Fair review of owncast

In this article, I want to write my thoughts about Owncast. 

Owncast is a free, open-source, self-hosted and independent streaming server which can be connected to existing broadcasting software like OBS(Open Broadcasting Software).

It has so many awesome features like:

1. Chat and chat moderation
2. Admin panel for controlling the stream
3. Embedding into your own website
4. Third-party integration by using Rest APIs
5. Clean and organized documentation
6. Easily install and setup
7. etc.

These the good point which can find everywhere on the internet but the main agenda of this article is to share my experience with you.

I will start with the drawbacks.

1. The very 1st drawback is its supports a single stream. If you want to run another stream concurrently then you will need to install another copy of owncast on another server. This problem is solved by a software called Restreamer but this has no chat feature. If you want multiple streams and you don't need a chat feature then I will suggest going with Restreamer.
2. The admin panel password and stream key are always the same. If someone else or an influencer streaming for you then you must need to share the stream URL and key. And as I told the stream key is the same as the admin panel password this means the person who is streaming for you can control the stream or even can change the password in the admin panel. I personally tackle this problem with reverse proxy. I limit the access of the admin panel URL to my own IP. 
3. You can't stream private contents because the stream is publicly available. On the other hand, Restreamer supports private streaming. For private streaming, Restreamer uses a secret link to give your audience access to private content.
4. We can embed the owncast video player into our own website, but for customization, we need CSS3 skills. And if I want others to embed my iframe in their website with some scripts like google analytics etc. this is not possible with owncast easily.
5. You can restream to social media platforms like youtube, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok and Twitch etc.
   
   
   
6. Owncast only supports ingest RTMP. Restreamer supports multiple options like
1. IP Camera
3. USB Camera
4. External RTMP
5. External HLS
6. Ingest RTMP
   

I did this whole experience while working on Sajid Javed's Sports.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Thanks