Castreon compared with other streaming servers
What each product does, what it costs and when it is the right choice — from the documentation and price lists published by the vendors, with source and date. No free products and no claims we cannot back up.
Public information verified on October 23, 2026.
Astra (Cesbo)
Specialist in DVB reception and stream distribution — does not transcode.
Full comparison →xaccel (X Acceleration Engine / Codec)
Complete operator platform (Engine) and transcoder (Codec), with subscribers and resellers.
Full comparison →Flussonic Media Server
Very feature-rich media server; active development ended in 2026.
Full comparison →Wowza Streaming Engine
Mature general-purpose streaming server, extensible through Java; paid per instance and per channel.
Full comparison →Nimble Streamer
Streaming server with a great many protocols, managed from the WMSPanel cloud panel.
Full comparison →Main features, all products
| Feature | Castreon | Astra | xaccel | Flussonic | Wowza | Nimble |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Video transcoding | yes — CPU, NVIDIA, Intel Quick Sync, VA-API | no — other software (FFmpeg or Senta) | yes — CPU, Intel Quick Sync, NVIDIA | yes — CPU, NVIDIA (Intel Quick Sync not supported) | yes — CPU, NVIDIA, Intel Quick Sync, Xilinx, NETINT | yes — CPU, NVIDIA, Intel Quick Sync, VA-API, with Live Transcoder (separate license) |
| AV1 encoding | yes | not applicable (no transcoding) | yes (NVIDIA) | yes (NVIDIA Ada or newer) | not publicly documented | yes (NVIDIA) |
| DVB reception (cards, SAT>IP) | DVB-C, DVB-T, DVB-T2, DVB-S, DVB-S2, plus SAT>IP, T2-MI and BISS | DVB-C, DVB-T, DVB-T2, DVB-S, DVB-S2, plus T2-MI, SAT>IP and BISS | DVB-C, DVB-T, DVB-T2, DVB-S, DVB-S2, plus ATSC, ISDB-T, SAT>IP and BISS | DVB-T, DVB-C, DVB-S, plus T2-MI | not publicly documented | not publicly documented |
| 24/7 channels from files (playout) | yes — library, playlists, EPG (Pro); day-and-time schedule, live takeover, SCTE-35 (Enterprise) | not publicly documented | only a single file looped as a live source | yes — server-side playlist, looped or on a schedule | via the StreamPublisher module, installed separately | with Live Transcoder (separate license) |
| RIST | input and output | not publicly documented | not publicly documented | not publicly documented | not publicly documented | input and output |
| LL-HLS (low latency) | yes | not publicly documented | not publicly documented | yes | yes | yes |
| MPEG-DASH | yes | not publicly documented | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| WebRTC (playback) | yes (Enterprise) | not publicly documented | not publicly documented | yes | yes | yes (WHEP) |
| AES-128 encrypted HLS | yes, with a key server included, in all plans | not publicly documented | not publicly documented | yes | yes, without a complete key server | yes |
| DRM Widevine · PlayReady · FairPlay | yes, through your DRM provider (Enterprise) | not publicly documented | not publicly documented | yes, with many DRM providers | through a partner's module, paid separately | yes, in Addenda (separate license) |
| SCTE-35 (ad breaks) | from live sources into HLS (Enterprise) | passed through in HLS | not publicly documented | yes, including server-side ad insertion (SSAI) | splice_insert only, through a module from GitHub | passed through |
| Backup source (failover) | yes, in all plans | yes — input backup (active or passive) | yes — backup source URLs | yes | not publicly documented | with Live Transcoder (separate license) |
| Several servers from one panel | yes — servers and channels from one panel, channel taken from another server (Enterprise) | not publicly documented | yes — separately licensed servers, CDN and automatic assignment (Engine) | yes, but for new clusters the vendor points to Catena | yes — origin-edge and load balancing | yes — from WMSPanel, in the cloud |
| Two-factor authentication in the panel | yes | not publicly documented | not publicly documented | not publicly documented | not publicly documented | yes (WMSPanel) |
| Audit log (who changed what) | yes | not publicly documented | yes (Professional and Enterprise plans) | not publicly documented | not publicly documented | not publicly documented |
Cost example: 1 server, 20 channels transcoded on the GPU, one month
| Castreon | €49 (Pro: 150 channels, GPU transcoding) |
|---|---|
| Astra (Cesbo) | cannot be calculated from public prices: Astra does not transcode, and the price of the transcoding product (Senta) is not published |
| xaccel (X Acceleration Engine / Codec) | €60 (Engine Base or Codec NVENC) |
| Flussonic Media Server | cannot be calculated: there is no public price list for this scenario |
| Wowza Streaming Engine | $445 ($195 with 10 channels included + 10 extra channels × $25) |
| Nimble Streamer | $120 ($20 account + $50 instance + $50 Live Transcoder) |
Our calculation, from the list prices published by each vendor, without discounts and excluding VAT. Check the current price with the vendor before you decide.
How we compare
- We use only each vendor's official sources: website, documentation, price list. Every page lists its sources and the verification date.
- When we cannot find a feature in the public documentation, we write “not publicly documented”, not “does not have it”.
- We also say where another product is the better choice — each one was built for different needs.
Comparison made by Web Tools IT, which develops Castreon, based on information published by the vendors and verified on October 23, 2026. Prices and features may change — check them with the vendor. “Not publicly documented” means we did not find the feature in the vendor's public documentation on the verification date, not that it is missing. Product names are trademarks of their respective owners; Castreon is not affiliated with them. If something is no longer correct, write to us at [email protected] and we will correct it.