What are the best video hosting websites available?

Video marketing is an essential part of any marketing strategy. Whether you're trying to promote your brand, grow your audience or drive sales, video is a powerful tool for creating awareness and engagement. 

But if you're new to creating videos, it can be difficult to find a platform to host your videos without breaking the bank when it comes to bandwidth and storage capacity. 

In this guide, we will walk through the best video hosting websites available today, so you can get started right away!

What Is a Video Hosting Service?

The process of storing a video online and making it available to people via the internet is called “video hosting”. It encompasses the entire procedure of producing your clips, storing them in the appropriate format in the appropriate location, and then distributing them to the appropriate audience.

You can host your own videos or use an external hosting provider.

Self-hosting your videos means uploading them to your website's server just like any other media asset. 

On the other hand, external video sharing platforms like YouTube relieve you of the burden of self-hosting by offering software that allows you to personalize your video files, save them in the proper format, ensure that they are well-optimized, and distribute them to the appropriate audience. Uploading your videos to external video hosting sites and later on embedding them in your website materials is the most optimal solution, as, in most situations, it reduces the load time and the time-to-first-byte.

What Are the Best Video Hosting Websites Available?

The world of online video is a big place, and it's constantly growing. You have a lot of options when it comes to hosting your videos, therefore, it is highly important to consider your options before you choose to upload your video content anywhere.

If you are looking for a free video sharing website, these are some of the best video sharing platforms you should consider:

YouTube

YouTube is the most popular video hosting website, and for good reason. With more than 800 million active users, it’s easy to see why so many people flock to YouTube. It has a robust community that can interact with other users and comment on videos, as well as create their own channels and branding them with custom thumbnails, banners and more.

YouTube's ubiquity makes it a go-to option in terms of free video sharing sites for many internet businesses that generate and distribute video. The most significant advantage of YouTube video hosting? It's entirely free to use, regardless of how many clips you publish or how many people watch them. Anyone can start a YouTube channel, increase their subscriber base, and try to gain exposure to YouTube's vast user base.

The most significant disadvantage of YouTube is its advertisements — in exchange for free hosting, YouTube will place advertisements before and during your videos, which distracts from your content and interrupts the users' browsing flow, especially if they're watching an embedded video on your website.

Vimeo

Vimeo is a video hosting website that allows you to store, share and watch videos. You can be a member for free, or you can pay for extra features.

Vimeo makes it easy to upload your videos from your computer or directly from your phone, without having to worry about file sizes. It also offers a basic online editor, but if you want to  improve the quality of your videos before uploading them and make them look professional, you should probably use dedicated video editing tools.

Vimeo features a robust embedding capability that is clean, quick, and only showcases ad free videos. You may also personalize the style and feel of your video player, which is fantastic.

In terms of pricing, Vimeo is one of the most affordable platforms, with subscription plans starting at just $12/month. Although they provide a free video subscription, it does not include premium features such as blocking access to your videos..

Dailymotion

Dailymotion is a video sharing website, launched in 2005 by France Telecom and based in Paris, France. The site offers users the ability to upload, view and share videos. 

You can use it to store any type of file and there is no limit on what you can upload. It has a user-friendly interface that makes it easy for anyone to use. File sizes are restricted to 2GB and movies are limited to 60 minutes. Analytics are also restricted, even for paying accounts.

Ads are not removed from videos, although they are placed at the end by default, as compared to YouTube's more intrusive strategy. If posted on this video hosting site, clips may be easily embedded on any other website.

Twitch

Twitch, owned by Amazon, is a video streaming platform for gamers. It allows you to stream your gameplay and share it with other gamers. Twitch is mainly used by PC gamers but also has some titles available on consoles or handheld consoles such as Nintendo Switch.

Twitch even has channels where people can watch others play specific games, as well as playing them themselves. The community aspect of Twitch makes it a great place to meet new players and friends who share your interests in gaming!

Twitch recently started offering free hosting services to their users, and the site now contains as many pre-recorded videos as live broadcasts. Twitch affiliates can post videos for free. Video materials range from previous live streams to videos shot fully offline and published after editing. You are restricted to 5 simultaneous uploads per user and a total of 100 uploads in 24 hours.

TikTok

The next option of free video hosting sites we will present to you is TikTok, a platform you might have surely heard of in the past couple of years, as it grew immensely during the COVID-19 pandemic.

TikTok is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese corporation ByteDance. It includes a range of short-form user clips ranging in length from 15 seconds to ten minutes. While it is not a video hosting solution but a social media platform, it does have the potential to promote or share videos with millions of people.

TikTok is extremely popular among those under the age of 25, so you know where to go if this is your target market. All videos are short and all can be created and then uploaded by phone.

Facebook

Yes, Facebook is a video hosting platform. You may post video content to Facebook and have it hosted directly on the site. The duration of video you may upload on Facebook is 240 minutes, which gives it a significant advantage over its competitors.

While Facebook does have constraints due to the fact that it is a free platform, you can still find it useful because it is home to billions of people and is one of the top video-sharing sites on the internet. Because Facebook groups are so popular, you can simply identify targeted communities where your target audience could hang together to share your films.

How to Choose a Video Hosting Site

Whether you’re an amateur video maker or a professional filmmaker, it is important to store your videos somewhere. You need a place where people can find and watch your content.

Most people have heard of YouTube and Vimeo, but there are many other video hosting sites available as well. Some of these services are free while others require a subscription fee to use their service.

Video hosting websites earn money off advertising on their site, so they want visitors (you) to spend as much time on their website as possible in order to rack up more ad views! That being said, here are some things that make a good video hosting service:

Purpose of the Video

Different sorts of videos serve diverse objectives and, as a result, need different hosting systems. 

By selecting a video hosting platform depending on the purpose of your video, you ensure that it corresponds with your goals and gives you the necessary tools and analytics to achieve them.

Video Aspect Ratio

Each video hosting site comes with its own video aspect ratio requirements. If you have already started recording your video content, it is important that the video sharing platform you are choosing can accommodate your current needs.

Similarly, you can also look for an online video editor that can allow you to change the aspect ratio of the material to the one required by the platform.

External Integrations

Tools you are currently using can be already interconnected with various video hosting platforms.

For example, if you edit YouTube videos with a tool like Flixier, one of the advantages is that you can directly share them to your YouTube channel once they are rendered, which leads to more time efficiency. It is, therefore, indispensable to check the external integrations of the video editor you are using when you choose a video hosting site.

Tech Support

While video hosting sites make streaming videos easier, this does not mean that you will not require any technological expertise or assistance.

You may require varied degrees of technical assistance depending on the resources available within your firm and your personal awareness of the subtleties of video marketing. Therefore, it is essential to research the technological requirements of the platform you select to host your videos on.

Video Analytics

The best video hosting site is the one that can give you access to all the analytics you need. If you want to learn more about the demographics of your viewers, their viewing habits, or any other data, it is important to check beforehand if the video hosting platform you are considering offers you sufficient insights.

At the end of the day, all this information can be later on used for your marketing strategy, so detailed video analytics should be a feature you should take into consideration.

Video Length & File Storage

While some video hosting solutions offer you unlimited storage space, there are some platforms that will limit your video sharing. 

For example, as we have mentioned before, TikTok only hosts videos that are up to 10 minutes long. Therefore, if you want to publish a longer video clip, it might be smart to choose another video hosting site.

Option to Embed Videos

Most of the time, you will want to later embed videos to your website or to any other promotional materials. Therefore, it is highly important that the video hosting site you choose allows you to embed videos to third-party websites.

Are You Ready to Publish Your Content on Video Hosting Sites?

We know that it can be difficult to choose a video hosting platform. This list should have helped you narrow down your options and find the best fit for your needs.

Write down your requirements and expectations from the best free video hosting platform and start publishing your video materials!