Video hosting software stores, encodes and delivers video outside of a public platform like YouTube, with playback controls, privacy settings, analytics and often an API a business can build on.
This guide ranks the platforms on what actually separates them once the demo is over: what a real month of storage and delivery costs, how much setup an API integration takes, and who is really allowed to see and hold your footage.
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vendor. How that works.
In short
What video hosting software does
Video hosting software stores, encodes and delivers video for a business rather than a public audience, with the playback controls, privacy settings and analytics a public platform like YouTube does not offer, and often a REST API to upload and publish video from another product entirely.
In this order: setup effort, what it really costs, how your data comes back out, whether
you can leave, and who each video hosting tool is built for. One rule sits on top of those tests:
Places 1 to 3 go to challengers, vendors outside the best-known brands in a category, wherever the category has them; the established names follow from place 4 in their ranked order. Why those five, and why there is no
score out of ten, is on the how we work page.
Free credit of €5 at signup plus €5 every month and the first 1 TB of delivery free each month, then usage billed per hour stored, per GB delivered and per minute subtitled, published, excl. VAT
Yes
French video platform combining hosting, AI subtitles and branded channels behind one API
—
Country is where the vendor is headquartered or contracts from, which is a
different question from where your data is hosted. Where the two tell different stories, the
entry says so.
Pay-as-you-go video hosting and delivery on Bunny's own CDN, from a Slovenian company
Ranked #1 of 13 in Best Video Hosting Software in 2026.
Published pricingEurope
Bunny Stream bills storage and delivery per GB, all published with no sales call required, and runs on bunny.net's own CDN. There is no built-in review workflow or monetization tooling, so it suits a team that wants storage and delivery done cheaply and will build the rest itself.
What stands out
Encoding at no extra charge
Published per-GB pricing
$1 monthly minimum
SloveniaStorage from $0.01 per GB; delivery from $0.005 per GB; encoding at no charge; $1 monthly minimum, published; 14-day trial
Developer-first video API, hosted and billed per minute, from a French company
Ranked #2 of 13 in Best Video Hosting Software in 2026.
Published pricingEurope
api.video is built for a team embedding video into its own product, with unlimited encoding at no charge and published per-minute pricing. Its site is published by OVHcloud OCT1, a French company registered in Roubaix, which places it under French and EU law.
Since 1 February 2026 it no longer sells subscriptions to businesses based in the United States, and custom domains cost extra, which is worth budgeting for.
What stands out
Unlimited encoding at no charge
Published per-minute pricing
Upload, hosting and delivery API
FranceHosting from $0.00285 per minute stored; delivery from $0.0017 per minute delivered, published
Live streaming and VOD platform with published tiered pricing and a paywall built in
Ranked #3 of 13 in Best Video Hosting Software in 2026.
Published pricingNorth America
Dacast publishes three annual-billing tiers with live transcoding channels on every plan and a paywall and ad insertion from the Event plan up, a real fit for paid live events or subscription video.
Month-to-month billing carries a 3-month minimum, and overage is billed at $0.30 per GB of bandwidth and $0.15 per GB of storage, so model a real month before committing.
What stands out
Published tiered pricing
Paywall and ad support from the Event plan
Live transcoding channels included
United StatesStarter $39 per month; Event $63 per month; Scale $165 per month, billed annually, published
The most complete general-purpose video host, with privacy controls, review tools and published pricing
Ranked #4 of 13 in Best Video Hosting Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingNorth America
Vimeo is the default the rest of this category defines itself against: ad-free playback, granular privacy controls, built-in review and approval tools from the Starter plan and lead capture forms from Standard.
Pricing is per seat rather than per GB, with a 2 TB monthly bandwidth threshold, and a team streaming a large, unpredictable volume of video will often find the per-GB platforms cheaper at real usage.
What stands out
Ad-free playback
Granular privacy controls
Built-in review and approval tools
United StatesFree plan; Starter from $12, Standard from $25, Advanced from $75 per seat per month, billed annually, published
PeerTube is the most independent thing on this page by construction: free, open-source software maintained by Framasoft, a French non-profit funded by donations.
Install it yourself and there is no vendor, no per-seat bill and no company to be acquired out from under you. The trade is setup and polish: someone has to run the server, and the interface is plainer than a commercial platform's.
What stands out
Free and open source
No advertising or tracking
Federated network instead of one company’s servers
FranceFree and open source; self-hosted or join an existing instance
Developer-first video API billed per minute stored and delivered, with 100,000 free delivery minutes a month
Ranked #6 of 13 in Best Video Hosting Software in 2026.
Published pricingNorth America
Mux, Inc. sells video the way api.video does: an API a developer integrates rather than a dashboard a marketing team uses, with published per-minute pricing and a further $20 monthly usage credit. It also sells AI workflow add-ons (Mux Robots) priced separately per job. No review workflow or marketing layer is included.
What stands out
Published per-minute pricing
100,000 free delivery minutes a month
Built-in AI workflow tools
United StatesStorage from $0.003 per minute per month; delivery from $0.001 per minute after 100,000 free minutes, published
Storage and delivery priced per 1,000 minutes, built into Cloudflare's global network
Ranked #7 of 13 in Best Video Hosting Software in 2026.
Published pricingNorth America
Cloudflare Stream prices in round numbers on one of the largest networks in the world, with signed URLs and domain restrictions included rather than an add-on. It is infrastructure rather than a finished product: no review workflow, no lead-capture layer, no marketing integrations.
What stands out
Simple published per-minute pricing
Global delivery network
Signed URLs and domain restrictions
United States$5 per month per 1,000 minutes stored; $1 per 1,000 minutes delivered, published
Marketing-focused video hosting with lead capture and CTAs, and revenue attribution on the Signals plan
Ranked #8 of 13 in Best Video Hosting Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingNorth America
Wistia is built for marketing teams rather than engineering ones, with collections, playlists, CTAs and forms on the Business plan.
The HubSpot, Marketo and Pardot integrations, lead scoring and revenue attribution need Business + Signals at $329 a month or Enterprise. Business includes 3 users, 250 GB of storage and 1 TB of bandwidth a month, and additional users cost $25 each.
What stands out
Free plan available
Integrations on Signals plan
Lead capture and CTAs built in
United StatesFree plan; Business $79 per month; Business + Signals $329 per month, billed annually, published
Enterprise video management and ad monetisation platform, formerly JW Player and now trading as JWX
Ranked #9 of 13 in Best Video Hosting Software in 2026.
Pricing on requestNorth America
JW Player merged with Connatix as JWP Connatix and now trades as JWX (still JWP, Inc.), aimed at streamers, publishers and advertisers who need video ad monetisation alongside hosting. Pricing is not published anywhere; every plan is quoted per organisation, which means a sales conversation before any comparison is possible.
Publicly traded enterprise video platform for education and business, quoted per organisation
Ranked #10 of 13 in Best Video Hosting Software in 2026.
Pricing on requestNorth America
Kaltura, Inc. built its name in higher-education video and has since spread into enterprise town halls and OTT media, with LMS integrations and analytics tuned for large deployments. Nothing is published; every plan is quoted per organisation after a demo.
Broadcaster and media-company video platform, owned by Bending Spoons since 2025, quoted per organisation
Ranked #11 of 13 in Best Video Hosting Software in 2026.
Pricing on requestNorth America
Brightcove Inc. is one of the oldest names in this category, built for broadcasters and publishers running ad-supported streaming at real scale, with live channels, ad insertion and multi-CDN delivery. Bending Spoons took it private in February 2025. Pricing is not published; every deal is quoted.
Lecture-capture and enterprise video platform for education and corporate training, quoted per organisation
Ranked #12 of 13 in Best Video Hosting Software in 2026.
Pricing on requestNorth America
Panopto, Inc. grew out of lecture-capture for universities and now sells the same in-video search and secure hosting into corporate training. There is no self-serve tier and no published number anywhere, so evaluating it means a demo and a quote first.
French video platform combining hosting, AI subtitles and branded channels behind one API
Ranked #13 of 13 in Best Video Hosting Software in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingEurope
Videas runs everything on one uploaded file: hosting, AI subtitles, a distraction-free player, branded channels and live streaming, reachable through a REST API with JS and Python SDKs.
The company, VIDEAS SAS of Lille, runs machines it owns in its own data centres in northern France. It is a young, small vendor, founded in 2018 by two founders.
What stands out
Free monthly credit
REST API with JS and Python SDKs
AI subtitles and branded channels built in
FranceFree credit of €5 at signup plus €5 every month and the first 1 TB of delivery free each month, then usage billed per hour stored, per GB delivered and per minute subtitled, published, excl. VAT
Video hosting software stores, encodes and delivers video for a business rather than a public audience, with the playback controls, privacy settings and analytics a public platform like YouTube does not offer, and often a REST API to upload and publish video from another product entirely. The differences that matter are rarely in the feature list, so this is
the order we would work through them.
01
Decide whether you need a published price
9 of the 13 tools here publish what they cost; the other 4 quote per organisation. The ones you can compare without a sales call: Bunny Stream, api.video, Dacast, Vimeo, PeerTube, Mux, Cloudflare Stream, Wistia, Videas.
02
Decide how much the jurisdiction matters
These 13 vendors are established in 3 countries across 2 regions (North America 9, Europe 4). That decides whose disclosure law applies to what the vendor holds, wherever the servers are.
03
Consider whether you want the source
1 of these are open source: PeerTube. Hosting one yourself trades a subscription for maintenance.
Per seat, per GB or per minute: three meters for three kinds of library
Vimeo prices per seat and Wistia by plan with additional users charged on top. Bunny Stream bills storage and delivery per GB, while Mux, api.video and Cloudflare Stream bill per minute stored and delivered.
A team streaming a large, unpredictable volume will often find the usage meters cheaper; a small team with a modest audience may prefer a fixed monthly plan.
Convert last month's viewing into both minutes delivered and GB delivered, then price each meter.
Check your typical resolution, because per-GB pricing rises with bitrate and per-minute pricing does not.
Subtract free allowances such as Mux's 100,000 monthly delivery minutes before comparing.
A dashboard for marketers or an API for developers
Wistia is built for marketing teams, with CTAs and forms on Business and the HubSpot and Marketo integrations on Business + Signals. Vimeo adds review and approval tools and has lead capture forms from its Standard plan.
Mux, Cloudflare Stream and Bunny Stream are infrastructure with no review workflow, and api.video is likewise aimed at teams embedding video in their own product. Videas sits between, putting AI subtitles and branded channels behind a REST API.
Decide who uploads a video on an ordinary day: a marketer in a dashboard or your application through an API.
If leads matter, test how a form filled in inside the player reaches your marketing platform.
Have a developer estimate the work of building the access control and analytics that a finished product includes.
Advertising, paywalls and lecture capture form a separate, mostly quoted market
JWX (formerly JWP Connatix) and Brightcove serve publishers and broadcasters who need ad monetisation, Kaltura and Panopto grew out of university video and lecture capture, and all four quote every deal.
Dacast is the published exception for paid video, with a built-in paywall and live transcoding channels, though the paywall starts on its Event plan, month-to-month billing carries a three-month minimum and bandwidth or storage overage is billed on top.
If revenue comes from adverts, ask how ad insertion works on live and on-demand streams before anything else.
For teaching or training, test in-video search and the LMS integration with one of your own recordings.
Model a Dacast month that includes a live event, with the overage charges added.
Running it yourself removes the vendor and adds a server
PeerTube is free, open-source and federated, maintained by a non-profit, so there is no per-seat bill and no company to be acquired; someone still has to run the server, and the interface is plainer than a commercial platform's.
Among hosted services the access details differ: Cloudflare Stream includes signed URLs and domain restrictions, while api.video charges extra for custom domains.
Estimate storage, bandwidth and administrator hours for a PeerTube instance before calling it free.
Try to play a private video from an unauthorised domain and through an expired link.
Check whether the player can be served from your own domain and what that adds to the bill.
What goes wrong most often when buying video hosting software
Comparing a per-seat plan with a per-minute rate without first converting your own viewing figures into minutes and gigabytes.
Buying a developer API when the people publishing video are marketers who need forms, CTAs and a dashboard.
Signing a Dacast plan on the tier price and meeting the bandwidth overage after the first live event.
Requesting quotes from broadcaster platforms such as Brightcove for an internal or marketing library that carries no advertising.
07
Frequently asked questions
8 answers
What is the best video hosting software in 2026?
Bunny Stream leads our ranking of 13. Bunny Stream bills storage and delivery per GB, all published with no sales call required, and runs on bunny.net's own CDN.
There is no built-in review workflow or monetization tooling, so it suits a team that wants storage and delivery done cheaply and will build the rest itself.
Which video hosting tools publish their pricing?
9 of the 13, with the pricing model each one publishes:
Bunny Stream: Storage from $0.01 per GB; delivery from $0.005 per GB; encoding at no charge; $1 monthly minimum, published; 14-day trial.
api.video: Hosting from $0.00285 per minute stored; delivery from $0.0017 per minute delivered, published.
Dacast: Starter $39 per month; Event $63 per month; Scale $165 per month, billed annually, published.
Vimeo: Free plan; Starter from $12, Standard from $25, Advanced from $75 per seat per month, billed annually, published.
PeerTube: Free and open source; self-hosted or join an existing instance.
Mux: Storage from $0.003 per minute per month; delivery from $0.001 per minute after 100,000 free minutes, published.
Cloudflare Stream: $5 per month per 1,000 minutes stored; $1 per 1,000 minutes delivered, published.
Wistia: Free plan; Business $79 per month; Business + Signals $329 per month, billed annually, published.
Videas: Free credit of €5 at signup plus €5 every month and the first 1 TB of delivery free each month, then usage billed per hour stored, per GB delivered and per minute subtitled, published, excl. VAT.
The other 4 quote per organisation.
Is there a free video hosting tool?
Vimeo, PeerTube, Wistia, Videas offer a free tier or a free self-hosted edition.
Where are these video hosting software vendors established?
In 3 countries across 2 regions: North America 9, Europe 4.
Bunny Stream: Slovenia.
api.video: France.
Dacast: United States.
Vimeo: United States.
PeerTube: France.
Mux: United States.
Cloudflare Stream: United States.
Wistia: United States.
JWX (formerly JWP Connatix): United States.
Kaltura: United States.
Brightcove: United States.
Panopto: United States.
Videas: France.
Which video hosting tools are open source?
PeerTube.
Which video hosting tools can you host yourself?
PeerTube. The other 12 are hosted by the vendor only.
What should you use instead of Bunny Stream?
api.video and Dacast are the next two on this page. api.video is for Developer-first video API, hosted and billed per minute, from a French company; Dacast is for Live streaming and VOD platform with published tiered pricing and a paywall built in.
Who should not buy Bunny Stream?
Bunny Stream bills storage and delivery per GB, all published with no sales call required, and runs on bunny.net's own CDN.
There is no built-in review workflow or monetization tooling, so it suits a team that wants storage and delivery done cheaply and will build the rest itself.
If your video hosting software product belongs among these 13, tell us what it does and who it is for. Inclusion is an editorial call; what a listing is and is not is set out under software advice.
