The 15 Best VOD Platforms: What You Need to Know in 2024

By Max Wilbert | Posted on September 16, 2024September 17, 2024 by Max Wilbert | 55 min Read

In 2024, Video on Demand (VOD) platforms have become irreplaceable tools for businesses and content creators, changing how audiences worldwide consume media. A video streaming platform offers incredible flexibility, allowing users to access a vast library of on-demand videos tailored to their interests. For businesses, a premium VOD platform provides a channel for engaging customers with high-quality content, whether it be through educational webinars, product demos, or branded entertainment. Creators, too, use these platforms to reach global audiences, monetize their content, and build communities.

The rise of VOD services is shown in impressive statistics. For example, by 2024, the global video-on-demand market is projected to exceed $159 billion. That’s at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.7%. Additionally, 72% of internet users in the US say they love and regularly access video-on-demand streaming services, showing how the shift towards on-demand video consumption is increasing. With advanced video-on-demand players and robust VOD servers, these platforms ensure smooth viewing experiences and make video-on-demand an integral part of modern digital life. As businesses and creators continue to harness the power of these platforms, the demand for innovative and reliable video-on-demand solutions will only continue to grow.

In this article, we’re reviewing the top 15 online video on demand platforms for on-demand video hosting. We’ll compare the best video on demand streaming services platforms on the market today. We’ll detail the key features, and price plans and help you choose the best video on demand player and platform for your business.

Please note that the Dacast team has updated this comparison by adding 5 more platforms for a total of 15. We’ve also implemented vast improvements and version updates to our own VOD platform technology in 2024 and have even more planned for the future.

Table of Contents

What is VOD?
How Does Video-on-Demand Work?
Why Professionals Use VOD
Benefits of VOD Streaming for Businesses
What is a Video-on-Demand Hosting Platform?
Live Streaming vs. VOD
Top VOD Platform Features
The 15 Best VOD Platforms and Providers in 2024
How to Select the Right VOD Platform For You?
Conclusion

What is VOD?

VOD stands for video-on-demand. Video on demand providers allow you to access content from an online video library whenever you want to. With VOD streaming services, you don’t have to wait for your favorite show to air at a specific time or wait for a movie to come on the air.

With video-on-demand, your audience gets to access videos when they want, on any compatible device. Viewers have come to expect video libraries to offer VOD access.

VOD streaming content is generally previously recorded, and not broadcast in real-time. VOD content was pre-created and added to the platform. However, you can also turn your live streams into VOD content.

A few common examples of streaming services that use the VOD model include:

Netflix
Hulu
Disney+
Prime Video

VOD platforms use OTT streaming. OTT streaming means that you can access the content over the internet, instead of through a traditional cable television or satellite subscription.

How Does Video-on-Demand Work?

Video on demand software — **Video-on-demand (VOD) platforms can be useful for businesses and organizations of any type to host videos online.**

How it Works for Your Audience

For your audience, video-on-demand is pretty simple. Your audience can access your video library, and choose whatever video they want to watch, whenever they want to.

Some VOD libraries are free and others require a log-in. Some VOD run advertisements and others charge for access.

VOD platforms give your viewers the freedom and flexibility to watch your video content when they want to.

How it Works Behind the Scenes for Your Business

Online VOD is powered by OTT technology. OTT technology uses streaming protocols, which compress and then decompress your video files, allowing them to be streamed over the internet. VOD streaming services take care of this for you.

Ideally, you are also going to want to work with a VOD service that helps keep your content organized, using video tags and descriptions to make it easy to find your content.

Different Uses for VOD Platforms

Many different streaming services, such as Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+ all use VOD. However, providing access to entertaining content isn’t the only purpose of VOD content. VOD content can be used for:

Entertainment
Education
Training

Businesses can use their online video content library to host internal training content. Schools can use VOD libraries to host presentations, lectures, and other pre-recorded live content. VOD libraries can help enhance the remote learning process.

VOD platforms allow for sharing pre-created and curated content. Live streaming is often less polished, as it doesn’t go through the same editing process since it is shared in real-time.

Why Professionals Use VOD

There are many uses for VOD streaming in businesses, schools, and other professional organizations.

It is used to:

Recap important events
Share pre-recorded lectures
Standardize corporate training programs
Build revenue-generating entertainment platforms

There are endless uses for VOD streaming services.

The use cases listed above are simply the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the benefits of VOD streaming. Here are some industry trends that capture the true value of on-demand video content:

27% of internet users watch more than 10 hours of video online each week
86% of businesses incorporate video content in their marketing strategies
Websites with video content keep users’ attention longer than sites without any video content
50% of people look for a video of a product before making a trip to the store to buy it
Video content retains a brand message better than text, photos, and other static content

Check out our dedicated streaming statistics post to learn more about what is going on in the online streaming space. VOD media is just one type of video content you can share online.

Benefits of VOD Streaming for Businesses

There are a wide variety of benefits to using VOD streaming for your business content, including:

Connectivity: Modern technology allows your content to always be available to your users whenever they want to watch it and on whatever device they have at hand. This gives you a greater opportunity to have your videos seen, and you can even promote videos that are years old to get new views.
Polished final product: Pre-recorded content can be edited, re-recorded, and perfected before any of your viewers ever see it. This allows you to put out the best representation of your brand and your content as possible, maintaining your brand’s image in the public eye.
Widely adaptable: For industries where live streaming isn’t mandatory, VOD can be highly beneficial in providing consumers access to content. You have more control over what your viewers see, and they can view your content on their own schedules.

When it comes to video-on-demand vs streaming, some distinct advantages come with using video-on-demand, such as a more polished final product, wide adaptability, and increased connectivity and access.

What is a Video-on-Demand Hosting Platform?

To create a VOD library, broadcasters use VOD hosting software. This allows you to store and manage your on-demand video content. There are both consumer-grade and professional-grade VOD hosting platforms for businesses.

One of the most popular free video hosting platforms is YouTube. However, YouTube’s features are not the best for professional use. Most free platforms, such as Facebook and DailyMotion, also have the same limitations.

A few limitations of free video hosting platforms include:

Outside branding
No brand customization
Content restrictions
Limited monetization options
No API access

Free video hosting platforms work for independent creators, such as vloggers and “YouTubers”. However, if you want to create a secure and stable VOD platform that you have complete control over, you’ll want to look for a professional-grade solution.

A professional video hosting platform includes additional tools that allow you to create a more on-brand experience for your audience.

Video monetization tools
Custom video player
Easy embedding links
Advanced security
API access
Content management system

If you want access to professional-grade tools, you need to work with a professional video-on-demand service.

Live Streaming vs. VOD

While live streaming and VOD are both methods of online video delivery, you cannot have live to VOD streaming without first recording live content.

VOD is, at its core, a method for viewing pre-recorded video content. You can — and should, for maximum video monetization opportunities — record live streaming content for later access on a VOD solution. Recording your content for later use with VOD distribution allows you to maximize your reach and more completely monetize your content. It shouldn’t be about streaming vs VOD, you should use both video methods.

While you can choose to leverage both live streaming and VOD content for your business, you select a streaming platform that can capably handle both distribution methods. Having a unified platform allows you to save time, money, and frustration in dealing with multiple distribution methods, making your job easier in the long run.

Top VOD Platform Features

All individual VOD hosting platforms have their own suite of VOD features and additions, but there are a few things to look for in a quality professional-grade VOD hosting platform:

Video CMS
VOD transcoding
Video monetization
White-label video player
Video privacy and security

These features make it easier to store and organize your videos and allow your viewers the most access to your content when they’re ready to sit down and watch.

Let’s dive in and explore exactly what these features are so that you can better compare and find the right VOD platform provider for your business.

1. Video CMS

As your video library grows, you are going to need a system for keeping track of all that content, which is where a video content management system or video CMS comes into play.

With a video CMS, you will be able to tag your videos and use those tags to create categories and subcategories of your content. That will make it easier for both you and your viewers to find content.

Video tagging can also allow you to create smart playlists. Smart playlists are used to recommend content to the viewer based on what they just watched. They are a great way to keep viewers engaged with your content. More engagement helps to increase the impact and value of your content.

2. VOD Transcoding

Different methods of viewing videos require different file sizes. What works great on a desktop computer won’t always work as well for a mobile device, and vice versa.

With VOD transcoding, your professional-grade on-demand content platform allows your users to automatically view videos at the highest quality that will perform best for their internet connection. This enables those videos to perform their best on a variety of devices without you having to create each file type manually. This huge time saver makes working with a VOD streaming service worth it.

Just create one group of encoder settings and the transcoder does the rest, giving your users the most optimized file type for the device they’re using to view your content. That helps deliver the best viewing experience, something you want when you’re paying for VOD hosting.

3. Video Monetization

If you are using video as part of your business’s revenue stream, you need to find a VOD hosting platform that offers a monetization method that fits your business plan.

However, depending on your business model, not all of your content hosted on your VOD platform needs to or should be monetized.

You can host some content internally, such as training videos, and host other content publicly, such as webinars, entertainment content, educational videos, and podcasts, that you may want to monetize.

With video monetization, there are three main models to monetize your content:

SVOD
TVOD
AVOD

SVOD – Subscription Video-on-Demand

SVOD monetization operates similarly to traditional television packages: Consumers pay a subscription fee and they can watch as much content as they want. But SVOD monetization models have one big advantage over TV: viewers get to pick what they want to stream. Unlike watching whatever’s being broadcast on TV.

Modern streaming solutions that operate on the SVOD model include Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+, where users pay a set price per month to consume as much content as they desire.

This model gives viewers a level of flexibility that many appreciate, allowing them to scale their subscription plans up or down based on their individual anticipated usage.

If you notice you aren’t using your channel subscription as much as you anticipated, for example, you can simply cancel the subscription without paying an early termination fee. This offers greater flexibility and choice for users but does pose some challenges to content creators who may feel more pressure to provide valuable content to “prove” their worth to those subscribers.

Dacast, for example, offers an integrated paywall that suits a variety of subscription-based needs, such as offering access to content with an event ticket or monthly. This paywall allows you to offer video previews to help you get more subscriptions, provide unlimited coupon codes, and more to help this monetization model meet your individual needs.

TVOD – Transactional Video-on-Demand

With TVOD, users pay a set price per piece or series of content, and then they receive access to view that content. TVOD is the industry standard for pay-per-view streaming. There are two subcategories of TVOD content – electronic sell-through (EST), where you pay once and gain permanent access to the content, and download to rent (DTR), where you pay to get access for a limited amount of time.

A mainstream example of the TVOD monetization model is Amazon Prime Video. Users can pay a fee to purchase permanent access to a piece of content, and that content can be downloaded or watched through the Amazon Prime account where the content was purchased.

For a smaller fee, users can rent that same piece of content, and they gain access to it for either a limited time or a limited amount of views, whichever comes first.

This model often provides access to more recent content, such as the latest releases in movies or documentaries, operating similarly to a modern-day video rental store. TVOD offers higher revenues to content creators, as users pay for each piece of content individually.

AVOD – Advertising-Based Video-on-Demand

AVOD differs from TVOD and SVOD in one major way: access to AVOD content is free to consumers. However, in exchange for free access to content, users have to sit through advertisements. The best modern example of AVOD is YouTube, which inserts advertisements at different intervals in videos that provide revenue for both the platform and its creators.

The drawback to AVOD is that it often provides lower revenues for creators, as advertising is usually paid on a per-view or impression basis at very low rates. However, the model is highly attractive to consumers who can access nearly unlimited content for free but just have to put up with advertisements every so often.

With professional VOD platforms, you can choose the advertising network you work with, or you can add your own advertising from custom-selected partners. You control which advertisements play on your videos, and the revenue you earn from them.

4. White-Label Video Player

Many content creators are drawn to platforms such as YouTube because the system is already set up for them. They don’t have to figure out how to create their own VOD hosting platform before they can begin distributing their content. Plus, it’s free! But this system has drawbacks.

Utilizing YouTube or other non-white-label VOD platforms means you’re at the mercy of that platform when it comes to how your content is distributed. Your videos will always carry the VOD platform’s logo, and you may be limited to the ability to embed and share videos on your website or social media platforms.

Finding a VOD hosting platform that has a white-label solution, on the other hand, gives you all the ease of use of a third-party platform, but with more flexibility. White-label hosting allows your content to blend in better on your website as well.

You can remove the third-party branding from the video player, putting your logo and branding on everything. White-label platforms also allow you to easily embed the video player right onto your website, with your branding, and share it on your social platforms such as Twitch or Linkedin Live.

This creates continuity for your brand that you won’t find with many other third-party VOD hosting platforms and shows your customers that you’re serious about the content you provide. This allows you to provide your viewers with the best viewing experience.

5. Video Security

Security is one of the main reasons broadcasters choose VOD platforms for their videos. Video-on-demand platforms protect your video content from the time it’s uploaded to the time a user views it is crucial.

With HTTPS uploading and delivery, you know that your data—and your customer’s data—is secure. Your users can see the lock icon in the address bar, so they know they won’t be hit with malware and hackers when they view your content.

You also want to be able to restrict specific domains or IPs, preventing them from becoming the target of spammers and pirates.

With domain restriction, your content will only play on specific domains, so if someone tries to embed the video content on a restricted domain, the content will not play. With geographical restrictions, you can control the countries and IP addresses where your content is played.

If you offer subscriptions to your users, you need to be able to give them exclusive and safe access to the content they’re paying for.

With password protection integration, you can require a password to view your content, protecting your revenues but giving your subscribers access to the videos they want to watch.

If you accept payments from viewers’ subscriptions or pay-per-view access, you will want to offer SSL security, keeping their financial information safe.

The 15 Best VOD Platforms and Providers in 2024

We have rounded up our list of VOD platforms to make choosing the correct one easier for you. Here are 15 video-on-demand platforms for VOD demand streaming. This is a comprehensive list of different VOD platforms so you can find the best one for you.

Please keep in mind that not every broadcaster needs every tool or feature. The most important thing to consider when choosing a VOD hosting platform is seeing all of the options side-by-side, which will make it easier for you to review their pricing and features.

With this in mind, let’s dive into the top VOD video-on-demand platform providers, features, and pricing for video hosting.

1. Dacast

Dacast is a powerful video hosting platform for live and on-demand content, which was designed for professionals.

Dacast is a unified streaming solution with both VOD hosting and live streaming setup functions. It offers a variety of advanced online video hosting features. These advanced features include video monetization, top-notch security, video API global video delivery, and top-tier video delivery.

Although this hosting and on-demand video streaming platform provider are loaded with so many powerful features, Dacast manages to keep prices pretty competitive.

It is best suited for enterprise businesses and other professional organizations that aim to host high-quality video broadcasts, both live and on-demand.

Video Encoding

Support for multiple encoding bitrates
Adaptive video-on-demand player: delivers the best video quality automatically
Cloud transcoding: simply and easily encode videos into multiple bitrates
Supports multi-bitrate live streaming, the HTML5 video player automatically detects varying bitrates of your live stream

Video Hosting and Library Organization

VOD hosting and live streaming
Content management with categories, subcategories, and tags for the organization
Live stream recording for on-demand playback
Video channel playlists
Zoom live streaming integration
Expo galleries video portal
Includes China video hosting

Uploading / Migration

Bulk upload tool
Dropbox upload
Video library migration
24/7 technical support included in all plans

Video Monetization

Integrated white-label paywall built-in
Pay-per-view (TVOD) support
Subscriptions (SVOD) support
Advertising (AVOD) support
Coupon codes and packages to sell bundled content

API Access

Full video and player API access
SDKs for iOS and Android development

Security Features

Newest Features and Updates

Multi-user access on Scale and Custom plans
Zoom live streaming integration for meetings and live events in real-time
Expo 2.0 galleries video portal for immersive video experiences
Advanced API to build your own video CMS
AES video encryption for advanced streaming security

Upload Guidelines and Specs

Minimum dimension: none (but 240p is the recommended minimum)
Maximum dimension: 1080p or 4K (depends on the user’s hardware and internet)
Video aspect ratio: no restrictions (but 16:9 is the default)
Max file size: none
Max video length: none
Total file storage: 10-1000GB (depends on plan)
Compatible video formats: MP4 (preferred), MOV, M4V, M2V, AVI, MPG, FLV, WMV, MKV, WEBM, OGV, MXF, ASF, VOB, MT

Pricing

Dacast has multiple live-streaming pricing plans for organizations of all sizes and budgets. Here is a quick summary of all plans:

Starter: $39/month billed annually (includes 2.4 TB bandwidth and 500 GB storage)
Event: $63/month billed annually (includes 6 TB bandwidth and 250 GB storage)
Scale: $165/month billed annually (includes 24 TB bandwidth and 2 TB storage)
Custom: contact sales for custom pricing plans

Dacast is one of the most comprehensive VOD platforms with live-streaming capabilities. To learn more about advanced video hosting, video transcoding, unlimited live channels and other custom options, reach out to Dacast’s support team.

Best Use Cases:

2. VPlayed

Dacast — **VPlayed is a VOD streaming platform with a wide range of professional features.**

VPlayed is a VOD platform from Contus that offers solutions for broadcasters in every industry. This platform sells plans that are custom-priced to suit each user’s needs.

Video Encoding:

Cloud transcoding
Automatic transcoding upon upload
Scalable streaming
Multi-platform support

Video Hosting and Library Organization:

Professional management tools
Video categorization
User management
Video scheduling

Uploading / Migration:

Smart uploading (automatic transcoding)
“Clutter-free” upload

Video Monetization:

Ad-based monetization
Subscription-based monetization
Pay-per-view monetization.

API Access:

VPlayed doesn’t provide API access.

Security Features:

End-to-end content protection
DRM
SSO
SSL
Dynamic watermarks
Password protection

Limitations:

No API access
Limited analytics and reporting
Limited engagement tools

Upload Guidelines and Specs:

Minimum dimension: Not available
Maximum dimension: Not available
Aspect ratio: Not available
Max file size: Unlimited
Max video length: Not available
Total file storage: Unlimited
Compatible video formats: MP4, 3GP, MOV, MPEG-TS, MPEG-2 PS, MPEG1, and more

Pricing:

VPlayed offers entirely customized plans, so interested contact their sales team directly for additional information. VPlayed is a VOD streaming service that offers you the monetization options you need.

3. Muvi

Muvi VOD platform — **Muvi is known for its customizability and monetization tools.**

Muvi is a feature-rich, flexible video platform. If you need high-end features and have a large budget, Muvi could be right for you.

Muvi’s most popular feature is its wide range of monetization tools. This is appealing to organizations that set out to make money on their video content with ads, subscriptions, or pay-per-view models.