Free open-source software for video recording and live streaming.
OBS records my tutorials in crisp quality and the source compositing is endlessly flexible. Happy overall, but the initial setup with encoder, bitrate and audio routing was overwhelming for a newcomer and took a weekend of YouTube tutorials. Worth it, but be ready to learn.
Flexible scenes, great recording quality
Steep initial setup
I set up OBS Studio for my first gaming stream and despite a decent PC it dropped frames constantly and the encoder kept overloading. I spent hours fiddling with bitrate and encoder settings with little improvement. The flexibility is there but getting a stable stream out of the box was a real struggle.
OBS Studio runs my entire streaming and recording setup with scenes, sources, overlays and audio mixing, all for free. The scene transitions look professional and once configured it records flawless 1080p60. That something this powerful costs nothing still amazes me every time I go live.
What sold me on OBS Studio is how far you can extend it. With a few community plugins I added a virtual camera, automatic scene switching and audio filters that rival paid software. Recording and streaming are rock solid on my setup. For free, this is simply the best in class.
OBS Studio has a RevWala Trust Score of 33/100 (Risky), based on 5 customer reviews with an average rating of 3.4 out of 5. Reviews are mixed — read recent ones before deciding.
OBS Studio is rated 3.4 out of 5 stars from 5 reviews on RevWala, with a "Risky" Trust Score.
OBS Studio has 5 reviews on RevWala, including 1 verified review.
Encoder overload, dropped frames
Powerful, free, professional output
Extensible, rock solid recording
After a routine update OBS Studio failed to load my entire scene collection and all my carefully arranged sources and hotkeys were gone. There was no easy rollback and I had to rebuild everything from scratch the night before a scheduled stream. Losing a complex setup like that is unacceptable.
Update wiped scene collection
