Castio.live – WordPress Streaming Plugin with Chat (HLS) vs Smush – Image Optimization, Compression, Lazy Load, WebP & CDN

Castio.live is a WordPress streaming plugin with chat that lets you go live directly from your admin — no OBS, no RTMP, no external platforms. Stream video, chat with your audience in real time, and monetize your content with Stripe or PayPal — all from your own WordPress site. Perfect for creators, educators, events, and premium content platforms. Castio.live is one of the few WordPress plugins that enables browser-based live streaming without OBS or RTMP. At a Glance WordPress streaming plugin (HLS) Go live directly from WordPress Admin Built-in real-time chat No OBS, no RTMP, no external platform Paywall: Stripe & PayPal Gutenberg blocks for easy embedding Auto-generated viewer pages Works on shared hosting and VPS Start streaming in minutes Install the plugin, click “Start Streaming” in WordPress Admin, and instantly share your live viewer page with your audience. No streaming SaaS. No vendor lock-in. Full control over your content. Live Streaming from WordPress Admin Castio.live adds a dedicated streaming interface directly inside the WordPress Admin area. You can: – Select your camera and microphone – Preview your stream before going live – Start and stop streaming with a single click Supported capture technologies: – MediaDevices API – MediaRecorder – WebCodecs (when available, for lower latency) Supported streaming browsers: – Chrome or Edge (desktop) – Chrome (Android) Viewer playback works on all modern browsers, including mobile devices. Viewer Page (Auto-Generated) For each live stream, Castio.live can automatically generate a viewer page. Viewer page features: – HLS video playback (native HLS on Safari, hls.js on other browsers) – Clean and lightweight interface – Mobile-friendly layout – Optional live chat panel The viewer page URL can be: – Public – Shared privately – Embedded into other pages – Protected via access control options Monetize Your Live Streams Castio.live includes built-in monetization features so you can generate revenue from your content: Pay-per-view access Subscriptions via Stripe PayPal payments (no webhooks required) Secure access via signed cookies Perfect for: – Premium live events – Online courses – Private communities – Exclusive content No external SaaS required — you keep full control over your revenue. Built-in Real-Time Chat Each live stream includes a built-in real-time chat system. Chat features: – AJAX-based live message polling – Username display – Automatic refresh – Message history stored in the WordPress database Moderation tools: – View all messages – Delete individual messages – Ban users by username – Ban users by IP address No external chat service is required. Privacy, Ownership, and Compliance Castio.live is designed with privacy and data ownership as a core principle. No third-party streaming services No external chat providers No analytics or tracking scripts included by default No cloud-based video or message processing All streaming and chat data remains on your own server: – HLS video segments – Chat messages – Stream metadata – Viewer page configuration This design helps simplify compliance with GDPR and similar data protection regulations. Technical Architecture Castio.live is a fully WordPress-native plugin. No dependencies on: – FFmpeg – Node.js – RTMP servers – External streaming APIs Core components: – Browser-based HLS generation – PHP for stream lifecycle and data storage – JavaScript for capture, playback, and chat – WordPress custom post types and options The plugin works on shared hosting, VPS, and dedicated servers. Key Features Summary Live stream directly from WordPress Admin No OBS, no RTMP, no external streaming platform Browser-generated HLS (.m3u8 + .ts) Automatic viewer page creation Built-in live chat Chat moderation tools Mobile-friendly viewer experience All streaming and chat data stored locally Lightweight and efficient Compatible with most CDNs, including Cloudflare Who Is This Plugin For? Castio.live is ideal for: – Educators and online trainers – Content creators – Community websites – Event organizers – Developers and agencies – Anyone who wants full control over live streaming without SaaS platforms Source Code and Third-Party Libraries This plugin includes both original source code and third-party JavaScript libraries. Original plugin code – Unminified, human-readable JavaScript files are included directly in the plugin. – No obfuscated or encrypted code is used. Third-party libraries (vendored, unmodified) MediaBunny File: assets/js/vendor/mediabunny/mediabunny.esm.js Source: https://github.com/Vanilagy/mediabunny License: MIT Used for browser-based media processing. hls.js File: assets/js/vendor/hls/hls.min.js Source: https://github.com/video-dev/hls.js License: Apache License 2.0 Used for HLS playback on non-Safari browsers. These libraries are included for performance and compatibility reasons. All libraries retain their original licenses and copyright notices. External Services This plugin connects to external third-party services to provide optional monetization and licensing features. Stripe Payments Castio.live can integrate with Stripe to allow site owners to sell access to live or recorded streams, including pay-per-view content and subscriptions. What the service is used for: Stripe is used to create checkout sessions, process payments, manage subscriptions, and retrieve payment reports related to paid video access. What data is sent and when: When a visitor purchases paid content or when the site owner views payment reports, the plugin sends the following data to Stripe: – Email address provided during checkout – Payment and checkout session identifiers – Purchased content or pricing identifiers – Subscription and payment status metadata No video streams, chat messages, or media content are transmitted to Stripe. Service provider: Stripe, Inc. Terms of Service: https://stripe.com/legal Privacy Policy: https://stripe.com/privacy PayPal Payments Castio.live can integrate with PayPal to allow site owners to sell access to live or recorded streams via pay-per-view. What the service is used for: PayPal is used to create and capture payment orders for paid video access using the PayPal Orders API v2. What data is sent and when: When a visitor purchases paid content, the plugin sends the following data to PayPal: – Order amount and currency – Return and cancel URLs – Stream identifier (used as order description) No video streams, chat messages, or personal user data beyond the above are transmitted to PayPal. Service provider: PayPal Holdings, Inc. Terms of Service: https://www.paypal.com/us/legalhub/useragreement-full Privacy Policy: https://www.paypal.com/us/legalhub/privacy-full Castio.live Licensing Server This plugin connects to the Castio.live licensing server to validate premium licenses and enable optional premium features. What the service is used for: The licensing server is used to verify license validity and determine which premium features are available. What data is sent and when: During license validation (for example on activation, admin access, or periodic checks), the plugin sends: – License key – Site domain name – Plugin version – WordPress version No user-generated content, video streams, or personal data are transmitted. Service provider: Castio.live Terms of Service: https://castio.live/terms Privacy Policy: https://castio.live/privacy Demo and Additional Features A public demo, documentation, and optional commercial features are available at: https://castio.live Commercial offerings may include: – Advanced access control – Enhanced chat moderation – Extended streaming options – Priority support The core live streaming and chat functionality works without requiring any external service. Author and Support Developed by proxymis Website: https://proxymis.com Contact: [email protected]

Compress images, optimize images, and enable image lazy load automatically with the powerful Smush image optimizer to keep your WordPress site fast, without losing quality. Smush makes it easy to optimize images, compress images, and deliver images faster across your entire WordPress site. This all-in-one image optimizer automatically reduces image file sizes, enables image lazy load, and serves modern formats like WebP and AVIF, all without breaking image quality or adding extra work. Whether you’re running a blog, store, or portfolio, Smush helps you optimize images at scale and keep your site fast with a trusted WordPress image optimizer. Trusted by 1+ Million Sites | 4.8/5 Star Rating Get everything you need to optimize images and speed up your site. Smush works out of the box with no complicated setup – just install and let it handle the rest. Compress images without losing quality Reduce image file size automatically while keeping your images sharp and clear. Smush is an easy-to-use image optimizer which let’s you compress images using both lossless and lossy compression, giving you the best balance of quality and performance without extra work. You can also compress images outside the media library using Directory Smush, making it easy to optimize images stored in theme folders, plugins, or other directories on your server. Lazy load images for faster pages Enable image lazy load across your site so images load only when needed. This image optimizer improves initial page speed and creates a smoother experience for visitors without extra configuration. Serve WebP and AVIF images automatically (PRO) Convert images to WebP and AVIF and serve them automatically to supported browsers. Smush helps you optimize images using next-gen formats to reduce file size and improve load times across your WordPress site. Deliver images faster with an Image CDN (PRO) Serve images through a global image CDN to reduce latency and improve load times for visitors around the world. 119 global CDN servers Up to 500 GB of bandwidth Faster image delivery based on visitor location Improved performance for image-heavy and high-traffic sites Automatically resize and fix image dimensions (PRO) Eliminate common PageSpeed warnings and improve layout stability with automatic image sizing. Smush dynamically resizes images to perfectly fit their containers, regardless of original size, helping fix the “Properly size images” warning in Google PageSpeed Insights. It also automatically adds missing width and height attributes to your images, improving rendering speed and reducing layout shifts. This helps you meet the “Ensure images have explicit width and height” recommendation without any manual work. Optimize your entire site, automatically Smush works across your whole site as a powerful image optimizer to optimize images as you upload them and maintain performance over time without manual work. Optimize images automatically on upload Compress images in bulk or individually Works with your existing media library No need to re-upload images Enable image lazy load across your site Convert images to WebP and AVIF Deliver images with an integrated image CDN Automatically resize and serve correctly sized images Optimize images outside the media library with Directory Smush Built for performance Smush improves page speed and overall performance by reducing image weight and improving how images are delivered. Reduce page load times Improve user experience Better performance for image-heavy pages Supports image lazy load and preload images (PRO) for faster perceived performance Works with your existing setup Smush is built to work with your current WordPress setup, including popular themes, page builders, and plugins. Compatible with Gutenberg, Elementor, WPBakery, and more Works with WooCommerce stores No need to change your workflow Easy to enable and configure Designed to be simple You don’t need to be a performance expert to optimize images with Smush image optimizer. Works out of the box Simple settings when you need them No technical knowledge required Safe to use on any site Why choose Smush? There are plenty of image optimization plugins, but Smush focuses on making it easy to optimize images, compress images, and improve performance without complexity. As a leading WordPress image optimizer, Smush gives you powerful optimization tools without the technical hassle. Trusted by over 1 million WordPress users Built specifically for WordPress Regular updates and improvements Backed by the WPMU DEV team Get started in minutes Install Smush, activate it, and start to compress images, optimize images, and enable image lazy load right away. This easy-to-use image optimizer helps most sites see improvements immediately without changing how they upload or manage images. About Us WPMU DEV is a premium supplier of quality WordPress plugins, services and support. Learn more here: https://wpmudev.com/ Don’t forget to stay up to date on everything WordPress from the Internet’s number one resource: WPMU DEV Blog Hey, one more thing… we hope you enjoy our free offerings as much as we’ve loved making them for you! Contact and Credits Originally written by Alex Dunae at Dialect (dialect.ca, e-mail ‘alex’ at ‘dialect dot ca’), 2008-11.