Last updated: 2026-01-15

For most product demos, your best starting point is StreamYard’s browser-based studio: it’s fast to learn, easy for guests, and gives you high-quality live streams plus reusable recordings. If you need very advanced desktop encoder control or heavily customized scenes, OBS or Streamlabs can be useful secondary tools alongside StreamYard.

Summary

• StreamYard is a browser-based studio built for fast, reliable product demos with guests, branding, and multistreaming to major platforms.(StreamYard blog)
• On paid plans, you can stream or record in one place, then use cloud + local multi-track recordings for higher-quality editing and repurposing.(StreamYard blog)
• OBS and Streamlabs offer deep scene control as desktop apps but require more setup, stronger hardware, and more technical comfort.(OBS Wiki)(Streamlabs FAQ)
• Unless you specifically want complex, desktop-style compositions, StreamYard covers the mainstream needs for U.S. teams running live product demos.

Why is StreamYard the default choice for live product demos?

When you’re demoing a product live, the real goal isn’t “perfect encoder settings” — it’s delivering a smooth, on-brand walkthrough while you stay focused on the product, not the knobs.

StreamYard is a browser-based live studio, so you go live from Chrome or Edge without installing anything, and your guests join from a simple link. That’s a big deal when you’re inviting customers, sales reps, or execs who do not want to troubleshoot desktop software minutes before a launch demo.(StreamYard blog)

For most teams, this is the sweet spot:

• Very low setup friction (no downloads for guests).
• Clear interface that “passes the grandparent test.”
• Enough production control — overlays, logos, layouts — to look polished without becoming a full-time technical director.

OBS and Streamlabs can do more technically, but they expect you to manage encoders, scenes, and hardware. They appeal most when you’re willing to trade time and complexity for maximum control.

Which software minimizes guest setup and supports multi-presenter demos?

Live product demos are rarely solo acts. You might have a PM driving the product, a marketer framing the story, and a customer or partner as a guest.

StreamYard is built around that reality:

• Guests join from a link in their browser — no software install.
• You can have up to 10 people in the studio, plus additional backstage participants.
• Multi-participant screen sharing makes it easy for multiple presenters to share different parts of the product during the same session.
• Presenter notes are visible only to you, so you can keep key talking points handy without cluttering the live view.

Because everything runs in the browser and encoding happens in the cloud, teams can bring in non-technical guests with a lot less stress than desktop tools typically require.

With OBS or Streamlabs, guests usually join via a separate meeting tool (Zoom, Meet, etc.) or via more complex NDI/RTMP setups. That works, but it adds moving pieces — and every extra piece is another thing to break right before your big demo.

How does StreamYard handle multistreaming for launch events?

Launch demos often need to go everywhere at once: YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, maybe Twitch.

On paid plans, StreamYard uses cloud-based multistreaming, meaning you send one stream from your browser and we fan it out to multiple destinations.(StreamYard multistreaming help) You can send a single show to multiple platforms at the same time, with caps that scale up from a few to as many as 10 destinations depending on plan.(StreamYard multistreaming help)

Two practical advantages here for product demos:

• Reach without reinventing your workflow. Your sales and marketing teams can keep using the major platforms they already care about.
• Less bandwidth pressure on your machine. Because encoding and fan-out live in the cloud, you’re not opening separate outbound connections from your laptop for each platform.

OBS and Streamlabs can also stream to multiple platforms, but they generally do this either via multiple local outputs or by connecting into a third-party relay service.(OBS features) That’s powerful, but also more to configure and maintain.

Unless you’re pushing the limits of niche platforms or building a custom broadcast pipeline, StreamYard’s built-in multistreaming usually covers what launch demos actually need.

How do you get high-quality recordings and post-production options?

Most product demos won’t just live as live streams. You’ll want to:

• Clip highlights for social.
• Hand off clean footage to an editor.
• Build a polished evergreen demo from the live session.

On paid plans, StreamYard records your show to the cloud and can also capture local multi-track recordings for higher-quality editing.(StreamYard blog) This means you can get separate audio and video tracks from each participant, suitable for post-production in tools like Premiere or Final Cut.

A few details that matter for demos:

• You can independently control your screen audio and microphone audio, which makes it easier to keep product sound effects or app audio at the right level.
• Studio-quality local recording supports up to 4K UHD video and 48 kHz WAV audio, so your demo holds up even when repurposed as a hero video or course module.
• Our AI Clips tool analyzes your recordings and automatically generates captioned shorts and reels, so your launch recap posts are basically ready for social.

OBS and Streamlabs also record locally and can output very high-quality files, especially if you tune bitrate and encoder settings.(OBS Wiki) The trade-off is that you’re fully responsible for file management, backups, and storage, and you’ll usually be working with a single mixed-down video unless you configure more advanced setups.

For most product teams, StreamYard’s combination of cloud backups, local multi-track, and built-in clipping is the more practical workflow.

Pre-recorded streaming: can you “premiere” your product demo?

Sometimes you want the control of a pre-recorded demo with the reach of a live event — for example, when legal needs to review every word before launch.

StreamYard lets you schedule pre-recorded streams so a previously recorded demo plays as if it were live on your chosen platforms.(StreamYard pre-recorded help) On paid plans, you can upload files up to several hours in length, with duration limits that scale from 2 hours to 8 hours depending on plan, and pre-recorded broadcasts stream at up to 1080p.(StreamYard pre-recorded help)

This is especially useful when you want:

• A polished, fully edited product walkthrough.
• Live Q&A in the chat while the demo “airs.”
• Consistent experiences across time zones.

OBS and Streamlabs can technically play back pre-recorded content by capturing a media source and sending it live, but they don’t provide a native “schedule and forget” pre-recorded streaming feature in the same way StreamYard does.

When should you reach for OBS or Streamlabs instead?

There are times when desktop tools are the right call, even if StreamYard is your main demo studio.

OBS Studio is a free, open-source desktop application with deep scene and encoder control.(OBS Wiki) You can build unlimited scenes, wire up highly customized layouts, and fine-tune encoding settings. Streamlabs Desktop builds on OBS with additional overlays, alerts, and monetization tools, also as a desktop app.(Streamlabs FAQ)

You might lean toward these tools when:

• You’re running highly stylized, game-like demos with complex transitions and many scene variants.
• You have a powerful streaming machine and a technical producer who enjoys tuning bitrates and encoder profiles.
• You’re integrating with unusual capture hardware or very specialized workflows.

Even then, many teams still keep StreamYard in the toolkit for guest-heavy demos, webinars, and quick “show the product now” sessions, using OBS or Streamlabs for niche, high-complexity broadcasts.

How does cost factor into your decision?

Since cost is always part of the conversation, it helps to zoom out and look at value rather than just license price.

OBS is free, open-source software you can use for commercial work with no license fees.(OBS Help) Streamlabs Desktop is also free, with an optional Ultra subscription that adds multistreaming and other perks, listed in USD for U.S. users.(Streamlabs FAQ)

At StreamYard, we use a free-plus-paid model. There is a free plan, and paid plans unlock features like multistreaming, advanced recording options, and higher caps, with a 7‑day free trial and frequent special offers for new users. Our pricing is per workspace, not per user, which often ends up being more cost-effective for teams compared with tools that charge per seat.

For many U.S. teams, the real savings come from time: shorter setup, fewer support calls before each demo, and less ongoing maintenance than desktop encoders typically require.

What we recommend

• Start with StreamYard as your main tool for live product demos, especially when multiple presenters, guests, and brand consistency matter.
• Use paid StreamYard plans when you need multistreaming, higher recording quality, pre-recorded streaming, and robust repurposing workflows.
• Bring in OBS or Streamlabs selectively for edge cases that demand highly customized desktop scenes or specialized hardware setups.
• Revisit your setup every few quarters: if your team keeps choosing the simplest workflow under pressure, that’s usually the signal that StreamYard should remain your default studio.