YouTube vs Vimeo

QuickHit

YouTube

Hosting is free and the interface is social media-oriented and tailored for discovering content. YouTube places a focus on faster playback start and all videos are automatically transcribed and captioned. Being owned by Google, videos are also search engine optimized (SEO) on searches using Google and ranked higher in the results.

Vimeo

Vimeo’s free tier has very limited options and a very small weekly file size cap. Focus is placed on video quality, defaulting to HD, and a more professional layout. A different compression method yields sharper videos. Vimeo has the ability to replace a video without creating a new URL, resetting views, or resetting comments and Likes.

Side-by-side compression comparison

  Vimeo YouTube
Cost Free & Paid Free
Ads No Yes
Design Professional layout Content discovery
Social Features Like, Follow, Comments Like, Dislike, Follow, Comments
Focus Video quality Quicker playback
Captions Upload, Manual, Paid Upload, Manual, Automated
Protection Password Unlisted, Restrict to specific Google accounts
Player Customization Yes No
Replaceable Videos Yes No
Source File Retention With Vimeo PRO No
SEO No Google
Analytics Robust Basic
Support Up to 1 hour response Limited