Selling videos online is a great way to make money by sharing your knowledge or love for a particular topic – but creating stable, recurring revenue is challenging for creators. And unpredictable revenue can cause big problems for your online business.
Whether you’re looking to launch a new video service or you’re thinking about taking more control over your existing video content from a platform like YouTube, we’ve got you covered. These platforms cover a wide variety of content types, monetization strategies, community engagement methods, and more.
And if you’re still not convinced that you need something more than YouTube, be sure to read about how AdjusterTV Plus left YouTube and grew their revenue over 400% with Uscreen.
For a better understanding of how you can go about selling videos online and making some serious money, take a look at our guide here.
A Note on Our Recommendations
We believe in radical transparency, so let’s address this upfront:
Yes, we’re a platform for selling videos onlines, which might make you wonder about the objectivity of our recommendations.
That’s a fair concern!
Here’s our position: our mission is to help creators and their fans prosper through meaningful connection – and that doesn’t begin and end with our service. It’s woven into everything we do, including this guide, because your success is our success.
That’s why we’ve taken a methodical, evidence-based approach to our recommendations, drawing from:
- In-depth reviews from industry experts and trusted tech publications
- Direct interviews with creators who have used multiple platforms
- Survey data from creators about their platform experiences across different business types
- Our decade-plus of industry expertise working with successful creators
We don’t believe in generic “best to worst” rankings because each platform excels at something specific. Sometimes Uscreen will be the right fit, and sometimes it won’t be – we’ll be direct about that. Because proper user-product matches create thriving creators, and that’s what ultimately matters.
These seven platforms are the best ways to sell videos online. We haven’t ranked them from best to worst, but instead pointed out the best use case for each one.
Uscreen
Best for: Building a Netflix-style subscription service with apps & community
Uscreen helps creators launch premium subscription services with flexible monetization options. If you have an existing audience, a subscription service lets you develop stable, recurring revenue and Uscreen’s focus on community engagement and branded apps will keep your audience coming back month after month.
Reasons to buy
- Flexible monetization: Offer membership subscriptions, video on demand, rentals, paid live streams, and community membership.
- Branded apps: Uscreen will help you launch a branded app in 30 to 45 days – and creators with apps see 1.6 times more annual subscriptions than those who don’t offer apps.
- Emphasis on retention: An emphasis on member retention through community engagement and mobile/TV apps keeps your members subscribed and improves your recurring revenue – members who use apps have up to 25% more watch time than those who don’t.
- Best-in-class user experience: Uscreen’s video catalog is inspired by Netflix and helps users easily find, pay for, and watch the videos they’re most interested in (or provide them full access with a subscription).
Exceptional support and customer care—responsive, knowledgeable, and partnership-oriented. Seamless user experience for customers, including well-designed apps.
Silke Z., Validated G2 Reviewer
Reasons to avoid
- Best with an existing audience: If you don’t already have an audience that’s willing to pay for your content, you may find it difficult to justify the expense of a premium platform.
- Time and money invested: Creators who choose Uscreen will be guided through the onboarding process (at least one onboarding call is included with all paid plans), but it can take more time and money to get started than some other platforms.
- Limited customization: Some reviewers find that Uscreen’s customization options for websites and emails aren’t as extensive as other platforms.
While Uscreen makes it super easy to learn their platform, you have to spend a decent amount of time hunting and pecking away at the interface to truly grasp what features are available to you and, especially if you’re evaluating against another platform, what’s not there.
Jeremy H., Validated G2 Reviewer
Pricing
| Plan | Growth | Pro | Plus |
| Monthly cost (paid annually) | $149 | $499 | Custom |
| Live streaming | 1 hour | 10 hours | 30+ hours |
| Video storage | 100 hours | 150 hours | 200 hours |
| Mobile apps | None | 1 included | Custom |
| Support | Email, chat | Email, chat, end user support | |
| One-on-one onboarding calls | 1 | 3 | Unlimited |
A Uscreen example
Art for Kids Hub is a YouTube channel that shares videos of art lessons projects for kids. The YouTube channel is very successful and boasts almost 9 million subscribers – but Art for Kids Hub expanded beyond YouTube to offer better service and create more stable revenue.
Users can now pay a monthly fee to become members of the Art for Kids Hub website, which lets them watch the same videos in an ad- and distraction-free environment:
In addition to building recurring revenue, this website powered by Uscreen has several other advantages, including being school-friendly (many schools block YouTube, making it harder for teachers and students to access art projects) and the ability to offer members-only lessons.
Members can also see art lessons and projects on the branded mobile app, meaning they can take their favorite art projects on the road.
And if you’d like to see why our members like Uscreen so much, you can read the story of Filmmakers Academy, which migrated from Vimeo and scaled their membership by 180% with Uscreen!
Vimeo OTT
Best for: Creators and businesses new to selling videos online.
Vimeo is one of the biggest platforms outside of YouTube for sharing videos online, but it provides more monetization options through its over-the-top (OTT) platform. Creators can opt for subscription-based memberships, video on demand, advertising, or free streaming options on many different platforms.
We’ve broken down the differences between YouTube and Vimeo in a detailed article, so if you’re considering both platforms, be sure to check it out.
Reasons to buy
- Simple user interface: Reviewers like Vimeo OTT’s easy-to-use interface for uploading and managing videos.
- Branded apps: Uscreen data shows that creators with branded apps see 15% less monthly churn than those without, and Vimeo powers over 3,000 branded apps.
- Free plan: You’ll get limited video storage and options, but you can start building your OTT service with Vimeo’s free plan to try it out.
- Native live streaming: No need to integrate with Zoom or another service; Vimeo has built-in live streaming on higher-level plans.
The uploading is the best. The stats and all provided are really good. The video cuts are great. The UI of the software is one of the best I have used. The customization of the video player is one of the best features.
Aditya S., Validated G2 Reviewer
Reasons to avoid
- Limited marketing functionality: You’ll get basic marketing functions and integrations with other services you might already be using, but you’ll miss out on things like built-in upsells and giveaway funnels.
- Limited support options: All of Vimeo OTT’s plans include email support, but only Advanced customers get live chat support for their live events, and only Enterprise customers get phone support.
- Few built-in community features: Vimeo’s OTT site builder includes an old-school forum, but if you want modern community engagement features like challenges or welcome workflows, you’ll need to look elsewhere.
The only things about Vimeo OTT that I dislike is that they don’t provide 24×7 Customer support and this has to be improved because sometimes urgent things might come and we might need support for that.
Niraj S., Validated G2 Reviewer
Pricing
| Plan | Free | Starter | Standard | Advanced | Enterprise |
| Monthly cost (paid annually) | $0 | $12 | $25 | $65 | Custom |
| Storage | 1GB | 100GB | 1TB | 5TB | Custom |
| Branded video player | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Audience chat during live events | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Marketing integrations | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Interactive video | No | No | No | No | Yes |
A Vimeo OTT example
ClayShare, an online pottery studio, uses Vimeo to power their website and large collection of videos. You can see Vimeo’s clean video player in action here:
In addition to offering access to most of the video catalog with a membership, ClayShare also offers individual workshops (both live and recorded) for one-off projects and collaborations with other pottery creators:
Brightcove
Best for: Large enterprises and media companies with high-volume distribution needs.
Brightcove is a back-end streaming solution that lets enterprise-level businesses create, share, and monetize branded content. If you need in-depth analytics, global live streaming, content security, and extensive video marketing tools that you won’t find elsewhere, this might be a good option for your business.
If Brightcove sounds like a solution you might explore, you can check out Vimeo’s extensive breakdown of Brightcove vs. Vimeo.
Reasons to buy
- Interactive video: Brightcove has native support for creating interactive video (you can see an example below), which can be a big differentiator for selling videos online.
- Industry-leading analytics: If you sell videos with Brightcove, you’ll get insights on your content, audience, engagement, ads, and more.
- Flexible monetization: Brightcove has native support for advertising, multi-tier subscription, and transactional monetization, as well as hybrid options.
- Multiple products to fit your needs: With several different products – including Media Studio, Communications Studio, Marketing Studio, Zencoder, and more – you can find the right combination for your enterprise.
Reasons to avoid
- Overkill for most creators: 250 companies listed in the Fortune 1,000 use Brightcove. If your business isn’t at that level, Brightcove will almost certainly be overkill.
- No all-in-one solution: The ability to choose the right combination of products is good for global enterprises, but most creators will find that this just adds unnecessary cost to get access to the features you need.
- No site builder: Brightcove is designed to be integrated into your already-existing website, and if you’re looking for help building a website, you’re out of luck.
Pricing
Brightcove doesn’t provide any pricing information on their website, but according to research conducted by Dubb, you’ll probably be looking at $199/month at a minimum, with a $500/month plan being the next step up.
A Brightcove example
You can find examples of many different features in the Brightcove support documentation, but this interactive video from Under Armour shows off one of the platform’s most interesting features: interactive add-to-cart pop-ups directly in embedded video, making this a shoppable video platform:
A second example of interactive video shows how Verizon uses this feature, with an “Is this video helpful?” popup and links directly to Apple and Google app stores to download the app being discussed in the video:
Dacast
Best for: Best for live event streaming with pay-per-view monetization.
Like Brightcove, Dacast is a popular platform for hosting and distributing videos, especially among businesses that already have their own website (or want to build one on another platform). You won’t get many site building or customization options, but if you want to share high-quality video around the world, this is a solid choice.
If you’d like more details on Dacast, you can find more information in our Dacast vs. Vimeo breakdown.
Reasons to buy
- Content management system: Dacasts’s back-end content management system lets you organize and stream live and recorded video through unlimited channels on your site.
- Streaming to China: Many platforms have restrictions on streaming in China, but not Dacast’s Chinese content delivery networks (though it’s worth doing some research about content restrictions if you’re planning on streaming in China).
- Overage protection: Dacast plans come with a streaming bandwidth limit, but you can set up overage protection to automatically pay the overage charges without disrupting your streams.
- Unlimited viewers: Every paid plan supports unlimited concurrent viewers of your videos.
A firm streaming platform where you can customize channels for events and schools. As a long term user of five years, Dacast has provided a stable platform to meet our streaming needs at a reasonable cost.
Shawn O., Validated G2 Reviewer
Reasons to avoid
- Limited monetization options: Dacast lets you offer subscriptions, video-on-demand, and advertising. This will cover many people’s needs, but it leaves out things like bundling and rentals that you can find on other platforms for selling videos online.
- No site building capabilities: If you don’t already have a website, you’ll need to build one elsewhere and embed your Dacast videos.
- No community interaction: While your audience members can chat during a live stream, there’s no further community interaction built into the platform, so to maximize retention you’ll need to build that in your own website.
Configuration is complicated and not intuitive.
Eric G., Validated G2 Reviewer
Pricing
| Plan | Starter | Event | Scale | Custom |
| Monthly cost (paid annually) | $39 | $63 | $165 | Custom |
| Bandwidth | 2.4TB per year | 6TB up front | 24TB per year | Custom |
| Storage | 500GB | 250GB | 2,000GB | Custom |
| Paywall | Add-on | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Advertising | Add-on | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Support | 24/7 support | 24/7 support, add-on for phone | 24/7 support with phone | 24/7 support with phone |
A Dacast example
Because Dacast is a back-end technology, it’s hard to find clear examples, but you can get a feel for the video player in Dacast’s knowledge base. Here’s an example of what a multi-chapter video looks like in action:
In addition to exploring the video player, you can also use the tutorial videos to check out settings and see a few features in action, like Dacast’s presentation of transcripts:
Muvi
Best for: customizable OTT apps with enterprise-level solutions.
Muvi offers a variety of services to businesses looking to sell videos online, including an all-in-one platform solution called Muvi One. One of Muvi’s standout features is the large number of apps you can create through the platform without extensive technical knowledge.
Learning Revolution has a great introduction to Muvi that walks readers through setting up their own OTT platform – it’s worth a read if Muvi is high on your list.
Reasons to buy
- Apps on many platforms: In addition to iOS and Android apps, you can create apps for Roku, Amazon, Samsung, LG, Windows, Xbox, Mac, and other platforms.
- Add-ons to expand functionality: If you want your users to be able to upload videos or to use Muvi’s learning management system extension, you can add them for a monthly fee.
- Built-in recommendation engine: Most plans include access to the Alie recommendation engine, which suggests content for users to watch based on their previous activity.
- Powerful customization: On higher-level plans, you can customize Muvi’s offerings and have those tweaks deployed in a month or less.
We were able to get the system setup and launched very quickly. It was very user friendly and affordable. Their customer support walked us through the process and were very helpful.
Brandon G., Validated G2 Reviewer
Reasons to avoid
- Significant investment: Muvi One is built with established businesses (or those with a solid amount of cash right out of the gate) in mind. You only get access to the full suite of features once you get to the Professional plan at $1,499 per month.
- Learning curve: Some reviewers find it difficult to use Muvi’s interface to create and manage their platforms, and not everyone is happy with the response they got from customer support.
- Limited customization: Multiple reviewers commented on the small number of website templates available on Muvi. And while you can work with the Muvi team to further customize the product, it takes time and further cost.
The CMS is not as friendly of a user interface as I would like. It takes a great deal of mapping out and trying to remember where things are placed and consulting the help forum.
Audra E., Validated G2 Reviewer
Pricing
Note: this is pricing specifically for Muvi One; if you’re interested in other products, be sure to visit Muvi’s site to get the details.
| Plan | Standard | Professional | Enterprise | Ultimate |
| Monthly cost (paid annually) | $339 | $1,274 | $3,315 | Custom |
| Extra cost per app (paid annually) | $254 | $424 | $424 | Custom |
| Hosting (monthly) | 100GB bandwidth, 100GB storage, 20GB encoding | 500GB bandwidth, 500GB storage, 100GB encoding | 1TB bandwidth, 1TB storage, 200GB encoding | 2GB bandwidth, 2TB storage, 400GB encoding |
| Apps available | iOS, Android | iOS, Android, Android TV, Apple TV, Roku TV, Fire TV, Samsung TV, LG TV, Windows, Mac, Xbox, Apple Vision Pro, Astro | iOS, Android, Android TV, Apple TV, Roku TV, Fire TV, Samsung TV, LG TV, Windows, Mac, Xbox, Apple Vision Pro, Astro | iOS, Android, Android TV, Apple TV, Roku TV, Fire TV, Samsung TV, LG TV, Windows, Mac, Xbox, Apple Vision Pro, Astro |
| Support plan | Basic | Basic | Basic, Priority available | Basic, Priority available, VIP available |
| Designated account manager | No | No | Yes | Yes |
A Muvi example
Simply South is a great example of what Muvi can do for creators looking to build a Netflix-like streaming service that offers both subscription access and single-video rentals. Here you can see the catalog page’s easy organization and visual appeal:
If you want to see the Muvi video player in action, check out the Muvi demo page to see a video play and test out some different light customization options:
Patreon
Best for: Fan support through donations & memberships with exclusive video content.
Patreon connects creators directly with their audiences to sell videos and build community. If you want to distribute content regularly but aren’t concerned about building a big catalog of videos to monetize or using advanced community features for retention, Patreon can be a way to build your platform quickly.
Patreon is an interesting platform and feels very different from the others on this list – to find out more about it, hop over to our Patreon pros and cons article.
Reasons to buy
- Name recognition: Patreon is a very popular platform, and if you tell your audience members that they can support you there, many of them will already understand how it works.
- No monthly fees: Instead of monthly fees, you pay a percentage of your earnings to Patreon (see below for pricing details).
- Simple model: You publish the videos you want to sell, and your members receive them. Add some basic community features, and you have a Patreon.
- Online store: In addition to your monthly subscriptions, you can also sell digital products through your own Patreon store.
I feel like Pateron puts content creators in the drivers seat when it comes to controlling what they choose to produce compared to other platforms which are not as friendly to content creators.
Lindsay H., Validated G2 Reviewer
Reasons to avoid
- Not video focused: While many Patreon creators sell videos, the platform is built to be more flexible and appeal to podcasters, makers, and more, so you’ll miss out on some video features like native live streaming.
- Limited monetization options: You can offer subscriptions and run an online store, and that’s about it – rentals, bundling, and paid community membership aren’t available.
- No site customization: While you may be able to make small tweaks, you won’t be building your own site like you would on other video monetization platforms. You’re stuck with Patreon’s current creator page.
I don’t love the comment system on Patreon – I feel like I miss things sometimes. I’m not sure how to make that better though – it’s really like posting on a blog post now, as opposed to something more social-media-like?
Brittany W., Validated G2 Reviewer
Pricing
Patreon has two plans:
- The Pro plan requires you to pay 8% of the income you earn on Patreon back to the platform, and includes everything you need to get started, including monthly and annual subscriptions, membership tiers, free trials and special offers, and member analytics. This will be the right plan for most creators.
- The Premium plan will cost you 12% of your earnings, and adds a dedicated account manager, team accounts, and the ability to offer merchandise as a reward for joining a membership tier.
If you want to sell digital products, you’ll also pay 5% of your monthly sales earnings to Patreon.
A Patreon example
CGP Grey is a popular YouTuber that maintains a Patreon presence. One interesting thing about CGP Grey’s Patreon is that it offers access to a members-only Discord. This is a way around Patreon’s limited community features, but requires coordination between multiple platforms. Here’s a look at how Patreon displays membership options:
You can also get an idea of Patreon’s video experience with limited preview of CGP Grey’s videos in the feed:
Thinkific
Best for: Educators and course creators selling video-based courses.
If you’re specifically looking to sell videos online in the format of a course or educational product, Thinkific is a great choice. As one of the top choices for selling online courses, it has lots of features that cater to educational creators.
Thinkific is often compared to Kajabi, and we’ve compared the two extensively – check out Kajabi vs. Thinkific if you’re interested in either platform!
Reasons to buy
- Course builder: With course templates, AI-assisted course building, and a drag-and-drop course builder, you can start turning your videos into online courses in no time.
- Online learning features: Assignments, quizzes, compliance tools, and integration with Brillium Exams let you offer a high-quality learning environment remotely.
- Mobile learning app: Thinkific’s mobile app lets students access your courses while they’re on the go (branded apps are also available).
- Support for coaching: Built-in support for coaching and webinars makes it easy to sell these products to your audience.
Thinkific has everything you need in a Learning Management System or Learning Business Solution. It has tools and integrations for small or enterprise businesses. I like the fact you can build end to end funnels and marketing campaigns to promote and sell your content. All authoring tools are easy and you can get immediate feedback.
Marc M., Validated G2 Reviewer
Reasons to avoid
- Primarily for educators: While Thinkific does offer downloads and memberships, it’s built largely for selling online courses and other educational products, which won’t suit all creators.
- Limited community features: Depending on the plan you choose, you’ll have limited communities and community spaces, which could get in the way of audience engagement.
- Learning curve: Many reviewers find that Thinkific is a bit hard to learn, and if you’re planning on using advanced features like SCORM compliance or the Brillium Exams integration, you should be ready to spend some time getting set up.
There’s no inbuilt adequate information or guide on how to navigate most of these features.
Ahmad U., Validated G2 Reviewer
Pricing
| Plan | Basic | Start | Grow | Plus |
| Monthly cost (paid annually) | $36 | $74 | $149 | Custom |
| Communities | 1 | 1 | 3 | Unlimited |
| Spaces per community | 5 | 10 | 20 | Unlimited |
| Support | Email, chat | Email, chat | Phone, priority email | Dedicated success team |
| Advanced HTML/CSS editing | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Randomized quiz question bank | No | No | Yes | Yes |
A Thinkific example
Thinkific Academy includes numerous free courses that can help you grow your business and give you an idea of what your learners will see. The video interface is clean but includes several handy features like completion progress tracking and a search bar:
Course creators get access to many types of content, including worksheets, which are interactive in the platform:
How to choose a platform to sell videos online
Now that you’ve seen how the seven platforms above stack up against each other, you might be wondering how you’re supposed to choose one. The best way to start here is by examining your priorities and seeing which platforms line up with them.
For example, if flexible monetization and recurring revenue are most important to you, Uscreen is a great choice, because that’s what it’s built for. Vimeo OTT is also a great option here, as it requires little setup and lets you earn via subscriptions, purchases, rentals, and advertising.
If, on the other hand, you’re concerned about providing an educational experience that requires more online learning tools like quizzes and assignments, Thinkific is worth a look.
Maybe you need more of a backend streaming technology than a monetization platform – in this case, Brightcove, Dacast, and Muvi are great options, as they provide a great amount of control for embedding and optimizing video content on existing websites (though you can also build your own OTT platform with Muvi’s site builder).
And if you’re not especially interested in creating a platform, but you want to offer your fans the ability to financially support your content, Patreon is built and optimized around that very idea.
As you can see, each platform has its strengths and use cases. Take some time to think about your highest priorities and where you see your business going, then choose a platform or two to compare based on how they can best help your business.
That’s a lot of information to go through, and we just covered the most important points.
We’ll start with the most important step in choosing a platform for selling videos online:
1. Determine your priorities
What’s most important to you? Is it user experience? Access to an audience or a marketplace? Integrations with your most important tools?
Take some time to identify three or four priorities that are non-negotiable in your search. It’s worth spending a bit of extra time at this point in the process to make sure you know exactly what you’re looking for.
Here are three of the things we think you should have in any OTT platform:
2. Create a shortlist of video selling platforms
The priorities you identified should eliminate a few of the platforms available. For example, if you need a platform that will let you build a customized website, Patreon won’t cut it.
Even if you’re early in the research process, you might have a feeling about some of the platforms for selling videos online. Start your search there – make sure they meet the priorities you set out in the last step.
3. Dive deep into the details of each platform
It’s time to take a look at each platform in great detail. You know they offer the features that you’ve prioritized, but what else is available? Does each platform offer membership support? What about one-on-one onboarding? Are there video-related features that will help you grow your business in the future?
This step might take the longest, as the feature lists for video monetization platforms can be quite long. But taking your time here means you’re much less likely to have regrets about the platform you’ve chosen. If there are any platform demos you can take advantage of, now would be a great time.
4. Choose and start creating
At some point, you’ll need to commit to a platform and start uploading videos. If you’ve followed the three steps above, the platform that’s rising above the others is very likely the one for you!
Sign up for a free trial or a membership, start uploading your videos, and launch your dream business into reality!
Build, launch and manage your membership, all in one place.
