Private video hosting platforms: What are they + 12 great platforms to try

Some videos are made for the whole world to see: to rack up as many views and gain as much exposure as possible from the widest possible audience. Other videos serve a different purpose in that they’re created for specific audiences.

Enter private video hosting platforms, which allow broadcasters to restrict access to specific audiences. If your organization uses video for internal communications, a private video hosting platform offers many empowering advantages, particularly for ensuring your content is only accessible to your internal teams.

However, private video hosting platform offerings vary widely. Do you simply need a platform that lets you create a password-protected library of new hire training video resources? Or perhaps you need a service with more robust access controls that allows you to record and transcribe meetings for async playback? You may even need a combination of tools at your disposal to see your internal communications strategy to its fullest potential.

In this article, we’ll look more closely at private video hosting platforms, what they offer, and why they’re beneficial. Then, we’ll provide a brief overview of 12 of the best private video hosting platforms for secure internal video content management to help you determine which best support your organizational needs and goals.

What is a private video hosting platform?

In the contemporary digital business landscape, videos are used for much more than marketing. Today’s forward-thinking organizations are increasingly incorporating video messaging into their daily workflows for sales, leadership messaging, administrative operations, human resources, product management, customer support, and finance department communications.

This increased reliance on video makes sense, given data indicating that employees are likely to retain a staggering 95% of information conveyed to them via video.

An alternative to public-facing platforms like YouTube, private video hosting platforms provide a secure space for videos intended for restricted audiences while ensuring they are not accessible to unauthorized parties. These platforms also allow organizations to maintain full ownership (and control) over their content and streaming experience.

Private video hosting platforms are ideal for a breadth of organizations with advanced video streaming needs: businesses and nonprofits to government bodies and educational institutions.

In short, if you create (or want to create) private live streaming or on-demand video experiences for targeted restricted audiences, you need a private video hosting platform.

Key benefits of private video hosting

There's plenty that private video hosting platforms offer that organizations can't get from many public options on the market. Let's explore a few of the most significant benefits of private video hosting below.

Offers a customizable user experience

Private video hosting lets you customize videos to your target audience — whether it consists of one or 100,000 viewers. This is critical, as research shows that personalization enhances engagement as well as loyalty and satisfaction.

Some private hosting sites also offer enhanced personalization features, such as branding and clickable call-to-action buttons.

Provides rigorous security measures

The cost of data breaches surged 13% between 2020 and 2022. It follows that organizations are doing everything they can to protect their constituents' data — and their reputations and bottom lines in the process.

Your video content has value that will continue to grow with the right measures in place. Maintaining control over who has access to it — and preventing unwanted access — is essential to safeguarding that value.

Private video hosting offers an invaluable level of security against your sensitive or proprietary content falling into the wrong hands.

Helps manage your video content

With more and more organizations shifting to remote and hybrid work models in the wake of COVID-19, video content is becoming an increasingly popular tool for both internal and external messaging.

Individuals, teams, and departments now rely more heavily on video for a growing range of communication tasks:

• CEO messages
• Staff onboarding
• Health and safety
• Training and education
• Team and morale building
• Company news updates

With these growing organizational needs, video libraries are expanding by the day. Private video hosting platforms provide a central location for organizing, managing, and maximizing your video content's value. Additionally, many feature functionalities like batch uploading, video grouping, metadata management, and API support.

Integrates with your other video conferencing tools

For internal teams to get the most out of a private video hosting platform, it should incorporate seamlessly with the other tools in your meeting tech stack. If your organization uses Zoom, Google Meet, or another tool as your primary video conferencing software, you’ll need a private video hosting platform that integrates well with it for the best user experience.

Includes video transcripts for detailed meeting notes

While the research cited above illustrates that videos are proven to be more effective at communicating complex information, many private video hosting platforms offer the added benefit of built-in transcription. This saves recipients the time and effort associated with taking thorough notes and also improves knowledge transfer across organizations.

12 great private video hosting platforms to try

It’s important to note that not all private video hosting platforms are created equal. Here, we’ll break down key features, pros, cons, and pricing for 12 leading platforms.

1. Rewatch

Rewatch is a video content management system (video CMS) that offers private video hosting platform services, allowing organizations to safely and securely manage high-quality private videos for internal and external use. Our platform gives users access to sophisticated video-sharing and transcription functionalities, reducing the amount of busywork for your team and freeing up valuable time in the process.

Our secure video hosting solutions have a number of use cases, from HR employee onboarding to all-hands meetings and everything in between. Rewatch even gives you access to detailed analytics so that you can see how your team members are  engaging with your video content.

Book your demo of Rewatch to see how you can uplevel your secure private video hosting solution!

Key features

• Searchable transcripts
• On-demand viewing
• SAML SSO access
• Rich analytics
• Notifications

Pros

• User-friendly video organization and management
• Industry-leading security, encryption, and data practices
• Automatic transcription powered by a highly accurate AI speech engine
• Useful engagement analytics
• Wide range of integrations that reduce your team's admin workload
• Tons of collaboration features including timestamped comments and tagging via @ mentions

Cons

• No free version

Pricing options

Plans range from a base Startup plan to custom enterprise pricing upon request.

2. Wistia

Primarily a marketing tool, this video hosting service allows users to design, customize, control, and stream TV quality video content. This platform also offers video streaming for sales and live events, and enterprise and marketing video hosting. Wistia also boasts features like lead generation tools, embeddable channels, and a customizable player.

Key features

• Fully customizable video player
• Ad-free user experience
• CRM integrations
• Interactive engagement tools
• Channels and “up-next” features
• Built-in analytics and SEO tools
• CRM integration
• SEO automation

Pros

• Mindful analytics
• Custom branding options, such as CTAs and annotation links
• SEO-friendly
• Free of ads
• Useful customer support
• Optimal control for organizations and audiences
• Lead tracking using Mailchimp, HubSpot, Marketo and Pardot platforms

Cons

• Video dimension and length limits
• Storage limits
• Some issues with customization

Pricing options

Select from four pricing plan tiers: Free, Plus ($19/month), Pro ($79/month), and Advanced ($319/month).

3. Vidyard

This comprehensive video platform is an all-in-one solution focused on everything from sales and marketing to corporate communications. In addition to free and pro packaging, they also offer team and enterprise pricing.

Key features

• Interactive viewing experiences
• Video SEO
• Cutting-edge video analytics and SEO tools
• High-level security
• Viewing features, such as personalization and playlists
• Self-serve weekly webinars and knowledge databases

Pros

• Feature-rich
• Detailed analytics and reporting
• Active user community
• Robust customer service
• Integrations with many platforms and programs

Cons

• Can be difficult to navigate on the back end
• Maximum file sizes and video lengths
• User experience can be inconsistent

Pricing options

Vidyard offers three pricing plans: Free, Pro ($19/month), and Business (custom pricing).

4. Cincopa

Cincopa is a multimedia content management platform capable of hosting video content and other media types, including podcasts, music, photos, and more. This platform is ideal for education streaming, business video hosting, video creation, video for sales, as well as other multimedia content.

Key features

• Cutting-edge integrations options
• Archiving for live streams
• Mobile-friendly video player
• Accessibility tools
• Bitrate streaming adaptability
• Reliable content delivery

Pros

• Many features
• HD streaming
• Multimedia hosting
• User-friendly/fast learning curve
• Sophisticated security tools, including access control, private linking, and SSO

Cons

• Minimal organizational tools
• Inelegant user interface
• Limited documentation and training materials
• Can be buggy

Pricing options

Choose from four pricing plans: Plus ($25/month), Corporate ($99/month), Enterprise ($350/month), and Custom Enterprise (custom pricing).

5. YouTube

The internet’s largest video-sharing website, YouTube reigns supreme when it comes to the number of active users. This makes it an unbeatable platform for content creators looking to grow their audiences, and doubles as a social media platform. But while YouTube does offer private and unlisted options, it’s not necessarily the best choice for organizations looking for high-security private video hosting.

Key features

• Massive user base with significant traffic driving and audience building potential through search, recommendations, and subscriptions
• Branded YouTube channels
• Subscribe buttons
• Live streaming
• Videos management on the go
• 360-degree videos
• Private and unlisted options to remove videos from public access
• Custom-generated iframe codes allow for easy video embedding

Pros

• Unlimited and free cloud storage
• No limits for data storage and bandwidth
• Can upload videos up to 128GB
• Access to ad revenue generation

Cons

• Dated branded iframe player is your only option for to embed video into your website
• Not an optimal choice for certain types of video content, such as course videos and testimonials
• Limited ability to turn off ads
• Weak security for private videos

Pricing options

Because it primarily earns revenue through ads, YouTube is free to upload and watch. However, there is also a $11.99/month Premium subscription model for viewers that offers an ad-free viewing experience for users while enabling creators to earn view-based revenue.

6. Kaltura

Kaltura is one of the most complex options on the list to deploy, as it requires IT expertise for optimal management. This live streaming and VOD platform is primarily geared toward big businesses, enterprise, and major educational institutions, with its bread and butter being video management and webinar hosting for educational purposes.

Key features

• Virtual event hosting
• MediaSpace video portal for education and enterprise
• Large-scale meetings
• Continuous meeting rooms (i.e., leave, come back, and continue to have access to chat and file histories)

Pros

• Unlimited meeting attendance
• Bulk uploading feature lets users upload multiple files at once
• Integrates well with many CMS and LMS

Cons

• Not great for smaller businesses that lack fully equipped IT departments
• Difficult to learn to use
• One of the more expensive options

Pricing options

Kaltura offers a free trial for all plans. However, the only pricing Kaltura lists online is their Virtual Classroom (Standard plan: $19/month billed annually; Pro plan: $45/month billed annually). All other pricing packages (of which there are many) are quote-based only.

7. SproutVideo

A live streaming and VOD provider, this private video hosting platform offers comprehensive support for diverse broadcasting requirements. Ideal for creating branded video websites, this platform lets businesses create basic websites for their video content for initiatives like sharing tutorials with team members and showcasing portfolios.

Key features

• Live streaming and online video hosting
• Live chat support (included with every plan)
• Integration with HubSpot, Zapier, Mailchimp, and other third-party tools
• Robust security and privacy features
• Video landing page

Pros

• A variety of plans for different budgets
• Heavily customizable for optimal branding
• In-player CTAs for lead capturing
• Rich analytics
• Top-notch support
• Super smooth playback thanks to automatic bandwidth detection and quality adjustment features
• Login protection, password protection, and single sign-on security

Cons

• Limited storage
• Problems with buffering
• Potential SEO issues

Pricing options

Sprout offers a range of flexible pricing plans: Seed ($24.99/month), Sprout ($59.99/month), Tree ($199.99/month), and Forest ($499.99/month).

8. Brightcove

Built for broadcasters with a focus on marketing and monetization, this high-end cloud-based video hosting company and enterprise video suite offers a comprehensive cloud video hosting and streaming platform with a primary focus area of media and broadcasting, sports, and entertainment industries.

Key features

• 24/7 functionality
• Monetizing and advertising functionality
• OTT streaming
• TV Everywhere (TVE)
• API-based upload and migration tools
• Global DCN

Pros

• Easily customizable permissions
• An intuitive interface
• Dynamic editing tools
• Highly secure, including IP and location restriction
• Pre-built integrations
• No limits on file size
• Advanced automated integration with communication, marketing, and advertising applications

Cons

• Additional fee for 24/7 support
• Analytics and reporting are limited
• Lack of content segregation function
• Significant learning curve
• Expensive (accessible to large enterprises only)

Pricing options

Brightcove primarily targets enterprise-level clients. They offer three customizable packages for Marketing, Enterprise, and Monetization. However, you must contact them directly for pricing.

9. IBM Cloud Video

Originally UStream, this private video platform is known for its reliability and offers enterprise-grade VOD and live streaming functionalities.

Key features

• Secure video content sharing
• Adaptive video player
• Video encoding at multiple bitrates
• AI-powered captioning
• VOD and live streaming video

Pros

• Robust features
• Unparalleled reliability
• Enterprise-level capabilities
• Excellent customer support and technical support
• Detailed video analytics
• User-friendly and intuitive

Cons

• No monetization models
• Basic plans don’t support APIs
• No content delivery network (CDN)
• Lack of a built-in SSL secure paywall

Pricing options

There are four pricing plans: Silver ($99/month), Gold ($499/month), Platinum ($999/month), and Custom.

10. JW Player

Including both live streaming and VOD hosting, JW Player is a simple, budget-friendly private video hosting platform with limited features and capabilities.

Key features

• DRM support
• Appropriate for companies of all sizes
• Video distribution management
• Useful analytics
• Ad optimization

Pros

• Simple interface
• Affordability
• Terrific customer service and sales support
• Video format flexibility
• Advertising integrations

Cons

• API support isn’t available for live streaming
• Five-hour limit for live events
• Content delivery relies on an internal server network
• Limited features (no screen sharing, subscriptions, or closed captioning)
• Majority of features and functions aren’t available with the Starter plan

Pricing options

JW Player's pricing plans include a 30-day free trial (with a non-commercial license), Starter plan ($10/month), and Enterprise plan with custom pricing.

11. Wowza Video

This private video hosting platform offers secure hosting for live streaming and on-demand video with various features, including low-latency content access.

Key features

• High-definition streaming
• Cloud management services
• Powerful privacy and security features
• Reliability
• API Access

Pros

• Audience engagement
• Video looping
• Performance tracking and monitoring
• Mobile screen support

Cons

• Supports only single camera feeds
• No options for monetization
• No event scheduling

Pricing options

Wowza Video’s pricing model comes in four flavors: Pay As You Go ($25/month), Annual ($130/month), One Month of Streaming ($149/month), and Enterprise (custom pricing).

12. StreamShark

This online video platform offers reliable private video hosting with a wide range of features and functionalities including enterprise solutions, live streaming, and video on demand. StreamShark markets itself as being an ideal platform for individuals, and small- to medium-sized businesses.

Key features

• Global video CDN services
• Phased event stream management
• Multi-vendor approach
• Mobile compatibility
• Robust privacy and security tools
• Customer support
• HLS ingests
• Advertising functionality
• Detailed reporting

Pros

• Ample storage space
• Video encoding
• Localized media ingestion
• Options for monetization
• Redistribution capabilities

Cons

• Inadequate customer support
• Limited video analytics
• No option to embed playlists
• Limited package options

Pricing options

StreamShark currently only offers two pricing tiers: Monthly Plans ($199/month) and Enterprise Solutions (custom pricing).

Host your videos privately with Rewatch

With organizations creating and utilizing video for a variety of purposes beyond marketing, they’re increasingly turning to private video hosting for help.

However, today’s advanced private video hosting platforms do much more than hosting videos. Other functions and features include on-demand and live video streaming, video encoding, AI-powered captioning, video distribution management, customizability, API integration, embeddability, high-level security, and more.

Depending on your organization’s unique needs and goals, some of these capabilities may add more value for you than others. Understanding the features, pros, and cons of the leading private video hosting platforms can help you identify the product that best fits your requirements.

Protecting the value of your video content (and your brand) means ensuring that your video content reaches its target audience — and only your target audience — in the most effective, efficient, and secure way. Whether your goal is to empower your entire team to import recordings and sync meetings from Zoom, or you need to share product demos with clients securely, Rewatch can help.

Start harnessing the power of our innovative private video hosting platform to manage, control, and target access to your valuable video content — book your demo today!