How to Choose the Best Web Hosting for Video Streaming?

Humans are visual creatures. We tend to memorize stuff better when we see it in action. This is why brands rely heavily on video content in their marketing campaigns.

According to video statistics,

• Viewers retain 95% of the message when they watch a video as compared to only 10% when they read it in textual form.
• People watch 16 hours of video every week, which is 52% higher as compared with the last two years.
• 86% of people want to see more videos from brands
• 68% of users use video to learn about new products and services instead of reading articles, e-books and infographics

If you are one of those brands that are planning to double down on video streaming or video editing, you might need powerful hardware for video streaming because it is quite a resource-intensive process. You can invest in video streaming hosting for an optimal experience.

In this article, you will learn ways to choose the best web hosting for video streaming.

What is Video Hosting?

Let’s say you have a video that you want to host. You will upload that video to a server that has a blazing fast network connection and high bandwidth. If you want to make your video accessible for others, you will have to embed a video on a web page. This will make your video available for streaming. Now, you will have to insert it into the web page inside a video player.

There are three ways to host your videos.

• On a dedicated server
• On a free video hosting platform
• On a premium video hosting platform

Let’s look at each one in detail.

On A Dedicated Server

If your want more control and flexibility, hosting your videos on a dedicated server is the best option. Even if the service provider offers you tutorials, step by step guides or tons of helpful tools, you still need to have the technical expertise to host your videos on a dedicated server.

On A Free Video Streaming Platform

Free video streaming platforms let you upload videos on their platform for free but also have some limitations. When it comes to monetization, these free platforms offer multiple options you can take advantage of. You can either serve ads or sell paid subscriptions.

Some of the most popular free video hosting platforms are:

• YouTube
• Vimeo
• DailyMotion
• Social networking websites

On A Paid Video Streaming Platform

For those looking for more features and control, a premium video streaming platform might be a better bet. This platform even offers lead capturing functionality as well as powerful video analytics. Whether you want to use it for educational or employee training purposes or use for communicating brand messages to customers, these premium video streaming platforms can serve you well.

Some of the most popular premium video streaming platforms are:

• Brightcove
• Wistia
• JWPlayer
• JetPack

Why Use Dedicated Hosting For Video Streaming?

As mentioned before, video streaming is a resource-hungry process so you need high network bandwidth and tons of data storage to deliver seamless video streaming. That is why you should get a dedicated hosting plan with a spacious storage capacity and bandwidth allocation.

Since video streaming requires continuous data flow, the storage access network speeds should also be high to handle such heavy workloads. This can come in handy when multiple users are streaming your videos simultaneously.

Free up all the server resources and stop running any background processes on the server when you are using it for video streaming purpose for a smoother video streaming experience. Even a shared hosting solution might not cut it, you need powerful dedicated hosting to deliver an immersive video streaming experience.

Only a dedicated server can deliver the kind of power you need to ensure a continuous stream of large data flow so that the end-user doesn’t have to suffer. Even a small delay and interruption in data flow can ruin the whole video streaming experience for users.

How to Choose The Best Web Hosting For Video Streaming?

Here are some of the factors you need to consider when choosing web hosting for video streaming.

1. Performance

One of the most things you should take into account when choosing a hosting plan is performance. The more network bandwidth, storage capacity and faster storage speed your dedicated hosting plan offers, the better.

2. Price

The amount of bandwidth, processing power, storage capacity you acquire will directly influence the price you will have to pay. Simply put, the more resources you acquire the more money you will have to pay.

3. Security

Ask what security features does your hosting provider offer? How do they secure your video content and how will the security features impact accessibility? This is very important especially if the video content is private or intended to be used in-house.

4. Analytics

Some video hosting service providers have powerful video analytics built into their plans. Users can take advantage of them to track who is watching your videos and how much time they are spending on your videos.

 5. Special Features

Video hosting providers even offer some handy extras such as a content delivery network and quick access. A content delivery network serves content from a server that is located near the user so they don’t have to wait long. This improves the user experience.

How do you choose a web hosting for video streaming purposes? Share it with us in the comments section below.