Kinescope logoKinescope vs Wowza:
DRM included, no annual contract

Wowza is built for live streaming engineers: DRM runs through EZDRM or BuyDRM, the video platform comes on a one-year contract, and Streaming Engine is a server you operate. Kinescope is a managed platform with Widevine and FairPlay, per-viewer watermarks, 4K and EU storage included, billed monthly from €10.

Key differentiators

DRM without a third-party account

In Wowza’s cloud, FairPlay and Widevine run through your own EZDRM account; on Wowza Streaming Engine, multi-DRM is a separate paid module from BuyDRM. Kinescope includes Widevine and FairPlay on every paid plan from €10 a month — no extra vendor, no extra contract.

Monthly, not a one-year contract

Wowza’s pricing FAQ says you always sign a one-year contract for its video platform, and the term renews unless you cancel 14 days before it ends. Kinescope bills monthly from €10, with no annual commitment.

Nothing to run yourself

Wowza Streaming Engine is server software: $195 a month per instance plus $25 for each extra transcoded channel, on servers you operate. Kinescope runs transcoding, storage, its own CDN and the player for you.

Up to 4K for viewers, not 1080p

Wowza’s cloud accepts 4K input as a premium feature, but its adaptive renditions go up to 1080p. Kinescope delivers adaptive streams up to 4K on paid plans.

A watermark per viewer, also on uploads

Wowza’s cloud overlays a static image, and only on live streams. Kinescope adds a dynamic watermark with the viewer’s e-mail or ID to your videos, so a leaked recording points to the account it came from.

A published uptime target

Wowza markets “CDN-supported 99.9% uptime”, but its legal pages publish no service-level agreement. Kinescope targets 99.98% monthly uptime, backed by a financial SLA on the Mega plan.

Comparison at a glance

Pricing model
Monthly from €10; delivery from €0.03/GB down to €0.01/GB
Cloud: ingest and playback hours plus storage; Engine: $195/mo per server
Contract
None — cancel any month
One-year contract on the video platform; auto-renews
DRM (Widevine + FairPlay)
Included from €10/month
Through an EZDRM account (cloud) or a paid BuyDRM module (Engine)
Watermarking
Dynamic, per viewer
Static image, live streams only
Adaptive quality
Up to 4K
Cloud renditions up to 1080p; 4K input is premium
Live ingest
RTMP, RTMPS, SRT
RTMP, SRT, WebRTC, RTSP
Lowest live latency
5–10 s over RTMP
About 500 ms over WebRTC (up to ~300 viewers)
Run on your own servers
Fully managed cloud only
Yes, with Wowza Streaming Engine
Where data lives
Service provided from the US; EU broadcast regions available
Uptime SLA
99.98% target, financial SLA on Mega
“99.9% uptime” in marketing; no published SLA
Try before you pay
Free plan: 100 min + 200 GB/month, no card
30-day trial with watermark; uploads encode the first 60 s

Moving off Wowza? Our team brings the library across

We bring your recordings and on-demand videos over at no cost on the Super and Mega plans, and your encoders only need a new RTMP, RTMPS or SRT address. Your Wowza embeds stay live until the Kinescope embeds are tested. Hands-on EN/PT support throughout.

When to choose

Choose Kinescope if you need:

A managed video platform with Widevine and FairPlay DRM and per-viewer watermarks included, adaptive streams up to 4K, live over RTMP, RTMPS and SRT, a video library your editors can use, data in the EU by default and monthly billing without an annual contract.

Choose Wowza if you need:

WebRTC with about half a second of latency, IP-camera ingest over RTSP for surveillance or monitoring, PlayReady, or streaming software you install and run on your own servers with Wowza Streaming Engine.

Meet Kinescope: managed video hosting with protection built in

DRM from day one

Widevine and FairPlay on every paid plan from €10 a month — no add-on fee, no third-party DRM account — plus dynamic per-viewer watermarking, signed links and domain restrictions.

API, SDKs and MCP

A REST API, 7 webhook event types, open-source SDKs for iOS, Android, Flutter, React, React Native, Vue and Angular, and an MCP server that lets AI agents search and edit videos and manage live streams.

Our own CDN

Our own infrastructure, not resold AWS or Cloudflare, covering Latin America, the US, Europe and the CIS, with a 99.98% monthly uptime target.

Live streaming

Go live over RTMP, RTMPS or SRT from OBS, vMix or a hardware encoder, keep an automatic recording, and let live-stream webhooks tell your backend when the encoder connects.

A video library for the whole team

Editors upload, organise and publish in the dashboard — projects, folders, playlists, player templates, AI subtitles and chapters — while your code works with the same videos over the API.

One predictable price

Plans from €10 a month with pay-as-you-go usage: delivery from €0.03/GB down to €0.01/GB, storage from €0.03/GB, processing €0.01 per minute once. No per-seat fees and no annual contract.

Trusted by more than 9,500 clients in 84 countries and counting.

Try Kinescope free — 100 minutes + 200 GB/month, no card required

FAQ

Can’t find the answer you need? Check out our Help Center.

For teams that want a managed platform with protection built in, Kinescope: Widevine and FairPlay DRM and per-viewer watermarks on every paid plan from €10 a month, adaptive streams up to 4K, live over RTMP, RTMPS and SRT, EU storage by default and monthly billing with no annual contract. If you need sub-second WebRTC or IP-camera ingest over RTSP on your own servers, Wowza Streaming Engine stays strong there.

Wowza lists its cloud video platform’s Growth plan at $99 with 3+3 ingest hours (VOD and live), 512 playback hours and 20 GB of storage; Player Only and Enterprise are priced on request, usage beyond the plan is pay-as-you-go, and the pricing FAQ says you always sign a one-year contract (wowza.com). Wowza Streaming Engine costs $195 a month per instance with 10 transcoded channels, $25 for each extra channel, or $295 for a single month (wowza.com/pricing, November 2026). Kinescope bills monthly from €10: delivery from €0.03/GB down to €0.01/GB, storage from €0.03/GB and €0.01 per minute of processing, once — see pricing.

Not on its own. In Wowza’s cloud, FairPlay and Widevine/PlayReady work through EZDRM, and you need an EZDRM account (Wowza docs). Wowza Streaming Engine integrates with BuyDRM, EZDRM and Verimatrix, and full multi-DRM through BuyDRM’s KeyOS MultiPack is a separate paid module. Kinescope includes Widevine and FairPlay on every paid plan from €10 a month — see DRM video hosting.

Wowza’s cloud accepts 4K/UHD input as a premium feature, but its adaptive renditions go up to 1080p, encoded in H.264 (technical specifications). Kinescope delivers adaptive streams up to 4K on paid plans.