6 Best Video Hosting Sites in 2024 [Free & Paid]

Best video hosting sites
Best video hosting sites

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We look at the best video hosting sites and which ones might be better suited for you and your business.

If you own a website, chances are you’ve already seen an article about how video is the new medium and how it will take over our lives. As if that didn’t already happen.

Naturally, there are many tools to help integrate video into your business easily. Perhaps the most important ones are video hosting sites.

Whether you’re a company, freelancer, or social media influencer, sharing your work is a must. So you’ve just finished your edit and exported your video? awesome! Now you need to decide where the video is being shown.

What Are Video Hosting Sites?

Video hosting sites (aka video sharing platforms), simply put, are websites where you can upload videos to a server so that they can be stored and viewed. You can then share your videos via a link or by embedding them directly on your website.

Best Video Hosting Sites (FREE)

We’ve divided this section into two parts, free video hosting sites and paid video hosting sites which offer more specialized features.

1. YouTube

youtube video sharing platforms

Well, there is not much to say here. It’s YouTube. Everyone knows it and uses it.

Jokes aside, YouTube is one of the biggest video hosting sites out there. Also, it’s free and comes with the promise of a vast audience, in-depth analytics, ad revenue, and countless additional benefits.

On top of all of these, it doesn’t have any storage or bandwidth limitations.

Sounds wonderful, right? It’s almost like the perfect video hosting platform. But there are still many competitors. That’s because, despite its obvious advantages, YouTube is not the best choice always.

So, let’s have a quick look at the pros and cons of using YouTube as a video sharing platform:

ProsCons
Free unlimited cloud storage You can’t change the default YouTube player
Massive audience (over 1.9 billion users)Always shows recommended videos at the end of the video
Private options remove the videos from the publicDisabling ads is really difficult and needs to be done for each video individually
Easily embed videos Copyright issues are pretty common
Excellent for SEO

Video Upload Guidelines:

  • Minimum dimension: 240p (426 x 240).
  • Maximum dimension:  4K (3840 x 2160).
  • Aspect ratio: 16:9 (automatically adds black frame for 4:3 videos).
  • Max file size: 128 GB.
  • Max video length: 12 hours.
  • Total file storage: Unlimited.
  • Accepted video formats: .MOV, .MPEG4, MP4, .AVI, .WMV, .MPEGPS, .FLV, 3GPP, and WebM.

2. Vimeo

Vimeo video hosting

Vimeo is another great option. It’s tailored for indie creators. The platform’s audience is interested in short films, clips, and niche videos.

However, as it’s focused on professional creators, it has more functionality than YouTube. For example, it offers ways to customize video embeds. So, you’re not restricted to one default video player. Also, there aren’t algorithms that auto-suggest videos so you won’t have random recommendations at the end of videos.

On top of all of these, it also has tools to build videos too. If we were to list the basic pros and cons of using Vimeo as a video hosting site, it would look something like this:

ProsCons
Nice embed optionsNiche community
High-quality but niche audienceFree version has restricted upload limits
Strong analytics 
No ads or recommended videos 

Video Upload Guidelines:

  • Minimum dimension: 240p (426 x 240).
  • Maximum dimension:  8K (8192 × 4320.
  • Aspect ratio: 16:9 (automatically adds black frame for 4:3 videos).
  • Max file size: 500 MB for free users (up to 256 GB for pro users).
  • Max video length: restricted by file size.
  • Total file storage: 500 MB/week for free users (20 GB/week for pro users).
  • Accepted video formats: .MOV, .MPEG4, MP4, .AVI, .WMV, .FLV, .MKV, 3GPP,

Honourable Mentions:

Lastly, there are two other free video hosting site options but they don’t really compete with YouTube or Vimeo. If you’re going to stick to free options, mostly, YouTube is the best.

The other options are Facebook and Daily Motion. Facebook is on the list only because it’s free. Other than that, it doesn’t have any advantages over the others. Facebook is a social platform where people can share videos. It should probably stay that way.

Daily Motion, on the other hand, is pretty similar to YouTube. However, its disadvantages include a smaller audience, adverts on every video, spammy content, and smaller uploads.

Best Video Hosting Sites (Paid)

Up next are paid video hosting sites. Now, this is where things get more specific.

Most of these are for business use as they offer specific video marketing tools. They aren’t video sharing platforms like the free options where video hosting was a bonus. Instead, their sole focus is to host videos in the most effective way possible.

So, let’s have a look at the best options…

3. Wistia

Wistia video sharing platforms

Wistia is another powerful paid option. It’s just like Spotlightr but markets itself as something more than a video hosting site.

It’s more like a video marketing platform that also happens to be a video hosting site. Much like the other higher-end options, Wistia allows you to fully customize your embedded player. On top of that, it offers the option to collect leads directly from the video player or add CTA buttons.

There’s no audience on Wistia but you can create remarketing audiences for Facebook and Instagram.

Wistia is a true video hosting platform that is sought after by serious marketers. However, the quality comes at a price that is pretty high compared to the rest of the list.

Now let’s have a look at the pros and cons of using Wistia as a video sharing platform:

ProsCons
Incredible freedom with video embed optionsA bit too complex
Lead generationOne of the most expensive
CTA buttons in the video player 
Numerous integration options (including CRMs) 
Custom audience creating 

Video Upload Guidelines:

  • Maximum resolution: 4K (3840×2160 px).
  • Supported aspect ratios: Any, responsive player.
  • Max file size: 8 GB.
  • Max video length: 2 hours.
  • Total file storage: Up to 10 videos with the pro plan ($99/month), $0.25 a month for every extra video.
  • Accepted video formats: .MP4(reccomended), .MOV, .AVI, .WMV, .FLV, .MKV, 3GPP, etc.

4. Sprout Video

Sprout Video

Sprout Video is also one of the more advanced options on the list. It’s similar to Spotlightr and Wistia but Sprout Video has more emphasis on collaboration and analytics.

Sprout Video is a great option for smaller businesses since its entry-level plans include the majority of the video marketing features. Whereas the focus on collaboration and analytics makes it a solid option for larger companies with more complex marketing processes.

On top of all of these, you can create long customer journeys by creating playlists and adding lead generation forms or CTA to your videos. You can also assign role-based permissions to your team so that video can become a part of your marketing and sales flow.

Finally, let’s have a look at the pros and cons of using Sprout as a video hosting site:

ProsCons
Collaboration and role-based permissionsChallenging for inexperienced marketers
Strong video analyticsRequires a bit of an onboarding process before getting started
Endless customization options for video players 
Lead generation 
Possibility of creating long customer journeys through playlists 
Audience creation for remarketing 

Video Upload Guidelines:

  • Maximum resolution: None.
  • Supported aspect ratios: Any, responsive player.
  • Max file size: Up to 100GB.
  • Max video length: Unlimited.
  • Total file storage: 500GB with 500GB of bandwidth (Seed plan at $24.99/month).
  • Accepted video formats: .MP4, .MOV, .AVI, .WMV, .FLV, .MKV, 3GPP, etc.

5. Brightcove

Brightcove private video hosting platforms

Brightcove is the enterprise option here. It’s specifically designed for larger companies and offers a great deal of functionality and many integrations. It acts as a content management system for your videos and basically, allows you to customize anything you want.

However, its complexity comes at a price. It’s a lot pricier than other options and on top of that, it can be quite complex. Small businesses or freelancers should probably skip it.

Now let’s have a look at the pros and cons of using Brightcove as a video sharing platform:

ProsCons
Manage and sell your own video ad inventoryPrice
Live stream directly to your websiteVideo management is complex
Enterprise-friendly content management system 
Advanced marketing automation integrations 
Provides 24/7 hours support 
Offers video analytics

Video Upload Guidelines:

  • Maximum resolution: None.
  • Supported aspect ratios: Any, responsive player.
  • Max file size: No max size, tested up to 100 GB without issue.
  • Total file storage: Based on plan.
  • Accepted video formats: .MP4, .MOV, .AVI, .WMV, .FLV, .MKV, 3GPP, etc.

6. Spotlightr (formerly vooPlayer)

Spotlightr video hosting

Spotlightr (formerly vooPlayer) is probably our favorite option in this section. Its tagline, “beyond video hosting”, is quite self-explanatory.

Spotlightr boasts a huge selection of features that include customizable embed options, heatmaps, incredibly detailed analytics, branding options, and lead generation.

These features allow Spotlightr to be a great option for brands that want to create audiences, engage with them, collect leads, and even do contests through videos. Oh and, it’s quite affordable too!

Let’s have a look at the pros and cons of vooPlayer as a video hosting site:

ProsCons
Strong customization optionsA bit too complex
Lead generation-friendly
Advanced video analytics and insights 
Audience building opportunity 
Affordable pricing 

Video Upload Guidelines:

  • Supported sources: Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, Amazon S3, Dropbox, etc.
  • Maximum resolution: 4K (3840×2160 px).
  • Supported aspect ratios: Any, responsive player.
  • Max file size: No maximum size listed.
  • Total file storage: 25GB and 50GB bandwidth with $14/month startup plan.
  • Accepted video formats: MP4 (recommended), Ogg, WebM, MOV, FLV (not recommended), etc.
  • Supports 360 video

Self-hosting Videos vs. 3rd Party Video Hosting Sites

It’s technically possible to host your videos on your own. However, why would you?

Having your own server doesn’t mean that you can host videos freely on your website. Videos take up a lot of space and they also require a lot of bandwidth.

And as hosting services usually restrict you based on bandwidth, it becomes more than just a storage issue.

Technically, it’s possible to exceed your usage limits with a couple of high-quality videos. Why risk it when you can use a dedicated tool that is designed to tackle bandwidth issues.

Wrapping Up

In short, video is important and is the new frontier. As a result, there’s a booming market for video editing, hosting, and marketing. In this article, we went through the most popular video hosting sites we’ve tried.

We went through all of their strong and weak points to give an honest review of each option. To sum up,  go for YouTube if you don’t have the bandwidth to optimize video marketing. Pick Brightcove if you’re looking for an enterprise solution. And if you’re looking to run a complete video marketing funnel with custom branding, sleek design, and a data-first approach pick Wistia or Sprout Video.

We hope that this article was helpful to you. Feel free to suggest any additional video sharing platforms below.

Author
Bob
Bob
Bob is our content editor at the Video Collective. He's a videographer and a real tech geek with over 13 years of experience in video production. Loves coffee but hates Marmite.
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