When it comes to video hosting, there’s a number of different platforms out there and each has its pros and cons. Where and with whom your video is hosted really comes to down to two things:
-
Do you want to target everybody (often B2C)?
-
Do you want to target a specific, niche audience (often B2B)?
If you are a B2C company and want your video to be seen by as many people as possible, then a good strategy is to host your video on YouTube or Vimeo since these websites already have billions of viewers and a better chance of being seen by the general public.
If you are a B2B company and your target market is very specific and well-defined, it makes more sense to focus your efforts on potential customers. When you host your video with a professional, paid service like Wistia or Vidyard, you get better video SEO and analytics and you drive visitors back to your website instead of someone elses.
Here are some pros and cons of different video hosting solutions to help you make a more informed decision.
YouTube
Pros: Free, high visibility, familiar, easy to use, supports HD, easy to embed videos anywhere
Cons: Video sits on YouTube’s domain not your website so all traffic diverted to YouTube instead of your website, no custom branding,
Vimeo and Vimeo Pro
Pros: Popular in creative circles, upload 500MB + 1 HD video under free plan, custom player with analytics
Cons: Vimeo Pro is for $199/year, drives users to Vimeo and not your own website
Wistia
Pros: Clean intuitive user interface, excellent branding options, great for SEO, suite of analytics
Cons: Free plan includes just 3 videos so you’ll have to upgrade if you want more videos and more bandwidth
Brightcove
Pros: Custom styling, mobile support, marketing & distribution,
Cons: Pricing starts from $99/month for 50 videos, too many features perhaps
Additional Video Hosting Resources