Industry forecasts say that by 2021, videos will make up 82% of all internet traffic. What does that mean? You need to make videos that put across your brand message to the target audience. If you are operating a simple blog, videos can contribute towards revenue generations through ads.
The problem is that your website’s server will usually never have the resources need to host video files. Videos are a lot heavier compared to texts and images. This is the reason why hosting videos on your server can lead to server lags.
So, suppose you resort to content marketing using videos. In that case, you have to find a video hosting service where you can upload your high-quality videos and ensure that there’s no server lag and the website is not going down.
In this article, I will give you a rundown of the 10 best video hosting sites that you can use.
Here is what you will find in this article:
- Why shouldn’t you be hosting your own videos?
- Best video hosting platforms today.
- Free video hosting options.
- Premium video hosting options.
- Which one is the best option for you?
Now that you know what to expect from this article let’s begin.
Why shouldn’t you be hosting your own videos?
I have come across dozens of people who have time and again asked a simple question – ‘why can’t I host my own videos?’
While hosting your own videos may sound like a good option, it actually isn’t! You need to understand that a regular webpage (containing texts and images) will be no more than 2 megabytes. It may be up to 10 MB in worst-case scenarios if you have dozens of high-quality images on a single web page.
On the contrary, a single 720p video of 1-minute duration can be as large as 100 megabytes. That means that if 10 people are watching the video, they will consume one gigabyte of bandwidth in a single minute.
For the same bandwidth, a website can experience 1000 visitors or more if the webpages are up to one megabyte in size.
Because most hosting providers have bandwidth limitations (even with unlimited plans), it is highly likely that you will exceed the bandwidth allocation with a single video if you have a sizable audience!
Once that happens, you will receive a notice from your hosting provider asking you to upgrade. In the worst-case scenario, they may just ban your account.
That’s the reason why you shouldn’t be hosting your own videos. It is absolutely necessary that you find a video hosting service that will not have such bandwidth restrictions!
10 Best Video Hosting Platforms Today
There are many video hosting platforms available. However, not every platform is capable of making it to the top 10 list. Here are the video providers that you can count on:
- YouTube [Free]
- Vimeo [Free]
- Dailymotion [Free]
- Facebook [Free]
- WordPress Video Hosting by Jetpack [Paid]
- vooPlayer [Paid]
- Wistia [Paid]
- SproutVideo [Paid]
- Brightcove [Paid]
- Uscreen [Paid]
Let us take a close look at each of these options and find out their advantages and disadvantages.
Free Video Hosting Platforms
Free video hosting platforms will not charge you any money for hosting your videos. However, each one of them has some disadvantages as well. Let’s find out what they have to offer.
YouTube
YouTube is, hands down, the largest video sharing platform to exist on this planet. Every month, the platform gets over 1.9 billion logged-in users. That’s massive. If you are a content creator, you can tap into the vast audience base through YouTube search and YouTube recommendations.
There is no limit on bandwidth or storage space. If you have billions of videos, you can upload them all. No one is going to stop you from doing so. There is, however, a limit on the video size. The maximum size for a single video cannot exceed 128 gigabytes.
If you are a content creator, YouTube can be a great platform to earn ad revenue. Yes, YouTube will run ads on your videos and give you a share of the ad revenue it earns. That’s great!
What if you are a business entity? The only way you can embed the videos you upload on YouTube is by using the branded iframe player. You might want your company branding and not YouTube’s branding.
For content marketing, YouTube is definitely a great choice. If you are looking forward to hosting testimonial videos or course videos, YouTube is never an ideal choice.
The Pros
- Unlimited and free cloud storage.
- Massive audience-building opportunity. YouTube channels like T-Series and PewDiePie have more than 100 million followers.
- Easy embeds with iframes.
- Private and unlisted video to prevent public access.
The Cons
- Embedding options are basic
- Automatic ads added to each video [even if it is a brand’s commercial content]
- Requires third-party services for downloads
- Recommended videos show up at the end of each video (previously, you could add ?rel=0 at the end of the video URL to prevent showing recommended videos, but that feature no longer works)
- May face copyright issues even under fair use rules
Technical specifications
| Dimension (Minimum) | 426 x 240 (240p) |
| Dimension (Maximum) | 3840 x 2160 (4K) |
| Max File Size | 128 GB |
| Max Duration | 12 hours |
| Aspect Ratio | 16:9 [black frame added automatically for videos with aspect ratio 4:3] |
| File Storage | Unlimited |
| Video Formats | WebM, 3GPP, FLV, MPEGPS, AVI, MP4, MPEG4, MOV |
YouTube is a great platform, especially for content creators, because it has a massive user base. However, for businesses, YouTube might not be a great option because of the “recommended videos” feature. Showing videos of competitors as recommended videos might be a deal-breaker for many businesses.
Vimeo
YouTube is a social video sharing platform. Vimeo isn’t! It is targeted towards professionals because it is a video collaboration and hosting suite. Vimeo has a particular type of audience despite the fact that it has a segment for watching videos that are curated by humans (not algorithms).
Original animations, original short films, nature videos, extreme outdoor sports, Indie music videos are the type of contents that perform well on Vimeo because it is a platform of choice for creative professionals.
In case your video doesn’t fall under those categories (that is, your videos aren’t really creative and original), you are not going to find an audience that easily.
Because Vimeo is a platform for professional use, you won’t find ads on videos hosted on that platform. Also, it will allow customization of the video embeds. The video player that is embedded is pretty sleek, and it will allow you to choose a fixed size or a responsive size. The player is fast too! Best part? There are no recommended videos at the end!
It is a great option for webmasters who want to embed professional videos on their websites.
The Pros
- No ads.
- Customizable video embeds.
- Use Vimeo Create to create professional social media videos.
- Allows video download.
- Allows discreetly advertising your services.
- Offers professional plans starting at $7 per month.
The Cons
- Free accounts have low upload limits.
- Offers a very narrow audience.
Technical Specifications
| Dimension (Minimum) | 426 x 240 (240p) |
| Dimension (Maximum) | 8192 x 4320 (8K) |
| Max File Size | 500 MB for free accounts and 256 GB for pro users |
| Max Duration | Restricted by file size |
| Aspect Ratio | 16:9 [black frame added automatically for videos with aspect ratio 4:3] |
| File Storage | 500 MB per week for free users & 20 GB per week for pro users. |
| Video Formats | MKV, 3GPP, FLV, WMV, AVI, MP4, MPEG4, etc. |
Dailymotion
Like YouTube, Dailymotion is a social video sharing platform. The platform claims to have over 300 million unique visitors, with some of the top users like T-Series having 90K+ followers.
Unlike YouTube, Dailymotion has fewer visitors, and hence, it might be easier to build an audience. Unfortunately, because of a smaller user base, the potential for growth is also small.
The Pros
- Unlimited video hosting for free.
- You can make videos private and even protect them with a password.
- It is easy to build an audience because of low competition.
The Cons
- Growth potential is small because of a small audience.
- Max file size allowed is small.
- Requires third-party services for downloading videos.
- Ads play automatically before, during, and after videos.
Regardless of the following size of a user, Dailymotion will play ads on videos. This happens because Dailymotion is supported by ads. You can go for Dailymotion if you are looking for an alternative distribution channel to promote your videos and build an audience.
Technical Specifications
| Dimension (Minimum) | 426 x 240 (240p) |
| Dimension (Maximum) | 3840 x 2160 (4K) |
| Max File Size | 2 GB |
| Max Duration | 1 hour |
| Aspect Ratio | 16:9 [black frame added automatically for videos with aspect ratio 4:3] |
| File Storage | Unlimited |
| Video Formats | WebM, 3GPP, FLV, WMV, AVI, MP4, MPEG4, MOV |
First thing, first! Facebook is not a dedicated video sharing platform like YouTube, Vimeo, or Dailymotion. It is a social media platform that allows uploading videos. However, if you look at the user base, it is bigger than YouTube. The company clocks 2.45 billion active users every month.
However, Facebook positioned itself as one of the world’s largest video distributors after introducing Facebook Watch and added videos on timelines.
Every week, people using Facebook watch billions of videos, making it a desired platform for many video creators because it allows for vast outreach.
The Pros
- Allows unlimited video hosting at no cost.
- Provides a massive audience to get a targeted fan following.
- Allows sharing videos directly on Facebook – the largest social media platform in the world.
The Cons
- The cap for video quality is very low.
- Embedded player options are very basic.
- All videos will have ads running automatically on them.
Facebook is a nice platform that content creators can use for building an audience from zero. Also, marketers looking for building brand awareness find Facebook a great platform.
Technical Specifications
| Dimension (Minimum) | 720p (1280 x 720) |
| Dimension (Maximum) | 1080p (1920 x 1080) |
| Max File Size | 4 GB |
| Max Duration | 2 hours |
| Aspect Ratio | 16:9, 9:16, 2:3, 4:5, 1:1 |
| File Storage | Unlimited |
| Video Formats | 3GPP, MKV, FLV, WMV, AVI, MP4, MPEG4, MOV |
Premium Video Hosting Platforms
If you are looking for a video hosting platform that is free of ads, and gives a no-frills and an unbranded platform for hosting your videos, you need to look away from the free options that you have learned about so far.
Your best bet is to go for premium video hosting platforms that will give you a solution that is data-oriented and allows for better marketing opportunities depending on the data you collect from the videos.
Here is a list of the best premium or paid video hosting platforms that you can consider:
WordPress (through Jetpack Premium)
If you are blogger, you are, most likely, aware of WordPress. You must have also heard of Jetpack. Usually, I do not recommend using Jetpack, but if you are looking for a video hosting platform that seamlessly integrates with your WordPress site, you can always look for Jetpack.
The free version will not give you the option of video hosting. That option comes only with Jetpack premium. The price for the premium plugin starts at $9 a month and it provides a storage of 2 TB (soft limit).
You can seamlessly integrate your videos into WordPress site through Jetpack video blocks in the new Gutenberg editor. There are some advanced options like autoplay, mute, showing video playback controls, loop, etc.
The problem with Jetpack premium is that they don’t have a large audience to offer and the analytics they offer is pretty basic. It will not allow collecting leads or including call to action buttons.
The Pros
- Unbranded video player.
- Customizable embedded video player.
- Get video stats right inside WordPress dashboard.
- Seamless integration with WordPress.
- Unlimited video hosting.
The Cons
- Doesn’t provide an established audience.
- Lacks many advanced features that other premium platforms have.
Technical Specifications
| Max File Size | 2 GB but recommended is 1 GB |
| Max Duration | Video size restricted duration |
| File Storage | Unlimited |
| Video Formats | 3GPP, MKV, FLV, WMV, AVI, MP4, MPEG4, MOV |
vooPlayer
vooPlayer now called Spotlightr is one of the most advanced video hosting platforms you can lay your hands on. It is not meant for hobbyists and vlogs. This platform is designed for those who want to use videos as a crucial marketing tool.
That’s the reason why vooPlayer offers deep video insights, heatmaps (to know how people are interacting with the videos), ability to create custom branding, capture leads, and even holding contests.
It is perfect for those businesses that are driven by data. It is also a suitable option for digital marketers and companies that rely heavily on leads for generating sales.
The Pros
- No ads.
- Custom branding allowed.
- Complete control of embedded video player.
- Affordable pricing.
- Allows lead capturing through lead capture gates.
- Creators can get paid for views through pay-per-view gates.
- Offers advanced analytics with heatmaps.
- Allows arranging contests through videos.
- Easily integrates with Instagram, Facebook and Google ads.
- Supports 360 degree videos.
The Cons
- Very complex
Technical Specifications
| Dimension (Maximum) | 3840 x 2160 (4K) |
| Sources Accepted | Dropbox, Amazon S3, Vimeo, YouTube, Facebook |
| Max File Size | None |
| Aspect Ratio | Responsive (allows any aspect ratio) |
| File Storage | 25 GB storage and 50 GB bandwidth with the startup plan that costs $14 a month |
| Video Formats | Recommended MP4, not recommended FLV, MOV, WebM, Ogg |
Wistia
Wistia isn’t exactly a video hosting solution. However, it does support hosting videos. It is essentially a digital marketing solution. Considering the fact that Wistia is a digital marketing solution, it does offer some advanced features for videos, too!
For instance, you can embed call to action buttons and lead capture forms right inside the video player! The platform is more targeted towards data-driven businesses and digital marketers who have enoromous experience.
One unique feature of Wistia is that it allows CRM integration from right within the video player! You can even use the videos for remarketing purpose and put them on your website for building a custom audience.
Data-driven businesses, digital marketers, and businesses depending on leads are the ones that will find Wistia a perfect service.
The problem with Wistia is that unlike YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, and Dailymotion, it doesn’t have any inherent audience to offer. You have to build your own audience.
The Pros
- No ads.
- Embed player can be customized.
- Highlights videos from your channel and not any external channel.
- CRM integration.
- Allows custom branding.
- Allows integrating lead capture form inside the video.
- Allows creating custom audience for Instagram and Facebook.
The Cons
- Pretty expensive (charges $99 a month for only 10 videos).
- No established audience.
- Complex.
Technical Specifications
| Dimension (Maximum) | 3840 x 2160 (4K) |
| Max File Size | 8 GB |
| Max Video Length | 2 hours |
| Aspect Ratio | Responsive (allows any aspect ratio) |
| File Storage | $99 a month for 10 videos. For extra videos they charge $0.25 per video. |
| Video Formats | Recommended MP4, FLV, MOV, WMV, 3GPP, MKV, AVI |
SproutVideo
It is one of the video hosting platforms that is designed for businesses.
You can design numerous unique video players with their online creator. The online creator feature allows you to match specific pages of your website with each video player for coherent integration.
To engage your customers further, you can create custom playlists as well. SproutVideo also provides audience creation tools and lead capture forms to help in your digital marketing endeavours.
In addition to these tools, it also offers advanced video analytics, sharing and collaboration tools, and audience building tools.
It is suitable for experienced digital marketeers and for the business that heavily bank upon long sale processes and leads.
The Pros
- Captures leads from within the video
- Custom playlists
- Advanced video analytics
- Can design multiple unique video players
- Cost effiecient
- Permissions are give on the basis of roles
- Tracking edits with audit logs
The Cons
- No platform audience
- Little complex
Technical Specifications
| Dimension (Maximum) | None |
| Max File Size | Up to 100 GB |
| Max Duration | No limit |
| File Storage | 500GB with a bandwidth of 500 GB (for $24.99 per month plan) |
| Video Formats | 3GPP, MKV, FLV, WMV, AVI, MP4, MOV |
Brightcove
It is an enterprise video hosting platform. It focuses both on server-side ad insertion and on integration with multiple tools for marketing automation.
A little over 50% of all Fortune 500 companies use Brightcove. Companies like Adobe, Ford, HubSpot, etc. and major publications also use this video hosting solution.
Brightcove allows your company to integrate your videos in your communications and marketing. Publishers can use their server-side ad insertion which integrates with most of the DSP solutions.
It is perfect for big enterprises that want marketing automation integration tools.
The Pros
- Can manage and sell your ad inventory
- High-end marketing automation integration
- Live streaming directly to your app or website
The Cons
- Complex
- Expensive – their plans start at $199 a month and they also require annual contracts!
Technical Specifications
| Dimension (Maximum) | None |
| Max File Size | None |
| Max Duration | No limit |
| Aspect Ratio | Responsive player |
| File Storage | Varies with plan |
| Video Formats | 3GPP, MKV, FLV, WMV, AVI, MP4, MOV |
Uscreen
Uscreen is way different from the above mentioned video hosting platforms. It is a digital video course platform which helps the content creators to earn revenue from their online videos.
You may ask, what is the difference? The difference lies in monetizing your content or videos anyway you want. You can choose your videos be watched for free, or set up subscriptions, or rent them out, or you can go for one-time buy option for your videos.
You have built-in themes and you can choose any one of them that suits your niche the best. You have the option of spreading your content via OTT apps apart from the traditional way of using web.
It is perfect for business owners and educators who are planning on releasing video courses.
The Pros
- Create, organize, rent out, or sell your videos online
- Integrate with smart TVs and OTT apps on mobile phones
- Custom pricing
- Fast HD video hosting
The Cons
- Expensive. The basic plan costs $99 a month and allows only 300 subscribers!
Technical Specifications
| Maximum Dimension | 1920×1080 px |
| Video Formats | 3GPP, MKV, FLV, WMV, AVI, MP4, MPEG4, MOV |
Which Video Hosting Platform is Best for You?
How can I answer that? If you are a content creator who wants to leverage an large audience, YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, WordPress (Jetpack) and Dailymotion are possibly your best bet. If you are a business, that makes decisions based on data, or if you are a digital marketer who needs fine-tuned controls, most of the premium platforms should work for you.
Now, you need to go through the features of each to understand whether they are a perfect match or near-perfect match for your purpose or not. Me telling you that you should use this or use that doesn’t make sense.
Narrow down on your needs and motives and you should be able to quickly find a service that suits you the best!
