Top 5 alternatives to Vimeo for video hosting

As every type of business has its own key components to create the best video experience, choosing the right video hosting provider for your business is an important decision to make.

We’ve previously outlined a few key elements you should look out for in an over-the-top service (OTT). OTT essentials include content protection, feature development, customization, and affordability.

One of the most widely known and used video providers is Vimeo. Despite its worldwide popularity, Vimeo solutions often fall behind other online video platforms on the market in terms of content protection, pricing, and feature availability.

In this article we break down some major differences between Vimeo and the top 5 other OTTs to help you choose the right video hosting platform for your needs.

Let’s talk about Vimeo

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Vimeo was initially created to host funny videos from colleagues and quickly shifted its focus towards creators and the B2B sector. Today, Vimeo offers various solutions, including Vimeo OTT and Vimeo Enterprise targeting video creators and businesses. Here are some of the the pros and cons of using Vimeo OTT & Vimeo Enterprise:

Pros

• Integrations - has partnerships with many popular marketing platforms, domains and communication companies
• Options for individuals, small and larger enterprises
• Marketing-friendly - monetization and collaboration options
• Easy to use (standard Vimeo) and doesn’t require experience

Why consider an alternative?

Cons

• No DRM protection - Vimeo uses a basic encryption which means videos can be easily downloaded and distributed without authorization. This is an important missing feature for online educators to have.
• Live streaming only in the Vimeo “Premium”/ “Growth” OTT plans
• Limits on CDN traffic - depends on the plan. Only recently Vimeo updated their policy on video bandwidth and publicly declared their monthly bandwidth threshold at 2TB. Users who exceed this limit or monetize their videos will be subjected to significant additional fees around 7-9 cents/GB.
• Misleading pricing and bad customer service - users report they’ve experienced being charged for features which were supposed to be included in their plans, unclear notice cancellation period and poor customer support.
• (Unexpectedly) Higher costs - Vimeo OTT and Vimeo Enterprise can be quite expensive for small businesses and for many features or transactions users have to pay additional fees, resulting in way higher subscription fees. Additionally, the corporate plans require an annual subscription.
• Not designed for managing large video libraries. Since historically  it was more a so-called “Tuber” for content creators - the catalog was not initially built with enterprise video management requirements in mind and it can negatively impact if you have thousands of videos with complex structure and a content management team .

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Pricing

Vimeo OTT

• Basic - $1/subscriber per month - includes access to streaming services, video player, payments per user, web only.
• Growth - $500/month - the Basic features, plus live streaming (up to 3 simultaneous streams), live analytics, HD/1080p resolution, 60TB bandwidth, web only.
• Enterprise - quote-based in the range of 7 to 9 cents per GB of traffic and requires an annual commitment - includes all the above features, as well as API and SDK support, migration options, premium customer support, AVOD (Advertising-based video on demand) & FVOD (fixed video on demand). It’s available on different streaming platforms.
  Additional fees: 10% + $0.50 transaction fees for TVOD, $500/month extra app delivery to mobile and smart TV platforms & 1 hour of video uploading, Vimeo charges users $99 for each 10-hour set of additional uploads.

1. Wistia

A video provider for businesses that use video on their websites for marketing, storytelling, support, and sales.

Pros

• Interactive video player -  A video provider with an intuitive interface that makes navigating through the customizable player easy. Custom video players track more interaction and drive more traffic through SEO.
• Analytics - This video provider creates value for your business through advanced analytics. The analytics teach you everything about your viewers behavior, from their personal information to their interactions through heatmaps.
• Marketing tools - Innovation for your brand and content by using the obtained data to create specific search and social media audiences. Additionally, the data insights support the drive of new traffic, improves conversions, and increases engagement across the website.

Cons

• No encryption - Just a basic privacy options (like domain based restrictions for player embedding) but no basic or DRM protection
• No live streaming - Wistia uses Crowdcast - a third-party streaming service
• Unsuitable for scaling businesses - The offered packages can be suitable for small businesses but when it comes to growth pricing invoices start to get heavy (Pro plans start from $99/month and include only 10 embedded videos) . Additionally, there's a limit of videos uploaded and users have to pay extra for priority support.
• Scarce trial version - Users comment that the given trial package is too limited to gain a worthy experience. Hence, many users switch to other alternatives after their trial.

Pricing

• Free package - Includes all standard features (customizable player, unlimited users, basic integrations, embedding and sharing, interactive video tools, advanced video analytics and A/B testing) on 3 embedded videos or podcasts. Only with Wistia branding on the player.
• Pro package - $99 per month- Includes the standard features, includes first 10 embedded videos and option to add personal branding. Next 1000 videos cost $0.25/video/month, remaining 6,990 are $0.20/video/month. 150 TB of Bandwidth cost  $8,100/month. $9,847/per year with a year subscription
• Advanced package - $399/month - A tailored package including all the standard features, 100 embedded videos or podcast episodes, 1 integration with HubSpot, Pardot, or Marketo; Facebook and Google integrations; priority support. Additional 25¢/ month to add additional video or audio files.

2. JW Player

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JW Player, being historically a well-known pure player solution, made a pivot toward being an all-in-one video  streaming service, suitable for marketers and creators who want to track their video revenues.

Pros

• Intuitive interface - navigating through the dashboard and operating panel is easy and fast.
• Good rendering and embedding - the rendering, transcoding, and embedding happens instantly without much lagging.
• Monetization - wide range of options to advertise through video content.
• Quick sales support - customer service is flexible and solution oriented.
• Video editing & converter options - you can convert video formats, edit size and resolution.
• Developer-friendly - JW Player’s API is efficient and offers good integration with HTML5.

Cons

• Poor global infrastructure - users report that often viewers from different countries are unable to load the player.
• Viewer engagement - is difficult to track-no options to add clickable links to video.
• Analytics - analytics are unwieldy and not very user-friendly. Real time analytics are only available in trial or Enterprise.
• Multichannel sharing- lacks the possibility to share video content on large platforms, such as YouTube.
• Live streaming only available in the “Enterprise” plan.
• DRM protection is available only in trial and Enterprise plans.
• Pricey- free trial is limited to a month, additional features like DRM, real time fees for certain features, SDK, monetization are available only in trial and Enterprise, resulting in much higher costs.
• Feature limitations - additionally, watermark removal costs $99/year, while HLS streaming and Google Analytics plugin add another $299/year.

Pricing

• 30 days free trial subscription - You can test all of their premium features, including full-API & SDK access, engagement & real time analytics, monetization with the exception of self-hosted player and live event streaming.
• Starter subscription - all standard features for a fixed price of $10/month with priority support. However, this plan doesn’t include features like real-time analytics, Android SDK, or live streaming.
• Enterprise subscription - not officially stated; available in consultation only.

3. Vidyard

A video hosting software from Canada targeting e-commerce and sales people, allows users to create, record and send videos.

Pros

• Simple interface and White-label HTML5 player
• Beginner friendly - the platform has multiple resources to help its users navigate through the dashboards.
• Video creation & analytics -  Vidyard offers features to quickly create story-telling video content, analyze the performance with engagement tools, add CTAs, and automated transcripts.
• Wide range of integration options - users can integrate videos with their social media channels, CRM systems, emails, and cloud storage.
• Live streaming
• Free plan - for video recording and editing
• Open source
• Google Chrome plugin

Cons

• Limited encryption protection - Vidyard offers password protection, playback and single sign-on restrictions, but no complex content and distribution protection.
• Limited video editing tools - the simplicity of the platform is also reflected in the tools. The tools to edit videos only include the basics.
• Takes time to get used to - the platform can seem a bit too complicated for first-time video editors users. Onboarding is included only in the corporate versions with custom only available for the “Business” plan.
• Better for marketers, limited options for developers - Vidyard is first and foremost a video editing tool. Although they do offer a video hosting service, its options are rather limited which can result in lagging of videos. No open-source.
• Certain limitations - videos cannot be downloaded in the free version; only a few videos can be embedded per plan. Most of the advanced features are included in the “Teams” and “Business plans”; integration for CRM is limited to 1 and only in the most expensive package, as well as custom user management.
• Expensive - for smaller businesses and creators who wish to take advantage of all of the features.

Pricing

For individuals

• Free plan - includes video recording, editing, Chrome extension, sharing online and custom thumbnails, SEO. No option for personal branding and video download. 5 videos can be embedded.
• Pro plan with 14 day free trial - $15/month - video creation, editing, as well as option to add CTAs within the page, banners, personal branding. No access to advanced video analytics, reports, integration, video scheduling. Limit of 20 embedded videos.

Corporate plans

• Teams - $300/month - includes video creation, editing, hosting, Zoom integration, captions, CTAs within the video, access to advanced analytics. No options to add expiration date of a video and no integrations. Limit of 50 embedded videos and 3 users per team.
• Business - $1250/month - includes the features mentioned above, as well as automatic captions, custom CTAs, priority support, account manager, user permissions options. Limit of 100 embedded videos and 5 users per team.
  

4. VdoCipher

A video hosting solution for businesses. VdoCipher helps with safely streaming content on owned sites and apps. This highly secure video provider is mainly being used by EdTech, e-learning companies, corporates, colleges, schools, and individual teachers.

Pros

• Strong DRM protection -  VdoCipher relies on established DRM systems like Apple FairPlay and Widevine to ensure content protection against unauthorized download of videos.
• White-label player - The video player is responsive and customizable offering the viewer experience complete, regardless of the subscription package of the creator.
• Developer-friendly - API is easy to work with and customize, customers can embed their own API or taker advantage from the custom encoding.
• Affordable pricing - As the pricing is based on storage, rather than features, the prices of the subscriptions are considered to be fair by users.
• Good customer support

Cons

• No live streaming option - at this moment, they don’t offer live broadcasting services.
• No free plan - you can try the platform for a month, however afterwards you have to choose a subscription.
• Encryption of files increases storage - the encryption of video files increases the available storage used. This causes the user to run out of storage space sooner than desired.
• No open-source
• Third-party public cloud infrastructure - similarly to the rest of the providers on this list, VdoCipher is hosted on a public third-party provider - AWS. While this is not necessarily a problem, there are certain disadvantages related to using public cloud, such as increase of costs due to leasing and limitations in storage redundancy.
• Browser support can be limited with older mobile devices.

Pricing

• Trial - All features except Fairplay DRM for trial. 5 GB bandwidth and 4 video storage. $0 for 1 month.
• Starter - Basic features, 500 GB bandwidth and 70 GB storage. $149/year.
• Value - Extended basic features, 2.5 TB bandwidth and 200 GB storage. $499/year.
• Express - Extended basic features, 4.5 TB bandwidth and 400 GB storage. $799/year.
• Pro - All features, 12 TB bandwidth and 1000 GB storage. $1799/year.
• Plus - All features, 30 TB bandwidth and 1.2 TB storage. $3499/year.
• Premium - All features, 50 TB bandwidth and 2 TB storage. $5999/year.
• Enterprise -  All features, tailored bandwidth and storage. Custom prising.

5. Kinescope

Kinescope is a video hosting provider that operates  private global infrastructure, resulting in an affordable, easy to use and technologically advanced solution for businesses of any size. This software is suitable for B2B companies who need a reliable hosting platform with premium features to store and accelerate with video.

Pros

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• Private infrastructure - no third-party public cloud involved, uses its own equipment and racks. This allows a higher amount of video storage and lower pricing to the end user.
• Forever free account and no complicated subscription plans - you get all features even with a free account
• Open source & developer-friendly - Kinescope follows an open-architecture and anti-vendor lock approach, meaning the player code base, SDK's for mobile and other environments are kept as open-source and all our dashboard features are running on our API that is public for customers.
• Revolutionary affordable pricing - Due to using a private infrastructure, Kinescope provides a pricing 5-6 times lower than Vimeo’s and even the rest of the providers on this list.
• DRM system for highest content protection - Kinescope uses Apple FairPlay DRM in addition to ClearKey encryption to provide bullet-proof protection against unwanted download.

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‍A quick demo on Kinescope’s DRM protection against screenshots & screen recording on Apple devices

• Customizable Player - You can build a unique player design to amplify your brand voice, add chapters, subtitles or attach documents.
• Powerful Analytics - Advanced end-to-end analytics to gain insights into your audience's behavior, video performance and viewing dynamics. Analyze which videos are performing best, where do your views come from, what devices they use, view rate, average engagement and much more.‍
• CDN (Content Delivery Network) - You can benefit from streaming and private CDN acceleration for smooth video playback.‍
• Live streaming - Seamlessly run live streams as one time or recurring events directly from the dashboard. From the analytics tab you can follow how many people are watching your streams.
• Fast customer support always for everybody no regardless of the plan.

Cons
(Hey, we are not only bragging)

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• Live streaming is in beta - despite this fact, our live streaming options are fastly evolving. Plus, we love hearing your feedback and to constantly improve. So try it out and let us know your thoughts!

Pricing

At Kinescope, you only pay for your usage, not per feature.

• Video processing - Transcoded sourced video to fit all modern screens and network conditions, from €0.01/min or lower.
• Redundant storage - Video storage and backup copies, from ‍€0.03/GB or lower.
• CDN video traffic- High volumes of video traffic, from €0.03/GB or lower.

The more you use Kinescope, the less you’ll pay for your usage. No restrictions.

Vimeo alternatives round-up

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Vimeo is one of the most popular and used online video providers, but due to some disadvantages in pricing, transparency and content protection, users switch to other alternatives.

In terms of content protection, all video providers offer encryption, however some like Vimeo and Vidyard offer only basic user restrictions. As we’ve discussed before, to provide an additional level of protection, using an industry-standard DRM is highly recommended.

Other differences can be found in features, pricing, integration and customization options and how easy it is to navigate around the dashboard.

When we talk about pricing, most of the providers charge per feature and have fixed subscriptions. Kinescope is the only video hosting platform that offers all features for every user, even with a free plan.

Another significant difference between these software comes from their infrastructure. While many rely on a third-party public provider, Kinescope runs on a private infrastructure. This allows us to provide a way higher volume of traffic at a fraction of the cost compared to other online video services.

You can sign up for free below and take advantage of all the features we offer. Need help or customization options? Just send us a message in the chat.