Which Are The Top Video Platform as a Service Solutions?

As the names suggest, Video as a Platform (often abbreviated as VaaP) are software solution for a business revolving around video multimedia for communication. They provide the ability for the business to build high-quality application services that can provide functionalities such as video conferencing, streaming, uploading, and in some cases, editing. They are now becoming popular with services such as YouTube, Zoom, Microsoft Teams; and Google Meet are solving problems of distance learning and working from home during the pandemic.

With the world turning digital, the majority prefers visual services over other services. Video Platform can achieve this objective as a Service(VPaaS or Video PaaS). Users can create and customize their video solution using Video PaaS solutions, though some products may have use cases they are better suited for. They provide APIs for developing video-based applications like video chat tools, live streaming platforms, video hosting sites, and more.

The top Video Platform as a Service Solutions are as follows:

1. Wistia‍

Wistia is a marketing software that helps more than 500,000 businesses use video and podcasting to grow their brands. It helps the users to get more from their content, from growing their email list and creating more imaginative ads to market and track the impact of their video and audio across the site and social circles. Users are provided with an excellent experience for their business and the targeted audience with its ad-free hosting and advanced marketing tools built-in.
It is easier to do features like customizing thumbnail, adding alt text, adding annotations, editing titles and descriptions, and getting responsive embed codes for placing the video in blog/email/website content.

Top Features:

• Private Uploading is possible

• Live Streaming

• Monetization

• Engagement tools

• Analytics

Pricing:

• It starts at - US $99/month for Pro plans

• The basic plan is free of cost.

Works best for:

• Marketing videos for your site

• Engaging product demos

• Help videos

2. Twilio

‍Twilio enables phones, VoIP, and messaging to be embedded into web, desktop, and mobile software and thereby powers the future of business communications. It takes care of the telecom hardware and exposes a globally available cloud API that developers can interact with to build intelligent & complex communications systems. As app usage scales up or down, it automatically scales with the user. Users pay for what they use- no contracts, no shenanigans. They also have functions usable for audio processing, you can learn more about it at our blog.

Top Features:

• Ease Of Integration

• API Call Speed

• Communication Varieties

• Documentation

• Professional Support

Pricing:

• Starting at $0.0015/min per participant

• Free trial available.

Works best for:

• Secure real-time video

• Customer Engagement

• International presence

3. Dolby.io

Dolby.io is a cloud-based audio, voice, and video API platform used to transform media and communication apps. Incorporate life-like HD audio and video into applications to keep user communication inflow and provide a premium user experience. With a few lines of code, the Enhance API improves speech leveling, noise reduction, loudness correction, and speech isolation in your media. The Analyze API removes the time-consuming, manual, and costly process of processing audio by giving audio engineers insight into the makeup and quality of their audio without listening to every piece of audio. The streaming quality is excellent, and you get the experience of Dolby. Allowing start/stop video through an API is a perfect idea and enables developers who are not that familiar with PeerConnection and other streaming-related things. Along with video, they have significant audio processing modules as well, check our blog to learn more.

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Top Features:

• Ease Of Integration

• API Call Speed

• Documentation

• Reduced noise

• Simpler editing options

Pricing:

• Interactivity API starting at $.0045/min

• Media Processing API starting at $.05/min

Works best for:

• Improved sound quality

• People who know how to code

4. Vonage Communications APIs (formerly Nexmo)

Vonage Communications APIs transform customer experiences with programmable video, voice, messaging, and more. With them, growing startups and agile enterprises can build best-in-class communications solutions at scale. APIs connect the users to Vonage’s Tier 1 network and more than 1,600 telecommunications networks in the market. The Vonage API platform provides a comprehensive set of tools and resources for developers to start and build applications quickly.

Top Features:

• Screen Sharing

• Participant Permissions

Pricing:

• Prices as low as €0.0040/min

Works best for:

• Low latency and high deliverability rates

• Enhanced Customer Experience

5. Kaltura Video Cloud

Kaltura is the leading video cloud that provides customers with a broader range of video experiences. Its products are used by thousands of global enterprises, media companies, service providers, and educational institutions, engaging millions of viewers at home, work, and school. It has matured, and a well-integrated workflow provides a better user interface with a good support quality.

Top Features:

• Attendance Tracking

• Agenda Management

• Speech-to-Text Analysis

• Multistreaming

• Private Chat

• Video Monetization Tools

Pricing:

• Free trial version available

• Annual package for Enterprises

Works best for:

• Cutting edge implementation of emerging technologies like 360 videos

• Robust and flexible transcoding profiles

6. AWS Elemental Media Connect

AWS Elemental MediaConnect is a high-quality transport service with which the user can securely share live video streaming with allowed customers using its powerful encryption mechanism. Video distribution is controlled in a very effective manner without distorting the quality of the video by the Real-Time Transport Protocol and other industry-standard protocols. Users can transport video from another AWS Elemental MediaConnect or on-premises. Access can be revoked at any moment.

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Top Features:

• A comprehensive range of video industry-standard protocols

• Built-in security

• High-quality video sharing

• Monitor in real-time

Pricing:

• Starting from $0.1443 per hour

Works best for:

• Managing live 24x7 channels

• Disaster Recovery Capabilities‍

7. Azure Media Services

Azure Media Services is an extensible cloud-based platform that enables developers to build scalable media management and delivery applications. It contains a multi-channel channeling system that organizes audio and video contents with an intuitive and easy-to-use graphical interface for evaluation and integration. It has various delivery formats with streaming from the personal, secure, and stable cloud using encryption like AES-128 to deliver files.

Top Features:

• A multi-channel pipeline orchestrates video and audio analysis and incorporates cues into a single timeline.

• Web interface for easy evaluation and integration, plus easy-to-use web widgets and REST APIs.

• Intuitive customization and management features

• Compliance with regulations including HIPAA, ISO 27001-27018, FedRAMP, HITRUST, and PCI.

Pricing:

• Starting from $0.15 per min

Works best for:

• Managing live 24x7 channels

• Disaster Recovery Capabilities‍

8. Agora.io

Agora provides real-time broadcasting using its AgoraRtcEngine, which helps in smoother video and audio broadcasting. There are many error codes to detect problems, smooth broadcasting of video and audio, recording options, and having it as a Cocoapod library make this library easy to use and well suited for production usage. Overall, Agora.io has a great list of cross-platform libraries for the Web and iOS platforms.

Top Features:

• Interactive Live Streaming.

• Real-Time Messaging.

• Recording.

• Agora Analytics.

Pricing:

• The First 10000 minutes are free each month.

• Starting from $1,200/month for non-free versions

Works best for:

• Ultra-low latency

• Scalability

• Easy-to-embed APIs

9. Mux

Mux Video is an API to live or VOD streaming at any scale. It helps create better video through real-time data and APIs to optimize video streaming through a suite of products. Real-time Quality of Experience (QoE) analytics is provided for video streaming using its data. All the details related to any particular video will be available, including startup time, buffering time, rebuffers, and many others. It supports different video formats and securely streams, which makes every customer feel terrific.

Top Features:

• Just-in-time encoding

• Wide range of input file formats

• Watermarking

• Video analytics

• Multi organizational user access

Pricing:

• Starting from $0.11/min/video monthly/100 views

Works best for:

• developers building video functionality into their software application

10. bitmovin

It is built for technical professionals in the OTT video market. Their solutions are designed to optimize customer operations and reduce time-to-market, resulting in the best viewer experience imaginable through its unparalleled device reach, flexible integration, and commitment to supporting its customers. The suite comprises a Video Encoder, Player, and Analytics platform, enabling content owners to redefine the viewer experience through API-based workflow optimization, fast content turnaround, and scalability. Its innovations include the first commercial HTML5 MPEG-DASH player.

Top Features:

• Fast startup & No buffering.

• VR & 360° in all browsers.

• Android & iOS SDKs.

• Patented adaptation logic.

Pricing:

• Maximum of $5,499 per year

Works best for:

• per-title encoding

• multi-codec encoding

11. jwplayer

JW Player is a user-friendly video platform with the ability to view time spent in it. It serves as lodging and reproduction videos, making it easier to locate them on your web again. The platform is very speedy with HTML5 format. If a business package is chosen, users will get much more professional functions with the integration of analytics, which will give them personalized reports with real-time data on how the statistics of content are going, both on your website and on the different platforms.

Top Features:

• Online video platform with hosting and streaming.

• Adaptive streaming allows for fluid playback across any device and bandwidth scenario.

• HTML5 video player with full customization and configuration options.

• Native live streaming and social streaming.

Pricing:

• Free Trial Available

• Start as low as $10/month

Works best for:

• playing all types of media files

• robust customization

These are some popular ones, but you are not limited to them. There are so many more out there, both open-source and proprietary; try and see which one fits your cause the most. Also, if you are curious about the latest audio platforms to complement video platforms, make sure to check our blog on Top Audio Streaming Platforms.

Kaushik Nath

Content Crafter at RaftLabs