Kaltura vs OBS Studio

Likelihood to Recommend

Kaltura is an excellent tool IF you have a large library of content. It can be pretty pricey so if you are early in launching an online program you may be better off waiting a few years until you've amassed a large enough catalog to warrant the investment in such a tool.The tool is best purchased by a University or company-wide vs having a single department try to find the budget for it. The unlimited plan pays for itself in most cases if you go this route. Secondly, you must be willing to invest time and resources into on-going training for your faculty and staff, especially for those who wish to create their own media and use the quizzing features.

Read full review

Mark Nowowiejski

Instructional Technlogy Manager

Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and QualityEducation Management, 10,001+ employees

View all 8 answers on this topic

From simple streaming to bigger events, OBS has been able to handle all of it with full confidence from us. Have never questioned if it was going to be unreliable in a specific situation, even with minimal training. Software identified the external input source easily and had no issues setting that up (Blackmagic Mini Recorder), and great for pulling in separate audio from the computer input.

Read full review

Travis Gray

Owner/Producer

106 StudiosMedia Production, 1-10 employees

View all 6 answers on this topic

Feature Rating Comparison

Kaltura

OBS Studio

Video personalization

Support for advertisements

Video SEO

Kaltura

OBS Studio

Integration to LMS

Kaltura

OBS Studio

Video access controls

User management

Video link sharing

Internal video

External video

Kaltura

OBS Studio

Player customization

Embedded videos

Video quality / Bandwidth controls

Mobile compatibility

Kaltura

OBS Studio

A/B testing

Streaming quality reports

Per viewer tracking

Per video tracking

Video analytics dashboard

Kaltura

OBS Studio

On-Demand video

Live streaming

Impact of streaming on network

Video upload & format support

Video library / File management

Video portal

Kaltura

OBS Studio

Video comments

Pros

Very easy to use interface for uploading videos or capturing a screen recording. There are very few clicks required to get the media up and running. The video conversion process that happens on the back-end is fast and provides videos in device agnostic formats.
Integrates well with other systems, such as our Moodle LMS. This extends the capabilities of the LMS and also allows us to keep video/multimedia content organized in a central location (the KMC).
Kaltura can be connected to various processes within your organization. For example, we have a system in place that allows a video lecture in a classroom to be uploaded to Kaltura in a very easy manner.
User/role management is very important as some people on campus have more privileges to publish content than do others. We have Kaltura connected to our Single Sign-On solution for authentication and we can assign roles to specific people within the Kaltura software.

Read full review

Verified User

Administrator in Information Technology

Higher Education Company, 501-1000 employees

View all 8 answers on this topic

OBS Studio makes it easy to connect with streaming service providers
OBS Studio makes it easy to switch from source to source during your broadcast
OBS Studio makes it easy to design and edit what your viewers will see.

Read full review

Verified User

Manager in Marketing

Market Research Company, 1-10 employees

View all 6 answers on this topic

Cons

Admin interface is sometimes difficult to navigate.
Videos ingested sometimes are delayed by hours or days before being available.
Support services often have full-day delays before escalation.

Read full review

Verified User

Team Lead in Information Technology

Higher Education Company, 1001-5000 employees

View all 8 answers on this topic

Sometimes the way the individual screens are highlighted, to move them is sticky.
Better compatibility with MAC OS.
Make it less taxing on CPU/memory.

Read full review

Charles Beck

Vice President, Sales

Tredent Data Systems, Inc.Information Technology & Services, 1-10 employees

View all 6 answers on this topic

Likelihood to Renew

Kaltura 6.3

Based on 3 answers

Since we have many terabytes of data currently stored with Kaltura and the system and it works great, it would be very difficult to move to another system.

Read full review

Kirk Laird

IS Technical Support Specialist IV

University of KentuckyHigher Education, 5001-10,000 employees

View all 3 answers on this topic

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Usability

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

OBS Studio 10.0

Based on 1 answer

Very usable because it is free and has had a lot of people helping to suggest improvements and sponsors have allowed the product to grow in sophistication and suitability across a variety of situations and use needs. It is very logical to use once you get started, although the dashboard can seem intimidating at first.

Read full review

Verified User

Manager in Marketing

Market Research Company, 1-10 employees

View all 1 answers on this topic

Support Rating

Kaltura 5.0

Based on 2 answers

The first line support agents seldom are able to diagnose or troubleshoot any problems that we have. These agents simply open support tickets in their system which are escalated to a foreign level 2 support agent which creates at least a day delay between reporting a problem and getting initial feedback. Any back-and-forth questions add at least another day delay.

Read full review

Verified User

Team Lead in Information Technology

Higher Education Company, 1001-5000 employees

View all 2 answers on this topic

OBS Studio 9.2

Based on 4 answers

OBS Studio has been so easy to use that I have not had a need to reach out for support with the program. Actually, I am unsure if the program even offers any sort of support for its use, though I am sure that it does in some way. I give them a thumbs up for creating a program that, thus far, has not needed support.

Read full review

Mandy Henriksen

Music Teacher

Lindenwold Board of EducationEducation Management, 51-200 employees

View all 4 answers on this topic

Alternatives Considered

We considered a couple of options 2 years ago. One of those options has since been sold and dismantled. Kaltura was really the best product in this space. Now, Canvas is releasing its own video solution very soon and it has some nice workflow features. It remains to be seen if that solution will challenge Kaltura.

Read full review

Robert Gibson MS, MBA, EdD

Director, Learning Technologies

Emporia State UniversityHigher Education, 501-1000 employees

View all 8 answers on this topic

OBS takes a lot more work to get started with than Google Hangouts, but you get a much more high quality output from it. It even works better with YouTube than Hangout, which is odd since it is also owned by Google. You can not set a poser image on a YouTube live stream when you use Hangouts, but you can with external programs like OBS. You can do so much with layout, like having two video sources on the screen at the same time, any style lower thirds; it is much more powerful.

Read full review

Seth Paine

Web & Media Developer

The Coming Home Network InternationalReligious Institutions, 1-10 employees

View all 6 answers on this topic

Return on Investment

The ability to have such a robust solution for rich media content far outweighs the cost of service.
We have new projects which will push the limits and abilities of Kaltura in the future.

Read full review

Leonardo Ferre

Senior Web Designer / Rich Media Architect

Educational Testing ServiceEducation Management, 1001-5000 employees

View all 8 answers on this topic

Custom presentations are more impactful and the customers are more responsive.
In general, the professional look helps to promote our brand.
Ease-of-use allows us to create more and more videos.

Read full review

Charles Beck

Vice President, Sales

Tredent Data Systems, Inc.Information Technology & Services, 1-10 employees

View all 6 answers on this topic

Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

Yes

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Rating Summary

Kaltura

OBS Studio

Kaltura

OBS Studio

Kaltura

OBS Studio

Kaltura

OBS Studio

Likelihood to Recommend

Kaltura

OBS Studio

Feature Rating Comparison

Video personalization

Support for advertisements

Video SEO

Integration to LMS

Video access controls

User management

Video link sharing

Internal video

External video

Player customization

Embedded videos

Video quality / Bandwidth controls

Mobile compatibility

A/B testing

Streaming quality reports

Per viewer tracking

Per video tracking

Video analytics dashboard

On-Demand video

Live streaming

Impact of streaming on network

Video upload & format support

Video library / File management

Video portal

Video comments

Pros

Kaltura

OBS Studio

Cons

Kaltura

OBS Studio

Likelihood to Renew

Kaltura

OBS Studio

Usability

Kaltura

OBS Studio

Support Rating

Kaltura

OBS Studio

Alternatives Considered

Kaltura

OBS Studio

Return on Investment

Kaltura

OBS Studio

Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

Free/Freemium Version

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Entry-level set up fee?

General

Free Trial

Free/Freemium Version

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Entry-level set up fee?

Rating Summary

Add comparison