MistServerHow Do We Compare?
MistServer bridges the gap between dedicated media servers and web servers, performing the best of both worlds when it comes to media streaming delivery. We serve the most outbound protocols, when compared to other media servers, and we are able to run on state-of-the-art servers as well as low-powered hardware. MistServer uses a single mezzanine file format to reach a wide number of devices, offering a modular approach to the features and abilities of a dedicated media server while giving you the simplicity and stability of a web server.
Comparison Table
The following table compares MistServer to various other dedicated media servers and web servers. In addition, our MistServer research initiative, available here presented detailed real-world comparisons of MistServer's performance results when compared to some of these same servers.
| Compare Mist to these products: | Compare Mist on these criteria: | ||
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Server Pricing and Licensing |
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| MistServer | Wowza Streaming Engine 4 | Flussonic | Adobe Media Server | Microsoft IIS | Red5 | Lighttpd | Apache | Nginx | |
| Developer License | aGPLv3 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | Apache license | BSD-like license | Apache license | BSD-like license |
| Business License | 2,500 USD/mo | 1995 USD | ~200 USD/mo | 4,500 USD | 501 USD | Apache license | BSD-like license | Apache license | BSD-like license |
| Type | No instance limitation | Per instance | Per instance | Per instance | Per instance | - | - | - | - |
Suitability |
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| Mistserver | Wowza Streaming Engine 4 | Flussonic | Adobe Media Server | Microsoft IIS | Red5 | Lighttpd | Apache | Nginx | |
| Dedicated Media Server | ++ | ++ | ++ | ++ | ++ | ++ | + | + | + |
| Personal Computer | ++ | ++ | ++ | + | + | + | + | + | + |
| Set-Top Box | ++ | - | - | -- | -- | -- | ++ | ++ | ++ |
| Raspberry Pi | ++ | - | - | -- | -- | -- | ++ | ++ | ++ |
| Performance | |||||||||
| For detailed information on MistServers performance please check our research initiative. | |||||||||
Operating System Support |
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| Mistserver | Wowza Streaming Engine 4 | Adobe Media Server | Flussonic | Microsoft IIS | Red5 | Lighttpd | Apache | Nginx | |
| Unix | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Solaris | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Linux | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Partial | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| OS X | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Windows | ✓ Through Cygwin | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
General Information |
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| Mistserver | Wowza Streaming Engine 4 | Flussonic | Adobe Media Server | Microsoft IIS | Red5 | Lighttpd | Apache | Nginx | |
| Redundant by design | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Exchangeable transcoder | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Live transcoding | Free addon | Paid addon | Free addon | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Deep level integration options with other applications | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Multi-protocol DVR | ✓ | Paid addon | ✓ | Partial | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Replication | RTMP, DTSC, MPEG-TS, RTSP, HLS | RTMP, RTSP, MPEG-TS | M4F, RTMP, HLS, MPEG-TS (HTTP only) | RTMP | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Audio-Only Support | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Custom (meta)Data Support | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Live Recording | ✓ (Pro) | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | Partial | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| HTML5 player included | ✓ (Pro) | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | |
Inbound Protocols |
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| Mistserver | Wowza Streaming Engine 4 | Flussonic | Adobe Media Server | Microsoft IIS | Red5 | Lighttpd | Apache | Nginx | |
| Media file input | ✓MP4, M3U8, M3U, ISMV, FLV, MP3, TS, OGG, MKV, WEBM | ✓ FLV, MP4, ISMV, MP3 | MP4 | ✓ | ✓ ISMV | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Standard Input (pipe) | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Multibitrate from single-file | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| HTTP Live Streaming(HLS) | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| HTTP Smooth Streaming(HSS) | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| RTMP | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| WebRTC | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Secure Reliable Transport (SRT) | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| RTSP | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| MPEG-TS | ✓(uni/multicast) | ✓(uni/multicast) | ✓(uni/multicast) | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| HTTP-TS | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| ICY(Shoutcast/Icecast) | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Annex B H264 | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
Outbound Protocols |
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| Mistserver | Wowza Streaming Engine 4 | Flussonic | Adobe Media Server | Microsoft IIS | Red5 | Lighttpd | Apache | Nginx | |
| Progressive FLV Streaming | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |  |
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| Progressive MP4 Streaming | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | |
✗ | |
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| Progressive OGG Streaming | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | |
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| HTTP Dynamic Streaming (HDS) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |  |
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| HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | |
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| HTTP Smooth Streaming | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | |
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✗ |
| RTMP | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | |
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✓ |
| RTSP | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | |
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✗ |
| MPEG-DASH | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| WebRTC | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| CMAF | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| MPEG-TS | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | |
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✗ |
| MP3 | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| WAV | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| SRT Subtitles | ✓ | |
✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | |
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✗ |
| WebVTT Subtitles | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | |
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✗ |
| SCC Subtitles | ✗ | |
✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | |
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✗ |
| TTML Subtitles | ✗ | |
✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | |
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✗ |
| JSON format metadata | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
Digital Rights Management |
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| Mistserver | Wowza Streaming Engine 4 | Flussonic | Adobe Media Server | Microsoft IIS | Red5 | Lighttpd | Apache | Nginx | |
| Multi-platform access management | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Partial | Partial | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Flash Access DRM | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| PlayReady DRM | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Generic encryption | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Widevine | Beta | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Fairplay | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Customizable Access control | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
The table represents information as of March 2020. If you see any outdated or incorrect data please let us know and we will update accordingly.