Self-hosted, low-latency, high-quality streaming server.
| Discord | Twitch | Hardlight | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Max bitrate | ~8 Mbps | ~8 Mbps | 15-20+ Mbps |
| Max FPS | 60 (paid) | 60 | 60-120+ |
| Encryption | E2E | No | E2E |
| Overhead | Mixed | High | Low |
| Self-hosted | No | No | Yes |
| Latency | 250-500ms | 3-6s | 150-300ms |
Existing options force trade-offs between quality, latency, and privacy.
Built for broadcasting to thousands. Public by default, with ads and no private sharing option.
720p30 unless you pay. VP8 encoding makes text unreadable, and one viewer's bad connection degrades quality for everyone.
Jitsi, OBS+RTMP, Sunshine all require significant setup. Most sacrifice latency or quality.
What you get out of the box.
NVENC, VAAPI, and VideoToolbox. Near-zero CPU encoding overhead on any platform.
H.264, H.265/HEVC, and AV1. Better quality at lower bitrates for sharper streams.
WebRTC and WebTransport. No bandwidth estimation that tanks quality when one viewer has issues.
Windows, Linux, and macOS capture. Watch from any browser, no plugins required.
Stream from OBS using its built-in WHIP output. Use your existing scenes and overlays.
Viewers trigger clips that save directly to the streamer's drive. No third-party tools needed.
Optional DAVE encryption. Not even the server can see your stream content.
Direct media between friends. The server only handles signaling, video never touches a relay.
Hardlight is MIT licensed. No accounts, no telemetry, no tracking. You run it on your hardware and you own the whole stack.