Top 6 Vimeo Alternatives to Embed Videos

When Vimeo announced their new pricing strategy, its loyal community was up in arms. The change meant that producers would have to pay exorbitant amounts of money to embed their videos on other websites. This is a huge blow to all independent creators, who have long used Vimeo as a platform to showcase their work.

Luckily, there are some great alternatives out there that are cheap and easy to use. In this blog post, we will have a look at five of the best Vimeo alternatives available today!

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The Vimeo problem

Vimeo has been informing prominent creators of significant price increases as part of a strategic shift. Originally established as an “indie” creator platform that marketed itself as a YouTube substitute, Vimeo is attempting to reinvent itself as a B2B software business that specializes in live events, webinars, training, corporate town halls, and content monetization.

In mid-March 2022, Vimeo announced to several users who usually pay a few hundred dollars a year that, to continue using their service, they need to update to the new pricing, which can cost a few thousands of dollars.

To top this, many independent content producers use Patreon, a platform where creators share exclusive content, including video, to paying subscribers. Patreon always recommended Vimeo as a means to embed videos because one of the embedding options was restricting viewing availability to non-subscribers.

One important thing to note: we all got used to hosting videos for free thanks to YouTube’s business model. However, ‘free’ comes at a cost. YouTube captures data, sells it, displays ads, and encourages viewers to spend as much time as possible on their platform in order to monetize audiences. Their revenue is entirely based on selling ads, not hosting and bandwidth. 

For other video players, like the ones we list below, it’s the opposite. So free doesn’t mean bad, it just means the video hosting companies make money by giving you the necessary space to store your videos, rather than your personal likes and information. :)

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Providing the top 6 Vimeo alternatives for you

There are a few things to keep in mind when choosing an alternative to Vimeo. The first is the price. Many of the alternatives are free or have a much lower price point than Vimeo. The second is the quality of the video. You want to make sure that the video looks good on your website and that it loads quickly. And lastly, you want to make sure that the alternative has all the features that you need, such as being able to embed videos on your website. Here are five excellent alternatives to Vimeo:

Cincopa

Cincopa is an excellent alternative to Vimeo. You can also control how long the video will play for and when it will start playing. Cincoppa has no ads before or after the footage plays. Out of all the tools in this list, it is the most expensive, but also very efficient. Their pricing starts from $25 per month, with up to 1500 images and 40 videos uploaded.

A cool example is French brand Luxeol, who embeds videos on their product pages using Cincoppa. Users can control the volume, pause it whenever they want, and even choose the playback speed! 

Sprout Video

Sprout Video has been in the video business for a long time. The customization options for their video player include colour and size changes, hiding controls, and autoplay. The best part is that regardless of the plan you decide on, users will not see Sprout Video’s branding. You can also embed or pop-out videos from an image on the page. The pricing starts at 25$ a month, with 500 GB of bandwidth and 500 GB of storage included. Side note: their marketing clips are really fun to watch. 

To get a better idea of what Sprout Video would look like on your online shop, check out Gary Poppins’ welcome video. The yummy popcorn video frame uses on-brand colours, and, similarly to the other examples, viewers can select the quality, speed, and volume of the video.

Vidjet

Vidjet is another great alternative to Vimeo. It's free to use, you can upload an unlimited number of videos, and it doesn't slow down your website thanks to asynchronous video loading. You can customize your embedded video by adding CTAs, enabling autoplay or looping the video, and even hiding the video controls! You can even use pop-up display clips instead of embed, with 0 negative affect over your website brand and speed.

Finally, the most exciting thing about Vidjet is that you can replace a video file within an embedded iframe without having to generate a new code and copy/pasting it into your website. You simply copy/paste the code once to your website, and change the video as many times you want without any extra effort!

Vardier, a Spanish e-commerce brand, uses Vidjet to embed a video on their homepage. There are only two controls displayed on the video, which bring a seamless, clean experience for viewers. No one even knows that the video is hosted on another app and not hard-coded in the backend! 

YouTube

YouTube is a great alternative because it's the only free tool out there and everyone is familiar with it. You can upload videos directly from your computer or phone and then embed them on your website with just a few clicks. The only downside to YouTube is that you can't control how long the video will play for or when it will start playing. Additionally, after the clip finishes playing, viewers will see recommended videos that you have no control over. So, if you have even a small budget, we believe it’s worth investing a few dollars a month for a proper video hosting service. :)

A cool example of an embedded clip on an e-commerce website comes from another French shop, Big Moustache. They’re using YouTube to display a how-to tutorial on how to use their products. The awesome part is that when the video ends, you will see recommended videos from their YouTube channel, rather than random ones.

Wistia 

Wistia offers a wide range of video possibilities for businesses of all sizes. You can embed videos on your website, make them pop-up in another frame, and even make changes to the iframe without having to change the code. The embedded videos also include automated metadata to optimize your SEO. Wistia also has a free plan (where you can upload up to 3 videos), making it affordable for small businesses and individual creators.

Dr. Squatch, an American cosmetics brand, uses Wistia to showcase their awesome and engaging videos on their product pages, as well as their homepage. Similarly, with Cincopa, viewers can control the volume, speed, and quality of the video, as well as pause whenever they want.

Gumlet

Gumlet offers a simple and effective way to embed videos on your website. With Gumlet, you can upload your videos and then generate a unique embed code. This code can be easily added to your website's HTML, allowing you to seamlessly display your videos to your visitors. Gumlet also provides a customizable player, so you can tailor the look and feel of your videos to match your website's branding.

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Thumbnail Photo by GR Stocks on Unsplash

Main Photo by Jeremy Bezanger on Unsplash

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