The facts side by side
| BriseStream | OBS Studio | |
|---|---|---|
| Status | In development, 1.0 in preparation, no public download yet | Mature, version 33.0.1 released 2026-10-29 |
| Licence | GPL-3.0-or-later | GPL-2.0-or-later |
| Price | Free | Free |
| Platforms | Windows first; Linux and macOS planned | Windows, macOS, Linux |
| Windows installer | Budget 25 MB or less; last accepted build 10.6 MB | 186.7 MB (33.0.1 x64 installer) |
| Game capture | Through Windows (Windows.Graphics.Capture); nothing is injected into the game | Game capture (a hook injected into the game), plus window and display capture |
| Encoders | Hardware H.264, HEVC and AV1 (NVENC, AMF, QuickSync); a software H.264 fallback for cards with no encoder | Hardware encoders (NVENC, AMF, QuickSync) and the x264 software encoder, among others |
| Outputs | RTMP(S), SRT and WHIP; several destinations at once | RTMP(S), SRT, WHIP; several destinations usually need a plugin or a relay service |
| Recording | Crash-safe Matroska, playable after a power cut, remuxed to MP4 on stop | MKV and other formats; a crash-tolerant choice exists but is the user's to make |
| Plugins | Stable, versioned C interface; plug-ins can run in their own process; no third-party ecosystem yet | Large third-party plugin ecosystem built up over years |
| Stream Deck and scripts | obs-websocket 5 compatible local API (off by default) | obs-websocket built in |
| Import | Reads OBS scene collections and profiles, and lists what could not be converted | Not applicable |
Where BriseStream aims to be lighter
- Download. The installer has a hard budget of 25 MB; the last accepted build is 10.6 MB. The OBS Studio 33.0.1 Windows installer is 186.7 MB. Heavy parts (browser source, VST3, NDI, virtual camera) are modules downloaded the first time you use them.
- Nothing hooked into your game. Capture goes through Windows, so BriseStream puts no code inside the game process. OBS also offers display and window capture that work the same way; its game capture is the part that injects.
- Encoding on the video chip. Frames stay on the GPU from capture to the hardware encoder; raw frames are not copied to system memory.
- Idle means idle. With no stream, no recording and the preview hidden, the design target is no GPU work and near-zero CPU.
Where OBS Studio is ahead today
- It exists and is proven. OBS has years of field use on millions of machines. BriseStream has no public release yet.
- Every desktop platform. OBS runs on Windows, macOS and Linux now. BriseStream is Windows first.
- Plugins. If your setup depends on a third-party OBS plugin, BriseStream cannot load it: it has its own plugin interface and no ecosystem yet.
- Community and documentation. Tutorials, forum answers and settings guides for OBS are everywhere.
What each costs a game: the measured numbers
These are the only performance figures BriseStream publishes, with the conditions that limit them. The project's 1 % FPS target is not met in the runs below; the target stands as a goal, not a result.
| Test | BriseStream | OBS Studio | Conditions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Synthetic game at about 207 FPS, GPU-bound | -3.7 to -4.9 % | Game capture -8.4 to -8.6 %; window capture -9.1 to -11.5 % | 2 to 3 runs; OBS 29.1.3 with NVENC p5; settings close but not identical (OBS's encoder engine was twice as busy) |
| Synthetic game at about 75 FPS, GPU-bound | -11.2 % | Game capture -14.4 %; window capture -15.6 % | One run each |
| Counter-Strike 2 with bots, 1024x768 window, 40 s phases (2026-11-06) | +2.9 % and +2.1 % in two sessions (intervals -1.4 to +10.0 and -5.6 to +12.2) | Window capture -10.1 %; game capture -3.2 % (interval -9.4 to +6.8) | One or two sessions each; other work loaded the CPU at 74 to 93 %; the intervals overlap for BriseStream, OBS game capture and the no-recorder noise row (-4.4 %), so this is a good result and not a proof |
| Counter-Strike 2 with bots, 220 to 290 FPS (2026-11-05) | -17 % | Not measured in this run | Game Bar set to 60 lost -7.5 % but wrote a 1024x768 file at 30 distinct pictures a second; BriseStream wrote 1920x1080 at 60 |
| Counter-Strike 2 played by a person, native 1024x768, with sound | Mean change +2.0 %, 95 % interval -2.1 to +6.3 % | Not measured | 20 recording phases against the phases around them; the positive mean is noise (recording cannot speed a game up) and a loss of about 2 % cannot be excluded |
Read this honestly: one machine, an older graphics card, a few runs, and in the CS2 bot run BriseStream lost more than Game Bar. The data says BriseStream costs less than OBS in the synthetic game on that machine, not that it is invisible, and the real-game comparison with OBS rests on one or two sessions on a machine that was busy with other work. Everything is in the linked ADR, including how it was measured.
Switching: what carries over from OBS
Settings, Import reads your OBS scene collections and profiles and tells you what it could not convert. Scenes, sources, filters, transitions and many hotkeys are mapped; the OBS stream key of a profile is asked again rather than copied silently. A Stream Deck or a script written for obs-websocket 5 keeps working through the local API. OBS plugins do not carry over. The step-by-step is in Switch from OBS.
Which one should you pick?
- Pick BriseStream when you are on Windows, stream or record games, care about download size and the cost on the game, want your OBS scenes to import, and accept that it is a new application approaching 1.0.
- Stay on OBS when you need macOS or Linux today, rely on a specific OBS plugin, or want the most battle-tested option.
- Use both while you decide: BriseStream's import does not change your OBS files.
Questions and answers
Is BriseStream a fork of OBS Studio?
No. BriseStream is its own codebase, written in Rust, and it is free software under GPL-3.0-or-later. It reads OBS scene files to help you switch, and it speaks the obs-websocket 5 protocol, but it is not built on OBS's code.
Is BriseStream lighter than OBS on my game?
In the controlled comparisons published (a synthetic GPU-bound game and Counter-Strike 2, GTX 1050), BriseStream lost 3.7 to 4.9 % of FPS where OBS lost 8.4 to 8.6 %. That is one machine and the project's 1 % target is not met. On Counter-Strike 2 the picture is mixed: in the 2026-11-06 comparison BriseStream showed no cost distinguishable from noise while OBS window capture lost 10.1 % and OBS game capture 3.2 %, but one earlier bot run cost BriseStream about 17 %, and the intervals are wide.
Will my OBS plugins work in BriseStream?
No. OBS plugins are written for OBS's interface. BriseStream has its own stable plugin interface, and the ecosystem around it does not exist yet.
Will my Stream Deck keep working?
Yes in the intended setup: the local API speaks obs-websocket 5, the protocol Stream Deck's OBS integration uses. It is off by default and is switched on in Settings, Local API.
Is BriseStream safe with anti-cheat software?
Nothing of BriseStream is injected into the game process, which is the design choice meant to avoid conflicts. It has not been tested against every anti-cheat system, so check the rules of your game.
Can I download BriseStream today?
Not yet. It is in development with version 1.0 in preparation; the download page will open when the first release is published.
Sources
- OBS Studio 33.0.1 release assets (GitHub, 2026-10-29) Windows x64 installer 186.7 MB, zip 223.8 MB, read from the GitHub release API on 2026-11-10.
- OBS Studio repository and licence (GPL-2.0-or-later)
- ADR 0012: what recording costs a game, measured against OBS
- ADR 0003: Windows capture and hardware encoders
- Installer size baseline (packaging/size-baseline.txt, 10,584,719 bytes)
- OBS Studio parity audit (docs/obs-parity.md)
- BriseStream user guide