The 5 best Twitch streaming software and apps of 2022

StreamLabs OBS is one of the most popular choices for streaming on Twitch, and for good reason. The base version of the program is completely free, which is good news for anyone who is just starting out and might not want to invest a ton of money right away. But as your audience grows and you become more familiar with what works for you, you can opt to pay either a $19 monthly subscription or $149 for an entire year to get access to more features. 

The premium features include the ability to create a custom merch store, a custom page for viewers to send donations, access to more custom overlays, streaming to multiple sites at once, and dedicated creator support. Support includes help securing products for reviews, brand endorsements, and other paid opportunities as well as enhanced troubleshooting for any issues you may have. Both the free and premium versions let you add donation and tip widgets, create custom overlays for different scenes, and create polls and giveaways to keep your audience engaged and entertained.

OBS Studio is a completely free streaming program that a lot of other options are based on. If you’re familiar with either StreamLabs or Stream Elements, you’ll be able to quickly understand how OBS Studio works. Since it is open-source, you’ll be able to join a robust community of coders who offer patches, bug fixes, and even mods; though the downside is a somewhat steep learning curve since you have to create all of your own overlays, alerts, and widgets. 

Another downside is that you can only broadcast to a single streaming site at a time, which somewhat limits your audience if you’re a more established streamer. However, if you’re just starting out, streaming to a single site is easier to manage. OBS allows you to fully customize your stream, including audio filters for better compression and reduced background noise, virtually unlimited scene creation, the ability to record and live stream at the same time, and hotkeys for your most-used actions like scene transitions and stopping or starting streaming and recording.

Stream Elements is another streaming software that is based on the OBS Studio source code, and is similar to StreamLabs. The difference between them being that Stream Elements is completely free for everyone, and offers all of the same, premium-grade features as StreamLabs without a paywall. Along with live streaming to Twitch, YouTube, or even Facebook, you can create or download custom overlays, widgets, and alerts, set up a merch store, enable a chatbot for help moderating your chat, and set up custom tip and donation pages. 

You can even create contests, giveaways, and loyalty programs for your audience to keep them engaged with your streams. And if you ever run into trouble with technical issues or need help getting started, Stream Elements has a dedicated support team for troubleshooting as well as a library of tutorial videos and a dedicated Discord server to connect with other users.

X-Split is a live streaming program geared towards established content creators with large audiences. Their Broadcaster software has a free base version with limited functionality, which is great for testing out if you’re thinking of making the switch. 

To access all features though, you’ll have to upgrade to a paid subscription, which runs about $15 per month or $60 for a full year. You can even buy a lifetime license for $200, which is a one-time, up-front payment that allows you to use X-Split for as long as you want to create content. With the paid subscription, you can stream to multiple sites simultaneously to expand your audience, create unlimited scenes for streaming different kinds of content, and have a dedicated support team for troubleshooting technical issues. 

And with paid subscriptions, you’ll get lifetime updates to keep X-Split, and your content, engaging and interesting for returning viewers and newcomers to your chat. You can even integrate other programs like Zoom and Discord or add GIFs, static images, and music to your stream for more exciting content and to make it easier to collaborate with other creators. X-Split is even great for pre-recorded content like YouTube let’s plays, allowing you to record several scenes at once to make post-production and editing easier.

Twitch has thrown its hat in the ring with the introduction of its Twitch Studio streaming software. This program was designed from the ground up with beginners in mind, aiming to provide a simpler and more streamlined experience to help first-time or inexperienced streamers get started. The software is completely free, and has the added benefit of guaranteed integration with Twitch plug-ins like chat leaderboards, sound clips, and social media posting. You’ll also be able to monitor stats in real-time like uptime, viewer count, follower and subscriber count, and your internet connection status. 

The drawback is that Twitch Studio seems very limited compared to other streaming software, lacking any sort of customization options for overlays and alerts. It’s also, at the time of writing, in a Beta build, meaning that it will likely have a lot of issues supporting different games and browsers. However, Twitch Studio is a great option if you’re just starting out and want to get a feel for how streaming will work before you dive into more involved programs like StreamLabs or X-Split.