YouTube is a public video site. Flockwell is a church watch link.
YouTube does not charge a platform fee. If the channel is monetized, ads can play before and during a live stream. The watch page also recommends other videos. Viewers are on Google accounts.
Comparison
| YouTube | Flockwell | |
|---|---|---|
| Ads | If the channel is monetized, pre-roll and mid-roll ads can run. An embedded player that starts by itself does not show those ads | No ads on the Flockwell watch page |
| Where people watch | On YouTube, with Google accounts and YouTube’s recommendations | On your church watch link |
| Live captions | Automatic live captions are English only, one stream at a time, and only at normal delay. After the stream, YouTube makes new automatic captions in many languages | Live transcription on every plan |
| Live translation of the sermon | Not a general feature. YouTube has announced a live auto-dubbing pilot for early 2027 | 1, 2, or 5 languages by plan. Not on Seed |
| Phone in the room | People can open the YouTube link on a phone. It is still the YouTube player | Same watch link, with captions, on a phone |
| Church giving | Not built in. A link in the description, or YouTube’s own fan-funding tools if those are turned on | Built in on Sprout and above. Not on Seed |
| Other videos on screen | YouTube recommends other videos | Only your service |
Pricing estimate
This example stays on Flockwell Seed: $69, 8 hours, live transcription. Translation languages and giving are not on Seed. None of these other services publish a per-viewer price, so there is no viewer slider. “+ external service” means their public pages do not include that in the video itself.
No platform fee
$0 / mo
- + external service — Live translation
- + external service — In-room captions on a phone
Flockwell Seed
$69 / mo
8 hours/month — no per-viewer fee
- Live transcription — included
- Live translation — not on Seed. Sprout has 1 language, Harvest 2, Kingdom 5
- In-room captions on a phone — included
Flockwell stays on Seed in this example: 8 hours and live transcription, no per-viewer fee. Subsplash does not publish a platform price. Church Online Platform is free and does not host the video. “+ external service” means that feature is not described for their video.
A common setup: send the public stream to YouTube for reach, and share the Flockwell link with people who should watch without YouTube recommendations. Flockwell can restream. Restream starts on Sprout, not on Seed.