What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you think about watching a video online, the answer is “YouTube” of course. It is the most popular video-sharing platform at the moment and the 2nd largest search engine after Google.
Of course, biggest isn’t always best, especially if you are someone that value control over your content and how you profit from it. Around since 2004, Vimeo differs largely from YouTube because of its “artsy” distinctiveness. It is an enticing alternative for artists and film makers looking to make it big.
We’re going to cover Vimeo in detail in this article so if you are interested in this online video streaming site then read-on.
What is Vimeo?
Launched by a group of filmmakers (who were looking for a platform that better met their streaming needs), this optimized video-sharing platform allows content creators to upload and promote their videos with a high degree of customization that competing sites lacks.
Over the years, the platform has grown to over 90,000,000 creators (most of them artists in film, animation, music and other works of art), thanks to their incredible customization features and thoughtful community (which really appreciates the content that gets shared there, resulting in kinder and more useful discussions compared to YouTube). Its audience might not be as big as YouTube, but still it attracts 240 million monthly viewers worldwide, which is in itself something to reckon with.
While all the options it offers can be a little confusing to beginners, video professionals will surely love all of the doors it opens to promote your content your way.
How does Vimeo work?
Once you are done editing your video, log in to your Vimeo account and upload it. You can make your video public (searchable on the site) or private (only available to people you share the link with). Unlike YouTube, which allows verified users to upload files up to 128GB or 12 hours long without paying anything, Vimeo has set time limits based on your membership level. It follows a “freemium” model, meaning free users are limited when it comes to how much they can upload and what features they can access.
With its basic (free) membership, you can upload 500MB per week (limited to 10 uploads every 24 hours) with up to 5GB of total storage. You might think its good enough, but when you account for the size of HD files, this much space may not suffice. The platform supports video up to 8K resolution, but you won’t have enough space for that footage on basic membership.
Another thing you get on free plan is the ability to protect your videos with a password, something YouTube lacks. You can use basic membership as long as you want without paying anything, but it’s only open to individuals. So, if you’ve got a small business or studio, you’ll have to cough up some dough to use Vimeo. Of course, once you start paying, this platform really shines.
What do you get for your money with Vimeo?
From distribution & marketing to privacy, Vimeo’s premium services has got everything that a filmmakers needs. With services ranging from $7/mo to $75/mo (when billed annually), this platform has options for every kind of budget. If you’d rather pay month-to-month, that’s an option for $12/mo on a Plus account.
For the dough that you pay you get a plethora of security, customization, and publishing options. Starting with the Plus membership, users get access to domain-level privacy options, which lets you set specific sites your videos will play on. Also, you get private link sharing, social distribution (publish your videos as native posts directly to your favorite social media sites such as Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn & Twitter), a customizable video player, custom end screens for your videos and staff support within 4 hours. The more you pay the more features you get, let’s cast a look at Vimeo’s more advanced levels features:
Per-view service (Pro and above)
Want to sell your video content than subscribe to Vimeo’s Pro or above membership, as it allows users to rent, sell, or set subscriptions for their videos at any price they want. At the end of the day, you take home ninety-percent of the revenue generated by these transactions. YouTube might allow you to sell ads, but with this platform you get far more monetization options.
Detailed engagement and duration graphs (Pro and above)
Vimeo enables you to easily track your videos performance over time (from days to years). Find out to where most of your viewers belong to, from what devices they’re watching and how they’re finding your content. Most importantly duration graphs lets you find out when viewers stop watching your footage, so you’ll know the exact moment your content loses them.
Team collaboration (Pro and above)
Pro plan allows up to 3 team members to manage, upload, and collaborate on video projects. Business and Premium plans allows even more team members (10 to be exact), thus empowering teams to work on multiple projects from different locations without getting in each other’s way. Now, exchange time-coded notes and reply in real time while working on rough cuts together, even if you’re on separate sites.
Google Analytics integration (Business and above)
By subscribing to either business or premium plan you get states like bounce rate, time on pages, and conversion rates, all from the comfort of your Analytics dashboard, thanks to the Google Analytics integration.
Live Video Streaming (Premium)
Up to 1080p streaming, unlimited events & viewers, live stream to multiple destinations, live Q&A and polls, live graphics, audience chat, and auto archiving (makes sure you have a record of your event), you get all this by subscribing to the Premium plan.
Thanks for reading!