Business Benefits
Find a video platform that meets your company’s needs and budget.
Determine what your company needs from a video hosting platform.
Ask yourself:
- How often will you need to upload?
- How do you plan to use the video?
- What viewing experience do you want to give your audience?
- What analytics do you need?, and
- What is your budget?
Assess the key features and drawbacks of YouTube to determine whether it meets your company’s needs.
Sign up on YouTube using your Google account, create a channel, and upload your video files.
- YouTube’s features: YouTube is excellent for brand awareness and its videos rank highly in Google search engine results pages. It is also free, regardless of video upload volume.
Many occupy the Featured Snippet box, with snippets selected algorithmically. Here’s an example for “how to tie shoelaces fast.”
- YouTube’s drawbacks: The interface is designed to keep people on the platform and suggested videos encourage people to increase their watch time - not just on your channel but on the platform as a whole. This can distract them from what you want them to do, like visit your website, and can also highlight competitor offerings.
Youtube’s recommendations makes it difficult to keep people focused on what you want them to do.
Evaluate the key features and drawbacks of DailyMotion to determine whether it meets your company’s needs.
- DailyMotion’s features: High views in certain countries like Turkey and France; a good option in these geographic regions. It is free and you can monetize DailyMotion videos with in-stream advertisements.
- DailyMotion’s drawbacks: It has a smaller audience overall and more intrusive ads that reduce the potential for profitability and user enjoyment. Also, video files are limited to 60 minutes length.
DailyMotion viewers have expressed frustration at the overload of ads.
Evaluate the key features and drawbacks of JW Player to determine whether it meets your company’s needs.
- JW Player’s features: for companies who live stream regularly, JW Player can host the original video and simulcast it to Facebook Live. It also offers real-time audience analytics, broken down by domain, device, and geography. The platform hosts video using HTML5, which promises superfast download speed.
- JW Player’s drawbacks: It isn’t free. If you are a small business, plans start at $10/month. Pricing for their enterprise plan, with more than 150GB hosting and 500GB streaming, is custom.
Analyze the key features and drawbacks of Wistia to determine whether it meets your company’s needs.
- Wistia’s features: the Channels feature allows website owners to create a series of related videos and display the collection on their website, no coding required. Users can customize the look of a channel’s video placement and landing page content and channels have no recommended videos or unwanted branding. Wistia’s Analytics that can help your company measure video consumption and conversions. They include features like engagement graphs and video-based heatmaps, and also integrate with Google Analytics and several CRMs. It offers a paid upgrade for multilingual, searchable captions and once synced with your video, captions are interactive.
Here’s how Nextiny’s channel appears on their website.
Wistia can A/B test video components, like which video thumbnail drives more engagement.
- Wistia’s drawbacks: You must create the audience for your videos—there is no inherent distribution network. It is free to host up to three videos, but the Wistia branding overlays your content. You need to upgrade to a Pro plan, starting from $99/month, for up to 10 videos and to remove the branding - and additional videos are $0.25 each.
Evaluate the key features and drawbacks of Vimeo to determine whether it meets your company’s needs.
Start using Vimeo free with their Starter plan. You can upload up to 10 videos per day, or 500MB per week.
- Vimeo’s features: Works well for content that is gated behind a form fill or paywall. Vimeo can deliver video passwords within purchase confirmations while keeping content hidden from non-purchasers and search engines. It lets you replace a video without having to generate a new URL and has integrations with caption services like Rev.com.
- Vimeo’s drawbacks: You must create the audience for your videos; there is no inherent distribution network. After upgrading to a paid account, any attempt to revert to a free account will remove videos from the site. To upload more than 10 videos per day you’ll need a paid plan. Plan pricing depends on storage: 5GB per week is $7/month; 20GB per week is $20/month; unlimited is $50/month.
Vimeo’s audience comes to the platform to watch movies and shows, not check out “how tos” or promotional videos.
Evaluate the key features and drawbacks of Vidyard to determine whether it meets your company’s needs.
- Vidyard’s features: It allows businesses to create personalized videos at scale. It is the only major video hosting platform with a native Salesforce integration. You can also connect HubSpot, Marketo, Act-On, Zendesk, and Mailchimp accounts. It’s well-suited for account-based marketing strategies for both marketing and onboarding.
- Vidyard’s drawbacks: Personalized videos from Vidyard cost at least $5,000. If you do not need personalization, you can create unlimited recordings and uploads for free. However, this free plan does not include password protection or calls to action. You need to upgrade to their Pro plan, charged at $15/month, for one integration. The full Business package for 5+ users starts at $1,250/month.
Evaluate the key features and drawbacks of Loom to determine whether it meets your company’s needs.
Loom is designed for two core use cases: internal training and product demonstrations.
- Loom’s features: With this screen sharing tool you can record your screen or add a voice-over or video of yourself. Loom does not require an internet browser. It is free to record videos up to five minutes long and host up to 100 videos.
- Loom’s drawbacks: Content created with a free account is recorded in standard quality. Unlimited video storage, HD quality, and access to their editing suite is $10/month.
Evaluate the key features and drawbacks of Brightcove to determine whether it meets your company’s needs.
- Brightcove’s features: Includes interactive content, transcription, and digital rights management. Its HTML5 player offers the highest standard of video playback, and a free trial is available. Brightcove supports a number of custom viewing experiences: changing button size, overlaying text, adapting video size. It integrates with other platforms, including HubSpot, Marketo, and Oracle, which allows you to easily view, embed, and use videos from products you are already using.
- Brightcove’s drawbacks: Requires high bitrates: Brightcove recommends a stable bit rate of 10 Mbps, whereas other platforms deliver HD video with as little as 2.8 Mbps. There is also a steep learning curve for the interface. It is not free, and prices are not included on the website, but reviews indicate pricing starts from $199/month. The cost depends on the number of video plays.
Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of hosting your video on your own website.
- Self-hosting features: HTML5 made it easier to host videos on your website and HTML5 video code works with the latest versions of Chrome, Explorer, Safari, and Firefox.
- Self-hosting drawbacks: Not everyone is using the latest browser versions, which means that HTML5 video might not be supported. Displaying local videos on your website using HTML5 requires you to code elements like video height, width, pause, play and volume buttons. Self-hosting requires a bespoke analytics setup. Hosting video on your website can negatively impact your page speed - in part because self-hosted videos do not have a built-in distribution network.
Last edited by @hesh_fekry 2023-11-14T12:05:17Z