StreamElements costs $19/mo (Streamlabs Ultra) — and unlike a tool you buy once, that bill never stops. Over three years that's roughly $447 for software doing a job your own hardware could just as easily do.
Where the subscription actually goes
Streamlabs Ultra $19/mo ($149/yr) · OWN3D Pro $12.99/mo is the sticker price. It compounds: cancel and you typically lose access to your own history, and most plans ratchet the price up as you add usage, seats or storage — the bill rarely stays flat for long.
Overlayr: the pay-once alternative
Overlayr does the same core job for $24, once. Self-hosted stream overlays — countdowns, goal bars, tickers, alerts — each just a URL in an OBS Browser Source.
| Overlayr | StreamElements | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $24 once | Streamlabs Ultra $19/mo ($149/yr) · OWN3D Pro $12.99/mo |
| Self-hosted, own your data | Yes | Cloud only |
| Watermark / branding | None | On free tiers |
| Webhook-triggered alerts | Built in | Paid tier |
| Timer survives OBS reconnects | Yes — server-authoritative | Varies |
| Themes | 5 presets + full overrides | Marketplace |
| Cost over 3 years | $24 | $447+ (Ultra annual) |
| Source code | MIT, on GitHub | Closed |
Streamlabs Ultra is $149/yr. Overlayr pays for itself in about 5 weeks — and saves you roughly $423 over 3 years.
Is the subscription ever still worth it?
If you need StreamElements's specific ecosystem, integrations or managed infrastructure and that's genuinely load-bearing for you, the subscription earns its keep — that's a real trade-off, not a trick. Overlayr is for everyone else: people paying every month for a job that runs fine on hardware they already own.
Try Overlayr — $24, once
Self-hosted stream overlays — countdowns, goal bars, tickers, alerts — each just a URL in an OBS Browser Source.