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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-24T17:52:45+00:00

I’m working on a web application that involves users uploading videos or accessing a

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I’m working on a web application that involves users uploading videos or accessing a library of videos.

We don’t want the overhead of having to struggle with uploading and converting a wide variety of codecs ourselves, but we’d like the user to upload without having to leave our site for a simpler UI experience. We’d also like to have videos in private libraries that can only be accessed by certain users (and there is a commercial aspect so terms have to allow for that…)

I’m wondering what professional video host sites will allow this, and what considerations might be raised by each one. I’ve seen that Brightcove has extensive APIs, and Vimeo has an upload API I assume could be used by their new Pro accounts, not sure who else to investigate in this space, and since I’ve never done anything like this, not sure what I should be looking out for. (and how difficult this sort of work generally ends up being).

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  1. Editorial Team

    First of all, I’m not here for advertising Brightcove, but because we were working on the the Drupal integration of the Brightcove service, I can share some of the pros of using that. For example that Drupal module can provide a simple upload/video browser interface that you can set up in minutes if you have access to Brightcove.

    If you’re looking for a video service, you should check the following:

    • Is there any way to control plays in a way that you can, for example, set up regional conditions about what can be played for in a geographic zone?
    • Are the measurement tools good enough? Good statistics can make a real difference.
    • Is it possible to play ads? Does the service give a flexible UI for managing them?
    • Is realtime streaming possible? HD?
    • Is the video service accesible from mobile devices? In 2011 I wouldn’t pay a penny for a video service which can’t be used from iOS and Android.
    • Is it possible to automatize preparing multiple renditions for each environment, for example downscale the video for mobile playing?
    • Can you sync the video channels with 3rd party services, for example YouTube?
    • Does the service scale well?
    • Is the documentation and the support good enough for your needs?

    I don’t know about Vimeo’s professional service, since I don’t use it, but I can tell you Brightcove has a good answer for all the questions above. However you should definitely try to consider other alternatives – I cannot tell anything about price/value ration, you should decide what would be ideal for your business.

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