In this article, we‘re going to explore alternatives to YouTube to host and watch videos on. So if YouTube‘s recent war against adblockers had you looking for alterntive ways to watch your favorite video creators, we‘ve got you covered.
Table of contents:
1. Best YouTube alternatives for filmmakers and professional content creators
2. Best YouTube alternatives for entertainment
3. Best YouTube alternatives for music videos
4. Best YouTube alternatives for streaming
5. Best Open Source video-sharing platform
6. Best YouTube alternatives for alternative viewpoints
7. Best decentralized YouTube alternative
Best YouTube alternatives for filmmakers and professional content creators
Vimeo
Vimeo has a history of serving filmmakers, content creators with their 4K HD upload capabilities and ad-free platform. It is more community driven and catered to a professional audience, rather than an entertainment platform like YouTube. Some features are paid, which enables the company to keep advertisement out.
Mave
Coming from the Netherlands, Mave is a video hosting provider that allows user friendly embedding of videos in websites, customization of the video player and a privacy-first approach.
Alugha
Alugha is a German video hosting provider that focusses on making videos multilingual. Their AI tool “dubbr“ makes it easy to add multilingual subtitles to videos.
Best YouTube alternatives for entertainment
DTube
DTube‘s approach of video distribution is special: as a decentralized service, videos aren‘t uploaded and served from a server, but they are stored on a blockchain. They also don‘t display ads nor do they have a recommendation algorithm. It is strongly community driven as opposed to a company determining the direction of the platform. Creators can earn cryptocurrency rewards as opposed to YouTube’s income coming from ad revenue.
Dailymotion
With over 100 million monthly viewers, Dailymotion is one of the bigger competitors of YouTube. It has a similar User Interface, similar categories and also runs on an ad-driven business model. Videos can only be up to 20 minutes long, which somewhat limits long-form content.
Veoh
Veoh has lots of user-generated videos and TV shows to choose from and includes social networking features. The interface looks old though, and content quality is not always what you‘re used to on other platforms.
Best YouTube alternatives for music videos
Vevo
If you just want to watch your favourite mainstream music videos, Vevo is worth checking out. It features videos by Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment, so there are loads of artists to choose from. If you‘re more into independent music or smaller artists, you might not find what you‘re looking for, though.
Best YouTube alternatives for streaming
Twitch
A very popular platform in the gaming community, Twitch is known for its streaming of live gaming and music sessions. Users can interact in real time with live chat, and Twitch streamers can earn money for doing what they love live on camera.
Bunny Stream
Bunny Stream comes from the same team as Bunny CDN. Based in Slovenia, its servers are in the EU but it offers a worldwide Content Delivery Network for fast content delivery. The video player has customization options and promises low latency.
Jet Stream
Another video hosting service coming from the Netherlands, Jet Stream has its servers in the EU and offers hosting, managing and publishing with a strong focus on GDPR-compliance. It is not limited to videos only, as you can also host streams, podcasts, music, radio channels and more.
Best Open Source video-sharing platform
PeerTube
The French non-profit Framasoft develops PeerTube, which is an Open Source video sharing platform, that is not controlled by one company. With its privacy focus, it comes without ads or recommendation algorithms and instead offers a decentralized experience, with community servers and a diverse range of content.
Best YouTube alternatives for alternative viewpoints
Warning: Could contain controversial or offensive content. Less moderated, which can be a good or a bad thing.
Odyssee
Odysee is another video platform that runs on the blockchain. It doesn‘t censor content and is therefore popular among creators and audiences that might be silenced on other platforms. That leads to more diverse viewpoints but also attracts creators whose views might be too extreme, radical or simply fake in the eyes of the viewer. Crypto rewards are also implemented.
BitChute
BitChute is based on peer-to-peer technology and is supporting free speech and diverse viewpoints. As with Odysee, that sometimes leads to provocative or controversial content that you might not find elsewhere.
Best decentralized YouTube alternative
MediaGoblin
MediaGoblin is a media publishing platform that anyone can run. It is free software and aims to foster collaboration among the community. It is decentralized and Open Source.
