Streamlabs Ultra vs Fourthwall: Which is Better for Channel Merch?
Last Updated on March 5, 2025 by Michael Brockbank
Streamlabs Ultra and Fourthwall aren’t necessarily direct competitors. For one thing, Streamlabs offers a variety of streaming tools and Fourthwall is meant primarily for merch and community building. So, how do they compare when it comes to setting up an online store for your audience?
Overall, it mostly comes down to selection, profit, and storefront design options. Both of them provide decent quality items, so you’re buyers won’t have much to complain about.
Well, that is unless you upload a graphic that doesn’t convert well to print. But that’s more of a graphic design adjustment that a lot of people don’t consider.
There is a big difference between viewing RGB and printing CMYK on certain materials.
What is Streamlabs Ultra?
Streamlabs Ultra is the paid upgrade to the original Streamlabs. It offers more than its free counterpart as it provides additional streaming options, tools, merch profits, and more.
When utilized with Streamlabs Desktop (originally Streamlabs OBS), Ultra opens a lot of great possibilities with themes, widgets, and apps for your broadcast. And the streaming software makes all of this relatively easy to implement.
If you’re trying to build up your audience for TikTok or YouTube Shorts, the Cross Clip tool is exceptionally helpful. You can use this for free, but the Ultra upgrade increases storage capacity for videos while including a few more premium options.
The bottom line is that Streamlabs Ultra can offer a great deal to streamers, both new and seasoned. The caveat is that it comes with a price tag of $189 per year. But if you’re planning on taking your streaming and video-creating career seriously, it may be worth the investment.
What is Fourthwall?
Fourthwall is a platform designed to connect creators with their audiences. This is done by selling branded products and creating membership content. And one of the options that helps boost engagement is the available integrations.
For instance, Fourthwall can send alerts to your Streamlabs account when someone buys something from your store. Not to mention integration with social media shopping extensions.
In a nutshell, Fourthwall focuses more on membership content and merch sales. You have control over the products you list, different types of membership tiers, video content sharing, posts, messages, and more. It’s an all-in-one central hub tailored to fans of your work as a creator.
One of the most attractive elements of Fourthwall is the cost. There are no monthly or annual fees and you only pay 3% of digital products and 5% of memberships. There are no fees for selling products on Fourthwall.
Comparing Streamlabs Ultra and Fourthwall
| Available Products | About 135 | About 297 |
| Profit Margin (11oz Coffee Mug) | 33% | 54% |
| Storefront Design Options | Minimalist | Moderate |
| Product Creator Studio Usage | Easy | Easy |
| At-Cost Samples | ||
| Analytics | Basic | Moderate |
| Sell Digital Products | ||
| Extras to Consider | Streaming Features Galor Themes, Widgets, & Plugins | Streamlabs Alerts Integrations with Social Sites |
Overall Pricing
First, let’s take a look at the overall pricing of Streamlabs Ultra and Fourthwall. Ultra costs $189 per year paid annually whereas Fourthwall is free. However, the storefront isn’t the only thing you’re paying for with Streamlabs.
With Ultra, you have access to a growing list of themes, widgets, and apps you can add to your broadcasts. You also have access to the Pro editing tools for videos and podcasts. Then, there are options to include up to 11 collaboration cameras, develop a custom tipping page, and multistream to three or more networks simultaneously.
The reason why I am comparing Streamlabs Ultra instead of the free version is because you make more profits in the store with Ultra. If you don’t care about making more in profits, then ignore the overall cost above as the rest of the comparisons are still valid.
Available Products
Fourthwall has more than twice the number of available products than Streamlabs Ultra. Not to mention being able to sell your own merch, such as artwork.
For example, I have author copies of my books that I ship directly from my home on my Fourthwall storefront. And I plan on doing a few figurines and such from the 3D printer that go along with my novels.
Now, the products available on Streamlabs are among the most popular sales items. So, you should be able to design a few things here and there that can net you a bit of income. But Fourthwall has a growing list of goodies and the capacity to sell your own goods.
For building a storefront full of goods, Fourthwall clearly has Streamlabs beat in a variety of ways.
Profit Margins
In the comparison above, I took the profit margins of an 11oz coffee mug from both Streamlabs and Fourthwall. Based on the amount of money you make, Fourthwall has a much higher profit margin per product sold.
Keep in mind that these numbers are also using Streamlabs Ultra, which improves your profit margin. In the free version of Streamlabs, you’ll make less money per sale.
I don’t have the time to break down the profit margins of every single item on either product page. However, when compared to the things I plan on selling myself, Fourthwall provided a greater rate of income by nearly twice.
In other words, you make more money selling goods from Fourthwall.
Storefront Design Options
Both platforms give you the ability to design a nice-looking storefront for shoppers to engage. Although Streamlabs and Fourthwall provide all the necessary components for doing so, Streamlabs seems a bit more minimalistic when it comes to design.
Don’t get me wrong, the store still looks good. But there are fewer options to expand on what you show shoppers when they visit. Perhaps the saving grace of the storefront is the actual page Streamlabs gives you for your entire brand.
This page includes your video broadcast, an easy tip option, the ability to feature items from your store, and a few other ideal customization options.
Essentially, you can run your entire streaming broadcast directly from this page without showing Twitch or YouTube.
Fourthwall has a few more options available when designing the actual storefront. And like Streamlabs, you can also show previous YouTube videos and all of your social accounts with ease.
Product Creator Studio Usage
Both platforms have an easy-to-use design studio for putting images and text on your products. They highlight the printable areas where you can add graphics and resize them to fit your needs quite easily.
How this works depends on the product as each one has its own functionality. But Streamlabs and Fourthwall have similar features and options when it comes to designing goods your audience might enjoy.
Once your product is finished, the platforms will add it to your storefront and you’re site is good to go. Well, as long as you’ve set up your payment methods and whatnot when first creating the store.
At-Cost Samples
You’re able to order samples from Streamlabs and Fourthwall at cost. This allows you to advertise your merch on camera by wearing or using it for your audience to see. That way, they can get an idea of what they’re buying.
You’ll still have to cover print and shipping services. And judging by the cost of products, Fourthwall is a much cheaper solution for ordering samples.
As for the quality, I’ve ordered products from Streamlabs in the past and the prints came out awesomely. As for Fourthwall, I know several who have a storefront who say the quality of their goods is spectacular. So, it appears both platforms have some great-quality goods.
Still, it’s always a good idea to order samples before pushing a product. This helps you ensure the quality is good for your buyers.
Analytics
Streamlabs has basic analytics tied to the entire account. From your dashboard, you can see things such as the number of viewers you had during your latest stream and when someone bought a product.
Yet, Fourthwall has a more robust data collection system that also shows views, sources, and the capacity to connect directly to Google Analytics for even more information about your demographics and audience.
Data like this can help you further market products to make sales outside of your live streams or video recordings. For instance, Fourthwall will show the social site that generates the most views and profits, giving you a chance to fine-tune a campaign for the top-performing app.
Never underestimate the value of good data.
Sell Digital Products
Unfortunately, Streamlabs doesn’t have the capacity to sell digital products at this time. You’re limited to the selection that is available, which is lower than most other print-on-demand services.
Fourthwall allows for digital goods, such as eBooks. In addition to the larger selection of goods and the capacity to sell your own merch directly, this means you have far more opportunities and potential with a storefront with Fourthwall over Streamlabs.
Then again, a lot of gamers probably don’t care much about digital goods. So, this might not be a drawback for you. But for someone like me, an author who would love to sell more eBooks, it’s a definite benefit.
Extras to Consider
As I said earlier, Streamlabs’s power is mostly behind its streaming and recording tools. Sure, they have a selection of goods you can sell directly to your viewers, but the true cost of the Ultra upgrade is mostly seen during the broadcast.
At the end of the day, Streamlabs Ultra provides a long list of benefits in terms of themes, editing tools, widgets, live alerts, plugins, and more. Its focus is more along the lines of creating content, not necessarily selling products.
Fourthwall is centered purely on audience engagement and merch. Membership tiers offer a way to provide member-only text or video content while providing a long list of goods you can design and sell. In this regard, it’s similar to Patreon, only with a built-in store.
Some of the extras include Streamlabs integration for alerts as well as integration with social media shopping. This includes things like the YouTube product shelf, TikTok store pages, Instagram store, and even Twitch gifting and discounts for subs.
Overall, Fourthwall is more about building a members-only community and Streamlabs focuses on content creation.
Why Not Use Fourthwall and Streamlabs Ultra?
There is nothing to say that you can’t use Streamlabs and Fourthwall simultaneously. Use Streamlabs to help create great video and live streaming content and Fourthwall to sell products and build a dedicated community.
Since Fourthwall has integrations for Twitch and Streamlabs Alerts, it only makes sense to use both platforms at their strengths. This way, you can potentially earn more than just what’s available on Twitch for subs and bits while making more money with members-only content on Fourthwall.
Plus, Fourthwall makes it easy to cross-promote your other social platforms such as YouTube and TikTok.
As both are easy to use, you can create an entire streaming empire in less than a day with stunning visuals for broadcasts and a full storefront. All you would need are some designs people would want to buy on products and an audience while streaming.
Remember what I said earlier, this is not a direct comparison. They have similar offerings but are meant for two completely different facets of creating content. Nonetheless, both of them together would open a slew of possibilities to build a community while generating revenue.
What Kind of Merch Would You Sell?
One of the first things I do on any print-on-demand service is see how well the coffee mugs turn out. I love collecting mugs and whisky tumblers, but also know that I need to go a step beyond that for my audience. In fact, I’ve had a few people request some designs on tote bags.
I’d also love to see the cover of my book, Kingmaker, on a throw blanket for the couch.
Listen to your fans and viewers. They’ll give you some ideas that might generate some great interest and sales.
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