

82% of reviewers feel positive about Dacast’s live streaming capabilities. Users think the platform offers reliable streams and appreciate the ability to set up multiple channels for events, workshops, or business needs. Some reviewers find the monetization features valuable, especially for ticketed events, and say integration with tools like InPlayer and OBS is straightforward. Reviewers indicate that low-latency streaming and device compatibility are important benefits. They report that Dacast allows easy scaling for organizations and enables streaming directly to websites or social media, making it suitable for both technical and non-technical users.

Eventually, we had to set up our own servers for stream encoding and switched to another provider for passthrough.

Easy to use with good overall ideas. If the encoders worked properly and they had more CDNs—especially for better distribution in South America—it could grow into a great service.

I would strongly caution others to be careful with their subscription terms and monitor billing closely.

Technology and AV Director

Using it as a "set it and forget it" platform for live streaming our church services has provided a cost effective solution that helped us navigate the COVID days, and continues to provide a convienence to our church members.

It doesn't feel like a professional service.

Head Elder

Dacast allows us to use OBS for streaming which is free and we pay Dacast a few hundred dollars per annum which is extremely cheap compared with other providers.

The bandwidth and storage entitlements (and cost associated with overages/extras) required us to limit our use of the platform to live steaming.

System administrator

Some viewers have difficulty making a connection to a live stream, since connection to the video feed is not automatic once the streaming url is displayed.

This results in overage charges but fortunately you can enable protection to add data automatically when you run out so your streams never go down.

Reviewing data for how many viewers watched each event is clumsy, especially when we have back-to-back events on the same channel, but still want to see the data separated.

Managing Director

We hit into stability issues a few times (either network failure or slow network for a few minutes in the middle of the streaming session) (Asia Pacific).  

The move to the Limelight CDN platform has give much lower latency, and a generally improved connection experience for viewers.

Teacher

We run the live stream inhouse only, and when the number of viewers is inaccurate, we have to shut down production.

Multimedia Manager

You can control the style of the video player without any third party branding or recommended videos like YouTube has.

Support is outstanding! Once the pattern for setup of streaming devices (cameras, screenshots, etc.) is understood, setting up additional streaming channels is easy.

Dacast also made it very difficult to cancel their service and in the end the only reason they did cancel it was because our card on file was expired.  

Subscription details aren't explain very well, for example if you purchase a certain package you get data but it's parcelled out over the year, not given to you all at once to use.

AV Technician

Can be lacking simple customization like live chat, but there are plug-ins for this but may take some extra time to setup.

Inability to limit each viewer session to a specific amount of time within Dacast setup.

State OD Assistant

There was some personalization of colors, etc., but I wish it could more easily be embedded in our website with a password.

Marketing Director

I like the fact you can restrict viewing content to a specific URL so it only works through our website.

Founder and Developer

The product seems to be a cash cow they are milking.

Worship and Technology Department

I counts a recording and deducts the size of the recording from our allotted space however it will not deduct that space when I have deleted the recording from their storage thus stopping the system from allowing a recording to be saved.  

Partner

We liked that we could easily deploy a stream on our own site and control our own paywall.

Associate Pastor

We're not a huge ministry so price is important to us, and other providers don't seem to get that and offer such competetive rates for small users who want to grow

AV Manager

It just continually works for us behind the scenes, and we haven't had one live streaming issue since switching to Dacast.  

Administrator

The DaCast system has permitted us to simultaneously stream to our social media services with ease, from one PC, instead of where we previously used multiple pieces of equipment.

Owner

People are already suspicious of streaming and I have to use all the elite features or I can’t separate from Facebook streamers.

It didn't stream to social media, you had to constantly remember to turn on live stream recording.

Technical Director

limit of 4000 stream, loss of audio-only live stream

Multi bitrate streaming appears to be unavailable with the Limelight platform.

Dacast gives us all we need to live stream our services at a competetive price.

Pastor

Would love to have access to API key, but the jump in price  from starter to event is too much.

If you are new to setting up streaming then it can be quite difficult to set everything up correctly so it is working.

You guys need to realize that if we have trouble using your program we fail our customers and they will not hire us.

Producer

I came to streaming out of necessity: despite decades of live presentation, live streaming was a totally new area.

Co-Owner

I would like a way to see if a live stream is active on the dashboard under the Live Streams. And I would like to be able to setup users to have access to their live streams recordings only.

HR Operations executive 

It useful for video management and live streaming

Dacast is a great platform for hosting and live streaming videos.

Director

We had a glitch earler this year with the payment account and this was ironed out very quickly and efficiently :)

President

we had a client who wanted software that would work with individual passwords.  

We would have liked to use the session recording and video on demand.

Pricing

Customer Support

Bandwidth and Paywall

Data Usage

Security and Access Control

Website Embedding

Encoder Setup

Church Services

Small Business

Large Enterprises

Freelancers

Mid-size Business

DaCast

Google Drive

Google Drive is a cloud storage and backup platform to access files, docs, photos & more, store them in a safe place, and collaborate with other people

OneDrive

OneDrive is a secure access, sharing, and file storage solution which enables users to store and share photos, videos, documents, and more at anytime, via any device.

Google Workspace

Google Workspace is a suite of applications from Google which offers a number of tools to communicate and collaborate with colleagues, store files, and manage data from all devices.

Customer Service

The support documentation is a bit lacking, and it can take a while to get help from customer support.

Research Professional 

Customer support is highly responsive and helpful.

Owner/President

There is a 24/7 chat team that is very knowledgeable, patient, polite and effective.  

5centsCDN is a cloud-based CDN and live streaming platform for broadcasters, media companies, and OTT providers — combining live stream management, VOD delivery, multistreaming, SSAI ad insertion, transcoding, and automated reporting into a single control panel, backed by a global infrastructure.

Archiving & Retention

Backup and Recovery

Data Import/Export

Data Storage Management

File Transfer

Multiple Camera Feeds

On-Demand Recording

Presentation Streaming

Real-Time Data

Reporting & Statistics

Secure Data Storage

Secure Login

SSL Security

Third-Party Integrations

Video Call Recording

Video Editing

Most users consider 5centsCDN highly affordable and cost-effective, and most reviewers indicate that the transparent, pay-as-you-go pricing helps them scale efficiently. Some users report confusion about pricing complexity, and a few reviewers mention regional price concerns.

Value for money

By industry, 5centsCDN reviewers are most commonly professionals in information technology and services (22%). The most frequent use case for 5centsCDN cited by reviewers is cloud storage (75% of reviewers).

Proprietary

5centsCDN

Google Cloud Storage

Amazon S3

CDN+

Senior Business Development Executive

Limited advanced features compared to premium CDNs

Dashboard/UI could be more modern and detailed

Engineer

It is a stable service, and the CDN speeds are also very good. When it comes to the pricing, it is quite affordable as compared to other similar providers, which is a plus for small businesses.

Dacast vs 5centsCDN Comparison (2026)

Dacast

5centsCDN

Overview

Video & Screenshots

Pricing

User reviews

Key features

Integrations

Alternatives