Comparing 4 Panopto Alternatives

Panopto is a great platform for uploading and streaming video content. It has a rating of 4.2 on G2, and is used by some of the leading organizations around the world; most of which are universities and educational institutes. If you’re looking for a video streaming platform, then it might be a good idea to look into alternatives and competitors of Panopto.

In this article, we first summarize why you should or shouldn’t consider using Panopto. We then discuss 4 Panopto alternatives and why they are better or worse.

Why Should I Consider Alternatives?

Panopto is more of a video learning management system than a video streaming platform. Hence, most of its customers are universities, and great ones too!

Our verdict is that if you are an educational institute or university, then Panopto might be a great choice for you. However, if you aren’t, then you should probably look at the pros and cons of other options out there.

Why Consider Panopto?

• Great video recording capabilities.
• Easy to integrate with video-capturing hardware.
• Great interactive learning features such as quizzes and handouts.
• Offers a seamless integration with most LMS; Blackboard, Moodle, Canvas, etc.
• Enterprise-grade features and support available.

Why Not Consider Panopto?

• More favorable for lecture-style learning but not general video streaming.
• Hard to navigate user interface.
• Lack of marketing integrations with CRMs, A/B testing, Google Analytics, etc.
• Not suited for low-budget use cases.
• Only offers enterprise plans and no self-serve ones.

4 Alternatives to Panopto

Kaltura

If you’re looking for a video platform for education, the Kaltura is the next best alternative after Panopto. As far as we researched, it is the only enterprise-grade video platform after Panopto, which is used by some of the leading universities around the world.

It offers all the capabilities you might need for video learning. These include its seamless integrations with your LMS, recording or lecture capture solutions, and interactive elements such as courses and quizzes.

Unlike Panopto, Kaltura is not bad when it comes to business or corporate video use cases either. Its customer base has some of the leading enterprises around the world. Most of these are media and telecom companies, which also happens to be an industry that Kaltura heavily promotes in its marketing.

One of the things that we love about Kaltura is that it has a range of products to support a range of video use cases. For example, if you need to create a video portal, they have a solution for that. If you need to build something like Netflix, they have a solution for that as well.

Pros

• Has a range of products for almost every video use case.
• Seamless integrations with LMS for education.
• Great recording and lecture capture features.
• Unlike any other competitor, it offers an API-first solution for enterprises looking to build composable video experiences.
• Robust, scalable and high-performance platform to support a large number of viewers.

Cons

• Since it has solutions for every use case, its capabilities are spread across with no particular area of focus.
• Less suited for low-budget use cases due to its pricing and enterprise approach.
• It’s less successful beyond the media and education industries.
• It offers a cloud-based solution with less flexibility as to where you can deploy; on-premise, private cloud, etc.

VIDIZMO

This is one of the less popular competitors of Panopto, and it’s less likely you might have heard of them. But if you are from the government sector or an enterprise with strict security requirements, then this option might be worth exploring.

VIDIZMO is an enterprise video platform, which is particularly focused on secure video sharing. If you want to set up a platform where you want to share your videos within your organization only with restricted access controls, then VIDIZMO might be a great choice.

Another thing that we love about this platform is its similarity to YouTube. It allows you to create your organization’s own internal YouTube, with an interface designed to enhance video consumption internally.

Pros

• Flexible deployment options; Azure or AWS Government of Commercial Cloud, and an on-premise option as well.
• Great security features and controls.
• Enterprise-grade features and support.
• Robust and scalable platform.
• Small self-serve plans available to start on a low budget and scale from there.

Cons

• Not well-suited for educational institutes.
• Lack of video recording capabilities.
• API-first solution has certain gaps.
• Lack of monetization capabilities for media purposes.

Brightcove

For streaming to a large audience publicly or via a subscription, Brightcove might be a good alternative to Panopto. But if you’re looking to create a video platform for education, then you might as well skip this one.

Brightcove is used by some of the leading companies around the world, with a lot of large media companies. Brightcove has been in the streaming business since 2004 and is well-known for its technology.

What we like about Brightcove is the range of apps available on its marketplace for integrations. You can seamlessly integrate it with your WordPress or Sitecore CMS, Microsoft Teams, and much more.

Pros

• Wide range of out-of-the-box integrations available.
• Good security features.
• Robust and scalable platform for live and on-demand video streaming.
• Great range of monetization features if you plan to earn from your videos.

Cons

• It is not suited for corporate training or education.
• It is generally not the best for internal sharing of videos, but rather suited for sharing to external audiences.
• Content creation and video recording capabilities are not as good as Panopto.
• No integration options with LMS.

Vimeo

Vimeo is a great alternative if you are looking for a simpler video use case. Moreoever, regardless of whether you need to share video for business purposes or are an educational institute, Vimeo is suited for both.

Vimeo has been in the video streaming space for more than two decades. It initially started as a platform simillar to YouTube, but has evolved into a video sharing platform simillar to Panopto.

Vimeo has got everything you need to create and share videos. It offers great recording and creation tools, multiple features that allow you to organize your videos, and features to secure your content.

Pros

• Relatively simple to use.
• Offers a free version as well as self-serve plans to get started on a small scale. You can scale up to enterprise plans if needed.
• Offers most of the features that are needed for creating and sharing videos.
• Offers great video editing tools with templates as well.

Cons

• It is not suited for large teams as the price per seat is high.
• Lacks interactive video elements that are needed in education or for training purposes.
• Lack of integrations.
• Limited branding features for the interface and video player.

Summary

In this article, we discussed 4 different competitors of Panopto.

To help you make a better decision, we have summarized our analysis in the table below.

Name of platform	Best for
Panopto	Educational institutes
Kaltura	Media or educational institutes
VIDIZMO	Government or high-security enterprises
Brightcove	Streaming video to external audiences
Vimeo	Simpler corporate or educational use cases