Dacast

4.4 (228)
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Video hosting platform for business

Overall rating

4.4 /5
(228)
Value for Money
4.1/5
Features
4.1/5
Ease of Use
4.2/5
Customer Support
4.2/5

86%
recommended this app
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228 Reviews

John
John
Overall rating
  • Industry: Nonprofit Organization Management
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

Reliable and easy to use

Reviewed on 2019/10/08

We use it extensively to stream weekly tutorials, as well as live feed conferences and events....

We use it extensively to stream weekly tutorials, as well as live feed conferences and events. Overall, our experience has been very positive and you can quickly talk to a real persona if you get stuck or something´s not working.

Pros

Dacast is a solid streaming platform backed by an excellent support team which have helped me sort out configuration and integration into our e-learning platforms. I also like the fact that it´s highly customizable and integrates well into OBS studio and HTML pages, as well as Facebook. All in all, the quality/value for money ratio is well worth it.

Cons

The latency is annoying (can be up to 15 secondes) and the upgrade payment to eliminate it is really too expensive.

Response from DaCast

Hi John! Thanks a lot for your comments, we take the point on the pricing. We are always trying to find cheaper solutions to put on the market, we will announce it if we have anything new on this!

Juan C
Overall rating
  • Industry: Religious Institutions
  • Company size: Self Employed
  • Used Weekly for 6-12 months
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

Quick & Easy Setup for your Church

Reviewed on 2021/03/26

Overall, we have been using Dacast's Streaming Starter Package since July 2020 and have had zero...

Overall, we have been using Dacast's Streaming Starter Package since July 2020 and have had zero issues. I am extremely pleased with the service and that our church members are able to watch Online, via Facebook and other Social Media, or by hosted page from our Website. Additionally,

Pros

I am new to Webcasting, and was apprehensive initially when deciding on a streaming service. However, once I tried Dacast and saw how simple, quick, and easy it was to use I was convinced. I love that we have the ability stream our church services and that Dacast works with OBS which is what we use to create our streams. Additionally, after streaming, we have the added capability of hosting our recording as a Video On Demand option for those that were not able to catch the live stream. Also, the other reason that I chose Dacast was that our streaming and video hosting service is not competing with millions of others on free or publicly accessible options. It does require an investment upfront (I am using the starter package) and have not run out of capacity nor has anybody that connects has filed any sort of complaints. This service functions as advertised and I think it is well worth the investment, especially for teams that are new to web .

Cons

Where I believe the product could use some improvements is on the Analytics area. I think that there should be some options or features that allow us to track specific users. In our case, I would love it if I could assign some sort of "Credential" or "ID" to users so that when they either watch online or watch "recordings", I could be able to track who where the users. There are other reports, hwo

Alternatives Considered

Vimeo Livestream and Zoom Workplace

Reasons for Switching to Dacast

I chose Dacast because I provided what I really wanted from a streaming service: A professional and easy to use interface, No Ads or Suggested "other" videos, and I wanted to be able to host my own recordings after the fact. Dacast provides all these things at a reasonable price.
Larry
Overall rating
  • Industry: Broadcast Media
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 0.0 /10

Lot of investment

Reviewed on 2022/06/01

You guys need to realize that if we have trouble using your program we fail our customers and they...

You guys need to realize that if we have trouble using your program we fail our customers and they will not hire us. Our customers ARE Your customers. If we fail you fail

I would check to when most of your streaming happens. I’m gonna guess the weekends and nights. So when do you offer support? I be never gotten you when I needed you the most and it had cost me business. People are already suspicious of streaming and I have to use all the elite features or I can’t separate from Facebook streamers. Most importantly they must be easy to use.

Pros

The layers are good. It follows logic. The audio is a bit confusing.

Cons

There are so many variables that you have to be Very good problem solver and completely knowledgeable about product and how third party interacts

Response from DaCast

Hello Larry, thank you for leaving a review! We are always trying to find ways to improve our platform and make it more user friendly. Could you please let me know what it is specifically that you are finding challenging so I may be able to further assist you? Thank you!

John
Overall rating
  • Industry: Religious Institutions
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 8.0 /10

Ideal for church live streaming

Reviewed on 2022/07/21

Dacast has been a valuable platform by which we can connect with our parishioners, both local and...

Dacast has been a valuable platform by which we can connect with our parishioners, both local and in remote locations.

Pros

The Dacast platform provides great value for money.
The move to the Limelight CDN platform has give much lower latency, and a generally improved connection experience for viewers.
Works seamlessly with OBS and most hardware encoders.

Cons

Some viewers have difficulty making a connection to a live stream, since connection to the video feed is not automatic once the streaming url is displayed.
Analytics are not fully available on the basic plan, and sometimes do not show at all.
Brand image does not always display in the same location of the streaming window, depending on the aspect ratio of the device used to view the stream.
Multi bitrate streaming appears to be unavailable with the Limelight platform.

Alternatives Considered

YouTube

Reasons for Switching to Dacast

Dacast is an add-free platform. Inaccurate labelling of copyright breaches by Youtube, unmanageable means of recourse.
Alan
Overall rating
  • Industry: Religious Institutions
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 8.0 /10

Solid Church Live Stream Platform

Reviewed on 2022/07/18

Excellent reliability. Been streaming with Dacast for sever years now and never had a failure....

Excellent reliability. Been streaming with Dacast for sever years now and never had a failure. Solid, reliable streaming every time

Pros

Dacast gives us all we need to live stream our services at a competetive price. We're not a huge ministry so price is important to us, and other providers don't seem to get that and offer such competetive rates for small users who want to grow

Cons

The customised OBS version needs updating. You don't have to use it, but it's a good option for new starters

jason
Overall rating
  • Industry: Entertainment
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

Great people. Great service.

Reviewed on 2019/06/21

We needed the ability to allow our entire user base to be able to upload video game performance...

We needed the ability to allow our entire user base to be able to upload video game performance videos directly into the service. This means many thousands of different people from anywhere in the world, with incredibly large video uploads.

We were able to accomplish this. There is nothing more to say.

Pros

Bottom line is that it works. It's consistent. It's straightforward. The support available is prompt, understanding and interested in supplying the best product and service they can.

Cons

I have no complaints. The software and company have completely met my expectations. I am not exaggerating.

Alternatives Considered

Vimeo

Reasons for Choosing Dacast

We needed complete control over our incoming videos in every way shape and form. Youtube does not allow that.

Reasons for Switching to Dacast

Vimeo was incapable of providing the specific kind of service we needed. They were just not as flexible.

Response from DaCast

Hi Jason! Thanks a lot for your review. We are so pleased to keep on working with you and will definitely keep on serving you for many more adventures!

Jose
Overall rating
  • Industry: Religious Institutions
  • Company size: 51–200 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

Great product for Churches

Reviewed on 2022/04/20

Very easy to use, live-stream has never failed.

Very easy to use, live-stream has never failed.

Pros

The live stream file that it provides is easy to integrate with subsplash, an app developer/platform we use for our custom app.

Cons

When you delete videos that have been recorded, you don’t get your memory back. When you’re not streaming, the not available feature doesn’t work with subsplash, instead you get an error.

Alternatives Considered

Resi

Reasons for Switching to Dacast

The free trial and testing I was able to do ahead to see what features worked with my platforms.
Ignacio
Overall rating
  • Industry: Telecommunications
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

reliable system, never had a transmission break

Reviewed on 2022/04/18

the best thing it has is its reliability and that makes a huge difference with other services,...

the best thing it has is its reliability and that makes a huge difference with other services, compared to vimeo the value is higher... but vimeo has also suffered worldwide outages. In a professional environment it is the most reliable service

Pros

easy to use and integration in a landing page

Cons

has no a multibitrate like youtube or vimeo, the multibitrate it´s manual

Alternatives Considered

Vimeo Livestream

Reasons for Switching to Dacast

I have been using dacast for years in professional transmissions to companies and corporations, zero failures
Martin
Overall rating
  • Industry: Religious Institutions
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 1+ year
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

Live Streaming

Reviewed on 2022/06/02

Overall a very positive experience and has transformed our business, especially through the...

Overall a very positive experience and has transformed our business, especially through the Pandemic.
We had a glitch earler this year with the payment account and this was ironed out very quickly and efficiently :)

Pros

Reliability and ease of use. Works with no fuss and the if there is ever a problem the online help is very effective.

Cons

No issues whatsoever. I was sceptical about the online help, but this has turned out to be very good indeed.

Paul
Paul
Overall rating
  • Industry: Religious Institutions
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 0.0 /10

They doubled the price of our subscription

Reviewed on 2022/07/18

Dacast worked for us for a few years and did what it was supposed to. We only needed it for live...

Dacast worked for us for a few years and did what it was supposed to. We only needed it for live streaming and it did that well. The analytics sometimes worked and sometimes didn't. We were happy with it when we only had the $19/month package but when they raised the price to $39/month we switched to another provider. We didn't need the extra storage or pay wall features they were adding so the price increase didn't make sense for us to keep the service. We switched to another provider and are very happy with our decision. Dacast also made it very difficult to cancel their service and in the end the only reason they did cancel it was because our card on file was expired. Otherwise they would have ignored my multiple emails and requests to cancel the service and I doubt I would have been refunded a full amount.

Pros

It worked reliably. It didn't do anything fancy which made it solid, and they did make things easy to change on my end when they upgraded their distribution services. Once you set it up, you kind of forgot about it because it just sat in the background and worked, which was ideal.

Cons

It didn't stream to social media, you had to constantly remember to turn on live stream recording.

Leah
Overall rating
  • Industry: Religious Institutions
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

Making God's Message More Accessible

Reviewed on 2022/05/02

Pros

We live stream our morning worship service every week. This software is wonderful! Members who cannot attend in person, for whatever reason, are able to tune in from wherever they are and not miss anything! The convenience also allows us to reach someone who may not be a regular attendee. This is a wonderful tool for our church, and would recommend it to anyone.

Cons

At this point, there hasn't been anything brought to my attention that I feel needs to be improved.

Henry
Overall rating
  • Industry: Religious Institutions
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 1+ year
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

Media Ministry Leader

Reviewed on 2022/04/18

Rebuilding from the ground up encourages growth, interest, technical incite and appreciation of the...

Rebuilding from the ground up encourages growth, interest, technical incite and appreciation of the service by those using your service.

Pros

It was interesting and intense, while intriguing for me to transition to from the old and outdated format that I was accustomed to.

Cons

Breaking from the Norm and being instructed from scratch about the changes.

Donald
Overall rating
  • Industry: Religious Institutions
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 1+ year
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 7.0 /10

Good product, good tech support, only adequate secondary programming support of the service

Reviewed on 2022/04/20

The overall useability of the service is very good, however the programmers need to take issues...

The overall useability of the service is very good, however the programmers need to take issues more seriously and get them corrected. It is very frustrating to have to check every Sunday to see if there is enough room for a recording to take place.

Pros

The ease of use, straight forward website and stream programming functions

Cons

When we signed up for Dacast the website worked great but then after a few months Dacast went through a full website redesign. After that I have had problems with the website tracking how much space our recordings are taking up. It has been about a year and the problem is still not fully resolved. The website does not track our recordings correctly. I counts a recording and deducts the size of the recording from our allotted space however it will not deduct that space when I have deleted the recording from their storage thus stopping the system from allowing a recording to be saved. Almost ever Sunday for over a year I have had to contact tech support to clear our storage so a recording can take place. I know this is a software issue however it should not take this long to correct the problem.

Wayne
Overall rating
  • Industry: Education Management
  • Company size: 51–200 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 1+ year
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

OBS is great for High School Sports

Reviewed on 2022/05/05

Pros

If you are tired of producing all of the content and then having the NFHS keep most of your revenue, you need to use DaCast. The revenue for my program tripled when I was able to control the price and keep the NFHS out of my pocket. DaCast allowed me to do that. Once you get it configured (great customer service), you are done. It is literally a one button press to start streaming. You also have full control over pricing. For instance, we allow our booster club to view our streams for free and charge pay per view for everyone else. This is no problem for DaCast's paywall.

Cons

I would like more customization control over the look of the paywall. I have had customers who are expecting our logo ask me if this is the right place or is it phishing.

Ian
Overall rating
  • Industry: Staffing & Recruiting
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

Video job descriptions made possible through Dacast

Reviewed on 2021/06/25

I love dacast it’s an integral part of my business, I use it daily, please keep up the good work

I love dacast it’s an integral part of my business, I use it daily, please keep up the good work

Pros

Quality
Reliability
Ease of use
Video view, it slides across making selection easy

Cons

Setting out folders, I’ve not figured this out and would like help

Alternatives Considered

Vimeo

Reasons for Switching to Dacast

Mainly Pricing and dacast festures
Nicola
Overall rating
  • Industry: Entertainment
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

Best video streaming software

Reviewed on 2021/03/18

We have been using DaCast and its software to stream video for 10 years and never had an issue. Our...

We have been using DaCast and its software to stream video for 10 years and never had an issue. Our website has a video stream that runs 24/7 and includes both live and recorded video. During that 10 years of constant streaming we have only had 3 technical issues that stopped the stream and each time the issue was resolved immediately. The set up is extremely easy and if assistance is need the customer service team is very responsive and helpful.

Pros

The quality of the stream is very high and the backend design is intuitive and easy to navigate. The software is easy to install, set up and use. If help is need the customer support team is terrific and available to help. The ability to monetize the stream is easy and has many options which is very important for our company as we do "ticketed" live events.

Cons

There is nothing I dislike, which is why we have been customers for 10 years.

Paul
Overall rating
  • Industry: Information Technology & Services
  • Company size: 201–500 Employees
  • Used Daily for 6-12 months
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

Live Traffic and Utilities Status

Reviewed on 2022/06/10

So far we are able to reliably deliver live traffic conditions to the public. This helps travelers...

So far we are able to reliably deliver live traffic conditions to the public. This helps travelers make decisions for avoiding congestion and trips during inclement weather. Ability to live stream utility system updates saves time and money.

Pros

Support is outstanding! Once the pattern for setup of streaming devices (cameras, screenshots, etc.) is understood, setting up additional streaming channels is easy.

Cons

Inability to limit each viewer session to a specific amount of time within Dacast setup. We are still struggling to set this up within our own web pages.

Ken
Ken
Overall rating
  • Used Daily for 1-5 months
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

Excellent customer support! Cost, features, and support are the reasons to consider them.

Reviewed on 2018/06/19

I migrated away from Wistia (a fine company) to VZAAR. Why? Because VZAAR doesn't charge per video....

I migrated away from Wistia (a fine company) to VZAAR. Why? Because VZAAR doesn't charge per video. I host over 400 smaller-sized videos and growing. That's a big bill at 25 cents per video at Wistia. So that was a "good enough" reason to change. But here's what I found in VZAAR that was a pleasant surprise during their free trial: AMAZINGLY EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SUPPORT. The chat support was phenomenal. The response times were excellent. They were patient as I learned and navigated their admittedly more complex UI. There are some things that Wistia (or others) may do slightly better. For now. But for SUPPORT... VZAAR wins the day.

I highly recommend VZAAR to anyone looking for rock-solid hosting, fast performance, fair pricing, mature hosting features, and excellent support.

Try them out for free for 30 days. You won't be disappointed.

Pros

Cost and features. Also, some of the best support I've ever received. Amazingly powerful and versatile.

Cons

The back-end UI is in need of updating. But once I got used to it, it was not a deal-killer at all. Don't let the initial appearance of the back-end scare you off.

Tony
Overall rating
  • Industry: Events Services
  • Company size: Self Employed
  • Used Weekly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

Dacast Review

Reviewed on 2022/04/19

It's been a long road with Dacast, and it as certainly improved over the years. I look forward to...

It's been a long road with Dacast, and it as certainly improved over the years. I look forward to Dacast's continuing growth, service and feature improvenets, and overall success.

Pros

Easy to implement into my workflow (player embedding, etc.) .
The CDN reaches a large audience and hads been reliable.

Cons

Anayltics could be better, especially real-time (live). Need to know actual number of connected devices (audience/users) at a given moment in time. This will give us an indication of when people are watching and when peple are leaving. This informs programming decisions for future broadcasts. ie what engages the audiene, and what does not.

Esther
Overall rating
  • Industry: Religious Institutions
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 7.0 /10

Happy user of dacast.

Reviewed on 2022/07/18

Good. The streaming goes well.

Good. The streaming goes well.

Pros

I am mainly using it for live streaming. I was not involved in buying it and setting it up. It works well, but I don't know how well compared to other software, because I have never done any live streaming.

Cons

Sometimes I have to search for functionalities. For example paywall and setting up discount voucher. It is not that difficult once you know it, but somehow sometimes counter intuitive.

Robert
Overall rating
  • Industry: Religious Institutions
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 4.0 /10

Mixed Feelings

Reviewed on 2022/05/02

It is a good platform but as I search I am surely finding more for my buck with a couple other...

It is a good platform but as I search I am surely finding more for my buck with a couple other companies.

Pros

Real time rather easy to menuever through

Cons

They don't seem very concerned when you have an issue and it takes a week to solve or you get no response or a response we will get back

Alternatives Considered

Castr
Jason
Overall rating
  • Industry: Education Management
  • Company size: 201–500 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 1.0 /10

It worked for us

Reviewed on 2022/05/02

Not a big fan. I was advertised to a lot, never got the support I needed.

Not a big fan. I was advertised to a lot, never got the support I needed.

Pros

I was able to get our content into China.

Cons

Difficult to incorporate with my hardware, it became unwieldy, and had to use third-party companies. Finally decided to use something more user-friendly.

Ignace
Ignace
Overall rating
  • Used Daily for 1-5 months
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support

Paid 499 dollars and haven't been able to upload a single file......

Reviewed on 2018/03/02

Pros

Nothing, as I can't get it to work. It's probably easier if you only have to upload small files. The customer support is fair, you do get a response although sometimes the "copy/paste" response that does not quite adress your issue.

Cons

You would think that uploading a file should be a fairly easy task, but uploading files bigger than 2GB proved to be a FTP nightmare. If you need to upload large files, stay clear of DaCast it's a total waste of money. Pay a little more for an alternative that actually works.

Response from DaCast

Hi Ignace,

We are disappointed to hear your frustration. However, as mentionned in one of your email, this upload issue got fixed and you could upload video on our platform.
Please do not hesitate to call your account executive or contact us via our 24/7 support chat if you encounter any other issue.

In the meantime, happy streaming!

Gene
Overall rating
  • Industry: Music
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Monthly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 9.0 /10

Dacast is the best professionalm pick

Reviewed on 2022/04/19

Pros

Professional service that always works

Cons

More expensive then YouTube or FB

Will
Will
Overall rating
  • Industry: Religious Institutions
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 1+ year
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

Awesome product

Reviewed on 2022/05/03

Pros

Makes it easy to quickly get into live streaming. Cost is also reasonable compared to alternatives.

Cons

Not really any cons that I can think of.