Best Video Hosting Sites for Course Creators (in 2018)

May 19, 2018

Good video hosting has increase in importance due to the rise of mobile viewership

Video Hosting: Which Site is Best?

Videos are no longer an up-and-coming trend. Your audience expects you to incorporate engaging video content into your online course material.

The only problem is that hosting video content on your own server can quickly take up a lot of space and other server resources. With this in mind, in this post, we’ll run the rule over some of the best video hosting sites for course creators and list out the pros and cons to help you make an informed decision.

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What Should You Look for in a Video Hosting Site?

As an online course creator, there are a number of ways that you can use videos to improve your students’ learning experience.

For instance, you can pre-record videos if you have a busy week ahead so that you don’t miss taking a class. You can also record yourself while grading tests and assignments to give each student personalized comments and feedback on their work.

Videos take up a lot of server resources. Not to mention, your server has to be properly configured to host video content. So, before you start creating videos for your online course let’s take a step back and see what features you need to look for in a video hosting site.

  • You’ll ideally want to go with a video hosting site that allows you to customize your video players. This makes your course look professional and gives you an opportunity to raise your course’s price.
  • Video Analytics. Good video hosting sites help you track and monitor various video engagement metrics like heat maps, number of viewers, watch time, traffic sources, etc….
  • Number/Duration of Videos. How many videos can you upload to your video hosting account? Is there a limit on the duration of videos? Are the plans scalable?

Now that you know what factors to keep an eye out for, let’s take a look at some of the best video hosting sites for course creators.

4 Best Video Hosting Sites for Course Creators

When you are creating an online course, you have to choose a video platform that best suits you. Let’s take a look at four of the best video hosting sites you can host your video course material on.

1. YouTube

 

With well over 1.5 billion active users, YouTube is the by far the most widely used video hosting platform. Not to mention it’s the second largest search engine. It is used by a lot of online course creators to post free video content on their channels.

If you have a free online course that you’d like to offer then YouTube should be your go-to video hosting site – especially if you want your target audience to be able to find your course.

Pros:

  • Google search engine prioritizes YouTube videos in its search results.
  • Lets you directly embed videos into your WordPress website.
  • Gives you the option to create playlists so you can create a playlist to increase your content’s consumption.
  • Has a built-in subscription and notification system.
  • You have the option to make money from your videos through ads.

Cons:YouTube is a well-known, free video hosting site

  • Low security – your videos can be copied or stolen.
  • The related videos suggestions are not always accurate.
  • If you’re not careful, you can run into copyright infringement related issues.

Price:

YouTube offers users free hosting.

2. Wistia

Wistia has become a popular video hosting site among business owners

Wistia is the ideal video hosting solution for business owners. In fact, most of its users are entrepreneurs and online content creators which makes Wistia an excellent candidate for online course creators.

Pros:

  • Offers powerful analytics tools (such as heat maps) and lets you monitor various video engagement metrics.
  • Gives you the option to password-protect your videos.
  • Built-in options for adding call to actions and collecting leads.

Cons:

  •  
  • Wistia charges based on the number of videos you upload.
  • Custom branding is only available on premium accounts.

Price:

  • Free for the first three videos.
  • $99 per month for 10 videos (+ $0.25 for each additional video per month).
  • Custom advanced plan.

3. Vimeo

Vimeo offers compelling video hosting options for WordPress users

With Vimeo, you get a professional looking interface for publishing your online video courses. While this video hosting platform certainly has limitations in regard to its uploading space limit, its powerful analytics systems, customization ability, and supportive community make it an attractive choice for online course creators.

If you want privacy, and more control over your content – Vimeo is the best choice. Unlike YouTube, Vimeo lets you restrict your video content to a limited number of users. In addition to this, Vimeo Pro lets you make videos available on only your WordPress website.

Pros:

  • Unlimited video length on premium accounts.
  • Offers higher quality of video display as compared to other video hosting sites.
  • No pop-ups or ads.
  • Powerful video analytics built into the Vimeo dashboard.

Cons:

  • Lower search engine results page exposure than YouTube.
  • Doesn’t offer unlimited video uploads.

Price:

  • $7/month for 250 GB per year.
  • $20/month for 1 TB per year.
  • $50/month for 5 TB total storage.
  • $75/month for 7 TB total storage.

4. Brightcove

Brightcove video hosting offers fully customizable solutions

Like Wistia, Brightcove is a video hosting platform created with businesses in mind and is the go-to video hosting platform for many Fortune 500 companies. It offers fast servers and powerful live-streaming capabilities.

If you are looking for privacy, speed optimization, and more control over your online course’s branding then Brightcove is the right choice for you.

Pros:

  • Fully customizable solution that supports plugins.
  • Comes with a 30-day free trial period for testing the platform.
  • Global servers that run around the clock.
  • Excellent customer support.

 

Cons:

  • Brightcove is a high-end platform aimed at medium-large businesses and enterprises.
  • Price isn’t listed on the website.

Price:

Not listed on the website. You have to get in touch with the sales team for a custom quote.

Conclusion

If you’re thinking of creating an online course then you’re going to need a pre-configured video hosting platform with robust hosting capabilities to share your course videos through.

Hosting your online courses through a video hosting site saves you from having to worry about storage space, bandwidth, server configuration, or speed optimization. We rounded up some of the best video hosting sites for online course creators and, hopefully, you’re in a good position now to take things further.                                                

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