Alerts / Overlays / Text-to-Speech
You want alerts, trust me.
Last updated
You want alerts, trust me.
Last updated
If you're already a streamer, I'm sure you know how important alerts and overlays are. If you aren't, what we're talking about is having alerts pop up on screen when you get a new subscriber, follower, paid chat, etc. Other overlays include things like chat, goal bars, and other interactive things that improve your stream.
Powerchat is what I use. It's my favorite out of all the options, and the best in my opinion. Specifically for platform integrations and multistreaming, they're the only option in a lot of cases.
Overlays:
Text-to-Speech (Alertbox, supports Paid Chats, Media, Followers, Subscribers, Platform Specific Currencies)
Events
Goal Bars (Paid Chat and Subscribers)
Chat (Combines platforms if you multistream)
View Count (Combines platforms if you multistream)
Emote Wall (Combines emotes if you multistream)
Livestreaming Platforms Supported:
YouTube
Twitch
Rumble
Trovo
Kick
DLive
X.com
Parti
Noice
Robotstreamer
Payment Integrations:
Square (US Only)
Powerchat Pay (Global)
Crypto (Unique - Allows users to send various crypto, but you get paid out all in one crypto)
Unique Features:
YouTube media - users can send YouTube videos for money that play the audio in your alertbox.
AI Text-to-Speech - users can send Powerchats as well as Sub Text-to-Speech (if enabled) with AI voices.
Chat/Sub/Mod AI Text-to-Speech - if enabled, chatters can use AI voices to do Text-to-Speech in the chat.
AI Voice Creation - users can clone voices and create their own AI Text-to-Speech voices for use on the platform.
Personalization - includes an alternative to services like linktree integrated directly on your Powerchat page.
Followers - allows users to create accounts and follow your Powerchat account, getting email notifications when you go live, no matter which platform you go live on.
Streamlabs Integration - allows you to use Streamlabs native overlays, so for example you can have Streamlabs and Powerchat, accept payments on both, and they show in the native Streamlabs alertbox.
Streamlabs is probably the most popular option for a reason, but has some limitations as well.
Overlays:
Text-to-Speech (Alertbox, supports Paid Chats, Followers, Subscribers, Platform Specific Currencies)
Events
Goal Bars (Paid Chats, Subscriptions, Followers)
Chat
View Count
Emote Wall
A ton of others as well, but I don't see value in them, especially for IRL Streaming.
Livestreaming Platforms Supported:
YouTube
Twitch
X (Twitter)
Trovo
TikTok
Picarto
Payment Integrations:
PayPal
ACH (Requires Verification)
Unique Features:
Ton of other overlays and options, many behind a paywall.
Streamelements is a pretty popular alternative to Streamlabs.
Overlays:
Streamelements is different in how they handle overlays. You use their overlay builder to build out a single overlay that displays what you want on it. This includes things like your alertbox, chat, goal bars, etc.
Livestreaming Platforms Supported:
YouTube
Twitch
X (Twitter)
Trovo
Payment Integrations:
PayPal
ACH (Called SE.PAY)
Unique Features:
Sponsorships - If you use a supported livestreaming platform, and you do well, you may recieve sponsorship offers based on that. However, I've had one offer ever using Streamelements, which was for one week with Raid Shadow Legends.
Donationalerts is a Russian alternative to all the others. They do accept most global customers, and I've specifically seen them used in a lot of cases where people have been banned from the others. I do not use them, and I'm not sure if current sanctions will affect your experience.
Overlays:
Alertbox
Stream statistics (events)
Donation goals
Media sharing
Polls
Stickers
Livestreaming Platforms Supported:
YouTube
Twitch
DailyMotion
TikTok
Trovo
GoodGame.ru
NuuM.ru
Payment Integrations:
PayPal
Bank Card (Currently no USA)
QIWI
YooMoney
VK Pay
Unique Features:
Audio messages - allows a viewer to pay money to record an audio message and play it on stream.
Botrix really isn't popular for their paid chat option, and most people use them for their overlays and still use another one of the sites listed above to accept payments. I'm not really sure why, but that seems to be the case.
Overlays:
Alertbox (Subscriptions, Followers, Raids, Platform Specific Currencies, Paid Chats)
View Count
Subathon (Premium Paid Overlay)
Goal Bars (Followers, Subscribers, Bits, Donations)
Events
Chat
Emotes on screen
Activity Feed
Others (Alternatives to existing ones, and ones I don't see providing value for IRL Streaming)
Livestreaming Platforms Supported:
YouTube
Twitch
Trovo
Kick
LiveSpace
TikTok
Payment Integrations:
PayPal
Unique Features:
Interactive chat bot with minigames.
There are other platforms I'm aware of, and many more that I'm probably not, but the list above are the providers I have personally used. I also believe these are the most popular providers.