The open StreamElements alternative

Go live
in five
minutes.

Browser-native overlays, an OBS-resident chatbot, loyalty, 0%-fee tipping, and your phone as the control deck. Paste a URL into OBS — you're on air.

FREE FOREVER No credit card. No trial timer. We never take a cut of your tips.
13 built-in overlays ~100ms EventSub-direct $0 no card 0% tipping fee
Side by side

Same toolkit.
None of the skim.

We built everything StreamElements does — without the 5% tip cut, the bot-account dance, or the locked-down editor.

streamoverlay.appStreamElements
Alert latency
~100ms
1–2s
Edit overlay HTML/CSS/JS
Live editor
Restricted
Bot setup
Paste 1 URL
Bot account
Mobile control deck
Any device
$ hardware
PNGtuber
Built in
Not included
Tipping platform fee
0%
~5%
The pitch

Expensive. Opaque.
Not yours.

We built the same toolkit — without the 5% tip skim, the bot-account dance, or the locked-down overlay editor.

StreamElements & similar

  • Take ~5% of every tip your viewers send
  • Bot lives on their cloud — needs auth setup + their bot account
  • Overlay editor is restricted — no real HTML/CSS/JS
  • Alerts route through their servers (1–2s latency)
  • Stream Deck control needs $150 Elgato hardware

streamoverlay.app

  • 0% platform fee. Stripe-direct — you keep ~97%
  • Bot is a hidden OBS browser source — your browser, your account
  • Full HTML/CSS/JS editor + Giphy + live preview
  • EventSub direct from your overlay → ~100ms alerts
  • Built-in mobile Deck — your phone is the control surface
Setup in 3 steps (+ 1 optional)

Drop URLs. Done.

No installers. No bot account. No port forwarding. Signed-up to live alerts in under five minutes.

Log in with Twitch

One OAuth click. You choose the scopes. No password storage — Twitch handles auth.

Spin up overlays

Pick from 13 built-in kinds, author your own in the live editor, or install from the gallery. Each gets a unique OBS URL.

Paste into OBS

Add as a Browser Source. It connects to Twitch EventSub on its own and reacts in real time. The bot is a browser source too.

Make it yours Optional

Open the design editor, hook the SDK, and drive anything you can write JS for. Your stream, your code.

Features

Everything that
runs on a stream.

Thirteen built-in overlay kinds + a full bot + a control deck + a design editor. Each piece works alone or together.

Overlays

13 built-in. Every one configurable.

Alerts, chat, goal, event list, labels, leaderboard, counter, countdown, tip jar, emote rain, media share, PNGtuber, and a hidden bot runtime.

  • Per-event variants — sounds, images, GIFs (Giphy picker built in)
  • EventSub WebSocket direct from OBS → sub-second alerts
  • Rotate the URL if it leaks — old token revoked instantly
Alerts
RareAtto subbed!
7 months 💜
Leaderboard
🥇 leah · 18,420
🥈 marcus · 11,200
🥉 ada · 9,840
Goal
347 / 500
Tip jar
$84.50
Chatbot

Your browser is the bot.

The bot is a hidden OBS browser source. Paste once for commands, timers, loyalty points, a redemption store, spam filters, and 5 chat mini-games.

  • No separate bot account, no IRC password dance
  • 24 built-in commands: !points !top !so !gamble
  • Custom commands with role + cooldown gating
!points command
marcus_v: !points
bot: marcus_v has 1,420 points.
leah: !gamble 500
bot: leah rolled 73 — gained 500!
justatto: !redeem hydrate-now
bot: redeemed "hydrate-now" (200). Mods notified.
Designs

Customize anything. Share everything.

Built-ins cover 90%. For the last 10%, open the design editor and write real HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Live preview. One-click publish.

  • Frozen SDK: events helix irc config
  • Import StreamElements widgets — paste the JSON, it just runs
  • Versioned + immutably cached — installed designs never break
// A custom alert overlay in 8 lines.
import { events } from '/t/sdk/v1/index.js';

events.on('follow', (e) => {
  const el = document.createElement('div');
  el.textContent = `${e.user} just followed!`;
  document.body.appendChild(el);
  setTimeout(() => el.remove(), 5000);
});
Deck

Your phone is the Stream Deck.

A configurable button grid on a phone, tablet, or second monitor. Fire alerts, adjust loyalty, switch OBS scenes, toggle record — and dispatch custom signals to your overlays.

  • No $150 Elgato hardware. Any device with a browser.
  • OBS WebSocket: scene switch, mute, record, replay buffer
  • Add to phone home screen as a PWA
🔔Follow alert
💜Sub alert
🎬Switch scene
🎙️Toggle mute
🛡️Caps filter
⏺️Save replay
PNGtuber

React to your mic.

Drop in idle / talking / scream / blink sprites. The overlay listens to your microphone client-side and swaps sprites in real time. Tune the threshold with a live debug meter.

  • 100% client-side mic analysis — audio never leaves your machine
  • Hysteresis on the threshold — no flickering on speech pauses
  • Random blink scheduling, optional bounce-on-talk
🐸
talking · scream · blink · idle
The 5% math

What StreamElements
quietly skims.

Type your monthly tip revenue. See what you actually take home.

$
per month
StreamElements
$460.50
after their ~5% platform fee + Stripe
streamoverlay.app
$485.50
after Stripe's 2.9% + 30¢ only
You keep $25.00 more per month — that's $300.00/year.
It's free. Genuinely.

Free forever.

No "free for the first 1,000 messages." No "free unless your audience grows." The core product — overlays, bot, designs, deck, tipping — stays free. We monetize separately, not by skimming your viewers.

$0
To sign up
0%
Tipping fee
Overlays
13+
Built-in kinds

Streamers keep 100% of tips after Stripe's standard 2.9% + 30¢ processing. We earn revenue through optional Pro tiers (analytics retention, priority support) — never by taxing your community.

Common questions

What people
ask first.

The short version of the stuff that matters.

Is it really free? What's the catch?

Yes, fully free for streamers. There's no per-message, per-overlay, or per-viewer cost, and we don't take a cut of your tips.

We plan to offer optional Pro tiers later for things like extended analytics retention and team accounts. The core product stays free.

How is the bot a "browser source"?

You add one URL to OBS as a Browser Source. It renders a hidden control plane that connects to Twitch chat using your own session, dispatches commands, tracks loyalty, and runs spam filters.

Because your browser is the bot, there's no separate bot account and no IRC token to manage. OBS open = bot online.

Is my Twitch refresh token safe?

We never store your Twitch password — Twitch handles auth via OAuth. Your refresh token is encrypted at rest with AES-GCM, and we request only the scopes your enabled features need.

The hot path — alerts, chat, EventSub — goes directly from OBS to Twitch. Our servers aren't in the middle.

Can I migrate my StreamElements stuff?

Yes. Loyalty points and command lists import via CSV, and you can import StreamElements widgets directly — paste the JSON export and your existing widget runs as-is. Community designs cover most common styles already.

What about YouTube and Kick?

We're Twitch-only today. YouTube + Kick support is on the roadmap, prioritised by user demand.

Live in five minutes.

Log in with Twitch and you're on air. No credit card. No commitment.

Log in with Twitch →