Cloud OBS: an OBS Studio that runs on a server, not on your PC

Q: How much does a cloud OBS cost?

It depends on the resolution and framerate you broadcast at, how much the server may send out, how many stream keys you need and whether you want desktop access to the machine. This page lists what each of our three tiers includes, limit by limit.

Q: Can I get into the desktop of the server?

Desktop access is included from a certain tier upwards and not on the entry plan, and it opens inside the panel in your browser with nothing to install. The plans section of this page says which tiers have it and what they cost.

A cloud OBS is what it sounds like: OBS Studio running on somebody else's machine, with your scenes and your output, driven from a browser. For IRL it solves one specific problem, and not the one people expect. Here is what it is, what to demand from one, and when you do not need one.

What a cloud OBS is

A real OBS Studio on a server with a GPU, reachable from a web panel. Scenes, sources, overlays and output settings are all there, as on a desktop. What changes is where the video comes from: your camera feed arrives over the internet from your phone, not through a capture card, and the machine sits in a data centre, not your living room.

That is the whole idea. The computer talking to Twitch, YouTube or Kick stops being the one in your backpack or the one at home behind a domestic uplink. Your phone's job ends at the ingest server.

Why not just use the OBS you already have

Sometimes you should, and we say so twice on this page. Four reasons to move OBS off your own machine, and only one is about power:

Your upload is the fragile part. Encoding 1080p is not what breaks an IRL stream; a mobile connection dropping to 300 kbps in a lift is. A server does not fix that — it changes what the broadcast does while it happens.
The platform never sees the drop. The part that matters. With OBS on the server, the link to the platform stays up whatever happens to you: your signal dying becomes a scene change, not a disconnection. No "stream ended", no split recording, no restarting and hoping viewers come back.
Your PC can be off. Nothing at home stays awake while you are out, so nothing at home can crash or log you out mid-stream.
It is not a rendering upgrade. From a desk, on a fixed line, with a PC that handles OBS comfortably, it buys you very little.

What to demand from one before you pay

The term covers two very different products, and the gap is where people lose a month's subscription. Six questions worth asking:

A real GPU, not a shared desktop. Encoding 1080p60 continuously is hardware work. A provider that lists CPU cores and RAM but never a GPU is selling a general-purpose desktop with OBS on it, and your framerate will say so.
Its own ingest, with SRT and SRTLA. A cloud OBS without an ingest is half a product. If the answer to "how does my video get in" is "you set that up", the relay is your project.
Automatic scene switching, already wired. The feature that cuts to an offline card when your bitrate collapses and comes back by itself — configured against their ingest, not a binary you install and tune.
A desktop you can get into. Sooner or later you need to move a source or log into a browser source. Check it is in the plan you are buying, not just in the product.
Somewhere to put your assets. Overlays, an offline card, a logo. With no storage, every asset lives elsewhere and is fetched over the internet.
Published limits. Resolution, framerate, output bitrate and ingest ceiling, in writing.

If you want to know what that scene switching is and how it decides when to cut: NOALBS: automatic scene switching for OBS, set up properly.

And if you stream bonded, over two SIM cards or a phone plus Wi-Fi, the ingest side has its own requirements: SRTLA relay hosting: what the bonded receiver has to do.

It is not a Windows remote desktop with OBS on it

Search for cloud OBS and half the results are remote desktop rentals: a Windows machine with OBS pre-installed that you reach over RDP. Both put OBS on someone else's hardware; they are not the same purchase. On a rented desktop you are the administrator — you install what you like, and you also build the ingest and fix it at two in the morning. We compared the categories properly: Cloud OBS vs renting an RDP with OBS installed.

Short version: if your scenes need software a managed service cannot run, rent the desktop. If you stream IRL from a phone and want to press start and walk out of the door, the managed one is the product.

How ours works

Your Cloud OBS is a server we start when you press the button in the panel, with a GPU slot of its own. It comes up with the scenes in place, the ingest connected to the OBS, scene switching running and the output pointed at your platform. No setup evening: start your encoder and look at the preview.

You control it from a phone browser — start, stop, switch scenes, read the bitrate — and put it to sleep when you are not streaming, which frees the GPU and keeps your configuration.

It boots connected. Ingest, scenes, offline card and output are wired to each other before you touch anything.
Ingest in Europe, Asia and the US. Your stream key takes RTMP, SRT and SRTLA and you choose its region. Nothing to re-provision when you change protocol.
Automatic scene switching included. On every Cloud OBS plan: it watches the bitrate arriving at the relay and cuts to your offline scene before viewers notice.
The desktop inside the browser. On OBS Standard and OBS Pro, the server's desktop opens in a tab of the panel.
Storage for your assets. Overlays, cards and videos live on the server.

The plans

Three tiers, billed monthly in euros, no commitment. What separates them: resolution and framerate, output bitrate, stream keys and the desktop.

Plan	Price	What you get
OBS Basic	€29/month	720p 60 fps, 4,000 kbps out. 1 stream key, up to 6,000 kbps in. 5 GB of storage. Automatic scene switching. No remote desktop.
OBS Standard	€59/month	1080p 30 fps, 5,000 kbps out. 2 stream keys, up to 6,000 kbps in. 5 GB of storage. Automatic scene switching. Remote desktop included.
OBS Pro	€89/month	1080p 60 fps, 8,000 kbps out. 3 stream keys, up to 10,000 kbps in. 10 GB of storage. Automatic scene switching. Remote desktop included.

Every key on every plan takes RTMP, SRT and SRTLA. The step from Basic to Standard is the remote desktop as much as the resolution.

You may not need a Cloud OBS at all

If the OBS on your own PC already works, the missing piece is probably a reliable entry point in front of it, not a second OBS. Stream Key Lite, at €5 a month, is one key at up to 9,000 kbps with RTMP, SRT and SRTLA. Stream Key, at €9, adds what matters if you keep your own OBS: connect it to the panel and it gets the same automatic scene switching.

Buy the Cloud OBS when your phone is the only computer in the story, or when you want the broadcast to survive your PC being off. Better said here than after you have paid.

What it does not do

Hard limits of our product, not features waiting in a backlog:

No software you install. A fixed OBS build that we maintain: no plugins, no games, no virtual capture cards. If your scenes need any of those, rent a desktop you administer.
It broadcasts, it does not record. There is no file waiting for you at the end of the night.
No remote desktop on OBS Basic. Configured from the panel instead; desktop access starts at OBS Standard.
The storage is for assets. 5 GB, or 10 GB on Pro: space for overlays and cards, not an archive.

Frequently asked questions

What is a cloud OBS?

An OBS Studio running on a server instead of your own computer, controlled from a browser. Your video reaches it over the internet from your phone rather than through a capture card, and the output goes from that server to the platform. The point, for IRL, is that the machine talking to Twitch is never the one moving around.

How much does a cloud OBS cost?

Ours are €29, €59 and €89 a month, depending on resolution, framerate, output bitrate, stream keys and whether the remote desktop is included.

Can I get into the desktop of the server?

Yes, on OBS Standard and OBS Pro: it opens inside a tab of the panel, with no client to install. OBS Basic does not include it.

Does it work with Moblin, BELABOX or a plain RTMP app?

Yes. Every stream key accepts RTMP, SRT and SRTLA on the same credentials.

A Cloud OBS with the IRL ingest already connected

From €29 a month, VAT included, no commitment. No plugins and no recording — if you need either, buy elsewhere.

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