Which One is Better for WordPress Videos between YouTube and Vimeo?
When talking about best online tools to upload video for your WordPress site, there are two best platform to upload videos which are YouTube and Vimeo.
They are both great platforms with their respective advantages and disadvantages. That is why we will compare YouTube vs Vimeo and share their pros and cons to help you decide on your video platform.
What is YouTube?
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YouTube is a free video sharing website that makes it easy to watch online videos. Which you can even create and upload your own videos to share with others. Originally created in 2005, YouTube is now one of the most popular sites on the Web, with visitors watching around 6 billion hours of video every month.
YouTube provides a simple way for people to store videos online and share them with others. The video sharing app was bought by Google in 2006, ranked in 2018 as the second most popular online destination.
What is Vimeo
Vimeo is an American video hosting, sharing, and services platform headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices.
Vimeo’s business model is through software as a service. It is online video streaming site that allows users to upload and promote their videos with a high degree of customization not found on competing sites.
Why Choose YouTube or Vimeo for WordPress Videos
Videos are large files and most WordPress hosting providers don’t offer servers optimized for video streaming. If multiple users access videos on your website at once, then this could crash your server.
Each user has a different type of internet connection. Your high quality videos will take forever to load on slower internet connections.
On the other hand, video hosting platforms like YouTube and Vimeo are designed to serve videos. They have server resources and technology to offer a far superior video streaming experience than WordPress.
YouTube vs Vimeo which one is better for your WordPress videos.
| Points | YouTube | Vimeo |
| Video Content Limits | By default you can upload unlimited videos, but each video should be under 15 minutes. However, after verifying your account, you can upload videos with up to 12 hours of playback or 128GB file size. This is very generous and fairly reasonable for all type of content creators. | Vimeo has different limitations on the upload size for each plan. Free: 500 MB per week upto 25 GB per year. Plus: 5 GB per week upto 250 GB per year Pro: 20 GB per week upto 1 TB per year Business: No weekly limits and up to 5 TB total storage |
| Size and Reach | Almost all Android phones in the world come with the YouTube app pre-installed. YouTube has a community of more than 1 billion users, that’s one-third of the internet. It is also the world’s second most widely used search engine. | Vimeo has a much smaller user base than YouTube, but it is stilly fairly huge. Vimeo has over 170 million users, and it is growing at a significant pace. Vimeo is home to some of the most creative content creators in the world. Vimeo has a pretty decent search feature, which allows users to search for videos, people, channels, and groups. Their content discovery feature shows relevant videos in the sidebar. However, by design they are not as noticeable as they are on YouTube. |
| Pricing | YouTube is free. Mainly because they make money by showing advertisements. These advertisements are displayed inside the video player, in the sidebar, and inside the YouTube app. YouTube also offers a paid subscription called YouTube Red for viewers. This service allows viewers to get rid of advertisements as well as access YouTube original shows. As a content creator you’ll be able to upload as many videos as you like for free. Initially, you will not be able to upload videos longer than 15 minutes. However, you can increase this limit by verifying your account. | Vimeo’s business model is quite different than YouTube. They make their money by selling video hosting service, so publishers and businesses can offer their users an ad free viewing experience. They offer a range of pricing plans starting with the free plan, which is limited to 500 MB of storage per week and 25GB per year. After that you can join Vimeo Plus, Pro, or Business plans. |
| Monetization | YouTube allow content creators to join the YouTube partner program by signing up for Google Adsense to monetize their videos. Video creators get a cut for the ads displayed on their videos. However, you’ll first need to accumulate at least 10,000 views for your channel before you can join the program. YouTube also allows content creators to use other monetization options. Publishers can sell products in their videos, add paid reviews, join affiliate programs, get sponsors for their videos, ask for donations, and more. | Vimeo prides itself in offering an ad-free video platform. They do not have an advertising program that you can join. However, they do offer “Vimeo on Demand”. A platform where you can sell videos directly to viewers. You’ll need at least a Vimeo Pro account to join the program. Think of this as your own version of Netflix. |
| Video Editing | YouTube offers powerful video editing features. They offer a video editor that allows you to create videos from your previously uploaded videos, photos, title, and more. You can also create videos using your videos and photos in Google Photos. Their web based video editing tools offer a simple and easy video creating process. YouTube also allows you to add links, annotations, captions, and subtitles to your videos. | Vimeo does not offer as many video editing features as YouTube. However, it does offer all the basics you’ll need. It allows you to add video title, description, category, tags, license, and audience rating. You can also upload captions and subtitles to your videos. Vimeo does not have annotations features, so you cannot add clickable links into your videos. The best part about Vimeo though is that you can replace your video with a newer version without having to change the video URL or stats. This is something that you cannot do on YouTube without uploading a new video on a totally new URL. |
YouTube and Vimeo are both excellent platforms for your WordPress videos. Depending on what you are trying to do with your videos, one platform could be better for you than the other.
We hope this article helped you learn more about YouTube vs Vimeo and which one is better for your WordPress videos. You may also want to see our step by step Video WordPress SEO guide for beginners. If you have any issue on this, you can use our comment session or join our delegate on Facebook to solve any issues related to WordPress and subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials.