Vimeo vs YouTube for WordPress Videos Which Should You Use

If youre thinking of featuring more videos on your WordPress site, and youre trying to decide how to get started, then Vimeo vs YouTube is probably on your mind.You already know that uploading videos directly to your site is a no-go. Itll cost you tons of bandwidth to do so, and your server probably isnt optimized for video streaming.The obvious option, then, is to embed these videos on your WordPress site instead.This begs the question: In this article, Ill highlight the pros and cons of Vimeo vs YouTube for WordPress videos your videos, and talk about who should use which platform.Lets get started!Vimeo vs YouTube: PricingFor the sake of practicality, lets tackle pricing right off the bat.YouTube is completely free to use, but whilst Vimeo has a free basic plan, youll have to pay to unlock more storage and premium features:Vimeos paid plans range from $6 to $50 per month, which means youll be paying $72 (youre billed annually) at the very minimum.Bottom line: YouTube is more cost- effective.Vimeo vs YouTube: Upload LimitsNext, lets talk about upload limits. First up: YouTube!Once youve verified your account, you can upload videos on YouTube with up to 12 hours of playback or 128GB file size. The limit on an unverified account is just 15 minutes:Cool beans 12 hours is more than sufficient to meet most content creators needs.When it comes to Vimeo, the upload limits depend on the plan youre on.If youre on the basic (free) plan, youll only get 500MB per week, with up to 25 GB per year.This is decent enough for folks who just want to experiment with incorporating videos in your contentbut if youre serious about making video part of your long-term content strategy, or if youre building your entire WordPress site around your videos, youll definitely need to upgrade to a paid plan.Bottom line: YouTube is less restrictive in terms of upload limits.Vimeo vs YouTube: Platform ReachWhen it comes to platform reach, the Vimeo vs YouTube debate is almost non-existent.Why do I say so?(Charts by Visualizer Lite.)YouTube has 1.5 billion active users each month (data from TechCrunch.com).On top of that, the platform also lays claim to being the worlds second most widely used search engine.To be fair to Vimeo, they have over 170 million viewers worldwide which isnt too shabby at all. But unfortunately, this still doesnt hold a candle to YouTubes 1.5 billion users.Bottom line: YouTube has greater reach.Vimeo vs YouTube: Privacy SettingsHeres how Vimeo vs YouTube compare when it comes to privacy!With YouTube, you can choose from three different privacy settings for the videos which you upload.First up, public videos can be searched and accessed by anyone.Secondly, unlisted videos can be viewed by people who have the URL. These videos do not appear in YouTubes search or related videos functions.Lastly, there are private videos, which can only be viewed by you and the users whom you specify.If you want to, you can also disable comments on your videos. So fa r so good, right?The problem comes in when you want to disallow embedding of videos. YouTube isnt too flexible when it comes to this, and if you want to disallow embedding of videos, this means you wont be able to embed videos on any website, including your own.Needless to say, this is a pretty huge deal-breaker if youre running any sort of membership site.Luckily for you Vimeos here to save the day.Like YouTube, Vimeo allows you to make your videos public, private or unlisted.On top of that, paid plan users also have the option of restricting video embeds to their websites only.Thats not all: Vimeo also have a cool password-protect feature that will prompt users to enter a password for whichever video you choose.Bottom line: Vimeo is better for uploading private videos.Vimeo vs YouTube: Video EditingAfter spending all that time shooting your videos, youll want to make sure that your editing is on point, so that people will love (and share!) your final product.Is Vimeo or YouTube b etter for video editing? Lets break it downFirstly, YouTube offers a pretty good range of video editing features.Using their video editor, you can create videos from your previously uploaded video clips and photos. Its fairly simple to add links, captions, and subtitles to your videos.YouTube also offers you a nice range of original features that you wont find elsewhere. Like this thing called end screens, cards, and annotations.Vimeo, on the other hand, doesnt quite have as many video editing features as YouTube. Most prominently it doesnt have an annotation feature this means you wont be able to add clickable links to your videos.But heres an advantage that Vimeo has over YouTube: on Vimeo, you can replace your video with an updated version without having to change your videos URL or stats. (For reference, you cant do this on YouTube youre only able to upload a new video using a new URL.)This feature really comes in handy for newbie video creators, who might be more prone to mak ing mistakes (which theyll have to rectify subsequently). Its not fun watching your stats reset to zero when you replace your video and with Vimeo, you can simply update your video and retain all the views and comments youve already accumulated!Bottom line: YouTube has more video editing features, but the ability to update a video on Vimeo is great for newer video creators.Vimeo vs YouTube: Monetizing Your ContentBecause exposure doesnt pay the bills. If youre looking to monetize your video content, both Vimeo and YouTube will allow you to do so.Heres how you do so on YouTube:Sign up for Google Adsense, and join YouTubes partner program to start showing ads on your videos.Theres one caveat, though: youll need to rack up at least 10,000 views on your channel before youre eligible to join.Apart from earning through video ads, you can also create sponsored videos in which you plug products and services from your clients.How about monetizing your videos on Vimeo?Whilst Vimeo doesnt hav e an advertising program for its creators, they do have a platform called Vimeo on Demand.On this platform, youll be able to sell videos directly to your users. Do note, though, that youll need at least a Vimeo Pro account  to be eligible to join.Also: similar to YouTube, you can also do sponsored videos on Vimeo.Bottom line: YouTube has more options for monetizing videos. A final word on using Vimeo vs YouTubeVimeo vs YouTube: which is better for WordPress videos?At the end of the day, it really depends.If youre using videos as a way to supplement the existing content on your site, go for YouTube. It should be able to meet all your needs, and it can help you reach out to a much wider audience.But if youre building a membership website or selling courses (with your course materials being predominantly videos), then Vimeo is the way to go.By looking at your business model and assessing your needs, youll be able to choose the right video platform for your WordPress website.Whats you r choice? .@Vimeo vs @YouTube for #WordPress videos: which should you use?