Alternatives to Wistia for Video Hosting

If you’re looking for a streaming solution to host and share your videos, then you might have come across Wistia. Having a rating of 4.2 on G2, it just looks great! However, it might not hurt to explore some alternatives to Wistia would it?

In this article, we summarize why you should opt for Wistia and why you shouldn’t. We also list 5 alternatives to Wistia, explaining where they are better (or worse), and why you should at least try them out.

Why Should I Consider Alternatives?

Wistia is great for streaming videos to a public audience but isn’t the best if you’d want to share videos with a restricted audience. There’s more to it! And here are 5 reasons why you should or shouldn’t consider Wistia.

Why Consider Wistia?

• Great video analytics.
• Easy to create and edit videos.
• SEO-friendly video hosting.
• Customizable video player.
• Marketing integrations.

Why Not Consider Wistia?

• Not best for private video sharing.
• Cheaper options are available for simpler use cases.
• Lack of SSO and user management support for enterprises.
• Inflexible data hosting options.

5 Alternatives to Wistia

Streamable

We searched online for alternatives to Wistia and were actually surprised by how less people talk about Streamable. Well, in our opinion, it’s great if you have a short-term use for your videos and are on a budget.

The process is simple, just go to Streamable and upload your video for free. You don’t even need to sign-up or anything. You’ll get a link for your video that you can share ahead.

However, videos expire after 2 days if you don’t signup. So we’d suggest signing up, as the free version retains videos for 90 days. That’s not bad at all!

Rest assured, you can store for an unlimited period on paid plans.

Pros

• You can embed videos.
• You can do some basic editing.
• The video is also optimized for streaming with two options for viewers; 360p and 720p.
• The paid versions offer up to 4K streaming.
• You get ample of storage space for the price you pay on paid plans.

Cons

• The free version includes ads.
• 10-minute video limit on the free version.
• You don’t get advanced security options even on paid plans; password protection, encryption, etc.
• No support for interactivity such as quizzes or surveys.
• Limited features to organize your videos.

Vimeo

You have probably already heard of this alternative, because it’s one of the more popular ones.

Vimeo was founded in 2004, so it has been in the video streaming sector for a long while. It was initially a website for content creators to share their videos; something like YouTube. However, it has recently been more of a tool for uploading and sharing videos; something like Wistia.

Vimeo has a free version, but sadly you can only upload 3 videos there. Paid plans offer up to 500 videos, which is much better than Wistia’s limit of 250. That too, at a much lower price.

Here’s our verdict, Vimeo is great if you don’t have large volumes of videos. This is because you get a lot more features than other alternatives for the price paid. For example, the free version offers video creation, editing, custom metadata, and much more. Videos are also optimized for streaming with 4 quality options by default.

Pros

• You can embed the video.
• You can create videos and do advanced editing.
• Paid plans include good security features such as password-protected sharing and domain restrictions.
• You can upload closed captions. Paid plans have AI-generated captions.
• Good for organizing videos with custom metadata.
• You also get live video streaming.

Cons

• Not good for a large volume of videos. Even paid plans offer only up to 500 videos and more storage is only available on enterprise plans.
• Each plan comes with one seat. Additional seats are expensive.
• Limited branding customizations for the interface and video player.

Vidyard

If your primary objective is to share videos for sales purposes, then Vidyard may be the best option for you.

Vidyard was initially a generic video platform. It has only recently positioned itself as the video platform for sales, where it essentially helps GTM teams win more deals by sending engaging video messages as opposed to traditional email messages.

Vidyard has all the basic features you’d need out of a video platform. You can record or upload videos, edit and share them ahead. Videos are optimized with multiple quality options available up to 4K.

You can use Vidyard for large volumes of videos. This is because only the free plan has a limit of 25 videos. All paid plans allow you to host an unlimited amount of videos. However, the max length allowed for each video varies from plan to plan.

The good part of Vidyard is its sales-oriented features such as CRM integrations and CTAs. You can use these to track how your videos impact your revenue at various stages of the funnel. However, these features are only available on paid plans.

Pros

• With its integrations, you can view video engagement data for prospects right in your CRM.
• Generous paid plans with an option to host an unlimited amount of videos.
• AI script generation can help save time for sales executives.
• You can upload closed captions. Paid plans have AI-generated captions.

Cons

• The free plan is only good for hosting and sharing videos, with no advanced features available.
• There’s a limit on the number of videos you can embed on some of the plans.
• No option for live streaming, unlike Wistia.
• Limited customizability for the video player.

Brightcove

If you’re looking for something simillar to Wistia, but have a large-scale project, then Brightcove might be a good option to explore.

Brightcove is a video platform for large enterprises. We remember that a few years ago, Brightcove offered a free trial on its website. It doesn’t do that anymore. You don’t even get a free version.

This is because Brightcove has shifted its focus to large-scale projects only. If you’re looking to build something like Netflix, with paid subscriptions and a lot of video content, then Brightcove is for you.

However, if you’re looking to add a few videos, share them with a few people or embed them on your site, then you might as well skip this option.

Pros

• You get enterprise-level handholding with account executives to guide you through your project.
• It has great capabilities for large-scale live-streaming projects.
• You can reach out to a large audience as it provides a highly scalable and high-performance streaming infrastructure.
• It offers great capabilities to monetize and earn from your video content.

Cons

• It isn’t the best for sharing videos within your organization, but rather for streaming videos to external audiences.
• It is an expensive option, and hence not suited for low-budget use cases.
• It offers limited AI capabilities.

Loom

Wistia is more focused toward sharing videos externally. However, if you have a different use case, one where you want employees to share videos within the organization, then Loom is a great option.

This doesn’t mean that Loom doesn’t offer external sharing. It does, but with limited features.

For internal sharing, it is one of the best. The free plan allows for a team of 50 people to record and share upto 25 videos of 5 minutes each. That’s just great value!

What we love the most is Loom AI. It saves time for your team by automatically fixing errors in recordings.

Pros

• You get generous video limits.
• Great video recording and editing tools.
• Video sharing in up to 4K.
• Good security features such as password protection and the ability to restrict to specific people.
• Loom AI offers great features such as fixing errors and auto-generated captions.

Cons

• The free version only allows for recording videos, and users can’t upload their own.
• Limited sharing features for external facing channels. For example, you can’t embed video on your website.
• Limited video analytics. For instance, you can’t view heatmaps or A/B test videos.
• Limited integrations with marketing tools. For example, there is no Google Analytics integration.

Summary

This article listed all the pros and cons of 5 different alternatives to Wistia.

To help you make a better decision, here’s a table to choose a platform for your use case.

Name of Tool	Best for
Streamable	Low-budget use case
Vimeo	Low-volume of videos but need for advanced features
Vidyard	Sharing sales videos
Brightcove	Enterprises with large-scale video projects
Loom	Internal knowledge sharing by employees