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Video content is powerful for entertainment, tutorials, presentations, documentaries, webinars, and many other applications that you can use on your website to engage with your audience. There are currently 2 methods to add a video to a website – video hosting and video embedding. This article will discuss the difference between the 2 methods and further advice on the best method to implement with good reason.
Video hosting is the process of uploading a video to your website’s storage space – which is technically referred to as a server. Uploading a video to your website’s server has its advantage and disadvantage, so let’s first discuss the advantage. The advantage of uploading a video to your website’s server is that you get total control of your video without having to pay for the convenience. If for example your videos are for sale or you want them to be only viewed by users with a membership pass, then video hosting will give you this ability at no extra cost. The disadvantage is that a video requires more resources in terms of bandwidth and storage space and can especially lead to your website being penalized if you are on a shared hosting plan for derailing the server.
Video embedding is the process of creating a ‘mirror’ of a video that is hosted elsewhere, so that the video can be viewed on your website entirely. A good example is adding a YouTube video to your website – people can still view the entire video on your website even though it is hosted on YouTube’s server. Video embedding has its advantage and disadvantage as well – the main advantage is that you save your website’s resources, not to mention that YouTube and other options such as Vimeo are dedicated to video hosting meaning your videos will perform optimally when hosted on these platforms. The disadvantage is that you do not have total control over your video content and you have to pay for the privacy control you need, which might not be as viable for business as video hosting might be.
The advice in this article is to weigh the pros and cons for each method before implementation. Video embedding is highly recommended for promotional video content where you give free access to your video content for audience leverage especially because you can get started for free on Youtube and Vimeo. However, if you need more convenience from YouTube and Vimeo, you will have to pay for every added convenience. Video hosting is highly recommended in situations where you can also afford dedicated hosting or VPS hosting with ample bandwidth and storage space to manage your videos.
There are other advantages and disadvantages to each method that will be covered in upcoming articles but it is my hope that this article has given you the essential information you need to make a better decision as to which method is best suited to your needs.