Wowza Player Alternatives for HLS Livestreaming

Wowza Player
1

Hi there,

Since Wowza Player is going to be sunsetted next January, what are the alternatives? I’ve tried the following and none of them are great:

JWPlayer - expensive and I could not get HLS to work (followed the Wowza tutorial exactly, waiting on JWPlayer support to respond).
Flowplayer - Nice player, but needs a complicated plugin to use HLS
Video.js - open source, but also complex - likely the best choice but has a learning curve.

Does anyone know of anything else for HLS livestreaming?

I like how easy it is to customize the Wowza player. Is there a replacement in the works?

Thanks,

Jill

2

We are currently recommending replacements for Wowza Player on a referral basis. These include:

The list of recommendations will continue to change and grow as we work with customers and ensure their solution needs are met, but use will not be limited to these recommendations. \

If you do not already have a license key for Wowza Player, then please consider the recommendations above. We are here to help.

Specific to the sunset of Wowza Player, I would encourage you to read the product notification (https://info.wowza.com/product-notification-april-2020).

@Jill Bourque if you still have questions about the sunset of Wowza Player, send your question by email to smcr@wowza.com. We can guide you through some potential solutions based on your specific workflow.

3

I always admired how reliable Wowza Player was when it is handling HLS streams with minimal setup. It worked seamlessly with Wowza Streaming Engine and was pretty developer-friendly too.

Now it was discontinued. I’ve been exploring a few alternatives that offer similar capabilities

VPlayed Player - Comes as part of their full OTT/VOD solution. It’s customizable, supports HLS, DRM, and is device-agnostic. Not open source but flexible for enterprise use.

I have also tried Video.js however, While it supports HLS, ultra-low latency streaming (like LL-HLS or WebRTC) isn’t native and may require additional plugins or custom setups.

Any one suggestion for below listed options.
Shaka Player – Also open-source by Google, great for HLS and DASH. Supports offline playback and DRM if configured.

THEOplayer – Commercial player with strong support for low-latency HLS, DRM, and cross-platform playback. Not free, but very reliable.

HLS.js – JavaScript library for playing HLS in browsers that don’t support it natively (especially Chrome). Works well if you want more control via code.