Most live streaming solutions rely on external platforms or proprietary infrastructures. At first, they appear affordable or even free. Over time, costs quietly accumulate:
- Bandwidth-based billing
- Per-viewer or per-hour pricing
- Recording storage fees
- Paywalls on advanced features
- Forced upgrades for larger audiences
- Vendor lock-in making migration difficult
These costs are often outside your control and unpredictable, especially when a live event suddenly attracts more viewers than expected.
Castio was designed specifically to avoid this trap.
No External Streaming Platform = No Platform Fees
Castio does not rely on:
- YouTube Live
- Twitch
- Vimeo
- Zoom
- Proprietary streaming clouds
Instead, live video is streamed directly from your WordPress site using standard web technologies.
What this means in practice:
- No monthly platform subscriptions
- No “per viewer” pricing
- No revenue sharing
- No surprise invoices after a successful event
If your website is online, your stream is online. That’s it.
Your Hosting, Your Rules, Your Costs
With Castio, your hosting provider is the only infrastructure cost involved.
This is a crucial distinction.
You already pay for:
- Web hosting or a server
- Storage
- Bandwidth
Castio simply uses what you already have. There is no parallel streaming infrastructure running somewhere else, charging you per gigabyte or per minute.
This makes costs:
- Transparent
- Predictable
- Easy to estimate
- Easy to optimize
If you upgrade your hosting, you upgrade your streaming capacity. No hidden layers in between.
Built on Standard Web Technologies (Not Proprietary Systems)
Castio relies on:
- HLS (HTTP Live Streaming)
- Standard HTTP delivery
- Browser-native APIs
- WordPress-native architecture
There is no proprietary protocol, no black-box server, and no closed ecosystem.
Why this matters:
- Your streams can be cached by CDNs
- Your hosting provider understands the traffic
- You are not tied to a single vendor
- You can migrate your site at any time
If Castio disappeared tomorrow, your content would still be standard video files on your server, not locked inside a platform.
No Per-Viewer or Per-Stream Limits
Many platforms advertise “unlimited viewers” while quietly enforcing limits through pricing tiers or throttling.
Castio does not count viewers.
From a technical point of view:
- Viewers simply request video segments via HTTP
- There is no per-viewer streaming session
- No signaling servers
- No connection caps
Whether 10 people or 10,000 people are watching, the mechanism is the same. The only real limit is your hosting capacity—which you fully control.
No Mandatory Add-Ons or Paid Extensions
Another common hidden cost comes from modular pricing:
- Basic streaming is cheap
- Recording costs extra
- Access control costs extra
- Chat costs extra
- Monetization costs extra
Castio takes the opposite approach.
Core features are included by design:
- Live streaming from WordPress
- Auto-generated viewer pages
- Recording and replay
- Access control options
- Integrated lightweight chat
You are not forced into an ecosystem of paid add-ons just to unlock essential functionality.
No External APIs = No Usage-Based Billing
Many streaming plugins rely on third-party APIs:
- Video processing services
- Cloud encoders
- Analytics platforms
- Chat backends
These APIs often introduce:
- Rate limits
- Usage-based fees
- Sudden policy changes
- Service outages beyond your control
Castio avoids external APIs for core streaming functionality. This removes an entire class of hidden costs and reliability risks.
Your stream does not stop because an external service changed its pricing or terms.
Full Cost Transparency by Design
With Castio, your cost structure is simple and honest:
- Your WordPress hosting
- Your optional CDN (if you choose one)
- Castio itself
There are:
- No bandwidth invoices from third parties
- No viewer-based pricing
- No storage surcharges
- No forced upgrades as you grow
This transparency is intentional. It allows creators, educators, and businesses to plan live events without financial uncertainty.
Independence Means Long-Term Stability
Platform dependency is not just a cost issue—it’s a risk issue.
External platforms can:
- Change terms overnight
- Remove features
- Restrict content
- Shut down accounts
- Discontinue services
By running entirely inside WordPress, Castio gives you:
- Full ownership of your streams
- Control over access and monetization
- Long-term stability
- Freedom to move, scale, or customize
Your live streaming strategy is no longer tied to decisions made by someone else.
Conclusion: Simplicity Without Surprises
Castio was built on a clear principle:
Live streaming should be predictable, transparent, and under your control.
No hidden costs.
No external platforms.
No vendor lock-in.
No surprise limits.
If you already trust WordPress to power your website, Castio lets you trust it with your live streams as well—without financial or technical surprises.
That’s not just a technical choice.
It’s a long-term strategy for sustainable, independent live streaming.