How do I host videos professionally? (not YouTube)
To start with, I want to answer the question of why would you even want professional video hosting?
Typically professional video hosting is applicable when you are setting up a membership site or an online course.
There are software tools that help you with course hosting or membership sites, and some of those provide video hosting along with the service. Example of this is a company like Podia that I personally use, and they provide unlimited video hosting, unlimited courses, and so on, for $39/month.
Another example of this is Kartra, which is an all in one platform for your website, sales funnels, membership site, email marketing and so on. However, this is a classic example of limitations in video hosting. Their cheapest plan is $99/month, but they have a limit of 50 videos total. Their next plan is $199/month, and allows you to have unlimited videos. So it is important to know the pricing and features of whatever software you end up choosing and list out what you actually need.
If you are going to go with a software product like Kartra or Podia, you probably don't need video hosting.
But let's assume you want to set up your website on WordPress or ClickFunnels or EranFunnels. You may want to consider having professional video hosting for your landing page, sales page, webinar page, etc. These services are all great, but the video hosting is simply not included (with the exception of EranFunnels, there's a solution I set up for this exact problem, more on that later).
Professional hosting has hard costs, i.e. the companies who provide this service pay for storage. YouTube is free become it monetizes from advertising, but other companies require paying a subscription. There are a number of companies that provide this service. To name a few along with small input from me about having used them:
Vimeo = Great choice is you want basic video hosting. There are not special features like branding colours for your video play. If you want to see what vimeo looks like, ClickFunnels uses that for their sales pages. Here is an example from the Dot Com Secrets sales page - the video you see there, that's vimeo video hosting.
Wistia = the best choice, but also the most expensive one, a completely over-priced option in fact. It costs $99/month on their smallest plan. It's simply not worth the price in my opinion. Wistia is in fact the company that Podia partnered with. If you pay to Wistia directly, $99/month you get 10 videos limit. If you pay Podia $39/month, you get Wistia video hosting quality for unlimited videos. Makes no sense, but that's why I'm saying there's no point paying Wistia directly. To see an example of Wistia quality video hosting, you can check out a preview of one of my courses.
VooPlayer / Spotlightr = this is a new player in the market but having used their service, it is a good option and a budget option. It was previously called VooPlayer and they either rebranded as Spotlightr or another company bought them - I'm not sure which. Either way, I personally did not like their pricing complexity, there are a lot of variables, and I found the admin office a bit difficult to navigate. However, this is a great option especially if you only want up to 5 videos hosted for example, as at the time of writing this, they have a free plan for up to 5 videos and 1GB limit total. If you want to just host a few videos, it's a good option. Like I said, I'm not a huge fan of their player, but it's a good budget option for professional video hosting.
Vidello = I saved the best for last. This is the one that I personally use. I pay $297/year. Their affiliate program is set up so that buy using an affiliate link, you actually get it cheaper ($22/month). I have a full video tutorial showing the software and the inside.
Since the paid plan let's you have 200 videos, you may not need that much. Because of that, I set up a solution with EranFunnels, so users of EranFunnels can buy video hosting from me directly (hosted by Vidello) for $12/year per video. Usually this makes sense if you only need 1-5 videos. Anything beyond that, you might as well go with the full Vidello plan yourself.
To summarize:
Option 1: Set up your entire tech set up with a company like Podia or Kartra and not have to worry about buying video hosting separately. Option 2: Host your videos on YouTube for free Option 3: Buy video hosting separately with a company like Vidello
If you want to discuss your personal circumstances, feel free to email me directly to support@eranbucai.com