How to Make a Live Streaming Website: Roadmap for 2025

A live streaming website is an online video streaming platform that allows users to broadcast and watch real-time streaming video content. These websites enable creators to start live broadcasting, sharing live events such as gameplays, webinars, or entertainment.

The live streaming starts with the creator capturing video and audio using a camera, webcam, or mobile device. The raw footage is then encoded into a digital format such as H.264 or H.265, making it suitable for online transmission. Once encoded, the stream is sent to the platform using protocols like RTMP (Real-Time Messaging Protocol) or WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communication) to ensure smooth and low-latency delivery.

To provide a seamless experience when you create a website with live streaming, a content delivery network (CDN) distributes the stream across multiple servers, reducing buffering and improving playback speed. In this way, viewers receive the stream on their devices, where the platform adjusts video quality based on their internet speed for optimal performance.

Let’s overview the main types of live-streaming websites:

Social media streaming platforms

These platforms, like Facebook Live and Instagram Live, allow users to broadcast live video content directly to their followers. They're used for vlogging, brand promotions, influencer marketing, etc.

Gaming and e-sports streaming platforms

Websites like Twitch and YouTube Gaming focus on live-streaming video game content, esports tournaments, and gaming-related discussions. They offer monetization options for streamers, including subscriptions, donations, and ad revenue, while fostering interactive communities via chat features and real-time audience participation.

Educational and webinar platforms

Platforms like Udemy Live and Zoom Webinars facilitate real-time online learning, corporate training, and knowledge sharing. They often include features like screen sharing, Q&A sessions, and interactive tools to enhance audience engagement, making them ideal for virtual classrooms and professional development events.

Entertainment and event streaming platforms

Netflix Live, Hulu Live, and Dacast enable live broadcasts of concerts, sports events, and talk shows. These platforms use pay-per-view, subscription, or ad-based models, providing high-quality streaming experiences with multi-camera angles and real-time audience interaction via live chats and polls.

Developing a live-streaming website is a complex, multi-layered process that can feel rocky. With over 13 years of experience in delivering successful software solutions, we at Cleveroad have created a 9-step roadmap to guide you through the process and help you build a live-streaming platform.

First of all, what is USP? USP, or Unique Selling Proposition, refers to the distinct feature or benefit that sets your streaming platform apart from competitors. For example, your USP could offer ultra-low latency streaming for real-time interactions, provide exclusive content, or have a user-friendly interface that enhances the viewing experience.

Do your best to create your site project idea. Beforehand, decide what group of streamers you want to reach and engage. This will be your starting point for further development. For example, Twitch provides top-notch web sources for gamers. Don't hurry; consider your project carefully — modifying it drastically afterward will be challenging.

Making and launching a streaming platform is one thing, but live streaming app development that succeeds requires a lot of scrutiny and preparation. Assessing the following questions allows you to create a live streaming platform like YouTube or Twitch:

• What type of content will you be streaming? For instance, the process of streaming Q&As with domain experts will differ from streaming college basketball games.
• Do you know your end users? Setting up live streams will vary according to the target audience’s size, language(s), and locations. You should be able to reach your viewers where they are at.
• How critical is the streaming quality? Some livestream platforms require better video quality. HD quality for product demos is essential, while SD is preferable for streaming live lectures.
• Who’ll have access to the stream? Live stream settings will be different if, for instance, you want to give paying users exclusive access to your live events or make streams free for everyone.
• What are your objectives? Entrepreneurs and business owners usually want to make a streaming website to acquire more leads and establish strong digital presence.

Once you work out these questions, including considerations for your streaming server’s bandwidth, you can start to prepare a list of desired functionality for your future streaming software. We'll discuss the features required in the sections below.

If you’re going to capitalize on your streaming platform, there are multiple ways to do so: ads, subscriptions, etc. (monetization models will be described in detail below). Each of the business models has its own pros and cons. Still, the best way is to combine the few ones. For instance, you can start offering free use of the service, but premium features are paid.

Once you’ve finished planning, you can start looking for an experienced IT partner to make your own live stream website. Livestream website creation is a tricky process that should be taken professionally. So you need to hire dedicated developers with proven expertise in the media industry.

It’s more beneficial to look for a tech partner abroad rather than in the city (or even country) of residence. Outsourcing web development brings a lot of gains in terms of price, quality, broad skill set, and unique expertise. In addition, outsourcing agencies already have all the required specialists to create a website for live streaming under approved demands.

Cleveroad is an outsourcing IT company located in Central and Eastern Europe (Estonia). Throughout the years, we’ve successfully delivered digital solutions for multiple business domains, including media and entertainment. Here’s what our clients say about our mutual cooperation:

There are various tools and technologies on the modern IT market. It’s possible to use different programming languages during web development. To give you a hint, we listed the tech stack our developers would use to create a live streaming website with the features outlined in the article.

Note: When choosing the tech stack to build a streaming website, you need to consult with professionals. The final toolset always depends on your technical needs and project requirements.

MVP development services imply creating a version of your streaming website with functionality enough for initial testing and gathering user feedback. It's a great way to validate the business idea and short time to market without investing a pretty penny in building a full-fledged platform. After testing your product on a real audience, you can reinvest in adding more sophisticated functionality.

When the live streaming website development team makes an MVP, pay close attention to the UI/UX design. Consumers want video streaming services that are user-friendly and intuitive. Don’t overload their attention with a bunch of interactive elements and bright colors. They must focus on making key actions, not striving to comprehend how to navigate and use your platform. In addition, the design is connected with website usability, so consider an excellent UI to deliver a smooth user experience.

At this stage, your vendor guarantees that your streaming platform works flawlessly without interruptions. QA engineers conduct manual and automated tests to validate functional requirements and mitigate the functioning flaw. Before the final client review, the testing team checks all the functionality (including integrations, usability, and security) to ensure the best streaming experience. Whether you are looking to build a streaming service or creating your own streaming business, rigorous testing ensures reliability. Since live streaming is essential for engagement, these measures help promote your video streaming service effectively. A well-tested system is crucial when you create a streaming platform that stands out in the market.

After you create a website with live streaming and release it, the process never stops. Next, you need to understand how to make it better to grow and reach your goals. One way to enhance your website involves collecting user feedback. This can be done by tracking real-time comments or passing surveys afterward for feedback.

Another way to ensure your platform works well is to investigate the analytics. Built-in analytics features make it possible to scrutinize the stream in real time. For example, you'll be able to review the live viewer count, what devices they’re applying, users’ locations, and much more. The received insights will allow you to streamline your next live-streaming session for better results.

Besides considering how to make a live streaming website or platform, pay special attention to its promotion. This will allow you to attract a wider audience, which in turn will positively affect your profits. You can use the following tools to market your streaming website or platform successfully:

• Google Ads. Set up advertising in the search engine to ensure your website is always at the top.
• Social networks. Many businesses use promotion in social networks with targeted advertising today because it brings good results.
• Influencers. Influencer marketing is now more popular than ever - most social media users tend to trust the recommendations of bloggers and celebrities.
• Forums. Another effective way to attract a target audience is to post ads on thematic forums.

Selection of the desired functionality for your live-streaming website is an important step that requires extra attention. While deciding what features to include, an experienced IT vendor will help you clarify aspects regarding tech requirements for each feature implementation. However, here’s the list of basic features for you to create a live-streaming website:

When you develop a live-streaming website, user registration is essential to facillitate personalized experiences. Users should be able to sign up via email, social media, or single sign-on (SSO). Profiles allow them to manage preferences, track activity, and interact with the platform, making building a community around live content easier.

A broadcasting feature is fundamental to a live-streaming website. Streamers should be able to go live with minimal setup using webcams, mobile devices, or professional cameras. Support for adaptive bitrate streaming ensures smooth playback, even on slower connections, while real-time encoding and latency reduction enhance viewer engagement.

Understanding how to create a live-streaming website involves implementing video playback and recording. Users should be able to watch live content in real time or access past broadcasts on demand. Cloud-based storage solutions help retain content securely while offering various resolution options for seamless viewing across devices.

Features like live chat, reactions, and polls enable real-time communication between streamers and audiences. Gamification elements such as badges, super chats, and exclusive emotes further enhance the interactive experience, fostering a sense of community.

Moderation tools like AI-powered content filtering, user reporting, and manual review help maintain a safe and respectful environment. When you create a live streaming website, implementing automatic flagging of inappropriate behavior ensures compliance with platform policies, protecting both users and content creators while fostering a secure streaming experience.

A live-streaming website benefits from scheduling and notifications, helping streamers plan events and alert followers. If you're wondering how to create your own live streaming website, incorporating automated reminders, push notifications, and calendar integration is essential. These features keep audiences engaged, ensure they never miss a live session, and ultimately improve retention while maximizing viewer participation.

To make your live streaming platform accessible for everyone, it must operate across various devices, including desktops, mobile phones, smart TVs, and tablets. Compatibility across operating systems and screen sizes will help you enhance your streaming website’s usability and maximize audience reach.

Detailed metrics on viewer engagement, watch time, and audience demographics help you as platform owners and creators, optimize content strategies, maximize monetization, and enhance user experience through real-time insights.

Monetization is a key factor when you build a live-streaming website. Secure payment gateways should support multiple revenue streams, including subscriptions, donations, and pay-per-view events. Compliance with regulatory requirements like PCI DSS and the use of encryption protocols such as AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) and TLS (Transport Layer Security) ensures transactions and sensitive financial user data remain safe.

Below you can examine the time estimation for the basic live streaming website feature set:

Apart from features, a streaming website requires an admin panel and intuitive live streaming website design. These two factors also affect the final price:

• Admin panel. A live streaming service requires an admin panel to manage users effectively. To create a basic admin panel for a live-streaming website, developers need at least 230 hours.
• UI/UX Design. Users are quite demanding these days. They expect to interact with an intuitive and user-friendly design. To create an attractive design for a live-streaming website, designers need at least 20 hours. If you want to integrate responsive web design, it’s required 40 hours.

Cleveroad’s expert tip: Ensure your live streaming website includes robust analytics tools to monitor viewer behavior, engagement metrics, and performance, allowing for continuous optimization and better content strategy decisions.

As for advanced features, here are some ideas:

• Nearby broadcasters
• Ability to start a chat
• Push notifications
• Share on social media
• Top trending broadcasters

Live streaming remains a leading force in digital entertainment, driving constant innovation and the adoption of new technologies. Here are some key trends you can consider to integrate to create a live streaming website to stay ahead:

Live streaming platforms are getting smarter with AI-driven recommendations that suggest streams based on user preferences, watch history, and engagement. This helps viewers find content they love faster while boosting retention for platforms. Streamers also benefit from a more engaged audience, leading to better reach and higher monetization opportunities.

Viewers don’t just want to watch – they want to belong and participate. Features like live polls, Q&A sessions, audience voting, and gamification make streams more engaging and fun. These interactive elements help streamers connect with their audience in real time, keeping viewers hooked while increasing engagement and monetization potential.

Nobody likes lag, especially in fast-paced content like gaming, live sports, or important virtual events. With ultra-low latency streaming using technologies like WebRTC and low-latency HLS, platforms can deliver near-instant video with almost no delay. This makes interactions smoother, reactions faster, and the overall experience more immersive for both streamers and viewers.

More streaming platforms are turning to blockchain for secure and transparent payments. With blockchain smart contracts and tokenized assets, creators can get paid instantly without middlemen, while fans can support them through NFTs and crypto payments. This not only cuts down transaction fees but also gives streamers more control over their earnings.

How to make a live streaming website profitable? In addition to good content, you need to consider the business models of your streaming platform and how to monetize it successfully.

There are three primary live streaming website monetization strategies:

• Ad-Based Video on Demand (AVOD)
• Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD)
• Transactional Video on Demand (TVOD)

Let’s single out the details of each option.

AVOD provides the content to users on a free basis, but advertisements accompany video viewing. Thus, the platform's earnings are generated from advertising. DailyMotion, 4OD, YouTube Live, and Facebook Live use this model. By incorporating ads within their video streams, these platforms can offer free access to content while generating revenue from advertisers who wish to reach their large, engaged audiences.

SVOD is similar to traditional TV packages - the user gets unlimited access to content on the streaming website for a certain monthly fee. You can offer several subscription options - for example, individual and family. Popular streaming services like Netflix, Disney+, and Apple TV are benefiting from this model.

TVOD follows the opposite logic. The user is offered to purchase access to each product item for a fee. This model uses two options - electronic sell-through (EST), which implies purchase for permanent use, and download to rent (DTR), which means renting content for a certain period. The TVOD model is offered by YouTube, Apple's iTunes, and Amazon's video store.

Many live-streaming platforms combine all three monetization models to attract more customers and make your own live-stream website more profitable. For example, by default, YouTube offers users free content accompanied by ads (AVOD). However, premium content (e.g., movies) is paid using the TVOD model. Users can also purchase a monthly subscription to YouTube Premium (SVOD) to access ad-free content and additional features, such as video playback in the background mode.

As mentioned earlier, developing a live streaming website comes with its own set of challenges that require careful consideration. To help you navigate these complexities, we've outlined the key obstacles in live streaming site development and the strategies the Cleveroad team employs to overcome them.

Handling real-time streaming with minimal latency is one of the biggest challenges while assessing how to create a live streaming website. The quality of a live stream depends on a stable internet connection, and fluctuations in bandwidth can lead to buffering, lagging, or even dropped streams. Additionally, as more viewers join a stream, server congestion can slow down performance, impacting user experience. Without proper infrastructure, live-streaming websites can struggle to deliver seamless, high-quality video to global audiences.

Cleveroad experts tip: At Cleveroad, we optimize video delivery using adaptive bitrate streaming, which dynamically adjusts video quality based on a user’s internet speed. To handle large audiences efficiently, we integrate robust Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) that distribute streams across multiple geographically dispersed servers, reducing latency and improving playback stability. Additionally, we leverage WebRTC technology for real-time communication, ensuring ultra-low latency and smooth interaction for users in live chat, video calls, or interactive streams.

A growing audience is a great sign of success, but without the right technical foundation, a live-streaming website can experience performance issues. A sudden surge in concurrent users can overload servers, leading to slower load times, crashes, and degraded video quality. Traditional hosting solutions often struggle to scale dynamically, making it difficult to accommodate fluctuating traffic patterns. Poorly optimized backend architecture and database management can make performance issues worse.

Cleveroad experts tip: Our team prioritizes cloud-based infrastructure to ensure seamless scalability. We implement auto-scaling mechanisms that dynamically adjust server capacity based on real-time demand by leveraging AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. Load balancing technology helps distribute traffic efficiently, preventing bottlenecks and ensuring smooth performance during peak hours. Additionally, we use microservices architecture, which allows us to scale individual platform components independently, enhancing flexibility and resilience.

With the rise of online streaming, content piracy, unauthorized sharing, and copyright violations have become significant concerns. Streamers risk their exclusive content being stolen or illegally redistributed without proper security measures. Additionally, cyber threats such as hacking attempts, unauthorized access, and malicious attacks can compromise user data and platform integrity. Ensuring compliance with copyright laws and implementing anti-piracy measures are crucial for both streamers and platform owners.

Cleveroad experts tip: To combat these risks, we implement multi-layered security solutions, including Digital Rights Management (DRM), to prevent illegal content distribution. AES encryption secures data transmission, ensuring only authorized users can access live streams. Token-based authentication and access control mechanisms restrict unauthorized viewers from joining paid or private streams. Additionally, we integrate AI-powered content moderation tools that scan for copyright violations and automatically flag suspicious activities, helping businesses maintain a legally compliant and secure streaming environment.

Live streaming website development is a pretty sophisticated type of project, which naturally affects its overall cost. Indeed, finding an exact price upfront is challenging, as it depends on your unique business requirements. Besides there are different factors that may impact the cost, including the scope of features, third-party integrations, security measures, scalability needs, platform compatibility, outsourcing region and ongoing maintenance, etc. However, let’s overview an approximate live streaming site costs based on its complexity:

• Basic live streaming websites: These are simple platforms with essential features like user registration, live broadcasting, video playback, basic chat, and content moderation and are usually small-scale projects. Here, the cost varies from $50,000 to $80,000.
• Medium-complexity live streaming websites: In this case, a live streaming site is a feature-rich solution with advanced chat, stream scheduling, multi-device support, secure payments, content recommendations, and basic analytics, ranging from $80,000 – $120,000.
• Advanced live streaming website: This is a high-end platform with AI-driven recommendations, interactive features, multi-stream support, cloud-based scalability, 4K streaming, and in-depth analytics. The cost of such solution ranges from $120,000 to $250,000+.

We’ve calculated the pricing of the live-streaming website with features described in this article. Below, you can examine an estimate based on hourly rates in Central and Eastern Europe ($50/h):

Note: These numbers and timeline estimations are approximate and may differ depending on your unique case, particularly live streaming website complexity, functionality, development team selection, and more. Feel free to contact us to learn the cost of your live-streaming website.

Cleveroad is a certified media software development company headquartered in Estonia (Central/Northern Europe). Our in-depth experience includes providing startups and businesses of all sizes with a wide range of IT-related services since 2011. Our team builds audio and video streaming (OTT, VOD), entertainment, and similar solutions for mobile devices, desktops, and TVs.

By working with us, you’ll be ensured of the following benefits:

• Practical in-depth experience in media software creation, including social apps, digital content streaming solutions, VR and AR solutions, network management systems, and more.
• Hands-on experience working with streaming tools: Wowza, Dacast, Vimeo, Twilio, Agora, etc.
• Full-cycle media software development: UI/UX design services, app modernization, API integration, cloud-based solutions, and others.
• A team of certified experts that constantly develop their competencies in advanced technology, such as IoT, AR, AI, blockchain, etc.
• Adaptable cooperation models, including Dedicated Development Team and IT Staff Augmentation Services, and Project-Based Model
• Cooperation with an IT partner certified with both ISO/IEC 27001:2013 and ISO 9001:2015, proving our ability to deliver secure and high-quality software solutions

We’ve been developing software solutions for the streaming industry for over ten years. Our team is experienced in developing scalable websites and apps that meet tech and business requirements.

To prove our media and entertainment software development expertise, let us show our latest case — video-on-demand platform called Blockbuster.

The main project idea was to develop a streaming service for Nordic viewers. Blockbuster allows watching TV shows and movies via native apps for iOS, Android, Android TV, and tvOS. Additionally, the service has a web version.

Our team was challenged to redesign the UI, create an iOS app from scratch, reengineer Android and Android TV apps, and partially migrate to GraphQL.

As a result, our client received an appealing streaming service web, mobile and TV devices with an easy to use interface. It encourages users to take purposeful actions. Our team has also created a sophisticated filtering system and added parental control and a list of favorite shows features.

Check what CTO of Blockbuster Henrick Loop says about collaboration with Cleveroad regarding video on-demands platform development: