Is openVidu cheaper in comparison to CloudflareStream, Mux, and even wowza?

Issues developing apps
1

Hi! First I wanted to ask the devs directly via commercial@openvidu.io but then I saw that you guys also have a discourse forum, and then I thought “Oh nice I will just ask here because some people might have the same question one day”

https://openvidu.io/pricing

I am building a social network like instagram. Therefore I also want to have live streams like Instagram has (1:m). Also duo streams like instagram has (m:m). I also want to enable content creators to stream gaming like on Twitch. And of course I want to enable my users to make private (video) phone calls to each other 1:1. For moderation reasons I also need to record public streams. As I saw openVidu offers everything of that!

Since I won’t earn much money, but have high usage, I need a very cheap solution. Therefore I can’t use Cloudflare Stream or Mux, since they are very expensive. They are not suited for a use case with much user generated traffic with little money.

is openVidu cheaper than Mux, agora, CloudflareStreams and wowza? I can’t understand the openvidu core pricing -

Can someone maybe explain the pricing to me? E.g Live streams are always 720p 30fps. And I want to record & store externally all public streams; it’s a twitch live stream. one is streaming and the others just watching.

How much minutes of live-streaming do I get at openvidu-pro for $1? At Cloudflare/Mux I get 1000 minutes, which is very little. Only ~166 users could live stream for an hour for $1. That’s too expensive for me. How many minutes would I get at openVidu?

thanks a lot in advance and sorry for that dumb questions!

2

Maybe you guys have an answer @cruizba @micael.gallego

sorry for tagging you all (._.)

3

@pabloFuente

thanks a lot in advance

4

OpenVidu can be cheaper than typical hosted alternatives. But it depends on multiple factors.

  1. You have to select a hosting with cheap machines and cheap network transference costs (because videocalls transfer a lot of information).

  2. You have to use the individual recording so CPU usage is minimum. Composed recording allows you to create composed videos but consumes more CPU.

  3. As license is charged when OpenVidu platform is up and running (no matter if it is being used or not), you have to turn off the service when you are not using it (also to save cloud provider bills). Also, use the minimum CPUs you need in each moment. For that, autoscaling feature is the best choice.

We are working on a calculator so you can define some scenarios and calculate the price per session or per participant. But it is still on the works.

Best regards

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5

Thank you very much for your reply!!

  1. Which hosting can you recommend? I thought AWS was cheap, isn’t it? Or is there an even cheaper alternative?

  2. Ahhh thanks now I understand that! The 0.0006$ core/minute are just licensing costs! No problem (y) I already wondered ‘one cpu core that servers live streams for just 3 cents per hour???’

Could you maybe tackle that example and somehow suggest how the pricing with Openvidu would be? With pricing I mean how much I would pay for AWS server costs.

This example here is very awesome, but how much would it cost now with AWS?

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I know it also depends on factors like datacenter geolocation and so on, but I just want a simple estimate to be able to compare it to CloudflareStream/Mux. I think generally openVidu would profit from having such comparisons on their website. Because many basic-average devs like me don’t want or have time to spend on exploring new awesome things like openVidu, that’s why they always go with mainstream solutions like CloudflareStreamd/Mux etc. Though not even knowing the power of openVidu. We new generation SaaS noob devs don’t know any stuff about clusters cores and all that stuff, we just use ready-to-go solutions like Firebase Cloudflare Workers Mux and so on. We spend more time on creating a great user experience, and therefore we use SaaS because we want to spend more time on the UX instead of complicated backend stuff

So, per hour, how much AWS server costs and licensing costs would I pay now for 26 7x7 rooms with 720p quality?
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I just want a simple estimation, you are the pro you know the prics better (y) So that I can compare it better to cfstreams/mux/…

thanks a lot I really appreciate your help!

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any answer? ._. i know the question is dumb but i really have no clue. i just want to compare prices

7

So listen as stated before live streaming and post video processing isn’t cheap.
If you want the best bank for your dollar then I would suggest you check out https://www.hivelocity.net/
I currently have a colocation with them and I use an older Dell R710 to handle all the openVideu workloads and it handles them great. You do realize that there is a community edition which has been work fine for me.
Thanks John

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