Working with videographers, animators, social media marketers and bloggers I found myself spending a lot of time researching video hosting companies to learn more about the features we could use for our clients. Due to ease of use, customization and shareability, I have narrowed it down to two, Wistia and Brightcove.
According to Datanyze, which trawls the web for scraps and pieces of code that reveal what software-as-a-service (SaaS) products companies are using on their website, Wistia currently holds #7 position in the online video category based on all websites in the Datanyze Universe, while Brightcove is #8.
Wistia
Wistia is a solid contender with ease of use and customization. There is no major coding needed. The interface allows you to chose the look of your player and customize it to match your company colors and even add your logo all in one place.
Adding timeline actions such as a turnstile or calls-to-action is all done in the same place so your preview is complete and will not leave you wondering what the end result will be.
When it is time to embed your video, Wistia is there with embed customizations such as inline responsive, popovers and social sharing links. You can get out more videos faster which is great for ROI.
When and if trouble arises, the Wistia community is there to help. With ideas and answers galore, I’m sure you won’t be stuck for long.
Brightcove
Brightcove is a video hosting company that has been around since 2004. Though their services and technology have been growing with the industry, their slightly more complicated interface has put them behind some of their more user friendly competitors.
But there are places where Brightcove excels. For instance, Brightcove Video Cloud fully supports high definition (HD) adaptive bitrate live streaming capabilities. Ad integration into your videos is also a great feature to help monetize your videos.
The player API allows you to integrate the Brightcove player into any CMS and customize it to play and media, not just Brightcove video.
So, with all of these great features, how could they be number 8 behind Wistia? Well, all of these features take a bit of tech savvy to implement. The average blogger or social guru doesn’t necessarily have the time or patience to learn how to implement these features so they look for quick – easy and user friendly.
For example: To just publish a video on Brightcove, you need to upload your video (like most other services), which is fine. But then you need to build your player and customize it. The build, again, simple. The customization, not so much. Just changing the color of a button can get a bit complicated if you don’t know what you are doing. This can be frustrating.
Conclusion
Both Brightcove and Wistia have excellent features that can get you publishing and monetizing your videos fast. For me, the clear choice has been Wistia. I have been able to publish more and faster with far less coding than needed for Brightcove. Wistia can be implemented in many more situations easily from blog posts to video portfolios to social media.
But again, Brightcove has a much more robust arsenal of API and integration features. So, it really depends on what you need.
Please post comments on this blog and let us know how you have used these video hosting platforms.
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