Vimeo alternatives

[Noa Put]

It looks like every weddingvideographer is using Vimeo these days but I am experiencing issues with playback, I get buffering, sometimes switching to lower quality (it says it's 1080p but looks like 360p) and several of my clients have reported stuttering issues while playing back.

So I"m looking for alternatives, anyone who has positive experience with other providers? Not looking at YouTube, I want to have full control over my films as a owner.

[Cary Knoop]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

It looks like every weddingvideographer is using Vimeo these days but I am experiencing issues with playback, I get buffering, sometimes switching to lower quality (it says it's 1080p but looks like 360p) and several of my clients have reported stuttering issues while playing back.

That is not due to Vimeo but due to a slow internet connection.

By the way, how do you not have full control over videos as an owner when using YouTube?

[Noa Put]

I have a very fast connection, youtube films play at 4k with no issue, it's vimeo only that gives me and my clients issues in playback.

[Noa Put]

To explain full controll a bit further, I would like to have the ability to show or hide, with or without password, any of my videos. I also don't want any advertisement in my films at all and I don't want the logo from the company hosting my films in the player.

Youtube's rights over my films is not so clear to me, what I found back online said the following: "while you retain ownership rights, YouTube retains the right to sublicense and distribute your content in any media format and in any media channel. YouTube's rights aren't restricted to just those needed just to run the service. If you upload video, it looks like YouTube has a non-exclusive right to monetize your content in any way that it sees fit."

Not sure if this is still the case but doesn't matter as they don't provide what I want.

[Cary Knoop]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

To explain full controll a bit further, I would like to have the ability to show or hide, with or without password, any of my videos. I also don't want any advertisement in my films at all and I don't want the logo from the company hosting my films in the player.

Youtube's rights over my films is not so clear to me, what I found back online said the following: "while you retain ownership rights, YouTube retains the right to sublicense and distribute your content in any media format and in any media channel. YouTube's rights aren't restricted to just those needed just to run the service. If you upload video, it looks like YouTube has a non-exclusive right to monetize your content in any way that it sees fit."

Not sure if this is still the case but doesn't matter as they don't provide what I want.

I really do not see the problem. you as the rights holder decide if you want to show or hide a video, to make it public or provide a private link. You as a rights holder also decide if you want to monetize as well and YouTube does not display any logos unless you want to. Obviously, if you decide to monetize you need to give YouTube the rights to do as they see fit, i.e. targetted advertising.

[Cary Knoop]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

I have a very fast connection, youtube films play at 4k with no issue, it's vimeo only that gives me and my clients issues in playback.

Then I would talk to your internet provider. Server resources are not a bottleneck, it is bandwidth.

[Noa Put]

I did talk to my provider and to vimeo, both don't know why I have these buffer issues and I am not the only one, all my clients have reported the same issue. My internetconnection is not the issue here, it's vimeo.

I had the same issue a while back with my sync.com account, very poor and unreliable downloadspeeds, same problem with my clients, then I switched to a paid onedrive account and it has been smooth sailing ever since, very fast download speeds and no complaints from my clients either.

[Cary Knoop]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

I did talk to my provider and to vimeo, both don't know why I have these buffer issues and I am not the only one, all my clients have reported the same issue. My internetconnection is not the issue here, it's vimeo.

Just my opinion but I think it is rather libelous to make those accusations about Vimeo. I for one do not have problems with Vimeo.

What is the name of your Vimeo account?

[Noa Put]

It's my and my clients experience that Vimeo often has these buffer and playback issues, it's not always but often enough for me to consider to switch to another platform, I"m also not "accusing" vimeo of anything, I"m just stating a experience of different people that it doesn't work as expected.

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Cary Knoop

What is the name of your Vimeo account?

Why? Will that make my vimeo films run better on my and my clients pc? What if it runs fine on your end, it won't change my experience with them. Just like with my sync.com account, where there are many satisfied users I got a very bad experience and every single client of mine complained that they had severe problems just getting my films downloaded, am I then also "accusing" Sync.com? Switching to onedrive solved my problems so there is more going on that has nothing to do with my internetspeed and has most likely to do with the country you live in and where the provider is located or where they have their servers.

Anyways, I"m looking for alternatives.

[Dave Farrants]

I left Vimeo for the same reasons, buffering playback and lower quality than it should be on my fast fibre connection, I sent many emails to Vimeo who gave me all sorts of reasons - then I read the Vimeo user forums and found a whole lot more people with the same problems and with no answers, when my subscription came up I didn't renew.

[Cary Knoop]

It is up to you, go ahead and avoid and put down YouTube and Vimeo, I am just trying to help!

I think Vimeo is just about the best option to share professional videos! I just would not bite the hand that feeds you.


I and suppose I have to apologize for asking your Vimeo account, I would be glad to give my account to anyone who asks for it.

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Dave Farrants

I left Vimeo for the same reasons, buffering playback and lower quality than it should be on my fast fibre connection, I sent many emails to Vimeo who gave me all sorts of reasons - then I read the Vimeo user forums and found a whole lot more people with the same problems and with no answers, when my subscription came up I didn't renew.

Yes, I also have seen more users complaining about playback issues, it's not a general thing but certainly not isolated cases either, can I ask what you eventually switched to?

[Chris Harding]

Hi Noa

Surely Vimeo uses mirror servers in each country? If it does then it could be simply your location doesn't come up to speed like it does for USA clients?

To be honest I have found that vimeo in Australia is also a bit slow especially that we are isolated in the West here however I have no issues with Livestream servers (owned by Vimeo) from clients worldwide!

Can you not do a path trace from where you are to where the nearest server is? That might show you where the holdup is??

[Nigel Barker]

Originally Posted by Cary Knoop

I really do not see the problem. you as the rights holder decide if you want to show or hide a video, to make it public or provide a private link. You as a rights holder also decide if you want to monetize as well and YouTube does not display any logos unless you want to. Obviously, if you decide to monetize you need to give YouTube the rights to do as they see fit, i.e. targetted advertising.

It's been a few years since I last looked there were lots of reasons why Vimeo was preferable to YouTube. Vimeo allows you to embed an unbranded "white box" player (or even one with your own logo) on your website whereas the YouTube embedded player was always clearly YouTube. There are other issues with YouTube too like when it thinks that you are illegally using some copyrighted music & blocks playing or adds adverts.

If bother Noa & his clients are seeing the same issues then I suspect that the issue is with Vimeo in Belgium. For a paid for service I always found Vimeo support frustratingly difficult to interact act with not least because your only access to support is via their forums.