In the past decade or so, video content has been significantly growing in popularity, both among viewers and publishers. Businesses left and right are offering video content to their audience — from the slowly-dying cable TV operators to advertisers launching OTT marketing campaigns. With the rise of video content online, there has also been a rise in demand for video hosting. But what is video hosting exactly and should your business use hosting services? Let’s find out!
What Is Video Hosting
Video hosting is a digital service that includes uploading and storing videos on a third-party platform. These platforms — hosts — are tasked with keeping the videos on their servers secure and enabling easy distribution to your desired audience. In short, they allow you to streamline the storing, management, and distribution of videos through a single dashboard.
Video hosting providers often offer additional services that come in handy to publishers, content creators, advertisers, and other video-driven businesses. For example, they might offer video analytics or let you monetize your videos.
Why Video Hosting Is Important
Of course, third-party hosting is not the only available option. You can also self-host videos on your website or even develop your own hosting platform. However, third-party hosting comes with an array of benefits you wouldn’t be able to enjoy otherwise. Some of these benefits include:
- Privacy and Security — The main benefit of using a secure hosting service is the level of privacy and security it provides. With a good provider, you can rest assured that your videos will never be available to anyone who is not supposed to see them.
- Customer Service — If you opt to self-host your content and run into a problem, you will have to figure out a way to solve it yourself. But if you rely on a professional video hosting provider, you will always have their customer service department to turn to.
- Video Management and Distribution Tools — Whether you want to keep your videos secure and hidden from viewers or distribute them to a broad audience, a video hosting service will make that process easier. Using a single dashboard, you will be able to tweak privacy settings and retrieve embed codes to add a video to your website.
- Optimal Viewing Experience — The best video hosting platforms have features designed to provide the optimal viewing experience to your audience. This includes things such as adaptive bitrate streaming or an HTML5 player that is compatible with a long list of devices.
- Website Optimization — If you overload your website with videos instead of hosting them on a third-party platform, this could significantly affect your loading speed and reduce website traffic. In turn, these issues will affect how your website ranks on search engines.
- Additional Features — Let us preface this by saying that not all hosting platforms offer additional tools. However, the best ones do. These tools include an array of video monetization models or viewer analytics. They might even provide you with SDKs to create OTT apps and reach a wider audience.
Where to Host Videos Online
You can host videos online on a video hosting platform, self-host them on your own server, or use WordPress to host them on your website.
There are many online video platforms out there, all with different features, perks, and prices. Choosing the right one for you will largely depend on your needs. Are you looking for a platform that will allow you to turn content into a source of revenue? Or are you simply wondering where to host large video files and save some storage space? The right platform for you will depend on your answers.
Aside from third-party hosting, you can also opt for self-hosting videos on your website if you own a dedicated server. Alternatively, you could also host them on WordPress.
Where to Host Private Videos
You can host private videos on private video hosting platforms. While you can also use free hosting solutions, such as YouTube, their privacy and security options are quite limited. So if the privacy of your videos is high on your priority list, choose a private hosting provider.
Do you need a way to distribute videos to a limited audience, such as your employees or paying subscribers? Hosting private videos — be it videos with confidential information or exclusive paid content — requires high-end security and privacy measures. This is where private video hosting platforms come in.
Private hosting providers will shield your videos from anyone who isn’t supposed to see them. For example, they might require viewers to log in before playing a video. They can also combine these security features with various monetization options. That is, they can also integrate SVOD or TVOD monetization models to ensure that only those viewers who have paid for access to the content can view it.
How Much Does Video Hosting Cost?
The cost of video hosting depends on the services and provider you choose. With such a wide offer of video hosting platforms comes a wide price range. Some hosting services, such as YouTube, are completely free of charge. Others, however, can come at prices as steep as thousands of dollars a month.
The price of a video hosting service usually reflects the range of features and support offered to users. In other words, free video hosting platforms might save you some money, but you will have to be prepared to compromise on other fronts, such as the security of your content or the range of video monetization options.
Where Can I Host Videos for Free
You can host videos for free on any of the free hosting platforms, such as YouTube or Vimeo Basic. That is, if you don’t mind making a compromise on tools and security. Luckily, options are plentiful, and some of them provide decent services, considering they are free of charge.
By far the most popular free video hosting solution is YouTube. This platform is a special favorite among publishers as Google prefers it over other video-sharing websites. Another perk that comes with YouTube is its ad-based video monetization model and unlimited bandwidth and uploads.
However, much like with other free YouTube alternatives, there are some drawbacks. Firstly, YouTube’s security features are quite limited. Secondly, becoming a victim of YouTube demonetization is much easier than it should be. And lastly, the platform limits creators’ video ad revenue because it keeps a considerable cut.
How to Host a Video
We’ve gone over what video hosting is and what benefits it offers to publishers and other video-driven businesses. But how does it actually work — i.e., how do you host a video online? Several video hosting methods are available, and the precise process will depend on which one you go for. Let’s take a closer look at the most common video hosting models.
How to Host a Video on Your Website
Are you looking to build a video hosting website and self-host videos on your own server? This may not be the most straightforward or time-efficient option out there, but some businesses still go for it. So how can you host a video on your own server? Here’s a quick rundown of the process:
- Step 1: Using FTP (file transfer protocol) access, reach out to your website’s server;
- Step 2: Upload a video to your chosen directory;
- Step 3: Grab the video’s URL;
- Step 4: Log in to your website’s back end;
- Step 5: Using the URL you copied, add the video to a content block on your website.
Self-hosting videos and other media on your server is likely the most complex and time-consuming option. It also requires a high initial investment that can be too much for smaller businesses to handle. Unless you have a very strong reason to self-host, we recommend going for third-party hosting services instead.
How to Self-Host Videos on WordPress
If your website uses WordPress, you can also directly upload your videos to the platform. This will make the process of adding those videos to specific pages somewhat simpler. However, if you have a larger library of more than just a couple of clips, self-hosting videos on WordPress is not the best option. Large amounts of data can significantly slow down your website and affect its performance.
Let’s say you only have a handful of videos and you want to add them to your website without a third-party hosting service. The process of hosting videos on WordPress is, actually, quite simple.
- First, log into your WordPress account.
- Navigate to the menu on the left, go to Media, and select Add New from the drop-down menu.
- Drag and drop your file or click “Select Files” and use folder navigation to upload the desired video.
- Once the video has been uploaded, you can add it to any existing or new page on your website from WordPress’s media library. You can also edit the information about your video, such as its title and caption.
Keep in mind that WordPress is not a dedicated video hosting platform. As such, it can make navigating and managing your library somewhat difficult. Luckily, with TargetVideo’s WordPress plug-in, you don’t have to worry about that.
Our plug-in makes uploading and embedding videos a piece of cake. If you already have videos taking up space on your WordPress website, you can seamlessly migrate them to our hosting platform without ever leaving the comfort of WordPress. You can embed these videos on your website in just a couple of clicks. Give it a try today!
How to Host Videos on YouTube
As a free-to-use platform with over 100 million active daily users, YouTube is by far the most popular free video hosting solution. Content creators of all niches, backgrounds, and sizes decide to go with YouTube for their video hosting needs. One of the reasons is that the platform’s video content management system is quite easy and intuitive. Here’s how to host a video on YouTube.
- First, sign in and access YouTube Studio through the drop-down menu in the top right corner.
- To upload a new video, click on the arrow icon.
- Drag and drop or select the file through folder navigation (you can upload up to 15 files at a time).
- Edit the information about your YouTube video (title, description, age restrictions, etc).
If you’re wondering how to host private videos on YouTube, you’ll be happy to know that, at this stage, you can also toggle the privacy settings.
How to Choose a Video Hosting Platform for Your Business
If YouTube doesn’t cut it, and you’d rather go for a more comprehensive, enterprise video hosting platform, you will have to pick the right one first. Unfortunately, there is no universal platform that perfectly fits everyone’s needs and budget. It is up to you to decide what your criteria are. These are some things to keep in mind:
- Your Budget — Video hosting solutions come at an array of prices for everyone’s budget. So make sure your business can actually afford the platform you’re eyeing.
- Your Needs — What are the non-negotiables that you simply must get out of a video hosting platform? Remember, these should only be the things you absolutely cannot do without (e.g., a certain amount of storage and bandwidth or a certain monetization option)
- Your Wants — What are the things that you would like the hosting platform to have but that aren’t absolutely necessary? Try to find a platform that has as many of your wants as possible (e.g., additional monetization options you might want to try in the future or priority customer service).
Once you know what your criteria are, check out this article on the best video hosting sites to pick the right hosting solution for your business.
Start Video Hosting With TargetVideo
Still looking for the right video hosting provider for your business? Luckily, you won’t have to look too far. TargetVideo is an enterprise-level video hosting solution with an array of tools for all your needs. With TargetVideo, you also get a fully-customizable, lightweight, and easy-to-use HTML5 player that supports an array of video file formats.
What’s more, you can turn your videos into a source of revenue with TargetVideo. Whether you’re looking to implement instream or outstream video ads — or any other video ad format — we’ve got you covered.
Lastly, our state-of-the-art security features, such as DRM support, will ensure your content is only available to your chosen viewers. Sign up for free and see how TargetVideo can enhance your video hosting experience.
FAQ
1. What is the best video hosting site?
TargetVideo, YouTube, and Wistia are considered some of the best video hosting websites out there. However, the exact answer will depend on your specific needs, as all platforms come with their own array of tools and features.
2. Where can I host a video?
You can host a video on a third-party video hosting website or self-host it on your own site. Third-party hosting solutions are generally a better option, as they provide you with an array of tools and benefits you otherwise wouldn’t have access to.
3. Where to host videos besides YouTube?
Aside from YouTube, you can host videos on an array of video hosting platforms, such as Vimeo, TargetVideo, Wistia, Dacast, and more. They all come at different prices and with different tools, so make sure your choice matches your needs.
4. Can WordPress host videos?
Yes, WordPress can host videos. However, uploading large amounts of data to a WordPress website can significantly slow down the site’s performance and affect its traffic. This, in turn, can have a negative impact on how your website ranks on search engines.
5. Can Imgur host videos?
Yes, Imgur can host videos. Although the platform was originally designed for images, it has since expanded to include video uploads as well. However, if you’re looking for a private, secure, enterprise-level video hosting solution, you can find better options than Imgur.
6. Can I host private videos on YouTube?
Yes, you can host private videos on YouTube. Once you upload your video to YouTube as usual, all you have to do is toggle the Visibility option to Private. This way, nobody but you will be able to access the video.
