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Loopcast vs running OBS yourself

22 Jun 2026 · 5 min read

OBS Studio is free and powerful, but broadcasting to your Steam store page yourself means leaving a machine running and streaming around the clock. Here is an honest comparison.

The setup

With OBS you install and configure an encoder, point it at Steam’s RTMP endpoint, and keep it running. With Loopcast you paste your stream key, upload a video, and start. There is no encoder to tune.

Reliability

A self-run stream depends on your PC, your power and your home internet all staying up for days at a time. If any one of them blips, your store page goes dark. A hosted broadcast runs from a datacenter and restarts automatically if it ever drops.

Cost

OBS itself is free, but the real cost is electricity and a machine tied up for the whole event.

▪A PC drawing roughly 0.3 kWh/hour over a 7-day event is about 50 kWh

▪At $0.20/kWh that is around $10 in power, plus network gear

▪Loopcast for the same 168 hours is about $5.04, with no machine tied up

See the full math in how pricing works.

Effort

OBS needs babysitting: watch for crashes, restart drops, keep the PC awake and online. Loopcast is upload once and walk away.

When OBS still makes sense

If you want true live interaction, like a person on camera or live chat, OBS is the right tool. For an always-on looped trailer on your store page, a hosted broadcast is simpler and cheaper. Start a stream.

Put your game live in 5 minutes

Upload a video, paste your stream key, hit start. From $0.72/day.

Start streaming · $0.72/day

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