Should YOU Use Streamlabs Or OBS? (Best Streaming Software, Alerts, And More)

If you asked me 3 years ago, what streaming software you should use to go live, I probably would’ve said Streamlabs because of how easy it is to setup, but 2 years ago, I would’ve said OBS because it works with StreamElements, and is overall better.
Now in 2024, so much has changed again, there are so many options for streaming software and alert platforms, which all do wildly different things.
Today I want to break down four years' worth of streaming and content creation experience, to cover the major streaming software, their pros, and cons, whether they good for beginners, will other streamers bully you for using it, do they cause your game to lag, can they make you grow faster, what alert platforms go well with them, what drama have these brands gotten into, and which is the absolute best for you to use
Because I don’t think there is a simple answer anymore.
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Should I Use Streamlabs OBS For Streaming?
Streamlabs OBS is incredibly beginner-focused, you might look at the user interface and say it is confusing but I promise you this is so much simpler for a beginner to get set up, It comes with all the tools you’ll need to start streaming, literally built into it.
It comes with a Chatbox to monitor your chat, event queue to monitor followers, subs, etc. If you want to add alerts? Just add an Alert box widget, if you want to have your chat on screen? You can add a chat box widget easily! You do not need to install a single plugin to get up and running.
Streamlabs OBS is a fantastic program for beginners but due to its bloated nature, glitches, widget issues, and more, it can be frustrating for beginners to try fix issues that occur, and tends to use far more CPU resources which can cause Stream lagg.
🕘Timestamps:
0:00 What Streaming Software Should You Use?
0:45 Own3d Pro Just Got A MASSIVE Upgrade
1:23 What Is The Difference Between Streamlabs and OBS
2:14 Why Should You Use Streamlabs
3:00 Why You SHOULDN'T Use Streamlabs
4:04 Is Streamlabs an Ethical Company?
5:02 Why You Should Use OBS For Streaming And Recording
5:25 Why You Shouldn't Use OBS
5:51 Should You Use Streamlabs Alerts
6:10 Should You Use StreamElements Alerts
6:30 Why You Shouldn't Use StreamElements
6:44 Why You Should Use Twitch Alerts For Stream Alerts
6:58 Why You Should Use StreamerBot For Alerts And More
7:38 What Streaming Software Should You Use To Go-Live?
Should I Use Streamlabs Or OBS For Streaming?
If you are a beginner or you aren’t looking to get incredibly technical with your streams, or you want to get up and running quickly with everything in the same place then install and use Streamlabs OBS OR use StreamElements OBS.live because both will get you set up instantly if you want to get custom and create advanced technical aspects to add to your stream go with OBS Studio because it is more customizable, it has more plugin support and is more stable.
How Do You Import .Overlay Files Into OBS? Studio
OBS also lacks an easy way to install overlays, BUT if you have a .overlay you can install that into Streamlabs OBS, and then open both programs.
From there, go to OBS, click Scene Collection, select import, OBS will either pull up all your overlays but IF IT DOESN’T, you can manually go to where SLOBs is default installing overlays, the default folder structure is below, once selected it will bring up all your overlays, and you can select which to import into OBS.
Default SLOBS location for scenes is;
C:\Users[USERNAME]\AppData\Roaming\slobs-client\SceneCollections
The style of this video is similar to Alpha Gaming and Gaming Careers in parts. A large influence on this series has come from content creators like Wild4games and Nutty.
🎬Go Check Nutty, not because of this video, just because he's cool:
/ nuttylmao
🎬Watch our most recent videos:
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🎬 Playlists You Might Like:
Guides and Tutorials:
bit.ly/StreamGuidesPlaylist
Streamlabs OBS Guides:
bit.ly/SlobsGuides
💬 Streaming Guides:
The Full Guide to Twitch Graphics:
bit.ly/FullGuideToTwitchGraphics
How To Stream On Twitch The A to Z Guide:
bit.ly/HowToStreamOnTwitch101
-------------------------------SOCIAL-------------------------------
💬Website: bit.ly/Streamscheme
🐦Go force Eljay to use Twitter: bit.ly/EljaysTweets
#twitch #growth #guide

[@StreamScheme]

Hope everyone is having a lovely week! Sorry for being 3 days late on the upload! Better than last week, hard to work when I've got an adorable 4 month old that thinks everything I do is hilarious!

[@DanyV1]

The 4 month old gets the priority obviously 😂 Congratz and enjoy

[@ghostdoggtv]

No such thing as late bro thank you for the info

[@darksd0023]

Yo ur content is very helpful and I finally settled up my channel on TWITCH ❤

[@ScrubbyGames]

Thanks for another upload! Been learning a ton from you since the beginning of my streaming journey. I appreciate you and all the effort/research you put into your videos. Thanks man :)

[@Fried_Rice_v]

Great video! Just started streaming, watched aloooooot of your videos, very very helpful!

[@PetracoreProxy]

Honestly that last bit about it dosent matter just what ever works is probs the best advice I heard from any of these obs vs streamlabs videos.

[@jnkmamma69]

Thank you so much @stream scheme for all you do! These videos are so educational, clear and to the point.

[@cynicalia]

Would you do a showcase/intro/explaining of what more can streamer bot do? Those effects sure do look fun/engaging

[@ElToloGaming]

You have come a long way and I’m glad… I remember looking at your vids like 3 years ago thinking it might be too late to start… so I never did… but seeing you making vids that weren’t getting that much views and now seeing how far your content has come, it allowed me to get the courage to start!!! Now i have 300 subscribers which wow is hard! But im proud lol! I made a giveaway video and only have gotten 3 subs from it (but im making a funny short from it to turn everything into a positive lol even though I haven’t picked a winner yet) now that I started twitch like 2 days ago is time to binge watch your videos and get some of your knowledge!!! Hopefully Im able to practice your good habits!!!

[@Streamlabs]

Hey Eljay, we value your feedback and transparency! Our goal is to ensure a smooth, user-friendly experience with minimal issues while using our tools. We'd love the opportunity to reach out to you to get more details and hopefully address the issues you raised. Regarding the situation with OBS, we're happy to say we've had very open and honest conversations with their team since that incident. We are even working directly with them to develop a new plugin for OBS, which should be coming out very soon and will enable streamers to use features from Streamlabs directly in OBS.

[@StreamScheme]

Hey guys! That’s great to hear, as I’ve always said whatever software works for the individual go nuts! It’s the frame that matters most, after all I’ve made dozens of Streamlabs specific tutorials on the channel as well as OBS. I totally understand the history with OBS is all smoothed over, it just has to be included alongside the Lightstream history because users deserve to know all the details when making a choice, and if I didn’t mention it, we all know the comments would make sure people knew. It’s the same reason I mentioned the bad sponsorship system made by streamelements, users just need to understand all the details. :) I do my best to provide a clear, unbiased, and detailed explanation on the tools so that users can make their own choice, while I won’t always hit the mark hopefully that shines through. Have a lovely day guys :)

[@jujocoCS]

damn, this video was so helpful 💯

[@Jack_Napier23]

Ive been streaming on twitch so had set up a profile for it. The i duplicated and did 1 for YT and changed my alerts etc. But then i duplicated that 1 and made a YT recording profile and deleted my extra scenes i didnt need like BRB etc. Well for some reason it deleted them all in both my live stream profiles as well. Its been a major headache trying to make the different profiles so they are ready for whatever im doing at that time. Any suggestions?

[@harbs_cantina]

I watched your video recently on seperating audio for the Sonar software (SO helpful) and I noticed during the video you have so many scenes etc setup. Any chance you could give us a tour of them sometime? :)

[@XRP_321]

whats up bro great video!, im having trouble capturing my sound from my music application on OBS. i been using a music file for background music but i would like to use a playlist on my "Music" app on my mac.... any tips?

[@SlingerDinger99]

Your so damn useful man lol thanks for all of your videos

[@NoobsGamingSC]

I have been using obs for 2 years, but the Stream elements wasn't sending notifications when people subbed, and I have to use the vertical to multi stream, stream labs has this all built in, they deleted my overlay but luckily I had exported. with stream labs I can multi stream with ease and the notifications defo keep up to date. but the dropped frame part of OBS was much better. I have only streamed 2 times with stream labs and it said I was dropping 25% of the frames so I defo need to look at it more, but for design and getting the overlay it was so much simpler. I plan on having a second stream pc to take care of the cpu overuse and hope that sorts the dropped frames out

[@AdaptableFox]

Straight to my veins!

[@Muffin3018]

for my laptop I use stream labs for easy use but when I do irl and mobile gaming streams I use twitch studio to get everything started quickly

[@aaronpompa8230]

how about if you stream from your xbox?

[@AbdelHamidForTech]

Bro i gotta a question, when i stream on obs, everything works just fine until out of nowhere my bitrate become 0kbps and the light is green and it the stream ends without no warning and i can't even click end stream or do anything until i close it from the task manager and start it again, the weird thing that my internet is so good and when that happens my computer isn't laggy or anything, everything keep working fine, it happen multiple times its so frustrating

[@user-mq9oz3uh4j]

I’m not even kidding, I just started streaming and wanted to know which Streaming Software is best. Anyway, thanks for helping me decide!

[@tipisnumba1]

Which did decide?

[@zStussi]

For some reason my stream and recordings doesnt pick up ppl in game chat but it does pick up the game any ideas to fix?

[@Bloodthirsty157]

Need help setting up new streamer access to funds and everything needed running i9 no lag

[@BloodghastZK]

Second! And that's about one of most interesting question for me right now

[@lorddopington]

In my case streamlabs was super easy to use however It made my computer(Which is pretty good) lag like crazy when recording or streaming. I went to OBS and haven't looked back. Widgets and notifications are super easy on streamlabs. For some people it works well and for some not. The Problem is it can work fine and you build all your scenes and then it craps out and now you have to start over for the most part.

[@jeacts]

I'm using Streamlabs atm but was thinking about to switch. just way not. but I use a streamlabs overlay I really like, its kinda perfect for me and idk if I can use it in obs and I cant make my own one + it seems complicated for me

[@ytuser4597]

My OBS isn't recording my PS5 gameplay. I tried Window Caoture, Display Capture and Game Capture and i ran OBS as administrator and still nothing. Can you help please 🙏 😢

[@DameSmiffGamingTTV]

I need software that lets me make scenes have individual audio settings in the mixer❤

[@cejpushplay]

I'm using Slobs just for it's ease of use and because I saw a premium overlay I liked 🤦🏼‍♀️but I've replaced my alerts with twitch ones but use sound elements along with them. My stream runs fine but my webcam looks pants even though it's a premium webcam 😅

[@24tekknight4]

what video edting softwae do you us e

[@darksd0023]

Yo reply cuz ur content helped me a lot ❤

[@SERGamerz]

I have a question when I stream in obs on my Mac air I lag but then it stops for a couple of minutes telling me I shoukd put bitrate 4800 but then it freezes i need help please 🥺

[@StreamScheme]

I have a video I released on laggy streams a few released ago

[@SERGamerz]

@@StreamScheme alright thank you so much I sure will check it out

[@maras.online.adventures]

3:57 yup Intotally gave yp on SLOBS. I first tried aetting up in OBS but it was SO complicated. None of the tutorial videos I had watched helped. So I set up in SLOBS. At frist it was great. But then it was issue after issue after issue. At one point the ONLY thing that fixed my problem was factory resetting my laptop that I stream with and re setting EVERYTHING up. I was NOT happy. Then I had another issues. And instead of trying to trouble shoot it, I finally just said "forget this". In fiddling around with OBS, THAT'S when i discovered the "import from Streamlabs" feature. 😍 Did that. Fiddled with settings and 20 min later i was live. Havent had an issue yet (knocks on wood). Irs been amazing.

[@StreamScheme]

Just be careful with the import feature, it’s pretty broken and duplicates lots of sources causing major CPU usage compared to just building it from scratch

[@AriiyaaSano]

Is streamlab OS safe? I js downloaded it and I dont want my computer to get viruses

[@devlogerio]

Oh god thanks, I'm multistreaming on streamlabs ever since you told us to, I'm still doing it... not planning to change anytime soon

[@StreamScheme]

I’ve never said to multistream with Streamlabs

[@djbobby224]

Can you do a video on how to add animated social media popups so people can follow your other socials reddit

[@Zuzamai]

hey i was wondering i have done every thing i could and i haven't been able to pull any viewers other then my friends i stream consistently every day at 4pm for at least 2hrs i don't know what I'm doing wrong if you have any ideas i would appreciate it thanks :)

[@StreamScheme]

Hi, watch my video on if I started again from 0, I released it a while ago but if you sort by popular you’ll see it near the top.

[@Zuzamai]

@@StreamScheme ok thank you so much

[@alexmilea2528]

You probably won’t answer this but it would be much appreciated if you did so. I’ve scavenged the internet looking for a solution when it comes to streaming on a Ultrawide monitor, how to fix scaling, colour and pretty much anything and everything to prevent black bars. Spent 3 hours today watching your videos to get my newly built channel up and running, started with OBS but ran into issues with overlay, switched to SLOBS and thought it was easy until problem after problem. Please if you can, address me here in the comments or make a video for us to watch, thank you!

[@StreamScheme]

Set OBS canvas and output to a 16:9 resolution, so 1080p And play games windows at 16:9 ratio. Done :)

[@iron_mqiden]

Hey! How do I fix my game crashing or low in game FPS while using obs? My fps is so bad when I use OBS, OBS is good but when I record my game then the game its self-starts lagging + bad fps (for low end PCs)

[@StreamScheme]

Last video before this covers all of that

[@UngluckInc]

I want to record my streams(live and record simultaneously), I currently use SE Live(OBS)...but I can't figure out how to record my streams for later editing WHILE still going live. I run multiple cameras.

[@StreamScheme]

You just click start recording after you click start streaming.

[@UngluckInc]

@@StreamSchemenever let's me do that.

[@EMPTYSKYS1]

I can’t even get the elgato to play sound from my switch to my Mac even though it recognizes it

[@iso-shisui1055]

Does anyone have a good headset with great mic quality

[@godwinaghoghozino2610]

Nice

[@Giminy]

Do you need to use OBS to use Stream Elements? Can Stream Elements work with Prism?

[@snowkingnationgaming2728]

Stream labs is trash obs has been superior since start

[@ThatCrazyCoconut]

ikr

[@motionlarrry]

Damn I love SL

[@hawklight8613]

Okay haha I'm admittedly overwhelmed lol , twitch studios , streamlabs, obs haha where do i go and what do i do to be able to start streaming lol

[@gaming_with_mom_925]

This comment has nothing to do with the video but I’m commenting on it because it has the least amount of comments so hopefully you’ll see it 😂. I’ve googled and I can’t seem to find an answer. When using an HDMI splitter, will I hear audio on both monitors?? For example, my switch is hooked up to my MacBook via capture card. I can hear and see gameplay on Streamlabs. I need to also hook my switch up to a second monitor so I can actually see what I’m doing. Is there a specific splitter I need to be able to hear my game and it not mess up Streamlabs? Or is there another option? Hopefully all this makes sense! Your videos have been SUPER helpful!!

[@StreamScheme]

You just monitor the audio out of Streamlabs, click the capture card audio properties and click monitor only And if you have your audio setup correctly your stream can hear desktop sounds so they’ll hear the switch cause your monitoring it and it becomes a desktop sound. Only issue is if you have a lot of encoder lagg (which Streamlabs has as explained in this video) or if you have a cheap capture card sometimes the audio isn’t in sync I have a guide on OBS setup that will help with desktop audio and switching from Streamlabs if you find it’s delayed and laggy

[@gaming_with_mom_925]

@@StreamScheme thank you!

[@FrenziKenzi]

What about twitch studio? Is that just a no go?

[@email5111]

i use twitch studio. in my opinion it is the most simple to set up

[@StreamScheme]

You’re kinda just hamstringing yourself by using it

[@FrenziKenzi]

I agree very simple to use but I see why you say the others are better. Thanks so much for both your comments. Have a great day!

[@FrenziKenzi]

Also feel very blessed for get a message back, been trying to figure this all out and your videos help so much. Thank you!

[@user-el6zi6kk7l]

OBS is the best

[@iamhuman798]

What can i do if i only have a ps4 and two Chromebooks. 😭

[@DeoNineKay]

You may not be able to do anything fancy but you could setup a basic stream with just alerts and all that OR ive seen plenty of people grow their communities just from streaming directly from their consoles. I think the personality and the connection you have with your viewers is more important than hardware.

[@iamhuman798]

@@DeoNineKay I’ve managed to get 100 followers on my stream, and im averaging 2-3 viewers no face cam. I tried setting up nightbot but i guess i need another software to play music on stream. And im trying to you know just have fun with it

[@DeoNineKay]

@@iamhuman798 if you go through Streamelements (which is what I use) it uses OBS Studio so you shouldn't have to worry too much about CPU usage and it has it's own bot and media player for !sr stuff, I prefer the integrated player because it takes out all of the legwork and the music is all copyright-free. Only thing about nightbot from what I remember (it's been a long time) is that you have to import audio via links and then once you build up a list you can do !sr stuff and run Auto-play but then you should just have to set it up as a source in your streaming software unless you're running a Desktop audio source.

[@joannapetrova885]

What about kick¿

[@StreamScheme]

Kick has no organic traffic, and lacks almost every crucial feature a creator needs. No point covering it.

[@StruggleBus_Plays]

Gee Eljay, you've lost weight!

[@twhippp]

Streamlabs for beginners, OBS for veterans

[@StreamScheme]

This used to be the case but not anymore, the amount of technical support required to get Streamlabs working due to the unstable nature is worse for beginners

[@twhippp]

@@StreamScheme Fair point. I’ve been out of the game for a bit so my answer is probably outdated

[@rain3v]

Until the next "Streamlabs stole/copied X" scandal.

[@leogreed]

Copying is not the issue for me. I heard that they actually tried to sue OBS claiming as their own

[@StreamScheme]

Not up to me to dictate anyone’s choices, I just explain the details and let everyone make their decision. OBS and Lightstream at the end of the day get to be upset if they choose, not me. And Leo, I believe they didn’t sue them they just tried to trademark the name “Streamlabs OBS” which would’ve caused issues, however it didn’t go through and as you can see OBS is now happy with them.

[@leogreed]

@@StreamScheme Makes sense. My only "software side of it" complaint with SLOBS is that in the past you couldn't do websockets and install plugins on it. I don't know if that has changed, though

[@StreamScheme]

It hasn’t changed, if they changed that people wouldn’t have to spend money on their premium service, that’s what I was alluding to in the video, locking free tools behind their paid option

[@leogreed]

@@StreamScheme Which by the end of the day, offers way less and take advantage of people's lack of knowledge.

[@hereticalcoffee]

OBS because StreamLabs took an open source product and sold it for money. OBS is overall better and it’s 100% while SLOBS is a pale comparison over plagiarized open source code they are reselling.

[@StreamScheme]

I mean…. Did you watch the video? It feels like you’re commenting this is pretty pointless when I covered all of this and more

[@andeeznation]

Ask anyone. Streamlabs kills your cpu. Obs is much nicer to the PC

[@StreamScheme]

Why do I need to ask anyone? I said that in the video?

[@THEBAU]

Hey Stream Scheme! can you do a video explain how to share your screen and have it look like this. this guy is able to share his screen ( @ the10:15sec marker), it as a nice outline around him and the video he is sharing with the audience. Thanks in advance. much respect!! kzbin.infoQd2s2VuWd4I?si=eBwLcWUnetf0CKXA