SRS (Simple Realtime Server)
SRS — high-performance OSS media server supporting RTMP, SRT, WebRTC, HLS
Our Verdict
Best free OSS media server going — if you can run infra, SRS gives you Wowza-class features for zero license cost.
Pros
- Fully open source, MIT licensed
- Supports RTMP, HLS, SRT, WebRTC, HTTP-FLV
- High performance on modest hardware
- Large Chinese and global community
- Production-tested at major scale
Cons
- Docs split between Chinese and English
- You own all ops, scaling, and monitoring
- Community support, not commercial SLA
- Config can be daunting for newcomers
- No hosted SaaS option
Best for: Engineering teams building self-hosted live streaming at significant scale.
Not for: Teams without streaming-ops expertise — managed SaaS is safer.
When to Use SRS (Simple Realtime Server)
Good fit if you need
- High-performance OSS media server with RTMP, SRT, and WebRTC
- Self-hosted live streaming origin with HLS output
- Low-latency WebRTC delivery from RTMP ingest sources
- Open-source Nginx-RTMP replacement with WebRTC support
- Scalable media server for live streaming platforms in China
Lock-in Assessment
Low 5/5
Lock-in Score 5/5
Pricing
Price wrong?SRS (Simple Realtime Server) Pricing
- Pricing Model
- free
- Free Tier
- Yes
- Entry Price
- —
- Enterprise Available
- No
- Transparency Score
- —
Beta — estimates may differ from actual pricing
1,000
1001K10K100K1M
Estimated Monthly Cost
$25
Estimated Annual Cost
$300
Estimates are approximate and may not reflect current pricing. Always check the official pricing page.
Community Discussion
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