[![App Wars: Aureal vs 3Speak vs CastGarden](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/cast.garden/EoK5Q8bnU7jmLTaH5qEWJK7DUNVTzhqGQt3okcMvrbYgKnqpzc47aw2BtVKFt19dyf8.jpg)
](https://cast.garden/w/9cPVNKQqeyGDzC7KJPXkpw) 
 
 Quick Overview
**Cast.Garden** = Peertube + Hive
- Any kind of media file. Audio & video
- P2P
- Podping intergration
- Auto import from other sites
- HUNDREDS of contributors to the code base around the world
- HiveTube part is small team of coders
- 100% opensource (on both) with code hosted on Github
- log in with Hive account and/or Peertube account depending on what you want to do. Creator needs Peertube account. Consumer just Hive (Hivesigner or Keychain)


**3Speak**
- Video files only (mp4)
- no P2P
- Podping
- live streams - under development
- small team of coders
- 100% opensource with code hosted on github
- email then link Hive accounts

**Aureal**
- file types wav, m4a, mp3 or mp4
- live streams - under development
- small team of coders
- No P2P
- No Podping
- Says its open source but havent seen any code hosted anywhere.
- login Hivesigner or email then link Hive account

Performance
The performance reviews below are from my POV. You may have a different experience. I am not trying encourage/discourage anybody from using these apps. You are the one who will ultimately make the decisioni as to what you choose to use.

[Aureal](https://aureal.one)

Overall performance can be iffy at times.
- The look of the site is eerily similar to Podvine. Like so close they could be clones.
- Site feels heavy & sometimes the pages tend to take an extreme amount of time to render.
- Consumer POV - Decent Works fine if somewhat slow. Podcast updates come in just as they should.
- Can not consume content without an account. Impression of a walled garden
- Content creator is different story. Sometimes the loading of your own podcasts just dont happen.
- Post editor font is hard to read
- The description input section doesnt scroll correctly. You need to write out your show notes/description in an outside app & copy paste into it. No preview available.
- Upload speeds are very slow for small audio only files. I never personally tested a video file.
- Hosting files somewhere else such as Anchor can be a pain to import. With the feeds taking anywhere from a couple of hours to days. Possibly having to ping support to do it manually at times.
- Live rooms have been in alpha for over a year and do not work like standard live streams. They are much more like Twitter Spaces or Clubhouse.

My personal opinion use them to get the experience. They truly are great people and mean well. But I think they should focus on nailing down the basics such as the import issues and site loading times to where there will never be another problem with them again before implementing new features. I'm also not of a fan of the walled garden impression. You should be showcasing the content creators on the front page. Not asking for an account.
But they do have some exciting stuff coming down the pike with Unstoppable domains.

[3Speak](https://3speak.tv)

Overall performance is similar to Aureal.
- Consumers POV it is decent.
- Somewhat slow with buffering but that is a technological issue. As I understand it videos are hosted on IPFS and that can be slow to load. I have noticed that the older the video the longer it takes to load. I have several of my older videos 1-2 years old that just will not do anything.
- Can view content without an account. Cant comment or vote without account.
- Creator POV - Decent
- upload is slower than Aureal. Mostly due to video files are larger to begin with. Drag & drop is available. No preview so again copy/paste from external editor.
- set community, tags, thumbnail & beneficiaries are available
- Rendering can be extremely slow. Such as "go to bed and check it in the morning slow". But this depends on the time of day and how big the que is. through trial and error you can find the best time for you to upload.
- Keeps 11% as a beneficiary to help pay for encoding and storage.

[CastGarden](https://cast.garden)
- Overall performance is **OUTSTANDING**! On both the consumer and creator sides. I have yet to experience any issues loading a video to watch or uploading and encoding a video or audio file.
- The speeds of page loads and posting episodes rival YouTube. I've even experienced some encoding on YouTube that I had to walk away for several hours. Peertube/CastGarden seems to even beat it there.
- Consumer log in to Hive account with Keychain & or Hivesigner
- Log in to post with your CastGarden account.
- Posting experience is very easy and intuitive.
- CastGarden keeps 10% and posts to Hive through the CastGarden account. The user is then 90% beneficary of that post.

Final thoughts:
In my opinion, CastGarden is the clear winner here. It's a better user experience. More stable and has nearly 700 contributors from around the world working on and maintaing the Peertube base. The HiveTube plugin is the number 1 most downloaded plugin for Peertube. Which means there is a literal ton of new instances out there that are implenting Hive into them. Bridging the Fediverse with the Hive blockchain is mind boggleing to me.
This is what #Web3 is all about. Everybody gets so wrapped up in pumping and shilling crypto coins they forget the important things. The whole reason for #Web3 isn't to shill coins and make money. #Web3 is about the individual. People like you and me. This is what we need to get mass adoption for #Web3. A place that just works with no bullshit drama & no reinventing of tech. Just use what is already there and adapt it to make it work. Thats what is important to the end user.
 
 
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[**Check out today’s video..!**](https://cast.garden/w/9cPVNKQqeyGDzC7KJPXkpw)