Tool profile
Castr: cost, fit and limits
Castr is a cloud live streaming and video hosting service made by Castr Live Streaming, Inc. that takes RTMP or SRT feeds, delivers them through multiple CDNs and restreams to up to 30 destinations by plan.
What to know first
Castr sells five plans: Starter at $19.99 a month, Standard at $49.99, Premium at $199.99, Ultra at $349.99 and Events at $749.99, each with a lower rate on annual billing. Starter covers 2 streams, 6 destinations and 200 GB of monthly bandwidth. AI features are absent from the vendor text we read. The pitch is delivery, an API and an uptime figure, not scenes or a studio.
Castr at a glance
| Maker | Castr Live Streaming, Inc., Canada |
|---|---|
| Free plan | Free trial only |
| Entry price | $19.99 per month (Starter), or $16.67 billed annually |
| API access | Yes |
| Category | Best AI Live Streaming Software in 2026, rank 9 of 13 |
| Website | castr.com |
Who Castr is best for
Developers building on a video API
Castr lists a video API plus RTMP and SRT servers, so a team can automate stream creation inside its own product.
Teams with an existing encoder
OBS or a hardware encoder feeds Castr, which then handles delivery and restreaming to up to 30 destinations without extra load on your own computer.
Organizations launching a paid video channel
The Events plan is described as built for a branded OTT service, with a web app, CMS, SVOD and TVOD included.
Castr plans and pricing
| Plan | Price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $19.99 per month, or $16.67 per month billed annually | 2 streams, 6 destinations and 200 GB of monthly bandwidth, with 2.4 TB upfront on annual billing. |
| Standard | $49.99 per month, or $41.67 per month billed annually | Lists 10 multistream destinations per the plan comparison table, with stream and bandwidth figures shown in that table rather than as a per-stream fee. |
| Premium | $199.99 per month, or $166.67 per month billed annually | Lists 20 multistream destinations per the plan comparison table, a step up for teams that outgrow the 10 destinations on the Standard plan. |
| Ultra | $349.99 per month, or $291.67 per month billed annually | Lists 30 multistream destinations per the plan comparison table, the same destination count as the Events plan but at a lower monthly price. |
| Events | $749.99 per month, or $624.99 per month billed annually | Built for launching a branded OTT service: web app, CMS, SVOD and TVOD included, 15 streams and 30 destinations. |
Checked November 2026.
What Castr does
- Multi-CDN delivery
- Streams are delivered through Akamai, Fastly and Amazon CloudFront, which spreads viewers across several networks instead of relying on one delivery path. Viewer load is shared among providers.
- Global ingest
- More than 40 ingest locations route each broadcast, so contributors can send their feed to the nearest point before Castr fans it out to viewers.
- Protocols and API
- An RTMP server and SRT streaming sit alongside a video API, so developers can automate stream creation and connect it to their own product. Integrations can then trigger streams without manual steps.
- Hosting protections
- Hosted video supports geo-restrictions, domain whitelisting and watermarking, which give publishers some control over who can watch and where it can be embedded. These settings help paid or private content.
- Uptime statement
- The pricing page states a 99.9% uptime SLA, and says there is no long-term contract and you can cancel anytime, which lowers the commitment of trying the service.
How Castr handles your data
Castr's security page describes HTTPS, HSTS and security headers, and names a multi-CDN network, but states no certification. The privacy policy says data is transferred to and processed in Canada. The pages we read do not state whether customer content trains AI models or how long data is retained, so the vendor's policy was not checked for this. The vendor pages name no AI feature, so the practical data question is about video content and viewer logs rather than model training.
Where Castr falls short in practice
- Small bandwidth on the entry plan. Starter allows only 2 concurrent streams and 200 GB of bandwidth a month, which a handful of long or high-bitrate events can consume quickly. Annual billing includes a larger bandwidth pool.
- DRM costs extra. DRM is an add-on on any plan, so protected content adds to the base price and the pages we read do not print the add-on cost.
- No production studio named. Castr takes your feed rather than mixing scenes or guests, so you still need OBS, vMix or similar software for the production side of the show.
Works with
Alternatives to Castr
Castr: common questions
What does Castr's Starter plan include?
Starter is $19.99 a month, or $16.67 a month on annual billing. It includes 2 streams, 6 destinations and 200 GB of monthly bandwidth, with 2.4 TB upfront on annual billing. The trial is 7 days with no credit card.
Does Castr have an API?
Yes. The pages list RTMP server and SRT streaming protocols plus a video API. That makes Castr more suited to developers and integrators than to creators who want a scene editor. Check the plan comparison for any API limits before building on a lower tier.
Which CDNs does Castr use?
Castr describes multi-CDN delivery through Akamai, Fastly and Amazon CloudFront, with more than 40 global ingest locations. The pricing page states a 99.9% uptime SLA. Whether the SLA applies to every plan or only higher ones was not clear in the text we read.
Can Castr stream to 30 destinations?
Ultra lists 30 multistream destinations at $349.99 a month, or $291.67 a month billed annually, and the Events plan also lists 30. Premium lists 20 and Standard 10. Starter allows 6, so the count rises sharply with price. Higher tiers also raise the monthly price sharply.
Is DRM included with Castr?
No. According to the plan comparison, DRM is an add-on on any plan. Geo-restrictions, domain whitelisting and watermarking are listed for hosted video. Teams protecting paid content should ask Castr for the DRM price and which plans can enable it.