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Best Relay / VPS for streaming

The middle layer so a connection drop becomes a BRB screen, not a stream restart.

Which relay / vps should you use for streaming?
StreamPartPicker tracks 23 relay / vps options for streaming, ordered by what each costs to run for a year: anything you buy once plus twelve months of subscription. Oracle Cloud Free Tier is the cheapest to run at Free, IRLToolkit the most at $100/mo. Options with no fixed price, free software and pay-per-GB data, sit first. Nothing here has a retailer rating to rank on, so cost and the specs below are the comparison, and none of it is lab-tested by us.
The Relay Turns a Drop Into a BRB

Sending a mobile stream to your own SRT relay first, instead of straight to the platform, is what turns a lost connection into a short BRB screen rather than an ended broadcast.

Why this rule

Ordered by first-year running cost, cheapest first. How we compare

Buy links are affiliate links: we earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Prices are tracked estimates, not live prices. Full disclosure

  1. 1

    Oracle Cloud Free Tier

    Free

    Always-free ARM instances with enough CPU and 10 TB of egress a month to run an SRT relay for nothing at all.

    The catch: Capacity in the free regions is often unavailable, and a free-tier account can be reclaimed if it sits idle.

    Type
    Self-host (VPS)
    Cloud OBS
    DIY
    Latency
    Low (SRT)
    Learn more Use in IRL Backpack builds
  2. 2

    Google Cloud e2-micro (free tier)

    Free instance, metered egress

    One always-free micro instance in a US region. Small, but an SRT passthrough relay barely touches the CPU.

    The catch: Only 1 GB of free egress a month, so a real stream runs up a bandwidth bill even though the instance is free.

    Type
    Self-host (VPS)
    Cloud OBS
    DIY
    Latency
    Low (SRT)
    Learn more Use in IRL Backpack builds
  3. 3

    SRT Live Server (SLS)

    Free (plus VPS)

    The small open-source SRT relay the belaBOX community standardised on. Encoder publishes to it, OBS pulls from it, and a drop is a frozen frame instead of a dead stream.

    The catch: Runs on a VPS you provide, and the original project is lightly maintained; use a community fork.

    Type
    Self-host (software)
    Cloud OBS
    No
    Latency
    Low (SRT)
    Learn more Use in IRL Backpack builds
  4. 4

    MediaMTX

    Free (plus VPS)

    A single-binary media server that accepts SRT, RTMP, WebRTC and RTSP and re-serves them. The modern replacement for SLS with a config file you can read.

    The catch: Still a VPS and a terminal; no dashboard, no BRB logic of its own.

    Type
    Self-host (software)
    Cloud OBS
    No
    Latency
    Low (SRT)
    Learn more Use in IRL Backpack builds
  5. 5

    Nimble Streamer

    Free, paid panel add-ons

    Free media server from the Larix people with SRT in and out, controlled from a web panel instead of a config file.

    The catch: The management panel is a paid add-on past the basics, and it is still your VPS to run.

    Type
    Self-host (software)
    Cloud OBS
    No
    Latency
    Low (SRT)
    Learn more Use in IRL Backpack builds
  6. 6

    NOALBS (auto BRB switcher)

    Free

    The bot that watches your SRT relay and switches OBS to the BRB scene when bitrate dies, then back when it recovers. The missing half of every DIY relay.

    The catch: A helper, not a relay: it needs SLS or MediaMTX plus OBS already running somewhere.

    Type
    Self-host (automation)
    Cloud OBS
    Works with
    Latency
    n/a
    Learn more Use in IRL Backpack builds
  7. 8

    Ant Media Server

    Free community edition

    Open-source community edition of a full media server with SRT and RTMP ingest, WebRTC output and a web dashboard.

    The catch: Heavier than MediaMTX for a relay job, and the useful features drift toward the paid enterprise edition.

    Type
    Self-host (software)
    Cloud OBS
    No
    Latency
    Low (SRT)
    Learn more Use in IRL Backpack builds
  8. 9

    VDO.Ninja

    Free

    Free browser-to-browser WebRTC bridge: open a link on the phone, add the view link as a browser source in OBS at home, and the phone camera is in the scene with no server of your own.

    The catch: Peer-to-peer, so one bad link stalls the picture and there is no bonding or BRB logic; the home PC has to stay awake.

    Type
    WebRTC bridge
    Cloud OBS
    Local (home OBS)
    Latency
    Very low
    Learn more Use in Phone builds
  9. 10

    RackNerd VPS

    $3/mo
    $36 first year

    Budget US VPS deals that work out to a couple of dollars a month paid yearly. Plenty for a passthrough SRT relay.

    The catch: Yearly billing, older hardware, and the cheap plans share a busy host.

    Type
    Self-host (VPS)
    Cloud OBS
    DIY
    Latency
    Low (SRT)
    Learn more Use in IRL Backpack builds
  10. 11

    Hetzner Cloud VPS

    $5/mo
    $60 first year

    The cheapest serious VPS with US and EU regions and 20 TB of traffic included, which is why so many self-hosted SRT relays live here.

    The catch: You install and run the relay software yourself; Hetzner sells you a Linux box and nothing else.

    Type
    Self-host (VPS)
    Cloud OBS
    DIY
    Latency
    Low (SRT)
    Learn more Use in IRL Backpack builds
  11. 12

    Linode (Akamai) VPS

    $5/mo
    $60 first year

    Long-running VPS host now on Akamai network, with predictable pricing and a large transfer allowance on the small plans.

    The catch: Same DIY relay setup as any VPS; the Akamai console has grown more enterprise than it used to be.

    Type
    Self-host (VPS)
    Cloud OBS
    DIY
    Latency
    Low (SRT)
    Learn more Use in IRL Backpack builds
  12. 13

    Contabo VPS

    $5/mo
    $60 first year

    More RAM and cores per dollar than anyone, which matters if the relay is also running OBS in the cloud.

    The catch: Fewer regions and slower support; the price buys hardware, not hand-holding.

    Type
    Self-host (VPS)
    Cloud OBS
    DIY
    Latency
    Low (SRT)
    Learn more Use in IRL Backpack builds
  13. 14

    Vultr VPS

    $6/mo
    $72 first year

    Dozens of regions worldwide, so the relay can sit in the same city as the stream. Hourly billing makes it cheap to try.

    The catch: Bandwidth is metered past the included allowance and a 1080p60 relay running daily can reach it.

    Type
    Self-host (VPS)
    Cloud OBS
    DIY
    Latency
    Low (SRT)
    Learn more Use in IRL Backpack builds
  14. 15

    OVHcloud VPS

    $6/mo
    $72 first year

    European hosting giant with unmetered bandwidth on VPS plans and anti-DDoS included, a good home for a relay in the EU or Canada.

    The catch: The control panel and support are the weak points; the network is not.

    Type
    Self-host (VPS)
    Cloud OBS
    DIY
    Latency
    Low (SRT)
    Learn more Use in IRL Backpack builds
  15. 16

    AWS Lightsail

    $7/mo
    $84 first year

    The fixed-price corner of AWS: one bill, a regional instance near you, and the AWS backbone between the relay and the platform ingest.

    The catch: Overage past the transfer allowance is billed at AWS rates, which climb fast on a daily 6,000 kbps relay.

    Type
    Self-host (VPS)
    Cloud OBS
    DIY
    Latency
    Low (SRT)
    Learn more Use in IRL Backpack builds
  16. 17

    belaBOX Cloud

    $10/mo
    $120 first year

    Managed SRT relay plus phone control to start/stop the encoder. The cheap, popular choice.

    Type
    Managed relay
    Cloud OBS
    No
    Latency
    Low
    Learn more Use in Phone builds
  17. 18

    Streamster cloud studio

    Free tier, paid plans$15/mo
    $180 first year

    Hosted OBS-style studio that takes an SRT or RTMP feed, adds overlays and multistreams, without owning a server.

    The catch: A cloud studio, not an IRL relay first: check the BRB handling and SRT latency settings before trusting it on a walk.

    Type
    Managed cloud studio
    Cloud OBS
    Yes
    Latency
    Medium
    Learn more Use in IRL Backpack builds
  18. 19

    Self-hosted VPS

    $20/mo
    $240 first year

    Run nginx-rtmp/SRTLA and OBS on your own VPS from a host like DigitalOcean or Vultr. Cheapest at scale if you are technical.

    The catch: You set up and maintain Linux, OBS, and the relay yourself.

    Type
    Self-host
    Cloud OBS
    DIY
    Latency
    Low (SRT)
    Learn more Use in IRL Backpack builds
  19. 20

    Castr

    $25/mo
    $300 first year

    Managed ingest with SRT support and multistreaming to every platform at once. Popular with churches and events for the same reason it suits an IRL relay.

    The catch: Priced as a streaming platform, not a $10 relay, and no automatic BRB scene.

    Type
    Managed relay / restream
    Cloud OBS
    No
    Latency
    Medium
    Learn more Use in IRL Backpack builds
  20. 21

    Wowza Video (cloud)

    $25/mo
    $300 first year

    The enterprise streaming cloud with SRT ingest and global delivery. On this page mainly so the price of the professional tier is visible.

    The catch: Usage billing that runs well past a hobby budget.

    Type
    Managed relay (enterprise)
    Cloud OBS
    No
    Latency
    Medium
    Learn more Use in IRL Backpack builds
  21. 22

    OBS on a VPS (DIY cloud OBS)

    $40/mo
    $480 first year

    Rent a Windows or Linux VPS with a GPU or fast CPU, run OBS on it, pull the SRT feed in, and the overlays and BRB scene live in the cloud instead of on a laptop at home.

    The catch: A GPU VPS costs several times a passthrough relay, and remote-desktop OBS is fiddly to operate from a phone.

    Type
    Self-host (cloud OBS)
    Cloud OBS
    DIY
    Latency
    Low (SRT)
    Learn more Use in IRL Backpack builds
  22. 23

    IRLToolkit

    $100/mo
    $1,200 first year

    Managed cloud OBS with offline protection, SRT/H.265, and scene control. Hands-off.

    The catch: The premium option at $100+/mo.

    Type
    Managed cloud OBS
    Cloud OBS
    Yes
    Latency
    Low
    Learn more Use in Phone builds

We are building one of these ourselves. SPP Relay is in development and is not on the list above until it ships.

Guides that use these

Plan a full build in the configurator

Prices and plan terms are what the provider published when we last checked, not a live feed, and services change them. Nothing here is tested in a lab by us. How picks are chosen: editorial policy.