

Prices start at US$4.17 (about £3/AU$5) per month for a 36-month license, through to US$199 (about £150/AU$250) for a lifetime license. You'll also have to open your wallet if you want chromakeying (green screen), in-game Twitch chat, console support via a capture card and custom logos. The biggest drawback is that streams at 720p or higher will carry an Xsplit watermark – not ideal if you want your stream to look professional.


It supports streaming to Twitch, Mixer, YouTube and Facebook, and is incredibly easy to use – just start your game and hit a keyboard shortcut to bring up the overlay and begin streaming. Twitch streaming requires setting up an account, configuring broadcast software, and a few necessary pieces of hardware so you can communicate with your audience. For the best experience, we recommend at least an Intel Core i5-8500 CPU, 16GB of RAM, Windows 10, and an Nvidia GTX 970 GPU or greater top balance streaming, running a 3D game, and other apps. Gamecaster is a game-specific version of Xsplit Broadcaster, with a more streamlined interface. However, this only covers running the Twitch stream and does not include the power needed to run your game and other apps in the background. As such, it looks sleeker and benefits from premium support online, but several features are locked behind a paywall. Unlike most of the free streaming software in this roundup, Xsplit Gamecaster is a free, cut-down version of a premium application.
