Online church is here to stay. The question stopped being whether you stream a while ago. Now it’s which church live streaming company you trust with your Sunday service.
That choice matters more than most churches think. Members miss weekends for travel, illness, and kids’ soccer tournaments. Homebound folks depend on the stream. And the person who’s been burned by church before is far more likely to watch you from their couch than walk through your front doors.
I’ve updated this list for 2026 with current prices, free trials, and who each company fits best. A few things have changed since we first wrote it. Prices went up across the board, one company quietly stopped serving churches, and a new heavyweight joined the list.
What Is Church Live Streaming?
Church live streaming means broadcasting your service over the internet in real time, so people can watch on a phone, laptop, tablet, or smart TV as it happens.
Every stream runs through an encoder. It takes the video and audio from your cameras and soundboard and converts them into a format that can travel over the internet. Encoders come as hardware (a box in your tech booth) or software (a program like OBS, vMix, or ProPresenter on a computer). A good encoder is the difference between a clean picture and the buffering, out-of-sync audio that makes viewers click away.
From there, the encoder sends your stream to a platform. That’s where the companies on this list come in.
Why Your Church Should Be Streaming
1. You Serve People Who Can’t Be in the Room
This is the most obvious benefit, and it’s still the biggest. Homebound members, people in the hospital, parents up all night with a sick kid, families on vacation, college students who moved away. A stream keeps them connected to their church family on the weeks they can’t make it. That’s a big part of reaching more people without adding a single seat.
2. You Build Community Online, Too
A good stream isn’t a one-way broadcast. Viewers can chat, ask for prayer, and greet each other in real time. Put a volunteer online host in the chat and pair them with prayer partners, and online viewers start to feel like they belong, not like they’re watching through a window.
3. You Reach People Who Aren’t Ready to Walk In
For a lot of people, the first visit to your church happens on a screen. A livestream lets someone see what your services feel like before they ever park in your lot. Pew found that about two-thirds of people who watch services virtually are extremely or very satisfied with the experience. That’s a front door you can’t afford to keep closed.
For a lot of people, the first visit to your church happens on a screen.
Free vs. Paid: What You’re Actually Paying For
Paid streaming platforms do cost money, so here’s what that money buys you.
The downsides of paid platforms are real, too. They cost money every month, some cap your bandwidth or storage, and a few push you toward annual contracts. If you’re a small church just getting started, free is a perfectly good place to begin. Smaller churches on a budget have more options than ever.
The Best Free Options for Church Live Streaming
YouTube Live
YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine, which makes it the best free option for being found. Someone searching “church near me” or a sermon topic can land on your stream. It’s also easy to embed on your church website.
2026 requirements: Your channel needs to be verified, and live streaming has to be turned on (the first activation can take up to 24 hours). Streaming from a computer or encoder has no subscriber minimum. Going live from the mobile app requires at least 50 subscribers. Our YouTube guide for churches walks through the setup.
Facebook Live
Facebook is where many of your longtime members already spend time, and it’s built for interaction. People can react, comment, and share your stream with friends in real time. Facebook Live is a natural fit for building community.
2026 requirements: Since mid-2024, a Page needs at least 100 followers and an account at least 60 days old to go live. If your church Page is brand new, plan for that runway.
Church Online Platform
Life.Church’s Church Online Platform is still free. It isn’t a video host. It’s an engagement layer that wraps around your stream with live chat, prayer, and moments for people to respond, and you pair it with whichever streaming provider you use.
Featured Partner: Restream
The Best Paid Options for Church Live Streaming
When streaming becomes a core part of your weekend, a paid platform buys you reliability, your own branded player, and someone to call when something breaks at 10:55 on a Sunday. Here’s how the nine options compare at a glance.
Remember, your church needs a strong website to give your stream a home. Every option below lets you embed the player on your own site.
1. Resi
Resi is the name you’ll hear most often from larger and multisite churches, and for good reason. Its Resilient Streaming Protocol is built to keep your stream from dropping when your internet hiccups, and it’s one of the few platforms that handles multisite and overflow rooms well.
Resi now publishes its pricing. The Social Only plan is $99/month and streams to Facebook and YouTube in up to 1080p. Starter Lite ($159/month) adds website streaming and 200 GB of bandwidth. Pro ($299/month) adds app streaming and 1 TB of bandwidth. Separate multisite plans start at $129/month, and there’s a nonprofit pricing option on the pricing page. Support includes weekends, with proactive stream monitoring.
Best for: growing and multisite churches where a dropped stream isn’t an option.
2. BoxCast
BoxCast is built so a volunteer can run it. You schedule a broadcast and it starts on its own, and it simulcasts to Facebook, YouTube, and X while also running on your website.
Every plan includes unlimited viewers, auto captions, chat, and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Standard is $109/month billed annually ($119 month-to-month) with 90 days of storage. Deluxe is $169/month with a year of storage, and Advanced is $249/month with 1080p60 and up to three broadcasts at once. Add-ons include branded TV apps for Roku, Apple TV, and Fire TV, plus RemoteMix, which lets a remote volunteer mix your stream audio.
Best for: churches whose streams are run by rotating volunteers.
3. Subsplash Live
Subsplash is new to this list. It replaces Haivision, which no longer markets to churches. Subsplash is one of the biggest names in church tech, and Roper Technologies announced plans to acquire it in 2025 for about $800 million. Subsplash Live streams your service into your Subsplash church app and website alongside sermons, giving, and groups.
Pricing is by quote and bundled with Subsplash’s app, website, and giving tools. That’s the appeal: one vendor, one login.
Best for: churches that want streaming, their app, and online giving under one roof.
4. Dacast
Dacast serves businesses of every kind, but it has a dedicated page for churches and houses of worship. Every plan is ad-free with unlimited concurrent viewers and a white-label player you can brand as your own.
On annual billing, Starter is $39/month (2.4 TB of bandwidth a year), Event is $63/month, and Scale is $165/month. Month-to-month billing costs more and requires a three-month minimum. There’s a 14-day free trial.
Best for: budget-minded churches comfortable with a general-purpose platform.
5. SermonCast
SermonCast has served churches since 2006. All plans are ad-free and include simulated live (so you can rebroadcast at other times), rebroadcasting to Facebook and YouTube, and analytics.
Billed yearly, Starter is $59/month for live or on-demand video. Standard ($129/month) adds an auto-archive and a Virtual Campus with chat, sermon notes, and a visitor form. Plus ($269/month) adds branded Roku, Apple TV, and Firestick apps. SermonCast offers a free demo.
Best for: churches that want an online campus experience, not just a video player.
6. ChurchStreaming.tv
ChurchStreaming.tv is now part of Ministry Brands. The viewer page is customizable with sermon notes, moderated prayer requests, and chat. You can stream to your website, app, YouTube, Facebook, Apple TV, and any RTMP destination, with a built-in DVR and automatic archive.
Support is available seven days a week. Pricing isn’t posted on the site, but third-party listings put it at around $79/month. There’s a 30-day free trial, so you can see the real number before you commit.
Best for: churches already using other Ministry Brands tools.
7. StreamingChurch.tv
Not to be confused with the one above, StreamingChurch.tv is also built only for churches. Every plan includes unlimited viewers and bandwidth, ad-free streaming, moderated chat, sermon notes, an attendee map, and Roku, Apple TV, and Chromecast apps.
Plans are Basic at $79/month, Premium at $127/month, and Platinum at $179/month. The upper plans add an AI sermon clipper (great for short-form video), simulated live, and simulcasting to social media. The 30-day free trial requires no credit card.
Best for: churches that want predictable pricing with no bandwidth surprises.
8. Sermon.net
Sermon.net is still the lowest-cost option on the list. You get ad-free 1080p streaming on your website, simulcasting to Facebook and YouTube, archive trimming, podcast distribution, and Roku and Apple TV apps.
Starter is $20/month (25 GB), Growing is $38/month (100 GB), and Outreach is $70/month (300 GB), with small discounts for paying annually. Watch the data caps. Overage runs $0.60/GB, so pick a plan that fits your actual audience.
Best for: smaller churches with modest online audiences.
9. StreamShark
StreamShark is a professional platform built for large organizations. It does multistreaming, live DVR rewind, privacy controls, and a unified chat that pulls every platform into one box.
It’s also the priciest on the list. On annual billing, Standard is $159/month (1 TB), Team is $399/month, and Business is $799/month. Month-to-month plans cost about 20% more. There’s a 14-day free trial on request.
Best for: large churches and ministries running conferences or many events a month.
How to Choose the Right Church Live Streaming Company
The best platform isn’t the one with the longest feature list. It’s the one your team can run well every single Sunday.
A feature-packed plan nobody knows how to run is worse than a simple one your volunteers run with confidence.
Before you sign up, rank what matters most to your church:
Then match your situation to a starting point:
Whatever you choose, don’t forget the people on the other side of the screen. Assign an online host, point viewers to a clear next step, and track who’s watching. The stream gets them in the door. Your people and your website help them stay.
Is your website ready for your online visitors?
Your livestream brings people to your church online. Your website is where they decide to take the next step. We'll take a free look at your church's website and online presence and show you exactly what to fix so first-time viewers become first-time guests.
