Video hosting sites offer an easy way of storing videos for viewing at any time.
The beauty of such hosting sites is that a video file is stored online without requiring the download of the entire video for people to play it.
With people's constant need to consume videos, a dedicated video hosting site may be the best way to ensure that your content gets in front of an audience.
Video hosting is also popular with bloggers who post short clips on their blogs. While some blog systems have some form of video player or media uploader built into them, it is usually limited, and the video is not readily accessible.
Using a video host lets you easily upload videos and embed them into your blog posts, automatically playing in many modern browsers and media players.
This article will review some of the best video hosting sites and show you the main features that such sites offer. Let's dive deep into this topic.
Video Hosting Sites To Consider
The following are the best video hosting sites available right now from my research.
SproutVideo
Best Overall For Sharing Videos With The Right Audience
Whether you're sharing internal video discussions securely or live streaming a product launch, SproutVideo has the video hosting capabilities you need.
SproutVideo is a powerful yet easy-to-use cloud video sharing platform that allows users to quickly and securely create, publish, manage and track video within an enterprise.
Heatmap creation for high-level video performance, viewer engagement heatmaps, and user tracking all ensure that your video contents and campaigns are working as they should be.
With password protection features that a key or specific URLs can activate, you can ensure that just the right people see your videos.
Customizable and brandable video landing pages allow you to impact the right audience and get results from your video.
With top-notch, personalized live chat support, you can ensure that your hosting video site is as easy to use as possible with help available at any given point.
Key Features
Pricing
The following membership tiers are available on a monthly payment plan:
All of the above are paid every month.
Jetpack VideoPress
Best For Hosting WordPress Videos
With Jetpack VideoPress, you may upload files from your computer to WordPress.com with the 'Video Host' feature.
This means that you can host your videos on the WordPress.com servers without having to pay for installation, bandwidth, or storage.
You may then add these to your WordPress.com site using a shortcode to display the videos in your posts and pages.
With their default sharing settings, you may make video viewing and sharing a simple experience for your viewers using Jetpack.
Your videos may be downloaded and embedded simply by using the share links provided.
Stat tracking is also provided for all videos, ensuring that you can assess the performance of your videos and make any changes that you think are necessary.
Key Features
Pricing
VideoPress comes in at $4.97 per month, billed yearly.
Wistia
Best For Scaling Your Video Marketing The Right Way
Wistia is an excellent option for businesses that are comfortable with on-site video hosting but want the extra functionality of an off-site solution.
With a complete hosting platform for marketers, you may get immediate and measurable results from your videos - and podcasts too.
This all-in-one solution lets you upload, share, and analyze your videos to understand their performance better.
Being an easy-to-use platform that converts your content into a marketing engine, Wistia lets you build an audience with video.
Send engagement data to your CRM, ad platforms, and marketing tools by integrating with your technology stack.
With flexible hosting that scales with your business, you can get started very quickly and begin to see results right away.
Key Features
Pricing
With a free version available, the Wistia option is an excellent choice for small businesses to get started with.
When it comes to its paid plans, they are as follows:
Vidyard
Best For Screencasting And Adding Voice Overs
Vidyard was built with virtual selling in mind, but it's also a solid platform for hosting videos in general.
With Vidyard, you may create and publish your videos from your desktop plus access them from anywhere at any time - putting the power of video creation into your hands.
Record and send videos that provide a personal touch at all sales process stages, from prospecting to proposals.
With its straightforward, powerful video creation, management, and sharing features, you may use Vidyard to give your videos a professional touch.
Take email to the next level by producing and sending over marketing emails that contain videos that share your story and give your site visitors a richer visual experience.
As an extra benefit, you may capture your screen or webcam video and record yourself, adding your voice-over to make your content complete.
Key Features
Pricing
Vidyard offers a free version that is ideal for those just getting started and a fully-featured version for those who need more.
Its premium plans are as follows:
Uscreen
Best For Monetizing Your Video Marketing Efforts
Uscreen is video hosting designed for SVOD (subscription video on demand) providers.
If you want to grow your streaming business, this platform is a great choice.
With Uscreen, you may create your streaming video service and take control of all stages of the video lifecycle - from production to playback.
Stream your TV channel or media library to unlimited viewers on any device.
Upload large batches of data, categorize it, create custom tags and upload additional resources while showcasing your products to customers.
Uscreen comes with top-of-the-line features to help your business grow, including the possibility to schedule events, add custom branding, and take advantage of robust streaming options.
Understand your audience's preferences and how well your material is doing by using their analytics to track every aspect of your video content.
They also offer different video monetization strategies, making the Uscreen ecosystem adaptable to any business.
Key Features
Pricing
There are three pricing plans available:
Both the Basic and Growth plans are paid monthly.
Vimeo
Best For Hosting Virtual Reality Videos
Vimeo unlocks the full potential of video, making it simple for creators to express themselves and connect with an audience.
With Vimeo, you may share all kinds of videos—from original series and documentaries to music videos, short films, travelogs, sports clips, news coverage, and more.
Vimeo provides professional, team, and corporate video creation, management, and sharing with simple yet powerful tools.
They offer a host of features, including mobile and VR video uploading and hosting, unlimited HD and 4K playback, advanced privacy controls, and monetization tools, to name a few.
All your video needs are available in one platform, with several elegant themes to choose from.
To share and collaborate with consumers or teammates, host your videos in a single, safe location while growing your audience and boosting conversions.
Key Features
Pricing
The following are pricing plans available for Vimeo:
The first three pricing plans mentioned above are billed on an annual basis.
What Are Video Hosting Sites?
Video hosting sites allow you to upload and share videos with the rest of the internet.
A video hosting site is more than just a place for your videos to live - they can help you build an audience on the web.
While sites like YouTube provide easy ways for people to watch your videos online, their features are more focused on watching videos - without considering the aspect of running a business.
Other video-sharing sites focus on hosting your videos online and allow you to build an audience, interact with your viewers and build a complete social network for yourself on the web.
Features Offered By Video Hosting Sites
With the number of features on offer, you must know what to look for when choosing a video hosting site.
Let's look at some of these most important features to consider.
Embed Videos
A video hosting service should have a way to embed your videos on the web. Embedding lets you share videos in more places than just the hosting site, allowing people who visit your website or blog to watch your content without leaving your page.
Most video hosting services have an embed feature that will enable you to add a small snippet of code (also known as "HTML") to your website or blog that displays a player and your video.
In a nutshell, users of video hosting services should embed the videos they upload on their site without any hassle from the video-sharing service.
Social Sharing Of Videos
Video content shouldn't live on just one or two sites. You should be able to share your content across the web, including on social media. Your video hosting service must allow you to share your videos across multiple platforms. Make sure to read what each platform offers in terms of sharing options before choosing a service.
Sharing on social networks also helps you use the power of networking, getting other people to share your videos and helping you gain exposure.
Compatibility With Devices
Mobile video is becoming more popular with users, so video hosting services should be compatible with mobile devices out of the box. There are a few things to consider in terms of compatibility:
You typically want to invest in hosting sites that support mobile-optimized videos, meaning that the videos are compatible with all mobile devices.
Of course, this will depend somewhat on your audience and how they watch videos, but it's best to use optimized videos for mobile viewing.
Video Uploading Options
Not all video hosting services offer the same type of uploading options, so you must understand what each offers before signing up for a subscription.
Some video hosting services offer additional features when it comes to uploading, such as the ability to add extra metadata, make slideshows of photos with your videos, or provide special software for editing your footage. Other options may include uploading through an FTP client instead of an in-browser uploader.
Some video-sharing sites even allow you to select multiple files at once and upload them all in one go, saving you time if there are many files you want to upload.
Fast Video Uploading
In addition to the previous point, fast video uploading is another factor to consider.
While this partially depends on your connection, the right video hosting platform should allow quick uploads.
Watch the progress of your video while it's uploading to make sure that everything is going smoothly. If you notice that your video stops uploading after a certain point, check out the error messages and try again until you can successfully upload your content.
If your videos are taking a long time to upload, the hosting service you choose may not be capable of handling that type or size of the file. You can also look for video hosting plans that offer multiple connections when uploading to improve the speed of your uploads.
Video Encoding Specifications
When you're choosing a video hosting service, pay attention to their encoding options because several things will affect the quality of your uploads:
In addition, not all video hosting services allow for the uploading of animated GIF files, which is something to consider if this type of file is a staple in your video marketing arsenal.
Video encoding is an area where you can see the differences between services. Ensure that the video hosting service you choose has the settings and options that work for your needs.
High-Quality Streaming
Video hosting platforms should allow streaming in high definition (HD) with minimal glitches, but this is a feature that's not always easy to come by.
Check out the bit rate of the videos that are available on each platform, as well as their framerate. Test out how your content looks when you view it from different connections. If possible, try watching a video at other times during the day because bandwidth usage will fluctuate depending on how many users are on the platform at any given time.
Video hosting services have varying formats for saving encoding data to stream videos more effectively to users. FLV, MP4, and WMV are among the most popular format options. Find one that can handle these types of files natively, saving you time for encoding and uploading.
Unlimited Video Hosting
While some free video hosting sites limit the number of video files you can upload, it's best to find a platform that allows you to store as many videos as you need.
Different hosts have different quotas for their plans, but don't be afraid to ask about transferring your data or importing your existing videos if restrictions on how much you can upload exist. If possible, look for an unlimited storage option because it will allow you to upload content without worrying about space constraints in the future.
Ability To Make Videos Password-Protected
If you want to host videos and build a membership site, then the video hosting website you choose should allow you to password-protect your uploads.
This way, only paying customers will have access to the videos, avoiding any issues around unauthorized distribution of your content. You can also use this feature to distribute exclusive content to members.
Ad-Free Video Hosting
While there certainly are some excellent video hosting platforms that let you monetize your videos, if you want to share your content without worrying about advertising, you should avoid services with commercials.
This ensures that your audience will be able to watch videos without any distractions, ensuring they do not click away and end up watching content created by one of your competitors.
Add Annotations And Call To Actions Directly In Your Video
While uploading videos to a video hosting service, you should be able to add annotations and other interactive elements directly into your content.
These items can include links that drive traffic to different pages on your site, graphic overlays that encourage viewers to subscribe or leave a comment, or calls for action that prompt users to purchase products from your store.
Some sites allow you to create custom graphics, but this may come at an additional cost if it's not included in your original pricing package.
Free Trial To Test Out The Platform
Some video hosting platform plans allow you to upload videos and get a feel for how they work for free before you have to spend any money.
This gives you the chance to test out storage options, see what video format works best with your chosen host, compare uploading speeds, and more without paying for anything upfront.
You can also look for short-term limited plans if free options aren't available or affordable, but this is not ideal if you’re just testing stuff out.
Customizable Community Features
If you plan to build a community around your videos - whether through social media, forums, or something else entirely - then the video hosting platform you choose should allow for customizable community features that fit your overall goals.
This could mean having the ability to tag users in your videos or create groups, adding commenting systems that work with your website, and more.
Branding should also be considered at this stage, with the right video hosting site allowing you to customize your video channel with your logo, brand colors, and more.
Practical Marketing Tools (SEO, Email Capture, Integrations)
You should also look for video hosting plans that come with valuable marketing tools.
This includes SEO optimization to enable people to find your content.
When people are searching for specific keywords in their searches - both on the video hosting site itself, and more importantly, in search engines, you’d want your videos to show up. That is where a platform that focuses on SEO comes in.
The chosen platform could also have email capture features to build a mailing list of engaged customers.
Conclusion
While the YouTube platform is not that bad for those who upload a video here and there, a serious business with many videos to share and wants better overall features, the right video hosting site will be priceless.
Choosing the best option from all the video hosting sites available on the market is essential to establishing your long-term online business.
This will ensure that any content you create will be up to your desired standards, protected from piracy, optimized for search engine rankings, and more likely to generate the type of traffic your business needs.
Keep reading on MikeVestil.com: If you’re interested in learning more about videos, check out this video hack to learn how you can make money on YouTube without making actual videos.
In addition, here’s a post on how I made $100,000 from one YouTube video. It might provide some insights that can help you on your journey.