Owncast
Your own live streaming server - Twitch without the platform cut, RTMP in, HLS out, on your domain.
One-click deploy, from $7/mo on a Miget plan.
Owncast is a complete live streaming server you run yourself: point OBS (or any RTMP broadcaster) at it, and viewers watch adaptive HLS in a built-in web player on your own domain - with live chat, a custom look, and optional fediverse federation.
A thin wrapper pins the web server to port 5000 (Owncast normally takes that from a command-line flag, which Miget’s env-only config does not pass) while RTMP ingest stays on 1935. Expose 1935 as a public custom TCP port and OBS streams straight in.
Everything - configuration, chat history, and the recorded HLS segments - lives on a single volume, so it is a one-service deploy. The point is ownership: no platform takes a cut of your audience, no algorithm decides who sees you, and there are no ads.
Upstream project: Owncast
#what you get
- Built-in web video player with adaptive HLS
- RTMP ingest from OBS and any standard broadcaster
- Live chat, custom theming, and fediverse federation
- No platform cut, no ads, no audience middleman
- Single container, all state on one volume
- GPL-3.0; port-5000 wrapper, RTMP on a custom TCP port
#topology
| Service | Role | Public |
|---|---|---|
| owncast | web player + admin (:5000) + RTMP (:1935) | yes (1935 custom TCP) |
| data volume | config, chat, recorded HLS | no |
#miget sizing
// this stack needs
1 GiB RAM · 20 GB disk · 1 service
Transcoding is CPU-bound during a live stream; 1 GiB RAM is comfortable. Size the volume to how much recorded video you keep. Keep replicas at 1.
Hobby - recommended fit
$7/mo
1 vCPU · 1 GiB · 25 GiB disk
Headroom for your own apps: 2 GiB at $13/mo
Professional - production
$43/mo
2 vCPU · 4 GiB · 25 GiB disk
Dedicated resources, production SLOs - plan details
One Miget plan is a fixed pool of compute - the whole stack (managed databases included) deploys inside it, and anything left over runs your other apps. No per-service or per-seat math.
#vs. the managed service
What the hosted equivalents charge, against the flat Miget plan this stack fits on. Prices as of June 2026, sources linked.
| Service | Plan | Monthly | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owncast on Miget ★ | 1 GiB plan | $7 | this whole stack, flat - no usage meters, and room left for your own apps |
| Vimeo | Advanced | ~$75 | $75/mo for live streaming |
| Restream | Standard | ~$16 | $16/mo just to multistream |
Streaming platforms take a cut of your audience or a monthly fee; Owncast is your own server, no middleman.
#vs. other PaaS
Estimated monthly cost of running this exact stack (1 GiB RAM, 20 GB disk, 1 container) elsewhere, from published June 2026 rates.
| Platform | Est. monthly | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Miget ★ | $7 flat | compose stacks first-class: one deploy, dedicated vCPU, managed Postgres/Valkey, volumes and TLS all included in the plan |
| Heroku | ~$50 | no volumes; nothing between 1 GB ($50) and 2.5 GB ($250) dynos - 2 GB containers cost far more than shown |
| Render | ~$18 | per-service instances (0.5 GB $7, 2 GB $25) - every container is its own paid service |
| DO App Platform | ~$17 | no persistent volumes - stateful containers need managed DBs/Spaces (base $5 Spaces included here) |
| Railway | ~$13 | usage-based ($10/GB RAM-mo); vCPU billed separately at $20/vCPU-mo on top |
| Fly.io | ~$9 | cheapest sticker price - but burstable shared CPUs (1/16 core; dedicated vCPUs cost ~2-3×), no compose deploys (one app per container, manual wiring), managed DBs billed extra |
Estimates assume RAM fully allocated at published on-demand rates - and sticker price isn't the whole comparison: the cheaper rows buy burstable shared CPUs, per-service wiring instead of a compose deploy, and managed databases billed separately. Heroku and DO App Platform have no persistent volumes at all - stateful stacks like this one need workarounds there.
#deploy it
On Miget
- Create a Compose Stack in app.miget.com pointing at the templates repository
- Set the stack path to
owncast -
Set the required variable:
(none), change the default admin password and stream key under /admin
- Deploy. Miget layers
compose.miget.yaml(RAM, privacy, volumes, managed services) automatically
Locally first?
Every template is portable, vanilla Docker Compose - the Miget overrides are ignored locally:
git clone https://github.com/deployable-sh/stacks
cd miget-compose-templates/owncast
docker compose up -dSame files, same behavior. The template README covers connection strings and scaling notes.
#faq
What does this save vs Twitch, Vimeo, or Restream?
Twitch and YouTube monetize your audience and your data, Vimeo’s Advanced tier is around $75/month, and Restream is $16+/month just to multistream. Owncast is one ~$13/month plan for a channel that is entirely yours.
How do I get OBS streaming to it?
Expose port 1935 as a public custom TCP port on Miget, then point OBS at rtmp://your-app.migetapp.com:1935/live using the stream key from the admin panel. Viewers just open your https domain.
Why the wrapper?
Owncast sets its web port with the -webserverport flag, and a compose command does not reach per-app deploys on Miget. The wrapper bakes -webserverport 5000 into the entrypoint so the player is served on Miget’s public port.
Ship Owncast today
One compose stack, 1 GiB of RAM, from $7/month flat, and it runs on your laptop with the same files.