Video platforms have become, in recent years, one of the most common digital services on the entire internet. This is logical, considering that they can be the perfect medium and opportunity for many professionals dedicated to content creation, audiovisual development, music, teaching, and advertising.
Also, if you have multiple sites where you host your videos, then you want a quick way to publish it on all of these sites. Here are the most popular video hosting sites for creators.
12 of the Best Video Hosting Sites for Creators:
1. YouTube
Image source: YouTube
The largest video hosting provider for uploading videos that is YouTube is known to all. One billion hours a day are consumed on YouTube by all of us, making it the undisputed leader among multimedia platforms. The data they provide us is overwhelming (24 hours of video in 1 minute are uploaded to YouTube). But we know little about the "other" platforms in the market, and that can be interesting to cover the Long Tail in the world of video platforms.
YouTube has more than 1.5 billion users around the world. It’s no wonder it has local versions of the same site in 88 countries and 76 different languages. No wonder brands are investing more in YouTube marketing.
2. Vimeo
Vimeo is one of the best platforms for image and sound professionals. It’s no wonder the site receives more than 100 million unique visitors each month. Vimeo lets viewers watch videos for free, but charges creatives to upload their content.
Videos on Vimeo aren't littered with annoying ads. A lot of the videos are free to watch, but others are available on a pay-per-view basis called Video on Demand (VoD). A Vimeo basic account is free, but comes with some strict limits on the amount of data you can upload.
3. Wistia
Wistia is a reliable, sometimes-unheard-of YouTube alternative. Wistia offers creators a lot of valuable information about who is watching their content. The new Vulcan Wistia player has a simple, sleek design, no branding label, and snappy reliable playback with an efficient time slider. This platform is incredibly responsive with better security features compared to YouTube and Vimeo. If somebody tried to steal your Wistia video, they’d better know what they’re doing.
Wistia videos have flexible dimensions, support 4K video, and don't limit you to the recognizable 16x9 dimension size most videos require. The platform also allows you to utilize forms and hyperlinks in the videos themselves. Even better? Wistia works the best with SEO, since you can embed keywords into your videos. If you want to create a serious ad campaign for your brand, Wistia provides more detailed analytics than any of the other video hosting platforms.
4. Dailymotion
Dailymotion may not attract as much traffic as YouTube, but it’s still a remarkable video hosting service. Did you know that Dailymotion is actually the world's second-largest video sharing website behind YouTube? The video quality that you achieve here is high. Even better? It’s completely free to use. You can incorporate a full URL into the video description, which is excellent for your SEO rankings.
Dailymotion is ideal for discovering content, live or demand, from around the world. You can find anything from sports competitions and music festivals to political debates and fashion shows. The platform attracts 300 million users from around the world, who watch 3.5 billion videos on its players each month.
5. Twitch
It's one of the most popular streaming services, so people usually know what it is when you tell them to check you out on twitch. It also means more people use it, which means more chances of people coming into your stream. Twitch also has a variety of ways streamers can monetize their streams, and currently are not too greedy about revenue sharing.
Twitch does more for its streamers. In addition to regular ad revenue, Twitch offers affiliate programs and merchandising for popular streamers. To be fair, reaching this level of popularity isn’t likely. Twitch has a booming culture that deeply resonates with viewers. Twitch emotes are a popular part of the streaming community, and without specific plugins for Google Chrome, they can only exist on Twitch.
6. SproutVideo
What makes SproutVideo a fantastic option for hosting your future video content? Apart from its top-notch security features, the quality of your videos increases dramatically. SproutVideo supports videos in up to 8K resolution and in any format. Design your own video playlists, customize your player lists to your liking, and even take advantage of the platform’s own API.
If you’re looking to see how well your videos are performing, look no further than SproutVideo’s high-quality analytics. Your analytics will tell you how popular your video content was, how many downloads a video has received, how many impressions you reached, and more. You can also create call-to-action forms to collect information about users to make the most of your email marketing efforts.
7. IGTV
IGTV is the Instagram-exclusive video content feature within the popular photo-sharing app. The followers you already have will be your own audience for your videos. But, they won't be the only ones to see you! If your video is among the most popular videos of the moment, it will be able to be seen by many more users.
If your account is verified, you can upload videos of up to 1 hour with a maximum of 5.4 GB. On the contrary, if it is not, you can upload 10-minute videos weighing 650 MB maximum. There is currently NO official monetization method. But creators will generate income from sponsorship with brands or by selling their own services and products.
8. Jetpack
Did you know that the combo of a Jetpack paid plan and a WordPress.com account can get you ad-free video hosting services within a totally WordPress environment? And you can get these videos to play within your posts by just pasting an embed code. Not only that, since the videos are stored on WordPress.com servers, they won’t eat into your storage space. While there’s a cap on storage with Jetpack Premium, the Professional has no such limits. These plans also allow you to turn on privacy settings.
Once you upgrade, VideoPress is added automatically, without extra charges for bandwidth usage and without limit on the number of video plays. VideoPress is a lightweight video player, designed specifically for WordPress. It allows you to host and embed videos in your site, and works well for files up to 1GB.
9. Vidyard
Vidyard finds a place in this list of best video hosting sites on account of its truly professional hosting services. Armed with powerful marketing tools, your videos stand a better chance of conversions. This feature-rich service also allows quick video upload that plays almost instantly on click.
The only downside is price – it’s not cheap, with the average customer paying $150+ per month. So this one is really only for heavy-duty sites.
Fortunately, the premium plans from Vidyard ensure that you only pay for what you use.
Despite being rich in features, navigation is easy with Vidyard. You can send video data to third-party services such as Marketo and Salesforce in an instant, both for analysis and for improved customer engagement. The service integrates smoothly with social media and supports you if your content goes viral.
Vidyard offers a wide choice of customizable unbranded video players that allow filtering based on player, videos, country etc.
10. Brightcove
Boasting clients such as Ford, Dunkin’ Donuts, and even the BBC, with Brightcove you know you’re in good hands. Unlike other platforms, Brightcove plans are broken down into uses rather than prices. There’s one for marketing, one for enterprise use, and one for monetisation.
Brightcove is very focused on helping users to increase the revenue of their videos, with options for ad integration and a subscription-based business model.
Brightcove also differentiates itself from other video hosting sites by claiming to have the best HTML5 player in the industry (70% faster than any other video player!), as well as robust live-stream functionality. In addition, the platform integrates with an impressive number of MAPs (marketing automation platforms) and CRMs, including Hapyak, HubSpot, and Wirewax.
11. JW Player
Whereas Brightcove claims to have the best HTML5 player, JW Player insists on having the fastest, with videos rendering ‘reliably and beautifully on every screen’. On top of that, JW Player customers enjoy an average 45% more plays and a 20% advertising lift when they turn on the site’s intelligent video recommendations.
Plans are reasonably priced, with the ‘Starter’ plan working out at just $5/month (when billed annually). For this, users can upload 50 videos and accrue a generous 15,000 views. Users also gain access to core features to deepen the user experience and maximize your ad revenue. As you can see, users on the ‘Business’ and ‘Enterprise’ plan can access more advanced features, namely real-time analytics. However, engagement analytics are still available for those on the first plan. So if you’re after a customisable player that you control then JW Player is a great option.
12. iPlayerHD
iPlayerHD is an inexpensive, simple, ad-free alternative to the ad-infested YouTube video hosting option. Features include single video embeds, playlists, pop-over videos, Facebook embedding, social sharing, analytics, and much moreShow Ad-Free Videos.
Smart businesses today are realizing the value non-branded, ad-free video has for a quality user experience for their web site visitors. So while YouTube and other video hosting sites are useful in many cases, when it comes to your own site, trust iPlayerHD to provide a top quality video experience. This video hosting site keeps you moving forward. It also includes dozens of features including detailed analytics, password protection, social sharing, looping videos, playlists, email collection, video lightboxes and so much more.
With iPlayerHD, you can easily upload and manage your videos—all in one place. It’s a great way to get more visitors and keep them on your site longer.
In conclusion
Video platforms are not only a star opportunity for all that we have mentioned before. They’re also used for purposes in earning, entertainment, knowledge, current affairs, and more. No matter how or why you use video, it’s still important to incorporate video into your overall marketing strategy. These video hosting sites are the best choices to choose from.
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