Stream Video review
A broad video API stack for teams building calls, livestreams, recordings, and moderation.
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
Stream Video provides APIs and client SDKs for developers building embedded video calling, audio rooms, and livestreaming experiences. Its scope suits teams that need more than real-time video alone, including recording, transcription, live captions, screen sharing, picture-in-picture, moderation, webhooks, and server-side APIs. Prebuilt and customizable UI components make it relevant to products that want a prepared interface as well as teams building a tailored experience.
The published plans show a freemium structure. Free includes 333,000 participant minutes, audio-only access, no credit card requirement, and community support. Pay-As-You-Go is billed monthly at $0.30 per 1,000 participant minutes and adds pay-for-what-you-use pricing, no limits, a global edge network, and security and compliance; its listed usage pricing is for audio-only participant minutes. Enterprise starts at 1M participant minutes and adds a 99.999% SLA, a shared Slack channel, 24/7 support, and SOC 2 compliance. This makes the lower tiers suitable for evaluating audio experiences, while larger deployments have a defined support and service path.
The feature breadth is the main reason to consider Stream Video. Recording supports composite, individual, raw, and frame modes, with storage managed by Stream or by the customer. Platform coverage includes web, iOS, Android, and API, with official SDKs also covering React Native, Flutter, Unity, and ESP32. Integrations include Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage, Azure Blob Storage, Twilio, Telnyx, OBS, and Stream Chat. Choose it when one vendor should cover calls, livestreaming, media capture, captions, and moderation. Choose another option if an open-source product or video-focused usage pricing is the priority.
Stream Video pros and cons
- Where it wins
- Combines calling, livestreaming, recording, captions, and moderation
- Offers prebuilt and customizable UI components across major client platforms
- Supports Stream-managed or customer-managed recording storage
- Where it doesn't
- The Free plan is audio only
- Listed usage pricing is for audio-only participant minutes
- It is not open source
Stream Video fact sheet, pricing and score →
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