With online video business landscape reaching a market capital value over $50 billion in 2017, with no doubt it is one of the most sought out places to invest in. OTT (“Over-the-top” is a term used for the delivery of video content via internet) is highly influencing the way the video content is being consumed among the audiences worldwide. Currently having a yearly growth rate of over 15%, the global consumer internet video traffic is set to account for 80% of the total internet consumer traffic by 2019. This has lured brands across all industries to invest a substantial part of their marketing capital in the video internet space.
How can this OTT boom be monetized?
The first thing to consider for yielding maximum benefits from this the online video space is having your own platform. Building your own server to deliver videos directly to the audience can be possible, but you should also consider their limitations like latency, buffering problems, lack of redundancy, security vulnerabilities and more.
Choosing a right hosting solution that can save you time as well as resources, like deploying an IT team and starting to build everything from scratch. Professional video hosting solution like Brightcove, StreamHash or other alternatives can help you start your service right away, by providing accessible and affordable services.
Uplift your business with the right video streaming solution.
With online videos becoming immensely popular, businesses are looking for every option that is available to host their video content online. Understanding this, there are loads of video streaming platforms in the market, and finding the best video hosting solution might take some research and time.
Further on in this blog, we will be looking on the features, technology and the pricing of top 5 video streaming solutions in the market that provide multiple video hosting scripts as per the business requirements, have great flexibility, support, and maintenance on their services.
- Brightcove
Mainly targeting large Enterprises, Publishers, and Marketers, Brightcove provides a suite of video streaming solutions that help them in delivering their video content efficiently by supporting vast number of platforms and devices. Among its products, VideoCloud is a popular video hosting and publishing platform used by businesses that do not mind compromising on costs and want a hassle-free hosting solution.
Top features:
- Viewership and internal viewer analytics.
- MAP/CRM integrations.
- Compatible HTML5 video player for all devices.
- Single-Sign-On for Enterprises.
- Focus on functionality and specific needs of users.
Affordability and Pricing:
Brightcove’s pricing plans start from $199 per month that includes on-demand video hosting, video portals, viewer analytics and social media sharing tools. If your video hosting platform requires live streaming, their $499 plan is ideal with other features such as extra security, Single-Sign-On, and internal ports.
- StreamHash
Be it on-demand video platform like Netflix, or live streaming software, StreamHash has a ready-made answer that helps you to deploy your video streaming business in no time. StreamHash’s super-flexible solutions cater to all major industry verticals like entertainment, education, e-commerce, banking, and finance. Its products StreamNow and TubeNow are popular among the live streaming businesses due to their highly scalable solutions.
Top Features:
- End-to-end user analytics and SEO friendly.
- Android and iOS streaming.
- Numerous monetization channels as per the audience and the market.
- Peer-to-peer communication.
- Multiple upload channels.
- WebRTC, kurento based media streaming.
Affordability and pricing:
The main advantage of StreamHash over other top video hosting services is its one time investment feature with life-time maintenance. The upgrades are free of cost and you need not pay a subscription fee for each term. The basic NetFlix clone script plan starts at $199 with 100% ownership of the source code, unlimited video uploads and access, multiple upload channels, SEO and other user optimized modules.
If you are a business that wants a mobile streaming service in Android and iOS, you can upgrade to the ‘Ultimate’ plan. Live streaming plans start from $499 and StreamHash also provides a free plan with basic features, where you can try the software before buying it.
3. VidYard
VidYard’s video hosting solutions focus mainly on the revenue and lead generation. It aims to provide all-in-one solutions to businesses with tools that are easy-to-create, share and monetize. It also offers integration with your core business apps, helping you to turn the video analytics into real time actions.
Features:
- Integrates with marketing automation for digital campaign analytics.
- Advanced security features.
- Personalized video for the audience.
- A/B testing for video thumbnails.
- Video Asset Manager
Affordability and Pricing:
VidYard doesn’t have their pricing information publicly on their website, as it mostly provides customizable options as per the client’s requirements. However, other prominent review websites quote the average pricing of VidYard to be around $1500 per month. Activating marketing automation would cost you $2000 more on top of it
4. Wistia
Founded in 2006, Wistia is one of the most familiar names when it comes to video hosting solutions for businesses. They provide tools that help businesses in driving audience engagement with features like CTAs and built-in video editors. Their video analytics are very concise; with number of metrics to choose from, the businesses receive relevant, useful and real time insights to continuously drive their audience’s interaction rate. Wistia, however, doesn’t support live streaming.
Features:
- Cutting edge video SEO and marketing tools
- API access
- Analytics dashboard
- Smooth playback
- Integration with workflow automation softwares like Hubspot.
Affordability and Pricing:
Wistia’s pricing plan starts at $99 per month, that provides support for 10 videos and additional videos can be added at the price of 25 cents/month per video. The ‘Advanced’ plan is aimed at a larger viewer base which includes CRM integration and priority support for a lot more features. The pricing of the ‘Advanced’ plan depends on the requirements of the user. It also offers a free trail plan that offers basic access to the service, allowing you to upload a maximum of 3 videos with its branding on the content.
5. Vzaar
Launched in 2007 as a video platform for eBay users, it pictured itself as a video bazaar for online audience. Currently, Vzaar’s focus is mainly on video streaming for Businesses, offering features like in-video lead capturing. It mainly caters to e-commerce, education, media and publishing industry verticals.
Features:
- Cloud integration for uploading videos.
- Custom branding and video SEO features.
- Multi-language subtitles integration.
- Advanced encryption.
- Custom video player.
- Dual encoding for VOD services.
Affordability and Pricing:
The basic ‘self-service’ plan starts from $20/month, and offers 250 GB of Bandwidth and Storage, customizable video player, adaptive streaming and video analytics. The ‘premium’ plan, which is ideal for businesses, starts at $200/month providing additional features like enhanced security, access to API and video advertising tools.
Having gone through the top five streaming solutions in the market, you will now have an idea of what type of video hosting solution you should opt for with the business requirements in mind. If your business requires faster deployment and audience friendly hosting script, StreamHash would be great. If you already have a running business and if advertising functionality is your main concern, then platforms like BrightCove, Wistia, and Vzaar can be considered. For bigger businesses and enterprises that wants marketing automation and advanced analytics for their video streams, VidYard might be a good choice.