Head to head
Gumlet vs Dacast
One is the cheapest branded video host here, and it already fires the Google and Meta retargeting pixels a paid-traffic marketer needs; the other is a professional live-streaming and OTT platform built for broadcasters, with a real paywall and branded apps. The pick turns on whether your video is a sales letter you host cheaply or a live channel you charge for.
You are down to two, and the first thing to see is that they solve different problems. Gumlet is a cheap branded video host: it stores your video, transcodes it to adaptive 4K, hands you a clean player you can drop into a page, and adds the marketing hooks most budget hosts skip, including Google and Meta retargeting pixels and in-player CTAs. Dacast is a broadcast platform: it is built to stream live events to an unlimited audience, run a monetized channel with its own paywall and apps, and loop recordings back out as video on demand. Both will host and play your video. They are aimed at very different jobs.
This site judges video tools through one lens: does the player move viewers toward the sale, and can you prove what worked. On that test neither of these is a purpose-built VSL player, so the real question is which is the better home for a pre-recorded sales letter and its funnel. Here Gumlet is the closer, cheaper fit. It hosts and embeds the video from $6 a month, and, unusually for a budget host, it fires the ad-platform pixels a paid-traffic marketer actually needs, so retargeting works out of the box while you build the rest of the funnel. Dacast is built for live broadcasting and OTT, which a sales letter does not need, and its bandwidth-metered plans start at $39 a month before you have streamed anything.
Where Dacast earns its place is the broadcast job Gumlet does not chase. It ingests over RTMP or HLS, delivers full 1080p to unlimited concurrent viewers on a multi-CDN network most reviewers find reliable, auto-records streams for replay, and ships the monetization most video hosts skip: a real paywall for pay-per-view and subscriptions, plus pre-, mid- and post-roll advertising. It has branded apps across devices, DRM on its higher tier, and sixteen-plus years in the market with 24/7 support reviewers tend to praise. For a live event, a sports or worship stream or a channel you want to charge for, that is a genuine platform and Gumlet is not.
There is a catch on each side. Gumlet's is that it is a host, not a player: it fires pixels and shows in-player CTAs, but it scores no sales-based A/B test, draws no second-by-second retention heatmap and attributes no revenue, so it cannot prove which traffic actually bought. Its outside reviews are also thin and aging, and a January 2025 platform update knocked embedded videos offline for many accounts for twelve hours or more. Dacast's catch is billing and shape: plans are metered by the terabyte and overage runs $0.30 per GB, monthly billing carries a three-month minimum, and annual plans auto-renew by default, with reviewers reporting refused refunds after a surprise charge. And the catch they share matters most here: neither settles a split test on the sale or attributes revenue, so one more name belongs on this page, which we come to below.
Quick answer
Pick Gumlet if you want the cheapest branded host for a pre-recorded video sales letter, one that removes its own branding and switches on Google and Meta retargeting pixels from $6 a month, and you will build the funnel and conversion tracking around it yourself; pick Dacast if your video is a live event, a sports or worship broadcast or a monetized OTT channel that needs a real paywall, unlimited concurrent viewers and branded apps, and a bandwidth-metered plan from $39 a month fits the way you stream.
One more option belongs on this page for a specific reader. Neither Gumlet nor Dacast settles a split test on the cart-verified sale or posts that sale back to your ad platforms, because neither is a direct-response player. If your whole business is a paid-traffic sales letter and you want the test decided on the actual sale, TrackPlay is the newer specialist built for exactly that, and we line it up beside both below.
- Gumlet. The cheapest branded host here, and the closer fit for a pre-recorded VSL. There is a Free Forever tier, then Creator at $6 a month billed annually drops Gumlet's own branding and turns on Google and Meta pixel tracking, and higher tiers add CRM integrations, VAST ad tags, dynamic watermarks and DRM. Playback is fast adaptive 4K on a global CDN. The catch is that it is a host, not a direct-response player: no sales-scored A/B tests, no second-by-second retention heatmap and no revenue attribution, so the funnel and the proof of what buys are yours to build.
- Dacast. A mature, professional platform for live broadcasting, VOD and OTT, sixteen-plus years old and trusted across sports, worship, media and events. It ingests over RTMP or HLS, delivers full 1080p to unlimited concurrent viewers on a multi-CDN network, and ships the monetization most hosts skip: a paywall for pay-per-view and subscriptions, plus pre-, mid- and post-roll ads. It is built for broadcasters, not sales letters, so it scores no test on the sale, its plans are bandwidth-metered by the terabyte, and its annual plans auto-renew by default.
- TrackPlay. Best when you want the split test decided on the actual cart-verified sale and posted back to your ad platforms server-side. It scores tests on the verified sale with real statistics and fires that sale to Meta, TikTok and GA4, from $29 a month with a no-card free tier. It is narrow by design: not a general host or a broadcast platform, and very new.
Gumlet vs Dacast at a glance
Prices and plan features checked on the vendors' own pages on 28 September 2026. TrackPlay is the direct-response specialist we line these two up against, so it wins the conversion rows and sits out the general-hosting ones.
| Feature | Gumlet | Dacast | TrackPlay |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Cheap branded video host with marketing pixels | A professional live, VOD and OTT broadcast platform | A paid-traffic VSL player and attribution platform |
| Built for | Hosting and embedding pre-recorded video cheaply | Broadcasting live events and monetized OTT channels | Tying every play to the cart-verified sale |
| Starting price | Free Forever tier, then $6/mo (Creator, annual) | $39/mo Starter, billed annually | $29/mo, billed by plays |
| Pricing model | Plan tiers by feature; 3,000 GB bandwidth per paid tier, then per-GB overage | Bandwidth-metered by the terabyte; overage $0.30/GB bandwidth, $0.15/GB storage | Billed by plays, not bandwidth |
| Free tier | Yes, Free Forever (60 storage minutes) | No, 14-day trial, no card | Yes, no-card free plan (1,000 plays/mo, watermarked) |
| Live streaming | No, on-demand delivery | Yes, RTMP and HLS ingest, unlimited concurrent viewers | No, on-demand VSL focus |
| Built-in monetization | None; ad pixels and VAST tags only | Paywall, pay-per-view, subscriptions, pre/mid/post-roll ads | No paywall; ties each play to your own cart's sale |
| Ad-platform pixels | Yes, Google and Meta from Creator ($6/mo) | None built in | Server-side to Meta, TikTok and GA4, with dedup |
| In-video marketing hooks | In-player CTAs and lead forms; branded player | None for direct response; branded player and OTT apps | Sound-first autoplay, timed CTAs, watch gates |
| Sales-scored A/B testing | No | No | Yes, decided on the cart-verified sale |
| Revenue attribution | No | No | Yes, revenue per play plus cart postbacks |
| Analytics | Basic playback and pixel metrics | Real-time and advanced viewer analytics | Per-second retention, split by buyers vs non-buyers |
| Security | Widevine/FairPlay DRM ($99/mo add-on), domain and geo lock, watermarks | DRM and AES on Scale, token, domain and country lock | Domain-locked video hosting |
| Independent reviews | Thin and aging; a Jan 2025 outage and inconsistent support | Mature, 16+ years; billing and regional-latency complaints | Very new, thin outside proof, invite-only |
| Best for | Hosting a VSL cheaply with retargeting pixels and your own funnel | Live events and monetized OTT broadcasting | Paid-traffic VSLs measured on the cart-verified sale |
Strengths and trade-offs
Gumlet gives you the cheapest branded delivery here, with the ad pixels a paid-traffic marketer needs, and expects you to build the conversion tracking yourself. Dacast gives a broadcaster a complete live, OTT and monetization platform, at a bandwidth-metered price and with an auto-renewal to watch. Here is what each does well and where each will bite.
Gumlet: what works, what to watch
What works
- Cheapest branded entry point here: a Free Forever tier, then $6/mo (Creator, billed annually) that removes branding and switches on Google and Meta pixel tracking
- Marketing hooks most cheap hosts skip: Meta and Google pixels, CRM integrations, VAST ad tags, and in-player CTAs and forms
- Strong protection for paid content: Widevine and FairPlay DRM, domain and geo blocking, dynamic watermarks and expiring access tokens
- Fast adaptive 4K and HDR playback on a global CDN, with 3,000 GB of bandwidth included on every paid tier
What to watch
- No direct-response conversion measurement: no sales-scored A/B tests, no watch-depth pixel to prove retention, and no revenue attribution, so a paid-traffic VSL cannot prove which traffic buys
- A January 2025 platform update knocked embedded videos offline for many accounts for 12 hours or more, and support reviews are inconsistent, some calling it days-slow
- DRM is a $99/mo add-on on top of the plan, and bandwidth and storage overages bill per GB, so a high-traffic offer outruns the cheap sticker price
- The dashboard has a learning curve and the WordPress and Elementor integrations are less polished than users want
- The third-party review base is thin and aging (Trustpilot sits at 78 reviews, only a handful in the last year)
Dacast: what works, what to watch
What works
- Genuinely built for live broadcasting: RTMP and HLS ingest, full 1080p HD, unlimited concurrent viewers, simulcast, VOD-to-live and auto-recorded streams, on a multi-CDN network that most reviewers find reliable
- Real, built-in monetization most video hosts skip: a paywall for pay-per-view and subscriptions, plus pre-, mid- and post-roll advertising, so a broadcaster can charge for content directly rather than bolting on a separate cart
- A complete OTT and security stack: branded apps across devices, a video CMS, DRM and AES encryption for VOD on the Scale plan, token security, and domain and country restriction for gating content
- Established and supported: sixteen-plus years in the market, a Video API and Player API for developers, real-time and advanced analytics, and 24/7 support that reviewers most often praise for fast response
- No startup fees, and unused bandwidth rolls over for twelve months, so an occasional or seasonal broadcaster is not paying for capacity they did not use that month
What to watch
- It is a broadcast platform, not a direct-response VSL player: there is no sound-first smart autoplay, no split test scored on the sale and no revenue attribution, so a paid-traffic sales letter still cannot prove which traffic actually bought from inside Dacast
- Billing is the loudest complaint: annual plans auto-renew by default and reviewers report being refused refunds after a surprise charge, so treat auto-renewal as on and cancel in writing before the renewal date
- Pricing is bandwidth-metered by the terabyte, and live or viral video burns an allowance fast; overage runs $0.30 per GB for bandwidth and $0.15 per GB for storage once you pass the plan, so model your real usage before you commit
- Monthly billing carries a three-month minimum charged upfront, and some higher-value features (the paywall on Starter, multi-CDN, China streaming) are paid add-ons rather than plan inclusions, so the sticker is not the whole bill
- Support is fast to respond but reviewers say it can be shallow on harder problems, and there are regional reports of high latency and unreliable encoding, so pilot from your own region before a critical broadcast
TrackPlay: the paid-traffic VSL pick
Gumlet hands you cheap branded hosting with ad pixels, and Dacast hands you a broadcast platform, and both stop short of the same thing: neither settles a test on the sale, and neither posts that sale back to the ad platforms server-side. Gumlet fires a retargeting pixel but scores no sales-based test, and Dacast's analytics measure viewers, not buyers. If your whole business is a paid-traffic sales letter and you want the test decided on the money, a third tool belongs on the table. TrackPlay is a VSL player and analytics platform built for paid-traffic funnels. On the front end it holds attention with sound-first autoplay, timed CTAs and watch gates. On the back end it draws per-second retention split into buyers and non-buyers, with hook rate, hold rate and revenue per play, so you can see the exact seconds to cut or protect.
Where it goes further than either of these is what it settles the test on and how it reports the sale. Neither Gumlet nor Dacast runs a split test scored on conversions; TrackPlay decides its split test on the cart-verified sale, with a real z-test, p-value and confidence interval, and runs every variant under one embed so your ad links and campaign learning never reset. The cart posts the verified sale back onto the play that earned it from seven direct-response processors, including ClickBank, ClickFunnels and Digistore24, server to server, and TrackPlay fires that conversion server-side to Meta, TikTok and GA4 so the ad platform learns from the actual purchase rather than a page-load pixel. It bills by plays rather than storage or bandwidth, every feature ships on every paid plan, and there is a no-card free plan of 1,000 plays a month plus a 14-day trial, with paid plans from $29 a month.
What works
- Split tests are decided on the cart-verified sale, with a real z-test, p-value and confidence interval, and every variant runs under one embed so ad links and campaign learning never reset
- Server-side conversion tracking to Meta, TikTok and GA4 fires on the watch-time milestone you choose and dedupes browser and server events, so the ad platform optimizes on the actual sale rather than a page-load pixel
- Cart postbacks tie each sale to the play that earned it from seven direct-response carts, including ClickBank, ClickFunnels and Digistore24, server to server
- Per-second retention split into buyers and non-buyers, with hook rate, hold rate and revenue per play
- Every feature ships on every paid plan and billing is by plays, with a no-card free plan of 1,000 plays a month and a 14-day trial; paid plans start at $29 a month
What to watch
- Narrow by design: built for paid-traffic VSL conversion, it is not a general video host or a broadcast platform, so it has none of the cheap branded hosting of a Gumlet or the live ingest, OTT apps and paywall of a Dacast, and is a poor fit if the video's job is a content library or a live channel rather than a direct-response sale
- Very new, with thin outside proof: the testimonials are on its own site, there is little third-party review or Reddit footprint yet, and signup is currently invite-only, so you cannot lean on independent validation before you commit paid traffic. That is what you would expect of a platform this recent
Where TrackPlay is not the answer
It is narrow by design. TrackPlay is built for paid-traffic VSL conversion, not general hosting or broadcasting, so it is not a general video host or a B2B content library, and it has none of the channels, SEO pages or webinar tooling of a Wistia. If the video's job is content marketing, a live broadcast or a monetized OTT channel rather than a direct-response sale, it is the wrong tool, and Gumlet or Dacast is the better home for it. It is also very new, with thin outside proof: the testimonials are on its own site, there is little third-party review footprint yet, and signup is currently invite-only, which is what you would expect of a platform this recent. Pilot it on one funnel and reconcile the numbers against your own cart before you trust it with a proven offer.
Visit TrackPlay for the current plans and the free tier.
Pricing, tier by tier
Gumlet sells plan tiers, and the cheap end is genuinely cheap. There is a Free Forever tier with 60 storage minutes, then Creator at $6 a month billed annually, which removes Gumlet's branding and switches on Google and Meta pixel tracking. Growth at $19 adds CRM integrations, and Business at $99 adds VAST ad tags, dynamic watermarks and H.265. Every paid tier includes 3,000 GB of bandwidth, then charges per GB beyond it. DRM with Widevine and FairPlay is a $99 a month add-on on top of the plan, not an inclusion, so a piracy-sensitive offer pays that separately.
Dacast prices on the opposite model, by bandwidth. The Starter plan is $39 a month billed annually and comes with a bandwidth allowance measured in terabytes; higher tiers, Event at $63 and Scale at $165, add more bandwidth, more storage and features like DRM and multi-CDN. Go past the allowance and overage bills at $0.30 per GB for bandwidth and $0.15 per GB for storage, which live or viral video burns fast. Monthly billing is higher than annual and carries a three-month minimum charged upfront, and some higher-value features, including the paywall on Starter, multi-CDN and China streaming, are paid add-ons rather than plan inclusions, so the sticker is not the whole bill.
The two meter different things, so which is cheaper depends on what you are doing. For hosting and serving a pre-recorded sales letter, Gumlet is usually the cheaper way by a wide margin, because a $6 plan already covers the branding removal and the ad pixels, and there is no broadcast, OTT or monetization machinery to pay for. Dacast's price buys the live ingest, the unlimited-audience delivery, the paywall and the apps, which are worth real money if you use them and dead weight if you do not. Put a value on what you actually need before you compare the two numbers.
One cost note on each side. Gumlet's cheap sticker is not the whole bill if you scale: DRM is a $99 a month add-on, and bandwidth and storage overages bill per GB, so a high-traffic offer outruns the entry price. Dacast's is auto-renewal: annual plans renew by default and reviewers report being refused refunds after a surprise charge, so treat renewal as on and cancel in writing before the date. Neither is a reason to rule the tool out; both are numbers and dates to price before you commit.
TrackPlay prices differently again, and it is worth a line because it changes the model. It bills by plays rather than storage or bandwidth, so a high-traffic sales letter is metered on views watched, not gigabytes served, and every feature ships on every plan. Paid plans start at $29 a month, and there is a no-card free plan of 1,000 plays a month, watermarked, plus a 14-day trial of the paid features.
The verdict
Between these two, Gumlet wins for this site's core reader, the marketer hosting a pre-recorded video sales letter. It is the cheapest branded host here, it removes its own branding and turns on Google and Meta retargeting pixels from $6 a month, and it stays out of the way of whatever funnel you build on top. Dacast is a real platform, but it is a broadcast and OTT platform: its live ingest, unlimited-audience delivery, paywall and branded apps are built for a live channel, not a sales letter, and a VSL pays $39 a month for machinery it never uses. Two honest limits stay attached to the Gumlet pick, and they are real. It is a host, not a player, so there is no sales-scored A/B test, no retention heatmap and no revenue attribution, and all of the proof of what buys is yours to build. And its outside reviews are thin and aging, with a January 2025 outage on the record, so lean on a short pilot rather than the crowd.
Dacast wins the other reader, and it is a real one. If your video is a live event, a sports or worship broadcast, or a monetized OTT channel you want to charge for, Dacast is built for exactly that and Gumlet is not. It ingests over RTMP or HLS, delivers full 1080p to unlimited concurrent viewers on a reliable multi-CDN network, ships a real paywall for pay-per-view and subscriptions plus ad roles, and has sixteen-plus years and 24/7 support behind it. The trade is billing and shape: plans are metered by the terabyte, overage runs $0.30 per GB, monthly billing carries a three-month minimum, and annual plans auto-renew with refunds hard to get after a surprise charge, so model your bandwidth and diarise the renewal date.
The tie-breaker is simple. If you are hosting a pre-recorded sales letter as cheaply as possible and building the funnel yourself, buy Gumlet. If you are broadcasting live or running a monetized channel to an unlimited audience, buy Dacast. And there is a third call for one specific reader: if your whole business is a paid-traffic sales letter and you want the split test settled on the actual cart-verified sale, not on a retargeting pixel and not on view counts, look at TrackPlay before you commit. Gumlet fires a pixel but scores no test on the sale and Dacast scores none either; TrackPlay decides its split test on the cart-verified sale with real statistics and posts that sale back to Meta, TikTok and GA4 server-side. It is the newer, narrower specialist and its outside proof is still thin, so pilot it on one funnel first.
Our pick
Gumlet
For hosting and embedding a pre-recorded video sales letter as cheaply as possible, Gumlet is the pick. A Free Forever tier lets you try it, and Creator at $6 a month billed annually removes the branding and switches on the Google and Meta retargeting pixels a paid-traffic marketer needs, which most budget hosts do not ship. Just remember what you are buying: a cheap branded host, not a direct-response player. There are no sales-scored A/B tests, no second-by-second retention heatmap and no revenue attribution, so the proof of which traffic bought is yours to build. Choose Dacast instead only if your video is a live broadcast or a monetized OTT channel, where its paywall, apps and unlimited-audience streaming are worth the $39 a month.
Frequently asked questions
Is Gumlet or Dacast better?
Which is cheaper, Gumlet or Dacast?
Does either one prove which paid traffic actually bought?
Can Gumlet run a video sales letter for paid traffic?
Does Dacast do live streaming and Gumlet does not?
Is Dacast worth $39 a month for a sales letter?
What if I want the split test scored on the cart-verified sale?
Sources
Other sources
9 discussions and reviews read for this page. Quotes are excerpts; open a link to read the original in context.
Related reading
- Our full Gumlet review, the cheapest branded host with marketing pixels
- Our full Dacast review, a broadcaster's live-streaming and OTT platform
- Dacast alternatives, ranked by whether they move sales
- Bunny Stream vs Dacast: cheap usage-based delivery against a broadcast platform
- Vimeo vs Gumlet: two finished no-code hosts, split on pixels and price
- Bunny Stream vs Gumlet: raw delivery or marketing hooks included cheaply
- The best VSL players and conversion video software
- All head-to-head comparisons