Comparison
Both send one feed to many platforms. Restream is built around the live moment; CastNest is built around what surrounds it.
Restream is one of the best-known multistreaming services, built around going live to many social destinations from either a browser studio or a desktop encoder. Restream Studio is its centerpiece: a browser production suite with on-screen guests, overlays and co-producer controls. Its plans are counted in simultaneous channels, and recordings are retained for a fixed window rather than stored as a library.
Restream figures were read from restream.io/pricing on 2 September 2026. Both platforms revise their plans, so check the current pages before deciding.
| CastNest | Restream | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | None — 7-day trial on Starter, no card | Yes — 2 channels, Restream branding shown |
| Entry paid tier | $19.99/mo — 6 destinations | $19/mo Standard — 3 channels |
| At roughly $49/mo | $49.99 Growth — 10 destinations | $49 Professional — 5 channels |
| Top published tier | $699.99 Events — 30 destinations | $239 Business — 8 channels |
| Branding removed from | $49.99 (Growth) | $19 (Standard) |
| Annual discount | 20% | 20% |
| Recording and hosting | 100 GB to 3 TB permanent VOD library | Up to 10 hrs per stream, kept 15–30 days |
| Browser studio with guests | Not offered — bring your own encoder | Restream Studio, 6–10 on-screen guests |
Highlighted cells mark where one platform is clearly stronger on that row — including where that is Restream.
Both platforms cap how many places you can broadcast to at once, and both count a connected account as one unit. The gap is how many you get for the money: Restream's $19 Standard allows 3, its $49 Professional allows 5. CastNest's $19.99 Starter allows 6, and $49.99 Growth allows 10. If your reason for buying is breadth of simultaneous distribution, that ratio is the number to weigh.
This is the clearest architectural split. Restream records your stream and keeps it for a retention window — 15 days on Standard, 30 on Professional. CastNest writes every broadcast into a permanent VOD library with a storage quota you own, from 100 GB on Starter to 3 TB on the upper tiers, which you can then organize, embed, gate behind a paywall or serve from your own domain. If a finished broadcast is an asset you keep selling, that difference compounds.
Restream Studio lets you produce a show in the browser: invite guests on screen, add overlays and brand frames, and hand co-producer controls to a colleague, with no local software. CastNest has nothing comparable — it expects a feed from OBS, vMix, a hardware encoder or an IP camera. If your production happens in the browser and remote guests are central to the format, Restream is the better fit and it is not close.
Restream's free plan is genuinely useful for someone starting out: two channels, indefinitely, at the cost of carrying Restream branding. CastNest has no permanent free tier — evaluation is a 7-day, no-card trial on Starter. For a hobbyist who will never pay, Restream wins outright. For an organization that will pay either way, the trial is enough to prove the workflow before a budget conversation.
It depends on what you are counting. Entry prices are nearly identical ($19.99 against $19), but CastNest allows 6 simultaneous destinations at that price against Restream's 3, and 10 against 5 at roughly $49. Restream is cheaper if you only need two channels, because its free tier covers that indefinitely. Both apply a 20% annual discount.
No. Restream Studio is a browser-based production suite with on-screen guests, overlays and co-producer controls, and CastNest has no equivalent. CastNest expects a feed from an encoder such as OBS or vMix, or from an IP camera. If browser production with remote guests is central to your format, Restream is the stronger choice.
Restream retains recordings for a set window — 15 days on Standard, 30 days on Professional — with up to 10 hours captured per stream. CastNest writes each broadcast into a permanent VOD library against a storage quota, from 100 GB on Starter up to 3 TB, where it can be organized, embedded, paywalled or served from a custom domain.
Yes. Destinations connect through each platform's own authorization flow, or by pasting an RTMP URL and stream key, so moving is a matter of reconnecting accounts rather than migrating data. In your encoder, only the ingest URL and stream key change.
Starter includes a 7-day trial with no card, so you can run a real broadcast end to end before moving anything.
