Last updated: 2026-01-15

For most people in the U.S., the fastest, least stressful way to stream tutorials is to open StreamYard in your browser, share your screen and camera, and go live to YouTube or Facebook in a few clicks. If you need highly customized, desktop-level control and are comfortable configuring encoders, OBS or Streamlabs can be useful alternatives alongside StreamYard.

Summary

• Start with StreamYard’s browser studio to stream your screen, mic, and camera with minimal setup.
• Use clear audio, simple layouts, and a repeatable outline so your tutorial feels polished without heavy editing.
• Add guests, slides, and multi-aspect outputs to repurpose the same tutorial for desktop and mobile in one pass.
• Bring in OBS or Streamlabs later only if you hit very specific technical limits and are ready for more complexity.

How do you plan a tutorial stream that people actually watch?

Before you touch any software, outline the session like a lesson, not a casual hangout. A simple structure works well:

1. Hook (30–60 seconds) – State the problem and the outcome: “In the next 15 minutes, you’ll learn how to build a StreamYard layout for coding tutorials.”
2. Roadmap – Quickly list the 3–5 steps you’ll cover.
3. Live demo – Share your screen and walk through the process in real time.
4. Recap – Summarize the steps and show the final result on screen.
5. Q&A or call to action – Answer questions or point viewers to a next step (playlist, download, or course).

Two practical tips that matter more than fancy effects:

• Teach one core outcome per stream. Multiple topics per session make your replay hard to title, chapter, and reuse.
• Design for the replay. Assume most people will watch the recording. That’s why clean audio, clear pacing, and a tidy layout matter more than perfect live chat banter.

How do you set up StreamYard for tutorial streaming?

You can run your entire tutorial workflow in the browser, without installing software. At a high level, you:

1. Create a StreamYard studio and destinations – After logging in, you create a live stream, choose YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, or another supported platform (plus RTMP for others), then name your stream and schedule it if you like. (StreamYard Help)
2. Connect your camera and mic – Pick your webcam and microphone from the device menu. You also get independent control of your screen audio and mic audio, so you can mute tab sounds or your voice separately when needed.
3. Share your screen – Use “Share” to capture a browser tab, window, or full desktop. StreamYard can record your screen, mic, and camera together in one session, which you can later publish to places like YouTube. (StreamYard blog)
4. Pick a layout – Choose a side‑by‑side layout (camera + screen) or full-screen screen share with a small camera overlay so viewers see both your face and the tutorial steps.
5. Use presenter notes – Keep bullet notes visible only to you in the studio so you can stay on track without looking away from the camera.

Creators who prioritize ease of use over complex setups in tools like OBS or Streamlabs often end up here: they want to hit “Go live,” teach, and stop thinking about bitrate sliders.

How do you present slides and webcam simultaneously in StreamYard?

Many tutorials are really slide decks plus short live demos. You can run that entire flow in one StreamYard session:

1. Upload or share slides
   • Either upload a slide deck file or share the window where your slides are open.
2. Add your camera
   • Turn on your camera and choose a layout that shows both you and the slides. Picture‑in‑picture tends to work best for tutorials.
3. Use branded overlays
   • Add your logo, lower-thirds, and consistent colors so viewers instantly recognize your series.
4. Switch between slides and live demo
   • When it’s time to show the product or code, switch your shared window from slides to the app or browser you’re teaching in. Viewers stay in the same stream and layout while your visuals change.

Because StreamYard supports multi-participant screen sharing, you can even have a co-instructor share their screen for part of the tutorial, then switch back without reconfiguring scenes.

How do you multistream a tutorial to YouTube and Facebook?

Most U.S. creators don’t need to stream to dozens of destinations; YouTube plus one or two social platforms is usually enough. StreamYard is built around that reality.

On paid plans, you can multistream a single show from your browser to several supported destinations at once instead of sending a separate stream to each. The same upload from your computer is fanned out in the cloud, so your hardware only sends one stream. (StreamYard Help)

A simple multistream setup for tutorials looks like this:

1. Create one broadcast in StreamYard.
2. Add YouTube and Facebook as destinations (plus LinkedIn or others if they’re part of your strategy). (StreamYard Supported Platforms)
3. Go live once. Viewers can watch on whichever platform they prefer; you monitor chat from inside the studio.

Paid plans also support Guest Destinations, where each guest can connect up to two of their own channels per broadcast (within an overall cap). That’s helpful when co-instructors want to simulcast to their audiences without learning extra tools. (StreamYard Help)

If you truly need advanced routing to many niche platforms or want to manage multiple separate output encoders, that’s where you might supplement your setup with desktop tools or third-party relay services.

What about vertical and horizontal versions of the same tutorial?

Tutorial creators increasingly have two audiences:

• Desktop learners on YouTube, who expect landscape video.
• Mobile-first learners on platforms that prefer vertical video.

With StreamYard’s Multi‑Aspect Ratio Streaming (MARS), you can broadcast both landscape and portrait outputs from a single studio session, so desktop viewers see a wide layout and mobile viewers get a vertical-optimized view at the same time. (StreamYard Help)

This matters because you don’t have to re-teach the same lesson twice just to get a vertical version. You can:

• Run one live tutorial.
• Let MARS handle the dual outputs.
• Later, use tools like AI Clips inside StreamYard to auto-generate short, captioned highlights from your recording, which is especially useful for step-by-step teaching and quick tips.

StreamYard vs OBS: Which to choose for tutorial streams?

If your main question is “How do I stream tutorials without getting stuck in settings?”, StreamYard is usually the better default. Here’s how the roles tend to shake out:

Use StreamYard when you care about:

• Getting started quickly in the browser, with no installs.
• Bringing non-technical guests in via a simple link.
• Multistreaming to a handful of mainstream platforms with cloud fan-out rather than multiple local connections. (StreamYard Multi-stream)
• Having presenter notes, multi-participant screen share, and live-branded overlays without building complex scenes.

Use OBS alongside or instead of StreamYard when you need:

• Deep control over scenes, sources, and filters on your desktop.
• Advanced audio routing and plugins.
• A free, open-source tool and you’re comfortable paying with time instead of subscription cost. OBS is free for anyone to use, including commercial use. (OBS Help)

OBS lets you combine display capture, window capture, and webcam sources into detailed scenes, then start recording or streaming once your encoder settings are tuned. (OBS Quick Start) That extra power is great for specialized workflows, but many tutorial creators decide the extra setup isn’t worth it when a browser studio already meets their needs.

When does Streamlabs Desktop make sense for tutorials?

Streamlabs Desktop lives closer to OBS in spirit: a downloadable app built on OBS and Electron with overlays, alerts, and monetization tools. It can multistream to platforms like YouTube, Twitch, and Instagram from the desktop, including RTMP destinations, and offers a Dynamic Bitrate feature that automatically adjusts bitrate based on network conditions to reduce dropped frames. (Streamlabs Getting Started)

Some tutorial creators like Streamlabs if they:

• Started on OBS and want to import existing scenes and profiles into a more guided UI. (Streamlabs Getting Started)
• Need integrated alerts and tipping tools during live sessions.

However, because it’s a desktop app, you still need a capable machine and must manage local encoding and system requirements. For many educators, consultants, and course creators, a lighter browser-based workflow in StreamYard is easier to keep stable over long teaching sessions.

What we recommend

• Default choice: Start your tutorial streaming workflow in StreamYard for fast setup, clean layouts, and reliable screen + camera streaming.
• Add power as needed: If you later need intricate scene graphs or heavy customization, introduce OBS or Streamlabs for specific shows rather than rebuilding everything at once.
• Optimize for reuse: Design every tutorial stream with the replay in mind—use clear structure, good audio, and layouts that work in both landscape and portrait.
• Stay focused on teaching: Let the software be boring and predictable so you can spend your energy on the part viewers actually care about: the lesson itself.