You are considering adding video and audio capabilities to your app, ready to bring new levels of engagement and retention to your end users. But building these powerful features is hard. And if you make a mistake, you will lose end users quicker than a teenager can finish a bag of potato chips.
When adding a video feature, you will quickly consider a Video SDK instead of building things yourself. Out of all the potential video SDKs to evaluate, Daily.co and Stream should be on that list. This article assumes you’ve already decided to adopt a 3rd-party integration to help you add video features to your product and will compare Daily.co’s against Stream’s Video SDK.
Daily.co and Stream Comparison Overview
Daily.co offers a comprehensive video SDK that enables developers to integrate real-time video and audio into their applications. The SDK supports high-quality, low-latency video and audio streaming. SDKs are available for iOS, Android, Javascript, React, and React Native. Typical features, such as screen sharing and audio recording, are supported.
Daily.co utilizes its Worldwide Mesh Network to scale its solution to larger numbers of participants. Its platform supports interactive live streaming, making it suitable for webinars and live events. The SDK also offers real-time transcription and subtitling, improving accessibility and engagement.
Daily.co includes pre-built UI components for faster development and offers real-time analytics to monitor call quality and participant engagement. Developers can also benefit from webhooks and callback integrating with other systems, automating workflows.
Overall, Daily.co's video SDK looks to be robust, flexible, and easy to integrate, making it suitable for a wide range of applications.
Stream enables you to add full-featured in-app video calling, live streaming, and/or audio rooms in days. Thanks in part to the extensive UI Component library available with Stream Video, you can quickly and correctly add these new experiences to your app. Stream has UI Component libraries available for the platforms React, React Native, iOS, Android, and Flutter.
We will compare Daily.co and Stream in terms of video quality, ease of integration, customization, support, developer experience, and pricing.
Video Quality and Performance of Daily.co vs. Stream
Stream Video sets a new standard for real-time communication by delivering exceptional quality and performance. With adaptive bitrate streaming that supports resolutions up to 4K, Stream ensures your users enjoy crisp, clear video streams with minimal latency and smooth playback, regardless of their device or network conditions.
Our Dynascale capabilities, along with redundant audio support (RED) and full OPUS DTX audio support, adjust resolution, video codec, fps, and bandwidth usage. This setup is ideal for calls with over 20 participants.
Dynascale optimizes video resolution and codecs based on the content displayed on each user's screen. The stream automatically switches to a lower bandwidth for smaller video thumbnails, matching the visible screen area. When a user's video feed is viewed in high resolution, such as during active participation, the stream quality is elevated accordingly.
By integrating Dynascale with Stream's global edge network and SFU architecture, we ensure minimal latency and optimal resolution for participants, no matter their geographic location. Each user receives video and audio streams at the appropriate resolution and bitrate, guaranteeing an exceptional user experience.
Daily.co delivers capabilities similar to those of Stream. However, it offers that capability at a much higher price point, as we will see when we compare pricing across both offerings.
Effortless Integration and Seamless Experience
We designed Stream Video with three core principles: developer experience, scalability, and swift time-to-market.
For developers working on web applications with React or mobile apps with native Android, iOS, or cross-platform solutions, Stream's Video SDKs provide extensive developer documentation, sample apps, and tutorials. These resources are designed to simplify the API learning process and facilitate the rapid deployment of a rich, customized audio/video calling experience in your application.
Similar to our Chat API, Stream offers a range of highly customizable pre-built components that are integrated with our API and optimized for peak performance. This allows developers and businesses to focus on the unique aspects of their apps that differentiate them from the competition.
Stream's API includes complex services such as out-of-the-box integration with CallKit and ringing, background track handling on mobile, backstage modes, and the ability to view call participants before joining. These features are fully supported from the start, whereas they are either partially supported or unavailable with 100ms.
For customers looking to enhance their video integration with a comprehensive chat experience, our Video API is designed to work seamlessly with our flagship Chat API from the beginning. This enables developers and businesses to incorporate both products into their applications, leveraging all the features of our Chat API—such as reactions, threads, and offline support—while using a single token and SaaS provider for their communication needs.
Extensive Customization and Flexibility
Whether you're creating an audio-only experience like Twitter Spaces or an education platform, Stream's UI Components give developers full control over their application's layout, branding, and flow.
Since all components are directly accessible and customizable in code, developers can modify every part of the video pipeline. This allows for easy integration of features like video filters, noise suppression APIs, AI models for sentiment analysis, and much more.
Unlike Daily.co’s "Prebuilt" low-code solution, which allows only basic customization of component colors, logos, and backgrounds, Stream's UI Components offers businesses the flexibility to use our components as-is or to customize and extend them. This enables the addition of functionality that meets specific business needs. With Daily.co, you can use their SDK or their prebuilt solution.
Dedicated Developer Support and Thriving Community
At Stream, we understand the importance of providing exceptional developer support and fostering a vibrant community. We are committed to your success with our Video API by offering specialized support channels and extensive documentation. Whether you're a seasoned developer or new to video integration, our team is here to assist you every step of the way, offering the resources and guidance needed to fully utilize Stream Video's capabilities.
Additionally, we've open-sourced all our client SDKs to give you a comprehensive understanding of runtime operations. This transparency enables you to debug your project and explore every detail as needed.
Pricing and Scalability Comparison
Let’s compare how Stream and Daily.co pricing matches up in a head-to-head comparison.
Let’s compare a classroom example: five participants, 60-minute session duration, and 300 sessions each month with chat, recording, and HD quality (720p).
That would make 300 60 minutes 5 = 90,000 minutes in total, with 18,000 recorded minutes.
| Stream | Daily.co | |
|---|---|---|
| 90,000 Video Conferencing minutes | $ 36.00 | $ 320.00 |
| Video Recording 18,000 minutes | $ 108.00 | $ 242.82 |
| Total | $ 144.00 | $ 562.81 |
Below, we will detail each line item for both Stream and Daily.co.
Daily.co provides 10,000 free minutes and charges $0.0040 for 90,000 minutes, resulting in $ 320.00. Add 18,000 recorded minutes to that by multiplying 300 sessions with 60 minutes per session. Each recorded minute is charged at $0.01349, resulting in $242,82.
Stream charges $1.50 for every 1,000 minutes over 66,000. That’s 24,000 divided by 1,000 multiplied by $1.50, resulting in $36. Add 18,000 recorded minutes at $6 for every 1,000 minutes: $108.
Daily.co does not offer a chat feature, so let’s not add Stream Chat. But, if we did, we would assume each session would have five new participants, resulting in 1,500 monthly active users (MAU). Stream charges $399 for the starter plan, covering the first 10,000 MAUs.
With transparent pricing and scalable infrastructure, Stream Video offers a cost-effective solution for projects of all sizes. Whether you're a startup with limited resources or an enterprise with extensive scalability requirements, Stream Video's flexible pricing plans ensure you can scale your video application without breaking the bank. With predictable pricing and no hidden fees, Stream Video enables you to manage your video streaming costs effectively while maintaining the highest quality and performance standards.
Conclusion
In video streaming technology, where innovation meets user experience, Stream Video sets the benchmark for excellence and extends the boundaries of what’s achievable. With its seamless integration process, targeted features, and unmatched scalability, Stream Video provides developers with a platform that simplifies development and empowers them to create outstanding video experiences.
Stream Video emphasizes reliability and performance, ensuring smooth, crystal-clear streaming regardless of network conditions or device capabilities. Supported by a comprehensive ecosystem offering documentation, tutorials, and dedicated support channels, Stream is ready to assist and guide you in using Stream Video.
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If you prefer to dive into code first, here are some tutorials to get you started: