Twitch Studio vs Streamlabs: Which One to Use? The Ultimate Guide [2022]

Wondering which platform to use to start your streaming journey out of Twitch Studio vs Streamlabs? Or are you just wanting to take a look at other streaming software out there in the market? Either way, your streaming software is your best friend in your streaming journey. Hence, it’s one of the most important decisions you would make.

To help you make a choice, in this article, we will do an in-depth comparison of two of the most popular streaming software, Twitch Studio vs Streamlabs. There is also a comprehensive comparison table in the end for you to decide on your streaming partner.

Before we start the comparison, let’s know more about the two software, Twitch Studio vs Streamlabs.

What is Twitch Studio?

Twitch Studio is a streaming software developed by Twitch to help new streamers stream to Twitch.

It is made ground up by Twitch with the sole purpose of making it easier, friendlier, and efficient for new streamers to enter into streaming.

What is Streamlabs?

Streamlabs is one of the leading streaming software out there in the market. Streamlabs software is based on the OBS project. You can call it a modified version of OBS suited for beginners.

Streamlabs has made custom widgets, pages, theme library, and app store on top of OBS more suited for the streamers community. The company itself is based out of California and was founded in 2014.

It is primarily the go-to software for all things related to streaming because of its ecosystem.

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Twitch Studio vs Streamlabs performance comparison

Twitch Studio vs Streamlabs CPU utilization

To test Twitch Studio vs Streamlabs CPU utilization, I did a test by booting up the applications 3 times and monitoring the CPU utilization.

These tests were done using a laptop with an i5 10th gen processor. However, these results are relative and would give you an idea of CPU utilization using both applications in any PC configuration.

This test was conducted in May 2022, with Streamlabs version – 1.8.4 and Twitch Studio Beta – v0.108.1. A screen recording application was also running in the background which would simulate other games or browsers that would run alongside Streamlabs or Twitch Studio while streaming.

Below are the test results that came out of all the 3 tests.

CPU Utilisation chart

Test#	Idle CPU Utilisation	Streamlabs CPU usage	Twitch Studio CPU usage
Test 1	25-27%	83-86%	75-78%
Test 2	25-27%	82-84%	74-77%
Test 3	25-26%	78-82%	77-80%

???? CPU Utilization Winner: Twitch Studio

There is 4-7% less CPU usage when using Twitch Studio vs Streamlabs. Twitch Studio has worked hard on improving the overall stability and CPU resource utilization. It is still in the beta phase and continues to be improved by its developers.

Twitch Studio vs Streamlabs features

Both Streamlabs and Twitch Studio are made beginner-friendly. They can be good entry points for streamers beginning their streaming journey.

Even though with Streamlabs there were some allegations of them copying features from their competitors blatantly, it is still a good software. You can read more about the Streamlabs controversy in this article.

I have done a comparison of both Twitch Studio vs Streamlabs features. Analyzing the two, I have listed the similarities and the differences between both platforms. Hope it helps you to pick your streaming partner based on your priorities.

First, let’s look at the similarities between Twitch Studio vs Streamlabs:

Similarities in Twitch Studio vs Streamlabs features

1. Setup
   1. Recommended settings check
   2. Step-by-Step onboarding
   3. Automatic Hardware and game detection
   4. Guided tour for setting your scenes and sources
   5. Shows Current CPU and network usage

2. Features
   1. Can do both streaming and recording videos
   2. Preconfigured scenes
      • Twitch Studio – gameplay, be right back and chatting
      • Streamlabs – starting soon, live, be right back, intermission, and ending soon
   3. Follower or Subscription Goal Layer- You can add your follower goals to reach the next milestone. But Streamlabs offers many other goals like Donation and Bit Goals as well.
3. Customization
   1. Comes with preconfigured theme
   2. Green screen – chroma key settings
   3. Personalize with external themes

Both Twitch Studio and Streamlabs are good for beginners and offer a lot of functionalities. However, there are some differences between both platforms.

Now let’s look at the differences between Twitch Studio vs Streamlabs.

Differences in Twitch Studio vs Streamlabs features

We will look at Twitch Studio first to understand what are the additional benefits it offers different from Streamlabs.

Twitch Studio exclusive features

1. Direct Twitch Integration – No extra plugins required. All Twitch features are built-in as it is made by Twitch for Twitch.
2. Advanced Audio Mixer – Control audio sources on a per-app basis. Here’s how to install the Audio Mixer.

3. Draw Mode – Point out things to your chat by using the brush tool to draw directly over your stream

4. Free to use – The application is completely free to use as it is made by Twitch to help streamers begin their streaming journey.

Streamlabs exclusive features

1. Enable donation using the Paypal link – One of the biggest advantages of using Streamlabs is that you can now receive donations using your PayPal account and show it on stream.

2. Integrate merch store – You can open your own store and sell merch. Streamlabs will take care of printing to support.

3. Multistream support – With Streamlabs prime, you can also multistream to Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, etc. at once. Of course, it will depend on your PC to handle the bandwidth.
4. Replay buffer button– Inbuilt replay button to save replays of your live stream.
5. Selective recording– You can record your Livestream without the overlays or sources that appear in your stream. Can be helpful while editing the recording.
6. Inbuilt video editing tool – Offers an easy way to edit and create highlight videos from live stream replays.
7. App store– There is a full-fledged App Store inside Streamlabs where you can find dozens of applications with cool features. You may need Streamlabs prime to activate the entire App Store.
8. Theme library– Streamlabs also has a Theme library where you can pick and choose a theme of your liking and integrate it with your stream.
9. Cloudbot– It’s a chatbot provided by Streamlabs to handle entertainment and moderation for your stream.
10. Copyright-free music – You can gain access to Pretzel to get copyright-free music. Though it comes with the Streamlabs prime subscription.

???? Platform Feature Winner: Streamlabs

Although Twitch studio is good for beginners and hassle-free, Streamlabs has far more features including more monetization opportunities. Though, some of the features for Streamlabs come with their Prime subscription feature and are not included in the free version.

Streamlabs Prime Cost: $19 monthly or $149 annually

Streamlabs Prime features

1. Stream overlays – Although you can find some free overlays, prime unlocks thousands of overlays made for professional streamers
2. Alert Box themes – Prime gives you access to themed alerts
3. Multistream – With Prime, you can multistream to multiple platforms like Twitch, Youtube, and Facebook at the same time
4. App Store – You can unlock the full app store with Prime
5. Custom tip page– Create your own custom tip page for donations that matches your brand
6. Premium merch store items – Get access to premium items like hats, shoes, etc.
7. Custom cloudbot – Chatbot made for your stream and personalized
8. Copyright-free music – Gain access to Pretzel to get copyright-free music.

There are many other features that you can find in the app store to suit your own needs.

I hope you find my analysis useful! The section below contains a few affiliate links you can use to get Streamlabs Prime. As an affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases, and you get a discount. Learn More.

How to get Streamlabs Prime with a discount?

• Go to https://streamlabs.com/goprime?promo=turbostrmr-ec46-10
• Click on the Join Prime button

• Click on the “Add Code” link in the pay section

• Use code turbostrmr-ec46-10
• You will get a $9 discount on your monthly or a $10 discount on your yearly subscription

• It will cost you $10 for your first month for a monthly or $139 for an annual subscription

Twitch Studio vs Streamlabs feature comparison table

Features	Twitch Studio	Streamlabs
Streaming	Yes ✅	Yes ✅
Recording stream	Yes ✅	Yes ✅
Recommended System Check	Yes ✅	Yes ✅
Step-by-Step onboarding	Yes ✅	Yes ✅
Automatic Hardware and game detection	Yes ✅	Yes ✅
Guided tour	Yes ✅	Yes ✅
CPU and network usage stats	Yes ✅	Yes ✅
Preconfigured Scenes	Yes ✅	Yes ✅
Green Screen (Chroma Capture)	Yes ✅	Yes ✅
Theme Support	Yes ✅	Yes ✅
Theme Library	No ❌	Yes ✅
Donation Page	No ❌	Yes ✅
App Store	No ❌	Yes ✅
Inbuilt video editing	No ❌	Yes ✅
Multistream support	No ❌	Yes ✅
Replay Buffer button	No ❌	Yes ✅
Chatbot	No ❌	Yes ✅
Merch Store	No ❌	Yes ✅

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Twitch Studio vs Streamlabs recommended specifications comparison

You can find below the Twitch Studio vs Streamlabs recommended specification.

Streamlabs recommended system requirements:

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit, macOS: 10.14 Mojave or higher
• GPU: NVIDIA GTX 20 series or newer, AMD RX500 series or newer
• CPU: Intel i5 (11th or higher), AMD Ryzen 5000 or higher
• RAM: 16GB+
• Storage: 512GB SSD or more

Twitch Studio recommended system requirements:

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit, macOS: 10.14 Mojave or higher
• GPU: NVIDIA GTX 10 series or newer, AMD RX400 series or newer
• RAM: 8GB+
• CPU: 8 thread Intel or AMD

???? Recommended settings Winner: Twitch Studio

Twitch Studio is the lightest application of both and requires fewer system resources. Streamlabs, because of the various customization features and options, eats up more resources.

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In Conclusion: is Streamlabs better than Twitch Studio?

Both Streamlabs and Twitch Studio are made for beginners to start their streaming journey. While Twitch Studio will help you ramp up quickly on streaming to Twitch. Streamlabs does provide you with an entire ecosystem to help you stream to any platform.

Streamlabs does take that extra resource while streaming but it has a lot of good features that are essential for any beginner streamer to become a professional.