16 Best Church Streaming Services For Online Sermons In 2024
10 Best Church Streaming Services For Online Sermons
Here's my pick of the 10 best software from the 16 tools reviewed.
Our one-on-one guidance will help you find the perfect fit.
There are seemingly countless streaming platforms available, so figuring out which one is best for you is difficult. You want to broadcast your worship services, events, and other content online but need to figure out which tool is the best fit. I've got you! In this post I make things simple, leveraging my experience as a former assistant youth pastor for a megachurch and my current exposure to tools as a technical consultant to bring you this shortlist of the best church streaming services.
What are church streaming services?
Church streaming services are platforms or providers that offer the technology and infrastructure for churches to broadcast their services and events online. These services enable churches to engage with their congregation remotely, reach new audiences, and provide an accessible way for individuals to participate in worship services from anywhere with an internet connection.
Similar to streaming services used in corporations, the features that make this possible include live streaming capabilities, video recording, interactive features like chat or comments, and the ability to reach a wide audience through online platforms.
Overview Of The 10 Best Church Streaming Services For Online Sermons
Here’s a brief description of each church streaming service to showcase each tool’s best use case, some noteworthy features, and screenshots to give a snapshot of the user interface.
Vimeo is a video platform that lets you stream and share high-quality videos. It’s a great option for churches that want to broadcast services, Bible studies, or special events to their congregation. Whether you’re live streaming a service or uploading pre-recorded sermons, Vimeo gives you the tools to make sure your community can stay connected.
The platform lets you live stream in HD, and there’s no need to worry about ads interrupting your service. Vimeo also lets you embed your stream directly on your church’s website or share it on social media platforms. Plus, you can keep your videos private, so only your members have access. With the ability to track viewer analytics, you’ll know who’s tuning in and when, helping your team plan better for future services. Additionally, Vimeo enhances community engagement through interactive features like chat and comments, enabling church members to engage actively during live streams.
StreamYard is a browser-based platform designed for live streaming and recording, allowing churches to reach a broader audience. The platform supports live streaming and recording directly from a browser, allowing churches to connect with worshippers who are unable to attend in person and potentially attract new congregants.
Streamyard's multistreaming capability allows churches to broadcast across multiple platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, which can enhance audience engagement through features like on-screen comments. Its features also include high-quality recordings even with poor internet connections, customization with logos and overlays, and the ability to host up to 10 guests without requiring software downloads.
Dacast is a church live streaming software for recording and broadcasting online sermons and church events to connect with parishioners. This live streaming platform lets you record live online sermons and upload them on a later date for viewing of church members who missed the live event. Dacast can help you increase brand awareness by letting you customize its video player with your church’s name and logo.
Dacast is the best church streaming service with an integrated paywall for monetizing your video content. This church live streaming software can help parishioners continue tithing by using the online donation system on your streamed sermons. Dacast makes donating easier by giving church members the choice of donating on a weekly or monthly basis. This live streaming platform has a global currency feature that automatically converts currency to give your global audience a chance to help your church using their native currency.
vMix is a live streaming church service for holding live online sermons to engage church members anywhere they are. You can use vMix to record live services and edit them before posting them to your church website or social media channel. vMix has a built-in audio mixer for keeping track of all audio services to have an online sermon with excellent audio output.
vMix is the best church streaming software with HD virtual sets for a conducive atmosphere for online sermons. With the help of vMix’s pre-built sets, you don’t have to worry about lighting issues, green spills, or blocking issues during a live streaming service on your church website, Facebook Live, or YouTube TV. HD virtual sets can help you save money because there’s no need to dress up your background while streaming a live video or live event.
Boxcast is a live streaming software for broadcasting live video on multiple platforms and devices like your website, Facebook Live, YouTube TV, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, and Apple TV. It has an automated scheduling feature for automatically starting and ending live online sermons at pre-set times. It has a live chat feature for engaging viewers and taking questions or prayer requests. Boxcast has a trimming feature for removing excess content on your live stream before uploading it to your website, YouTube channel, or social media channel.
Boxcast is the best church streaming software with built-in analytics to help you understand your audience better. It has engagement graphs and data for viewing your total views, unique viewers, and average view duration. Boxcast has a viewer insights feature for getting insights on how viewers watch your content and their preferred viewing platforms to know which channels to concentrate on. It also has a geo-analytics feature for identifying the locations where most of your viewers come from to localize online sermons and engage more viewers.
TruthCasting is a church streaming platform for creating and broadcasting online sermons. You can use TruthCasting to embed live streams and video-on-demand on your church website. TruthCasting has an unlimited DVR feature that automatically records and saves live broadcasts for uploading to your website or social media pages.
TruthCasting is the best church streaming software for growing churches because it allows unlimited live streaming hours, so there’s no need to pay more as your church membership grows. This live streaming solution supports an unlimited number of viewers, giving you room to accommodate new viewers of your live online sermons. TruthCasting provides unlimited storage for storing images, videos, and audio clips for use during your online sermons.
mimoLive is a live streaming and virtual camera software for Mac users. It has a video encoder and editor for polishing live streams before uploading them to your church website or social media platform. You can use mimoLive to broadcasts simultaneously on Facebook Live, YouTube Live, Twitch, LinkedIn Live, and other broadcasting platforms.
mimoLive is the best church streaming software for Mac Users that can broadcast up to 8K UHD resolution for great-looking online sermons. This church online platform lets you screen share to or from an iPhone or iPad to work with your production team during your live streams. You can use mimoLive to customize your live stream layout with graphics and a live chat feature to take in prayer requests and interact with parishioners.
Propresenter is a live production and presentation software. You can use it to present images, lyrics, videos, and other media files. It has a Media Bin feature for creating playlists or media folders to access the media files you need during online sermons quickly. This live streaming solution has a timer feature for informing viewers of when your online sermon will start so they can get ready.
Propresenter is the best church streaming service with dynamic web content to make online sermons more interactive. You can use Propresenter to include polls in your online sermons to take the pulse of your viewers and church members. This church live streaming service also lets you show web pages as objects within slides, so there’s no need to open a browser to show your viewers a third-party website.
StreamShark is a live streaming platform for planning, hosting, and publishing live events. It has an analytics feature for getting real-time insights on how your event engages viewers. This church live streaming service has a live DVR rewind feature so late viewers can catch up on the part of your online sermon that they missed. StreamShark lets you create live highlights clips of critical sections of your online sermon you can share during the live stream or on your social media channel.
StreamShark is the best live streaming solution with an instant stream archiving feature for publishing videos on a later date. This live streaming solution organizes past live stream videos to make searching for old videos easier. You can also use this feature to publish an online sermon library your congregation can access on your church’s website or social media channel.
Wirecast is a live video streaming and production software for creating live-streaming videos for your church website, YouTube Live, or Facebook Live. Wirecast has multi-streaming capabilities for streaming simultaneously on several websites and social media platforms to reach more viewers. It lets you automate production tools like playlists and hotkeys, making it easy to host online sermons with minimal human resources.
Wirecast is the best church live stream software with built-in audio and video library for quickly producing engaging live online sermons. With the help of Wirecast’s media library, you can add videos and audio clips to online sermons to make them more interesting for viewers. Wirecast can help you save money because its videos and audio clips are royalty-free and can help cut down production expenses.
Wirecast integrates with other church live stream tools like Microsoft Stream, YouTube, Twitch, Microsoft Azure, and Vimeo Live.
Best Church Streaming Services For Online Sermons Summary
| Tools | Price | |
|---|---|---|
| Vimeo | From $12/user/month (billed annually) | Website |
| Streamyard | Pricing upon request | Website |
| Dacast | demo upon request. | Website |
| vMix | No details | Website |
| Boxcast | From $99/month and go all the way to $999/month | Website |
| TruthCasting | No details | Website |
| mimoLive | upon request | Website |
| ProPresenter | You also have the option to rent the software for a one-time event for $99. | Website |
| StreamShark | No details | Website |
| Wirecast | From $29.08/month | Website |
Compare Software Specs Side by Side
Use our comparison chart to review and evaluate software specs side-by-side.
Compare SoftwareOther Options
Here are a few more that didn’t make the top list.
Comparison Criteria
What do I look for when I select the best church streaming services? Here’s a summary of my evaluation criteria:
1. User Interface (UI): Live streams are fast-paced environments with little room for error, so I kook for software with a clean user interface where useful features are easy to find.
2. Usability: Churches rely on volunteers for most events, so I look for software that’s easy to use and master.
3. Integrations: Church leaders use many software to manage their church, so I look for software that will work great with other tools.
4. Value for $: Churches rely on the generosity of members for funding, so I look for software with many features but reasonable pricing.
Church Streaming Services Key Features
- Video recording: Records live streams and save them for future use.
- Video editor: Allows the editing and trimming of videos before archiving them or uploading them to a website.
- Live chat: Allows pastors to communicate with viewers in real-time during live streams.
- Media library: A database of images, videos, and audio clips
- Analytics: Allows you to gauge the performance of live streams and identify areas for improvement.
- Paywall: Allows viewers to donate and support your church during your online sermons.
Final Thoughts
One of the pandemic’s impacts was the increased popularity of streaming services. In 2019, around 126.7 million people watched live videos in the United States.
The most popular live videos were news, sports events, and comedy shows, but this doesn’t mean there was no market for online sermons. Streaming your sermons online helps reach new members while connecting with existing members of a congregation.
Church leaders must take advantage of technological innovations like live streaming software to stay in touch with church members. A live streaming software can help them host live online sermons to reach members anywhere they are. With the help of the best church streaming services, you can gain more viewers and members through your website, social media pages, or YouTube channel.
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