Wistia: A review

The PROs

• SEO -Wistia works great for SEO, since you can embed keywords into your videos.

• Best Analytics -it provides more detailed analytics than any of the other video hosting platforms –a feature that makes it perfect for serious ad campaigns.
  
  

• In-video forms and hyperlinks -Among other easy to use customization options, Wistia allows you to utilize forms and hyperlinks in the videos themselves, giving viewers direct access to your website.

  

• Very professional look -The new Vulcan Wistia player is simply the best if you ask me –with a simple, sleek design, no branding label, customizable colors (so you can make it fit your page or brand) and snappy reliable playback with a cool time slider that has slick roll-over thumbnails that make it easy to navigate …and it’s totally responsive – meaning it can automatically resize to fit any sized browser screen. It’s also notably quicker to play after clicking the play button in our tests.

• Better security -Ripping YouTube and Vimeo videos is a breeze, but if somebody wants to steal your Wistia video, they’d better know what they’re doing.

• Flexible Dimensions -Wistia doesn’t limit you to the typical 16×9 widescreen video dimensions. Your video can be any aspect ratio your heart desires, so you can have a slim video that stretches down the side of your site if you like. And yes, it supports 4K video which, if you don’t know, has about 4 times the clarity of HD video. Despite all this, Wistia is not for everyone.

• Excellent customer support -the level of customer support offered at the time of writing this (1/25/2022) is outstanding. I was blown away frankly. They went out of their way to investigate my website and provide me with custom coding to fix a problem related to embedding a video they were hosting for me.

The Cons

• It’s expensive -Unlike other video hosting platforms, Wistia charges based on how many videos you have on their platform. So if you have more than a few videos you want to release to the world, get your wallet out. Here’s how the pricing works at wistia:

  
  
  

• No help with promotion like on YouTube or (to a lesser degree) Vimeo. Wistia is strictly a hosting site that gives you lots of features that are useful for a serious ad campaign. It’s not a social media platform where people can stumble upon your video or watch all the videos on your channel back to back.

Conclusion

Wistia is a powerful tool for businesses and definitely worth considering for videos that are not the type of videos that would garner subscribers. If you have multiple videos and they are the kind that people will watch back to back and subscribe to (either for education or entertainment), then you should consider Youtube. If not, your best bet may be either Vimeo or Wistia. If you have the money (or have less than 5 videos) and you want your video/s to look as professional as possible, with the best player out there, conversion forms or links in the video, and detailed analytics, Wistia is a likely candidate. Think of Wistia as a more professional version of Vimeo but without the social audience that Vimeo brings to the table and with a significantly higher price. It’s really ideal for higher-end video marketing efforts.

If you have any questions or you would like more information about having a promotional or explainer video made for your organization, please reach out! That’s what we do!