Alternative
SRT Cloud vs Haivision SRT Gateway: A Cloud-Native Alternative
An honest comparison of the Haivision SRT Gateway and SRT Cloud — appliance vs cloud-native, per-appliance vs per-output pricing, and who each one fits.
On this page
If you are shopping for a way to route and distribute SRT streams, the Haivision SRT Gateway is almost certainly on your shortlist — and it deserves to be. This is an honest comparison from the other side of the table. We will give Haivision full credit for what it does well, then explain where a cloud-native service like SRT Cloud takes a different, simpler path.
What is the Haivision SRT Gateway?
The Haivision SRT Gateway is a stream-routing product that ingests, converts, and redistributes SRT and other streams. It handles protocol conversion — SRT to and from UDP, RTP, RTMP and MPEG-TS — aggregates multiple inputs, and fans streams out to multiple destinations with route management and monitoring. It ships as a hardware appliance and as a software or virtual instance you can run on-premises or in the cloud, for example on AWS.
Credit where it is due. Haivision did not just adopt SRT — they created it and open-sourced it, and they co-founded the SRT Alliance. That pedigree is real, and it shows in the product.
Haivision's genuine strengths
Be clear-eyed about why so many broadcasters trust Haivision:
- They pioneered the protocol. When you run Haivision gear, you are running SRT from the people who wrote it. Nobody understands the edge cases better.
- Proven, battle-tested hardware. Their encoders and gateways have earned their reputation in OB trucks, flyaway kits, and master control rooms for over twenty years. This is equipment that survives being trucked to a stadium and back.
- An enormous installed base. If your facility already standardized on Haivision, the Gateway slots into a workflow your engineers know cold.
- Deep protocol conversion. If your job is bridging half a dozen formats and transports across a plant, that flexibility is exactly what you want.
If you need an on-premises appliance you fully own and control, sitting inside your own network with your own conversion matrix, Haivision is a safe, credible choice. We are not going to pretend otherwise.
Where SRT Cloud is different
SRT Cloud is not trying to be a Swiss-army gateway. It does one thing, on purpose, and does it without hardware.
You send one SRT input. SRT Cloud produces unlimited bit-exact, 1:1 copies and delivers each to a taker — a downstream destination such as a broadcaster, telco, affiliate, CDN, or satellite operator. There is no transcoding and no re-encoding: every output is frame-for-frame identical to your source. Real takers on the platform today include FreeSat, Pyur, Eutelsat, SES, Etisalat, Swisscom, UIG, and KiwiSat.
The difference that matters is the operating model. With an appliance — even a virtual one — you are still provisioning capacity, licensing software, patching an OS, and owning uptime. You size for peak and pay for it whether you use it or not. SRT Cloud is a managed service: there is nothing to rack, nothing to patch, and no media server to babysit. You add an output when a new partner signs on, and remove it when they leave.
Side-by-side comparison
| Haivision SRT Gateway | SRT Cloud | |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment | Hardware appliance or self-managed virtual/cloud instance | Fully managed cloud service — nothing to install |
| Hardware | Appliance to buy and rack, or a VM to provision and maintain | None — you keep only your encoder/source |
| Pricing model | Per appliance / per software instance (capex plus licensing) | €99 per output per month — one license, one output |
| Scaling | Add or resize appliances/instances; plan for peak | Add or remove outputs on demand, up or down anytime |
| Processing | Protocol conversion and transcoding options | None by design — bit-exact 1:1 copies, no re-encode |
| Delivery to takers | You configure and operate each route | Each output delivered to its taker as a managed copy |
| Setup time | Procure, rack or provision, license, configure | Sign up, point one SRT input in, start a free trial |
| Best for | On-prem control, multi-format conversion, existing Haivision plants | Simple, cheap fan-out of one feed to many destinations |
The pricing difference, in plain terms
An appliance is a capital purchase or a per-instance license: you commit up front, you size for your busiest day, and unused headroom is money sitting idle. SRT Cloud inverts that. Cost scales one-to-one with the value you deliver — €99 per output per month, one license per SRT output, starting with a free trial and no long-term commitment. Ten takers, ten outputs. Lose two, drop to eight next month. Your bill tracks your business instead of your procurement forecast.
What you give up — and what you don't
Honesty matters here. A pure copy-and-deliver service is not a conversion engine. If you need to transcode to multiple bitrates, remux between a dozen container formats, or run a stream through on-prem processing before it leaves the building, that is a gateway's job, not ours — and SRT Cloud will happily sit alongside one rather than replace it. What you do not give up is fidelity: because there is no re-encoding, no generational loss creeps in, and every taker receives exactly the feed you sent. For distribution, sameness is the feature.
So which should you choose?
Choose the Haivision SRT Gateway if you need an appliance under your own roof, heavy multi-format protocol conversion, or you have already built your plant around Haivision and want everything in one ecosystem. It is proven, and it is the reference.
Choose SRT Cloud if your actual problem is the one it was built for: you have one live feed and need to hand identical copies to a growing list of downstream partners, cheaply, without buying or operating anything. No hardware, no transcode, no commitment — just one feed in, unlimited exact copies out, at €99 per output. If that is the job, the simpler tool wins.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Haivision SRT Gateway?
The Haivision SRT Gateway is a stream-routing product that ingests, converts, and redistributes SRT and other streams, with protocol conversion, aggregation, and route management. It is available as a hardware appliance and as a self-managed software or virtual instance. Haivision created SRT and co-founded the SRT Alliance, so the Gateway comes from the protocol's original authors.
Is there a cloud alternative to the Haivision SRT Gateway?
Yes. SRT Cloud is a fully managed, cloud-native alternative. Instead of buying an appliance or provisioning a virtual instance, you send one SRT input and SRT Cloud produces unlimited bit-exact 1:1 copies, delivering each to a downstream destination. There is nothing to rack, patch, or maintain.
How much does SRT Cloud cost compared to Haivision?
SRT Cloud is priced at €99 per output per month — one license per SRT output — after a free trial, with no long-term commitment and the freedom to scale up or down anytime. That is an operating cost that tracks the number of destinations you serve, rather than the capital cost of an appliance or a per-instance software license sized for peak. Haivision does not publish list pricing, so compare on total cost of ownership including hardware, licensing, and operations.
Can SRT Cloud send one feed to multiple destinations?
Yes — that is exactly what it is built for. One SRT input becomes unlimited bit-exact copies, each delivered to its own taker (a broadcaster, telco, affiliate, CDN, or satellite operator). Because there is no transcoding, every destination receives a frame-for-frame identical copy of your source.