OBS Studio

Free, open-source software for live streaming and video recording, built from scenes and sources you switch between in real time.

Starting price: Free
Commercial use: Yes, under the GPLv2 or later; the licence's conditions apply when the software itself is modified or redistributed
Output: Live streams and local video recordings

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Overview

OBS Studio is free and open-source software for video recording and live streaming, developed by volunteer contributors as the Open Broadcaster Software project. It suits streamers, educators and video teams who build a show from several sources and switch between them as it happens. It is installed locally on Windows, macOS and Linux and streams directly to the chosen platform, with no OBS server in between. It is distributed under the GPLv2 and costs nothing.

Our take

OBS Studio is the default pick if you produce live, whether a stream, a webinar feed or a recording with several cameras, and want to control the layout yourself without paying per seat. Anyone who only needs a quick screen capture to share with colleagues will be better served by Loom, and anyone whose work is mostly cutting footage afterwards should choose an editor such as Shotcut or DaVinci Resolve instead. Many teams run one of those alongside it.

Key Facts

Category	Live Streaming
Starting price	Free Open source under the GPLv2, with no watermarks or limitations. The current release is 32.2.2, from 14 August 2026.
Commercial use	Yes, under the GPLv2 or later; the licence's conditions apply when the software itself is modified or redistributed
Output	Live streams and local video recordings
API	Yes, a built-in WebSocket server for remote control, plus a plugin API and scripts in Lua or Python
Hosting	Installed locally on Windows 10 and 11, macOS 13.0 or newer (Intel and Apple Silicon) and Linux via Flathub or an Ubuntu PPA

Screenshots

Placeholders. They are replaced as soon as the vendor sends material, and both open the same short form.

Features

Scenes and sources: Unlimited scenes built from window captures, images, text, browser windows, webcams and capture cards, with customisable transitions and stinger videos, Studio Mode to preview a scene before it goes out, a Multiview monitoring 8 scenes, and hotkeys for nearly every action
Multistreaming to several platforms: Through a plugin: the Multiple RTMP outputs plugin, written by a third-party author and listed in the OBS forum plugin resources, streams to several RTMP servers at once and can share the encoder of the main output. It runs on 64-bit Windows and Linux and needs OBS Studio 30.2 or newer
Overlays and alerts: No alerts of its own: overlays, alerts and chat boxes from third-party providers such as Streamlabs, StreamElements, NerdOrDie and OWN3D Pro are added as a Browser Source, a web page placed in the scene
Remote guests: No guest room of its own. The official WHIP guide describes broadcasting over WebRTC with about 100 ms of delay, with co-hosts added from a web browser or anywhere WebRTC is available, and a direct peer-to-peer connection to a browser without servers
Platform integrations: Streams directly to the chosen platform, with no OBS server in between
Audio mixing: An audio mixer with per-source filters such as noise gate, noise suppression and gain, plus VST plugin support. No lip-sync feature is documented
Local recording: Yes, output goes to a local recording as well as to a streaming service, and capture and mixing run in real time
Desktop or browser: Desktop, installed locally on Windows 10 and 11, macOS 13.0 or newer (Intel and Apple Silicon) and Linux via Flathub or an Ubuntu PPA
API and control: Yes, a WebSocket server built in since OBS Studio 28 for control by external tools, a plugin API for native plugins, and scripts in Lua or Python

Integrations

Twitch
YouTube
Streamer.bot
Touch Portal
Bitfocus Companion

Deployment and Support

Deployment: On-premise
Support: Community forum
Onboarding: Documentation and knowledge base

Pros and Cons

Strengths

Free and open source under the GPLv2, with no watermarks
Unlimited scenes and sources, switched live with custom transitions
Studio Mode and an 8-scene Multiview for checking a scene before it goes out
Remote control through a built-in, password-protected WebSocket server

Limitations

No editing timeline, so recordings need a separate editor
Help comes from volunteers in the forums and on Discord rather than a vendor helpdesk
The macOS release needs macOS 13.0 or newer

Pricing

Free

$0

Open source under the GPLv2, free for commercial use, with no watermarks or limitations.

Best For

Media & Creative

Alternatives and Comparisons

What users say

Reviews

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Last verified: 2026-10-05

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