One of the pandemic’s impacts is the increased popularity of streaming services. In 2019, around 126.7 million people watched live videos in the United States. This number is expected to grow to 150 million after 2020.
The most popular live videos are news, sports events, and comedy shows, but this doesn’t mean there is no market for online sermons. Streaming your sermons online can help you reach new members while connecting with existing members of your congregation. This article looks closely at some of the best church streaming services for online sermons and how they can help you grow your church.
Here’s the list of the best tools that I’ll cover in this article.
- Subsplash
- Propresenter
- Churchstreaming.tv
- TruthCasting
- Dacast
- StreamShark
- vMix
- Wirecast
- Boxcast
- mimoLive
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.
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Overviews Of The 10 Best Church Streaming Services
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.
1. Subsplash – Best mobile streaming experience for churches
Subsplash Live keeps your community connected with high-definition streaming to your website, apps, and social media without all the distractions or risks of streaming on big tech platforms.
Streaming on the Subsplash Platform means your live content is powerfully integrated with your other digital tools. From a single dashboard, you can broadcast your content, engage your community through Live Stream Chat, and grow generosity with live giving interactions. Plus, each of your live stream sessions can be easily trimmed and stored in your Subsplash Media library so you can publish it to your website, app, and podcast with ease.
Subsplash One offers pricing upon request. Subsplash Giving doesn't require a monthly fee, but instead charges a percentage of donations collected (a fee that can be covered by donors, if they opt in).
2. Propresenter – Best church presentation builder
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.
Propresenter has a free version with limited features, while the pricing for the paid versions starts at $399/license/year.
3. Churchstreaming.tv – Best for ease of use
ChurchStreaming.tv is a church streaming platform for connecting with church members wherever they are. It has a customizable live stream layout for including sermon notes, live chat, and prayer requests to engage members during live online sermons. It has an automated archive posting feature so members can watch previous online sermons on their own time.
ChurchStreaming.tv is the best church streaming service for live streaming to multiple destinations to reach a wider audience. You can use this live streaming platform to broadcast online sermons on your church website using a custom hosted domain. You can also use this live streaming platform to broadcast live online sermons on Amazon Fire TV, YouTube Live, Facebook Live, or Apple TV. This allows church members to choose their preferred streaming device to watch your church live stream.
ChurchStreaming.tv integrates with other church management apps like Elexio, SimpleChurch CRM, Church Office Online, and SimpleGive.
ChurchStreaming.tv pricing starts at $79/month/up to 10 hours of streaming and offers a 30-day free trial.
4. TruthCasting – Best for video-on-demand
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.
TruthCasting’s pricing is $39.95/month/unlimited streaming hours.
5. Dacast – Best for paywall content
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.
Dacast gives pricing details and a free demo upon request.
6. StreamShark – Best online event archiving
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.
StreamShark pricing starts at $199/month/account and offers a 7-day free trial.
7. vMix – Best technical A/V controls
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.
vMix pricing starts at $60/month/account and offers a 60-day free trial. vMix also offers a limited number of free vMix HD licenses to churches.
8. Wirecast – Best pre-made video library
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.
Wirecast pricing starts at $599 for a lifetime license.
9. Boxcast – Best streaming analytics
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.
Boxcast has a free plan with limited features for up to four hours of HD streaming per month. The pricing for paid plans starts at $99/month/account and offers a 14-day free trial.
10. mimoLive – Best church streaming for Mac
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.
mimoLive provides pricing information upon request and offers a 14-day free trial.
Other Options
Here are a few more that didn’t make the top list.
- Vimeo - SaaS for hosting, recording, and sharing videos.
- Streamyard - Browser-based live streaming studio.
- Twilio - Platform for interactive live streaming experience with a chat feature for engaging audience members.
- Streamlabs - Software for live streamers to engage with viewers and monetize their live event.
- Twitch - Video live streaming service that focuses on video game live streaming.
- YouTube Live - Live streaming feature for using a YouTube channel to host events and interact with subscribers in real-time.
What do you think about this list?
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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