Crowdcast

Host a small interactive live event and publish a replay

NOT REALLY · consider alternatives
price $49/mosubscription / year $588estimated build time closest consolation build: one sittingreplaced by 0 people

A consolation build is possible, but the paid product's decisive value sits outside a solo rebuild. For Crowdcast, host a small interactive live event and publish a replay. The hard boundary is live-event media, registration, chat, questions, analytics, and community audience, plus real-time media infrastructure and reliability.

Build verification: not recorded. How we judge buildability

What you give up

  • live-event media, registration, chat, questions, analytics, and community audience
  • global low-latency media network
  • dial-in and telephony
  • large webinars
  • transcription, support, and compliance

Why people still pay

People still pay for Crowdcast because video products survive because real-time media quality and global reliability are infrastructure businesses, not weekend interface projects. The recurring cost buys TURN capacity, codecs, browsers, packet loss, scaling, recording, consent, abuse, monitoring, and incident response, not just the visible interface.

Your build guide

The stack, security requirements, and agent rules for a focused replacement.

Before you start

  • public server with strong bandwidth
  • domain and TLS
  • TURN server
  • Docker
  • explicit participant consent for recording
01
Use Docker Compose, Jitsi Meet, a small Next.js 15 control panel, PostgreSQL, and TURN.
02
Model rooms, signed invitations, participants, consent state, and optional recordings; keep stable source IDs and timestamps.
03
Interface for this video meetings and webinars workflow: a local web page with input, progress, review, and export views.
engineering roadmap

Implementation plan

1

Phase 1, architecture and data

Use Docker Compose, Jitsi Meet, a small Next.js 15 control panel, PostgreSQL, and TURN. Model rooms, signed invitations, participants, consent state, and optional recordings; keep stable source IDs and timestamps.

2

Phase 2, implement

For video meetings and webinars, register attendees and issue signed links for a small self-managed video room.

3

Phase 3, implement

Show host controls, attendee join state, and explicit recording consent before any replay capture.

4

Phase 4, review and output

Publish a replay only after processing finishes and permission is recorded.

5

Phase 5, recovery and acceptance

Verify this invariant with a saved fixture: An expired link cannot join; a failed recording must not create a playable replay or lose consent history. State the practical limit: live-event media, registration, chat, questions, analytics, and community audience.

the pro prompt
Build me a focused video meetings and webinars workflow for the personal core of Crowdcast. Requirements:

- Use Docker Compose, Jitsi Meet, a small Next.js 15 control panel, PostgreSQL, and TURN. Model rooms, signed invitations, participants, consent state, and optional recordings; keep stable source IDs and timestamps.
- Paid product context: Host a small interactive live event and publish a replay. Build only this DIY scope: Host a small interactive live event in a private video room, issue signed room links, publish a replay, and keep recordings only when every participant is clearly informed.
- For video meetings and webinars, register attendees and issue signed links for a small self-managed video room.
- Show host controls, attendee join state, and explicit recording consent before any replay capture.
- Publish a replay only after processing finishes and permission is recorded.
- Use a local web page with input, progress, review, and export views. Required input or access: public server with strong bandwidth; domain and TLS.
- Recovery: An expired link cannot join; a failed recording must not create a playable replay or lose consent history.
- Acceptance: with one labelled sample, show the input, saved intermediate state, and exported result; verify this invariant: An expired link cannot join; a failed recording must not create a playable replay or lose consent history.
- Out of scope: live-event media, registration, chat, questions, analytics, and community audience; global low-latency media network. Keep this a personal, inspectable workflow.
- Include a README with setup, a sample input, required keys or permissions, data location, and the supported scope.

$ open in your agent (prompt prefilled, you press enter), copy the prompt or copy AGENTS.md · generated from this app's build plan

share on X ↗

Alternatives to building your own

BigBlueButtonInteractive live sessions, polls and replay recordings; public-event polish remains your job.9.2kaug 2026open source↗

no votes, no pay-to-list · just what's real

Crowdcast pricing

planmonthlyannual (per mo)what you get
lite$49/workspace$34.30/workspace100 live attendees; 10 live hours/month; 1 host seat; 1 GB studio storage; 2-hour sessions; 5% ticket feeAnnual equivalent calculated from the official 30% discount.
pro$89/workspace$62.30/workspace250 live attendees; 20 live hours/month; 2 host seats; 5 GB studio storage; 4-hour sessions; 1 multistream; 5% ticket fee
business$195/workspace$136.50/workspace1,000 live attendees; 40 live hours/month; 4 host seats; 10 GB studio storage; 6-hour sessions; 3 multistreams; 2% ticket fee

free tierno free tier; 14-day trial is limited to 10 live attendees and 60-minute sessions

billingmonthly + annual (30% lower)

hidden costsOverage is $0.15 per extra live attendee, $20 per extra 5 live hours and $29 per extra host seat; paid events also incur Crowdcast's 2%–5% fee plus Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30.

pricing sources checked 2026-08-14 · pricing source ↗

Questions about Crowdcast

Can you build your own Crowdcast with AI?

A full replacement is not the recommended project. A consolation build is possible, but the paid product's decisive value sits outside a solo rebuild. For Crowdcast, host a small interactive live event and publish a replay. The hard boundary is live-event media, registration, chat, questions, analytics, and community audience, plus real-time media infrastructure and reliability.

What does the Crowdcast build prompt cover?

The prompt starts with this scope: Host a small interactive live event in a private video room, issue signed room links, publish a replay, and keep recordings only when every participant is clearly informed. Full-product capabilities excluded from the comparison include: live-event media, registration, chat, questions, analytics, and community audience; global low-latency media network; dial-in and telephony. Follow the implementation plan and its prerequisites before expanding the build.

How do I use the prompt, AGENTS.md and agent skills?

Start with the Crowdcast prerequisites and stack, then copy the prompt into your coding agent. Save the project rules as AGENTS.md in the project root. Linked skills are optional packages or source instructions for specific tasks; review their current contents and install only those matching the chosen stack. A skill does not supply API credentials or verify the finished app.

How long will this Crowdcast project take?

The catalogue estimate is closest consolation build: one sitting for the limited scope. Setup, integration approvals, debugging, deployment and ongoing maintenance can add time. This is an estimate, not a delivery guarantee.

What would I give up by replacing Crowdcast?

live-event media, registration, chat, questions, analytics, and community audience; global low-latency media network; dial-in and telephony; large webinars; transcription, support, and compliance. People still pay for Crowdcast because video products survive because real-time media quality and global reliability are infrastructure businesses, not weekend interface projects. The recurring cost buys TURN capacity, codecs, browsers, packet loss, scaling, recording, consent, abuse, monitoring, and incident response, not just the visible interface.

What price is this guide comparing against?

The recorded Lite plan is $49/mo (monthly), checked 2026-07-31. Check the linked pricing source before buying. Building your own also has hosting, API and maintenance costs; the recorded amount is not a guaranteed saving.

What can I use instead of building Crowdcast?

BigBlueButton: Interactive live sessions, polls and replay recordings; public-event polish remains your job. Check each option's license, hosting needs and feature limits.

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