YouTube Alternatives: The Best Online Video Players to Host, Watch, and Share Content in 2022

With more than 2 billion monthly active users, YouTube is the number one video sharing platform on the internet. In fact, more than 95% of internet users have used YouTube at one time or another.

So, it's no wonder that it’s hard for other video sharing and streaming platforms to compete with the overwhelming popularity of YouTube. 

However, as YouTube has grown, it has also become bogged down with several problems, such as:

• Increasing restrictions on the type of content that can be shared
• More and more ads in every video
• Privacy concerns and data tracking
• The threat of demonetization for content creators

These issues have driven many users to look for other platforms for hosting, sharing, and watching videos. 

After all, your funny cat video can only be interrupted so many times by annoying cat food ads before you finally snap. 

In this article, we'll go over all the best alternatives to Youtube for every situation - whether for video viewers, content creators, webmasters, or video marketing professionals.

The Best Online Video Players to Use Instead of YouTube

Best Options for Hosting Videos on Websites and Landing Pages

Wistia

If you are a marketer or entrepreneur looking to use video marketing for lead generation, then Wistia is the perfect video sharing platform for you. 

Especially designed for video marketing, Wistia offers many marketing automation tools such as: 

• In-video lead capture forms

• Customizable player color

• In-depth video analytics

• Excellent integration with CRMs and ad platforms

You can use Wistia to seamlessly integrate your promotional videos into your website, marketing emails, social media, and other marketing materials.

Wistia supports 4K video files up to 8GB in size, and allows you to capture leads directly from the video player itself. 

You can use the data provided by Wistia to customize the audiences for your video ads on Facebook and other social media sites.

To protect your content from theft and copyright infringement, Wistia offers password protection options and allows you to share a video without embedding. 

Pricing: Wistia offers three payment plans or tiers– 

• A free plan comprising three embeddable videos or podcast episodes
• A pro plan (at $99 per month) offering 10 videos or podcast episodes
• An advanced plan (with custom pricing) offering more than 100 videos

Viostream

This is another business-oriented YouTube alternative that offers the best-in-class analytics tools, excellent security, and a simple, reliable interface. 

The analytics tools help you understand the patterns in viewer engagement, in order to improve your conversion rates. 

Some of the major benefits of Viostream – as compared to YouTube – are as follows:

• Viostream videos are completely ad free, meaning that you can deliver your message with no distractions or interruptions. 
• Viostream offers call-to-action capabilities that can lead your viewers directly from the video player to a product landing page on your website. 
• Detailed reports and easy-to-use dashboards ensure that you can easily understand the trends in user engagement and lead conversion. 
• Viostream allows you to easily embed the videos you’ve created into your website, promotional emails, social media, and more. 
• You can decide who sees a video hosted on Viostream, restricting it to a select group of people or sharing it with the public at large. 
• Viostream integrates seamlessly with a wide range of CRM systems and analytics and marketing tools. 

Pricing: Viostream offers a three-tier pricing plan, including:

• A ‘Lite’ plan at $100 per month, suitable for small businesses just dipping their toes into the waters of video marketing.
• A ‘Professional’ plan at $500 per month, meant for fast-growing organizations with bigger marketing budgets.
• An ‘Enterprise’ plan (custom pricing) for the veterans of video-marketing.

Wave.video

Wave.video is the all-in-one video hosting platform.

It allows you to edit videos, make thumbnails, live stream events, and host videos on a website or landing page. Wave aims to be an all-in-one platform that provides the benefits of multiple tools and websites, all in one place. 

This is what sets it apart from YouTube. You do not need to invest in a separate editing software, voiceover tool, text-to-speech tool, and other such pieces of expensive software when using Wave. So, shifting over to Wave from YouTube could potentially save you a lot of money and hassle. 

Some features that Wave offers, which you won’t find on YouTube, are as follows:

• An in-built online video editor
• Video resizing tool for different formats, including shorts, reels, and TikTok
• Animated text generator
• Video collage maker
• Automatic subtitle and caption generator
• Voiceover tool for videos
• Video landing page creator
• Social media video content calendar
• Watermark generator for videos

Wave allows you to create promotional videos for a wide variety of platforms, including YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and emails. For businesses that want to use video marketing to reach prospects and generate leads, Wave is a great YouTube alternative. It can help them save money while growing their reach across multiple platforms. 

Pricing: Wave offers four pricing tiers, including:

• Free Plan at $0 per month
• Streamer Plan at $16 per month
• Creator Plan at $24 per month
• Business Plan at $48 per month

Sproutvideo

One of the best video hosting and live streaming platforms for small and medium-sized businesses, Sprout offers many easy-to-use tools for video marketing. 

They offer an intuitive and customizable video player that can help save businesses a lot of time and expense when publishing videos online. The Sprout video player comes with a host of unique features, such as:

• It allows you to change the colors of the video player to match company branding and design.
• Automatic quality adjustment and bandwidth detection capabilities.
• It helps you create video on demand playlists for prospects moving through the sales funnel. 
• It allows you to autoplay or loop the promotional videos embedded in your landing page or website. 
• You can choose whether to show or hide the video player controls to the viewer. 
• The Sprout Video player ensures secure video delivery with the help of world class AES 128 encryption. 
• Player controls offering optional embed code sharing and social sharing features.
• Responsive, inline embed codes that can be used even without any knowledge of coding.
• Security features like password protection, login protection, two-factor authentication, and access restriction options for all videos. 

Apart from its unique and feature-packed video player, Sprout also offers the usual video marketing tools like in-player CTAs, post-play screens, CRM integrations, easy video SEO, and viewer engagement analytics. It offers a completely free 30-day trial, after which you can choose from four different pricing plans.

Pricing: Keeping with the theme, the four pricing plans are known as:

• Seed – At $24.99 per month, this account can be used by 3 team members at once.
• Sprout – At $59.99 per month, it can be used by 5 team members. 
• Tree – At $199.99 per month, it can be used by 15 people at a time.
• Forest – At $499.99 per month, it can be used by 50 team members. 

Spotlightr

This is a professional video hosting and marketing platform designed to help businesses, entrepreneurs, and marketing teams reach a wider audience through their videos. 

Spotlightr is popular among business owners and marketers because it offers them a few unique advantages, when compared with YouTube and other such sites. These advantages include:

• No distracting advertisements, which can often be a turnoff for viewers.
• Highly secure cloud-based servers for fast and reliable video hosting. 
• A customizable landing page for each video hosted on the platform. 
• Low video hosting fees and easy embedding options.
• Customizable video player – with tailored thumbnails, colors, and shapes.
• Simple, drag-and-drop video uploading process.
• Spotlightr supports high-quality, HD videos up to 4K.
• A helpful and responsive in-office support team.
• Interactive CTAs, annotation links, and clickable buttons within the video.
• Useful analytics tools like engagement graphs, viewer-based heat maps, and viewing trends.

Growing businesses that want to attract more clients/customers through video marketing should definitely give Spotlightr a try. Its relatively low fees make it even more attractive for small businesses and startups. 

Pricing: Spotlightr offers three main pricing tiers:

• The Spark Plan, at $7 a month.
• The Aurora Plan, at $16 a month.
• The Polaris Plan, at $40 a month. 

Best Video Players for Artists and Creatives

If you’re a designer, filmmaker, or artist tired of YouTube’s restrictive policies, then the platforms mentioned in this section are perfect for you. These video-sharing platforms were created for the purpose of giving creatives a space to express themselves freely through video. Read on to find out which of these artist-friendly platforms you should choose. 

Vimeo

Vimeo hosts high-quality content from some of the best artists, creators, and videographers on the internet. 

To ensure that your focus remains on their outstanding content, Vimeo places the video player front and center of your screen and keeps its videos free of ads. 

Founded by filmmakers, the platform offers 4K Ultra HD videos and is typically used by ad agencies, photographers, and videographers to host experimental music videos, unique animations, classy short films, and the like. 

Unlike YouTube, Vimeo expects all its content creators to abide by highly strict quality guidelines. It also restricts content creators to 500mb of uploads per month, to ensure that quality is always prioritized over quantity. 

So, whether you’re an artist looking to gain a following online or a viewer looking for high-quality, artistic, and well-made videos, Vimeo is the perfect platform for you.  

Pricing: The basic version of Vimeo is free for all users. Those who want to upgrade can choose one of four paid plans, namely:

• The Plus Plan at $7 per month
• The Pro Plan at $20 per month
• The Business Plan at $50 per month
• The Premium Plan at $75 per month

Behance

This platform is used by designers, photographers, illustrators, filmmakers, and videographers to showcase their creative skills. If you are a budding animator or videographer, you can share your videos on Behance for free. 

There is no limit to the number of projects you can create on Behance, making it a great platform to host your portfolio. With more than 10 million users, Behance can help you:

• Improve your chances of being discovered by potential clients, agents, etc.
• Connect with (and learn from) fellow creatives in your chosen field.
• Store all your creative work in one place.
• Consume similar content produced by others in your field.
• Get feedback on the videos/animations that you have produced. 

While Behance can be a great video sharing platform for professional videographers and filmmakers, it is not the right platform for casual viewers who just want to watch some light-hearted video content for entertainment. 

Pricing: Behance offers users four different pricing plans, each one billed differently. These are:

• The Startup Plan comes at a fixed rate of $69 per month.
• The Pro Agent Plan is usage based and is meant for agencies. $10 per month is charged for every agent who uses the account. 
• The Pro Task plan is also usage based, and charges $0.1 for each task added to the Behance account.
• The Enterprise Plan offers fixed, custom pricing and is meant for large companies.  

Dribbble

As a platform, Dribbble was designed to be a portfolio website cum social network for creatives and designers. Millions of designers, filmmakers, animators, videographers, and ad agencies use Dribbble to showcase their work online. It is also used as a portfolio site for illustrators, web designers, and branding professionals. 

In 2021, Dribbble launched a feature known as ‘Pitch’, which has made it extremely easy for digital creatives to land new clients and get high-paying jobs through effective video marketing. 

Essentially, Pitch is a personalized video introduction to your skills, portfolio, rates, and work style. This video is hosted on Dribbble and lives on your Dribbble profile. 

Dribbble’s Pitch videos help creatives connect with potential clients on a personal level, humanizing them and showcasing their work for the best effect. This helps generate leads and improve conversion rates for freelance designers and ad agencies. 

Research has repeatedly shown that well-made promotional videos can boost organic traffic by 157% and increase conversion rates by a whopping 86%. And Dribbble helps digital creatives make the most of these findings, using the Pitch videos to attract their ideal clients and grow their businesses. 

Pricing: The basic version of Dribbble is free to use. For only $5 per month, you can upgrade to Dribbble Pro. This will allow you to access a host of new features, such as automatic portfolio updates, enhanced profile presentation, a ‘Hire Me’ button, and an exclusive job board.

Best Options for Content Creators

On YouTube, content creators have to deal with restrictions on the type of content they can create, the constant fear of demonetization, extreme dependence on an unpredictable algorithm, and a host of other problems. These issues can be resolved by shifting to one of the many YouTube alternative sites that have sprung up in recent years. Some of the best ones have been listed below. 

Uscreen

Uscreen positions itself as an ‘all-in-one video monetization platform’ for individual as well as corporate content creators. The platform is primarily used to distribute and monetize videos online. Currently, it is used by more than 25,000 creators across 95 countries. 

Whether you are an animator, filmmaker, educator, entertainer, or ad agency owner – if you’re working with video then Uscreen is the right platform for you. It provides a one-stop solution for all your video monetization and distribution needs. Some of its features and functionalities include: 

• Video hosting
• Video streaming
• Viewer analytics
• Monetization options
• Built-in billing
• End-user support

Uscreen helps content creators attract and retain viewers with its highly customizable landing pages and video player. The platform allows you to pick a theme for the landing page, add a logo, change the color and design, all to ensure that your videos and landing pages are aesthetically in line with your brand. 

Uscreen also integrates seamlessly with various third-party apps like PayPal, MailChimp, ActiveCampaign, and Salesforce. Their fees are transparent and predictable, making it easy to budget for your Uscreen subscription several months down the line. 

Pricing: Uscreen offers three different pricing plans, allowing you to choose the one that best suits your needs and budget. These are– 

• The Basic Plan at $99 per month
• The Growth Plan at $199 per month
• UscreenPlus, which comes with custom pricing

You can get a discount on all these pricing tiers if you choose to pay annually, instead of per month. 

Brid.tv

This platform is ideal for video creators who want to quickly grow and monetize their audience. The setup process is simple, and the Brid video player integrates seamlessly with both iOS and Android apps. 

Typically, Brid.tv is used by B2B entities to create, host, and distribute videos for advertising purposes. This enterprise-level video monetization solution comes with a powerful HTML5 player and a comprehensive content management system. 

As of January 2021, Brid.tv hosts over 600 million livestreams. With its multicast feature, it offers content creators the option to stream simultaneously on multiple platforms. 

Some of the features and products offered by Brid.tv are as follows:

• Online video hosting services
• Video content management system
• WordPress video plugin
• Instream and outstream ad units
• Insightful video analytics
• Customizable video player
• Video carousel
• Ad analytics
• Video header bidding
• Livestream monetization option

To start with, you can opt for their free plan to get acquainted with the platform and its features. This will help you determine whether or not Brid.tv is the right YouTube alternative for you, before spending any money on it. 

Pricing: Brid.tv offers four pricing tiers. These are–

• The Free Plan at $0 per month
• The Essentials Plan at $24.99 per month
• The Business Plan at $89.99 per month
• The Premium Plan with custom pricing

Muvi

This is the right platform for you if you own a media business, or are planning to invest heavily in video marketing for your business. 

Muvi focuses almost exclusively on OTT media and allows users to quickly and easily launch their own video streaming platforms. 

You can access Muvi through its mobile and TV apps, along with its website. Using Muvi, you can launch your own audio streaming platform, video on demand (VOD) platform, or multi-device video streaming tool. 

Moreover, you don’t need any knowledge of coding, analytics, or software development in order to make the best use of Muvi and its many functionalities. 

To better help you grow your business, Muvi offers in-depth analytics and custom branding features. Like YouTube, it also provides creators with some monetization options.

Pricing: Muvi offers five different payment plans, including:

• Standard Plan - $399 per month
• Professional Plan - $1499 per month
• Enterprise Plan - $3900 per month
• Ultimate Plan - $8900 per month
• Black Plan - Custom Pricing
  

Best Video Sharing Platforms for Short-Form Content

If you specialize in creating short, snappy, and addictive videos that are less than three minutes long, then you should look at the YouTube alternatives that focus on short-form video content. Some of these are as follows:

IGTV

Created by Instagram, IGTV stands for Instagram TV and is a short-form video platform that is available on both iOS and Android devices. IGTV plays videos in a vertical format and makes it easier for viewers to discover their favorite creators from Instagram. 

Here are some of the important features of IGTV that you should know about. 

• Mobile Friendly: IGTV boasts an intuitive, mobile-first design. The videos are played in a vertical format, in full-screen mode. Since most of the videos on IGTV are short, snappy, and entertaining, they’re the ideal type of content to watch on your smartphone whenever you have a few minutes of free time. 

• Intuitive Design: IGTV videos start playing as soon as you click open the app. You don’t have to trouble yourself to search for a video or choose one from a list of options. These videos are the perfect way to get some entertainment and relaxation in the middle of a busy workday. 

• Curated Videos: IGTV videos are curated carefully to match your tastes and preferences. Most of the videos on your feed will be from creators and influencers whom you already follow on Instagram. This makes for a more personalized, enjoyable experience for viewers. 

As a platform, IGTV can also be quite beneficial for content creators. Anyone with a smartphone can become a creator on IGTV and upload their short videos on the platform. 

With more than a billion active monthly users, therefore, IGTV provides an incredible opportunity to content creators who want to reach a global audience and build a community around their short videos.

Pricing: The IGTV app is available as a free download for both Android and iOS users. Content creators can also upload their videos to IGTV for free. 

TikTok

TikTok is one of the most popular video-sharing and streaming apps for short-form content. This platform offers users a wide range of song and audio snippets to use as background for their videos. 

Furthermore, you will also have access to a plethora of filters and special effects when making videos on TikTok. These are some of the factors that help it stand out among the crowd of similar platforms. 

In September of last year, TikTok added the ‘Reactions’ feature, allowing creators to record their reactions to other TikTok videos and share it on the platform. More than simply being a video-sharing platform, TikTok is designed to be a social media site that focuses on video content. 

Most of the videos on TikTok are quirky and lighthearted, with dance videos, challenges, funny accidents, animal videos, and magic tricks being especially popular. If you enjoy making (or watching) short videos of this type, then TikTok might be the perfect platform for you. 

Pricing: TikTok is completely free for both viewers and content creators. 

Facebook Watch

Owned and operated by Meta, Facebook Watch is a video-sharing platform available to all Facebook users for free. 

Unlike the other two platforms mentioned in this section, Facebook Watch does not have a separate mobile app. Rather, it is part of the larger Facebook platform and built into the Facebook app and website. 

So, you can access Facebook Watch through the Facebook app installed on your phone, or by navigating to the ‘watch tab’ on the Facebook website. There is, however, a Facebook Watch TV app, which allows users to watch the videos on their TV screen.

Some of the important features of Facebook Watch are as follows:

• You can access Facebook Watch through your mobile device as well as your desktop browser.
• If you have a Facebook account, you can easily upload short videos on Facebook Watch. You can also view, share, react to, and comment on videos posted by other creators. 
• Your Facebook Watch feed will be personalized to match your interests and preferences. 
• A feature known as the ‘Watchlist’ provides you with a single place to check out all the videos posted by the pages and influencers you follow. 
• You can easily customize the videos that appear on your Facebook Watch feed, choosing the pages whose videos you’d like to see and discarding the rest.  
• Apart from user-generated content, Facebook Watch also features some professionally produced content, such as comedy and drama series, talk shows, news programs, etc. 

Pricing: Facebook Watch is freely available to anyone who has a Facebook account. Both creators and viewers can use all its features for free. 

Best Options for Video Browsing and Open Discovery

These YouTube alternatives are best suited for browsing and discovery. They are similar to YouTube in that they offer many different categories and types of videos, across many genres and of varying length. 

The problem is that this remains the wild west of video sharing platforms, plagued by issues such as poor recommendation algorithms, little content moderation, and lower quality of content. Some of the better platforms in this category are:

Dailymotion

Based in Paris, Dailymotion is a video-sharing platform that allows users to view, share, and upload videos. Available in more than 30 countries, it is the second-largest site of its kind, behind only YouTube.

In terms of structure and interface, it is quite similar to YouTube. Trending videos are displayed on the homepage, and you can use the search bar and the categories section to discover videos that better align with your interests. 

That said, Dailymotion is different from YouTube in a few significant ways. Some of these differences have been listed below:

• Copyright Policy: The copyright policy at Dailymotion is more flexible than the one on YouTube. So, creators have to go through less red tape when uploading a video there, and videos usually aren’t taken down for copyright infringement. At most, a formal warning may be given to the uploader. 

• Paywall: While YouTube content creators can monetize their videos through ads, Dailymotion creators can also use a paywall for monetization. These paywalls are optional, and you can use them on either a few of your videos or all of them.

• Length Restriction: Unlike YouTube, Dailymotion restricts the length of its videos to 60 minutes. No video uploaded on Dailymotion can be more than an hour long. YouTube does not impose a maximum video length and hosts many hours-long videos, particularly podcasts. 

• Downloading: Dailymotion doesn’t allow viewers to download any of their videos for offline viewing. However, most YouTube videos can be easily downloaded, after which they can be watched offline. 

Pricing: Dailymotion is free for both viewers and content creators. The platform earns most of its revenue through ads, just like YouTube. 

DTube

What makes DTube unique is that it exists not on a central server but on a decentralized blockchain. 

Therefore, if you’re worried about data security or wary of government or corporate control, then DTube is the ideal YouTube alternative for you. 

Every user interaction on DTube is end-to-end encrypted. As there is no centralized control – either from a company or government – content creators have more freedom regarding what type of content they want to create and share. 

Every video posted on the platform remains on it forever, and DTube videos cannot be censored by anyone outside the community of active users.

The videos posted on this platform are ranked on the basis of direct user feedback, rather than some obscure and ever-changing algorithm. Content creators are paid in the form of a cryptocurrency known as Dtube Coin. 

The four main ways in which DTube has an advantage over YouTube are:

• Being a decentralized platform makes DTube more secure and private. It is also less likely to be hacked since there is no central server storing all user data.

• There are no ads on DTube. Instead, content creators are paid in crypto when users vote on and engage with their videos.

• DTube’s decentralized structure ensures that its videos can’t be censored through any traditional method, making it a beacon of free speech among all similar video-sharing platforms. 

• DTube has no recommendation algorithm to underhandedly control the visibility and monetization of one video over another. The criteria by which videos are recommended is simple, straightforward, and freely available for public scrutiny. 

Pricing: DTube is free to use for both viewers and content creators. You can earn DTube coins by voting on videos on the platform.  

Odysee

According to its founders, Odysee was created to recapture some of the independence and freedom of the early days of the Internet. With a handful of companies now controlling many of the major outlets like Google, YouTube, Facebook, etc., the Internet is becoming more and more corporatized. 

Odysee aims to change that and ensure that ‘everyone has a voice’ on the world wide web – even those deemed too controversial or unpalatable for mainstream platforms like YouTube. 

The main features of Odysee are as follows:

• It is a decentralized platform and is resistant to censorship.
• It hosts more right-wing content than YouTube. 
• Videos uploaded on Odysee cannot be removed easily, so remain permanently available on the internet.
• There are no advertisements on Odysee.
• Viewers can earn tips and credits by liking or commenting on Odysee videos. 

Pricing: Odysee is free for viewers and creators alike.

Metacafe (now videoshub)

Founded in 2003, Metacafe or VideosHub is one of the oldest video entertainment sites on earth. It is even older than YouTube, which was founded in 2005, two years after the birth of Metacafe. 

Most videos posted on this site are fun, short, and lighthearted. Some of the most popular video categories on VideosHub include:

• How-to videos
• Music and dance
• Cool commercials
• Science and tech
• Sports
• Comedy videos
• Travel and outdoors
• Art animation

Pricing: Founded in Tel Aviv, Israel, Metacafe worked closely with numerous brands and earned its revenues largely through ads. Viewers and creators can use this site free of cost. 

Best Platforms for Screen Recordings

Sometimes, you just need to record a quick video explaining a feature of your product or service to a prospective client. A high-quality screen and video capture software, like the ones listed below, could be just what you need in such a situation. 

Loom 

In essence, Loom is a video messaging tool. It allows you to quickly record short, high-quality videos with your face in the foreground, explaining an idea or providing a narration for the video. 

Loom makes it easy to record and share videos instantly, making it an effective tool for video messaging. Depending on what type of device you’re using, you can download the Loom desktop app, iOS app, or Android app. 

Mentioned below are a few of the things that make this platform unique.

• Loom integrates seamlessly with Chrome in the form of a browser extension
• The platform offers detailed analytics and engagement insights
• Loom allows video makers to embed links in their videos
• Custom branding options are available for those using a paid plan
• All Loom videos can be password protected for greater privacy and security
• It has an incredibly responsive and easy-to-learn interface
• Loom allows you to instantly edit the videos you’ve recorded

These features have made Loom very popular among professionals and businesses. It is used by more than 14 million people across 200,000 companies worldwide. 

Pricing: Loom comes with a three-tier pricing model–

• The Starter Plan is free to use and will allow you to make up to 25 videos per month.
• The Business Plan costs $8 per month and allows you to make unlimited videos.
• The Enterprise Plan is the most expensive and comes with custom pricing. 

Vidyard

Vidyard was built to help businesses generate and convert more leads using video marketing. Vidyard can be used to instantly record and share videos that help add a personal touch to the sales process. 

Whether you’re in the middle of a cold outreach campaign or sending a proposal to a long-term client, a video can always increase engagement and make the interaction more meaningful and memorable for all involved. 

With a Vidyard account, you can:

• Quickly create a personalized video by recording your screen, webcam, or both.
• Create videos up to 60 minutes in length, using the Vidyard browser extension or the mobile and desktop apps. 
• Get your business videos online quickly, through their simple drag and drop upload process.
• Get world-class video hosting and management, all in one place.
• Get insightful analytics pertaining to viewer engagement and video performance. 
• Quickly edit and trim your videos as needed.
• Create an intro banner with your name and title that will appear at the start of all your videos.
• Get ad-free video hosting with fast load times and quality streaming.

Pricing: Vidyard offers four plans for users with differing needs and budgets.

• The Free Plan at $0 a month, for private individuals.
• The Pro Plan at $19 a month, for solopreneurs and freelancers.
• The Teams Plan at $300 a month, for small and medium-sized businesses.
• The Business Plan at $1250 a month, for large organizations. 

Hippo Video

This is a cloud-based video management platform used primarily by the marketing and sales departments of enterprise businesses. Hippo Video allows users to instantly record, edit, and share audio, video, and screen recordings. It can be used to quickly create high-quality how-to guides, customer testimonials, training videos, and explainer videos.

Some important features of Hippo Video are as follows:

• It provides useful viewer and engagement data such as geo-location, play rates, video watch rate, share rate, and more. 
• Hippo Video makes it easy to share the videos you’ve created through email, social media, or as a clickable link.
• Hippo Video allows users to quickly edit the videos they’ve created by cropping, trimming, adding text, and resizing the aspect ratio. 
• It allows you to add interactive CTA buttons within the videos, to help with your lead generation and conversion efforts. 
• This platform ensures that all your videos will be hosted in a single library and, therefore, will be accessible in one place.

Pricing: Hippo Video offers a 7-day free trial with no credit card requirements and zero setup fees. After that, it offers four paid plans, including:

• The Starter Plan at $19 per month
• The Pro Plan at $40 per month
• The Growth Plan at $65 per month
• The Enterprise Plan at $99 per month
  

Best Options for Live Streaming

If you want to create and share videos in real time, then a dedicated live streaming platform might be your best bet. Two of the most popular ones in this category are:

DaCast

This is an end-to-end live streaming solution that helps more than 15,000 creators host, monetize, and broadcast their live streams for audiences around the world. DaCast is commonly used by business professionals to live stream conferences, symposiums, and other largescale gatherings. Some of its benefits include:

• Highly secure video hosting 
• Easy monetization options for live streams
• Reliable and flawless streaming of live events
• A top-notch HTML5 video player that is perfect for live streaming
• Friendly and helpful round-the-clock customer support

With a simple, user-friendly interface and no annoying ads, DaCast has been serving corporate clients such as Kellog’s, Lenovo, and Playsight for over a decade.

Pricing: For new users, DaCast offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card requirements. Then, it offers four pricing tiers, such as:

• The Starter Plan at $39/month
• The Event Plan at $63/month
• The Scale Plan at $188/month
• And a Custom Plan with variable rates

Twitch

This is probably the most popular live streaming service on earth. The content hosted on Twitch spans various genres, including gaming, sports, entertainment, music, and more. The platform hosts fast, interactive live streams that are watched by more than 30 million people every day. 

Here are some of the reasons why Twitch is so popular among all types of streamers and their audiences:

• The live streams hosted on Twitch allow for a lot of two-way interaction between the viewer and the streamer, leading to greater engagement on both sides.

• The platform is free of distracting ads, allowing for a more immersive experience during live streams. 

• Most Twitch streamers are surrounded by a lively and engaged community of fans, which can help viewers feel like they’re part of something bigger. 

• Viewers can chat with the streamer or interact with each other during a live stream, which can help forge a connection between all the parties and make everyone feel like a part of the community. 

• For streamers, Twitch provides a way to make a living while doing something they love and connecting with a large community of people who share their interests and hobbies. 

Pricing: There are three levels of Twitch subscriptions, each with its own features and price points.

• A Tier One subscription costs $4.99
• A Tier Two subscription costs $9.99
• A Tier Three subscription costs $24.99
  

Concluding Note

Due to its massive size and reach, YouTube can often seem like the only video platform out there. But as you’ve hopefully seen from this article, this perception is far from being true. 

There are many great YouTube alternative sites for you to choose from, including some (like TED, Hulu, and Brightcove) that haven’t been mentioned in this article. To reach new audiences and discover different kinds of content, be sure to try out one or more of these YouTube alternatives that are best suited to your needs. 

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For businesses that need a platform for hosting and sharing their promotional or educational videos, one of the major drawbacks of YouTube is the limited scope for branding it allows. 

A video hosted on YouTube will always be branded as YouTube, even when embedded in the website of a different company. As YouTube is a huge, popular, and easily-recognizable brand, its branding might overshadow that of the company that has produced the video for promotional purposes. 

Creating content on YouTube can be an equally frustrating experience. If you make videos for YouTube, you already know that the platform is all but strangling itself with red tape. The slightest whiff of controversy could get your video demonetized, and the algorithm often pushes you to focus on quantity over quality, in order to stay ‘relevant’. 

The Growing Need for YouTube Alternatives

So, it should come as no surprise that many viewers, content creators, businesses, and webmasters are now looking for a platform that will allow them to host and share videos on their own terms.  

In this article, therefore, we will explore whether or not YouTube is the right solution for you. And if not, then we will provide you with a list of high-quality video-sharing platforms that might better suit your needs. 

While there aren’t many video sharing platforms that can compete with YouTube in terms of sheer size and popularity, you can find many good options that outperform YouTube in a particular niche or for a specific task. 

For instance, there are many video-sharing platforms specifically designed for marketing and promotion, for distributing educational or short-form content, or for artists and creators to unleash their creativity. 

While there are many YouTube alternatives for you to choose from, the right one for you will depend on your specific needs and preferences. 

Some video players (like Wistia and Viostream) are better suited for hosting videos made to be embedded into websites and product landing pages. Others, like Behance or Vimeo, are designed to allow artists the freedom to produce and share their best creative work. 

Vidyard or Loom might be the best option for creating quick, short tutorial videos while Ted is better suited for long-form educational and inspirational content. 

Because of the wide variety of available options, we will divide our list of recommendations into categories. Each category will list out the video-sharing platforms best suited for a particular purpose or type of content. 

Many small and medium-sized businesses are now looking for YouTube alternatives that will allow them to host branded videos on their websites and landing pages. The best video-sharing platforms, for this purpose, are those that allow for effective branding and lead generation.