OBS vs Streamlabs

When it comes to live streaming on video platforms like YouTube or Twitch from your desktop, you will need a live streaming software. Among live video streaming software, OBS Studio and Streamlabs Desktop clearly stand out. They are popular because they are completely free to use and they have all the necessary features a video streamer desire.

Not just live streaming on any online platform, they software applications also let you record your live streams, record your computer screen as well as webcam. Now the question arises whether to choose Streamlabs or OBS Studio. We will help you out in your decision making by providing a thorough comparison of OBS vs Streamlabs parameter by parameter.

1. About OBS Studio

Here are all the details of OBS Studio that you will help you compare OBS with Streamlabs.

Performance:

OBS Studio is designed for multi-tasking. You can live stream as well as record your video. You can capture your screen as well as webcam video simultaneously. In fact, it supports capturing video from various external devices. For regular video recording and streaming, the performance of OBS is top-notch. It does not affect the performance of your streaming or gameplay.

However, when you have extremely high-quality video playing on your screen or you are playing high-end games that you want to record, OBS Studio tends to consume excessive CPU resources.  Therefore, OBS Studio is suitable for regular quality streaming and recording and it might crash if your computer configuration is not top-notch.

Recording:

If you are comparing OBS vs Streamlabs for recording, OBS is a clear winner. This is because OBS Studio heavily focuses on recording features while Streamlabs focuses on live streaming broadly. You can record video from any external device, you can modify recording quality, and you can switch between multiple scenes as required. It also comes with filters for color correction, chroma key, and masking for better recording.

Streaming:

OBS Studio is the most popular live streaming platform and this is due to its wide compatibility. Once you have Stream URL and Stream key, you can literally stream on any and all online platforms that allow live streaming. Starting from Twitch, YouTube and Facebook to even Instagram and Twitter, you can stream on all popular and not-so-popular platforms directly from your desktop.

Ease Of Use:

OBS can be a bit complicated to use for beginners. This is because the user interface is not as clean and intuitive as you would expect. However, once you start using the software for some time, you will get used to the controls and options. But the learning curve is rather steep and that is why many users opt for OBS alternatives. For ease of use, OBS Studio has loads of hotkeys through which you can perform all the different operations instantly.

Video Quality:

OBS Studio lets you customize the video quality as per your requirements. You can capture 4K video depending on your screen resolution or camera resolution. However, OBS automatically lowers the frame rate as the resolution of the video goes up which is not desirable. That is why users do not prefer OBS for recording 4K videos and mostly use it for standard, high-definition video quality.

Pros

Cons

2. About Streamlabs Desktop

Now that you have understood the pros and cons of OBS Studio, let us focus on Streamlabs and weigh it out on different parameters so that you can choose between streamlabs or OBS Studio easily.

Performance:

The best part of Streamlabs is that it sets the configuration parameters automatically depending on your system resources. Therefore, the pressure of CPU resources is always optimal so that there is no effect on recording or streaming performance. Moreover, it can automatically detect an active game if you are into recording gameplay.

However, there are many fancy features available which are useful such as test widget and custom themes that unnecessarily put pressure on CPU. But it lets you customize the UI, and you can remove the useless items so that the performance could be better. You can also optimize all automatically set parameters to satisfy your requirements.

Recording: 

You can record both screen and webcam on Streamlabs. You will find the feature of Selective Recording that lets you set the widgets such as notifications and live alerts that you want to see while recording.  Thanks to its widgets while recording, you do not have to switch between tabs to check important things. In comparison to OBS Studio, the range of compatibility of video and audio sources is not as wide as expected but the useful widgets are not available on OBS.

Streaming:

Streamlabs is best for live streaming on Facebook Gaming, Twitch, and YouTube. Get the stream key and run the optimizer to get the best settings to go live. Besides, there is an extremely useful Test mode available to ensure all the things are perfectly working as expected. There is a built-in widget available to check live chants and interact without switching. Streamlabs saves buffer replays so that you can play them back instantly in real-time. You also create highlights from live stream replays.

Ease of Use:

Streamlabs is super easy to use, and hence, it is perfect for beginners. You can customize the UI as per your requirements by dragging and dropping components. There are various integrated themes available to choose from. All the required options are easily available, and overall, the user interface is highly intuitive. Recording and live streaming can actually be fun with Streamlabs. There is no dearth of useful widgets that are exclusively available in Streamlabs only. Overall, Streamlabs beats OBS Studio completely in ease of use and better user interface.

Video quality: 

With Streamlabs, you can have the best quality video. It enables you to customize video settings and choose the resolution according to your preference. The common FPS value is 60 and it will automatically match the resolution of your monitor. You can record screen at 4K resolution without any glitches. You can easily install different add-ons for improving the video quality.

Pros

Cons

Conclusion:

If you are a beginner, Streamlabs is an automatic choice because the user interface is truly user-friendly. Even in terms of performance and video quality, Streamlabs scores over OBS Studio. However, OBS Studio is perfect for better recording and live streaming across all platforms. But specifically for gamers, Streamlabs is a better software thanks to its widgets and automation.