Branding 101
First things first: the “Ajazz Stream Deck” is actually called a “Stream Dock” by Ajazz. Some people even refer to it as the “Ajazz Macro Keyboard.” You’re excused for the confusion because it’s a direct competitor (and rip-off) of the Elgato Stream Deck. On top of that, Ajazz doesn’t make it easier by officially naming it the “Ajazz AKP03 Studio Controller”—sexy, right?

Price is the main reason
The Ajazz Stream Deck costs around $55 / €50 at the time of writing, which is literally one-fourth the price of the most comparable Elgato Stream Deck. It’s easy to be tempted, given that it looks nearly identical.
If you’re on a budget and can’t afford the Elgato Stream Deck anyway, just buy the Ajazz Stream Deck—the price is unbeatable, especially if you find it on sale.
You can check prices below:
Please note that I may get a small commission from links at absolutely no extra cost to you.
Unboxing and setup by Chinese standards

Contents
The unboxing experience is your typical “Chinese budget experience,” with half of the text in Chinese and the rest in “English” courtesy of Google Translate. That said, you don’t need the manuals to get started—it’s as simple as plugging in the device and downloading the software.
Inside the box, you’ll find:
- The Stream Dock
- A detachable stand
- A USB-C to USB-A cable (USB-C on the Stream Dock end)
- A “Getting Started” note
- A manual
Software download
The link to the Ajazz Stream Dock software of the international version is below:
https://ajazz.key123.vip/engwin
If you throw out the manual, you won’t find this link again. Searching for the software on Google redirects you to the Chinese Ajazz website, where your browser will warn you it’s “unsafe.” If you go through, you’ll land on a driver site with 12 pages of “keyboards”, where the driver is supposedly hidden. Just use the link above 😅.
Build quality and visual appearance are good
Once you are past the initial hiccups that come with buying on a budget from China, you will realize that the build quality is actually good. Side-by-side with my Elgato Stream Deck, I don’t feel any difference in the physical touch or feel.


The design and aesthethics are also good:
- The visual appearance is minimalistic, especially the models with knobs and varied button layouts. They look more elegant to me.
- Default icons have a “cartoony” vibe, which can be good or bad depending on your style. Of course, you can customize them, so this is just the out-of-the-box experience.
- Pro tip: Buy the white version—it hides dust better! 😊
- I could do without the Ajazz logo on top. It disrupts the otherwise minimalist design, but this applies to most gaming peripherals.
A “familiar” interface

The interface is a direct Elgato rip-off. You can configure profiles, multiple tabs/pages and there’s a store where you can download additional plugins and icons. The software crashed for me a few times, which I have not experienced with Elgato’s version, but in general it works.
The Stream Deck comes with various preconfigured tabs, which work as a nice demo for some of the utility and they seem to be well thought-out.
Plugin selection is the real compromise
1/4 of the price and the same build quality sounds too good to be true, and it also kind of is. The real compromise here is the selection of plugins in the store and the accompanying features that you get from this.
In general the selection is far narrower compared to the Elgato store, but you do get a lot of the basics covered and some of the most popular plugins and icon packs are even identical.
You get e.g.:
- Media controls and sound switcher
- PC monitoring
- Custom program execution
- Windows utility buttons like screenshot, color picker etc.
- And a lot more of course
If you are a power user and need plugins for a specific program or use case, my best advice is to download the Ajazz software and check out the store selection before purchasing.
The dials have VERY limited utility
Something that puzzles me is the fact that the only preconfigured options for using the 3 dials are song switching and volume control, which means you only have use cases for 2 out of 3 dials. I did use my imagination and configured one for scrolling by binding page-up and page-down as well, and you can do something similar, but this doesn’t work out of the box – you have to use your imagination with keyboard shortcuts and these use cases have to fit naturally to a dial. As such, 2 dials would have been more than sufficient to support the software and had I known this, I would’ve preferred more regular keys.
It’s also worth noting that the 3 buttons in the bottom cannot be customized. They act as generic tab and profile switching.

Is the Ajazz Stream Dock worth it?
It depends… as always. If you can live with the small “budget hiccups” in the software, and your use cases are supported by the plugin selection, the price is unbeatable and the product is not bad. Elgato’s Stream Decks are overall better, but they also come with a huge price premium, so at the end it comes down to your budget. You could of course also just buy both like me. I use the Ajazz for media control and the Elgato for productivity.

Thanks for reading!
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