Vimeo vs. Dacast: which video monetization platform to choose?

What is the difference between Vimeo and Dacast?

Vimeo and Dacast are both video hosting and streaming platforms, but they cater to different needs and priorities. The main differences between Vimeo and Dacast lies in their focus and feature sets. While both platforms offer monetization options, Vimeo Streaming provides more flexibility with its advertising features and doesn’t rely on third party integrations for monetization like Dacast’s platform does. Vimeo’s OTT users intersect across entertainment, performing arts, film, sports, education, and worship-based organizations. Dacast also has customers who intersect across many business use cases.

Dacast has some limitations in terms of customization and marketing features. Vimeo Streaming, on the other hand, provides a more comprehensive and polished experience with advanced tools for branding, subscriptions, and audience engagement. Vimeo is a comprehensive platform that includes a variety of creation tools, in-depth analytics, a highly customizable video player, and seamless integration with CRMs, which makes it perfect for businesses focusing on high-quality content creation and marketing.  

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Vimeo vs. Dacast: quick comparison

In search of a video platform that can support your internal and external video communications? Our comparison table below breaks down Vimeo’s and Dacast’s features and capabilities.

Video monetization comparison

Video monetization platforms cater to a critical need for content creators and businesses. They help people turn their passions into a revenue source by providing different ways to monetize your videos, comprehensive analytics, and the necessary tools for setting up checkout pages and more. 

Both Dacast and Vimeo’s streaming platform offer different ways to monetize your video content. To discover which one best empowers creators and businesses, read on. Ultimately, the best choice between Vimeo Streaming and Dacast depends on your specific needs, budget, and priorities.

Vimeo Streaming platform overview

Vimeo Streaming’s OTT offerings provide a streamlined solution for creators to launch and monetize their own video subscription channels. Its broad platform compatibility, spanning LG, Vizio, Samsung, Roku, FireTV, Web, iOS, Android, AppleTV, and AndroidTV, ensures maximum audience reach. Vimeo OTT provides users with flexible pricing plans, global payment gateways, and in-depth analytics for building thriving subscription-based video services.

Designed with brands and creators in mind, Vimeo Streaming prioritizes brand control and data ownership. Its impressive client roster includes diverse creators like Dropout, film industry leaders like Criterion, arts institutions, and various sports and faith organizations. Creators use Vimeo to establish subscription-based channels for streaming both live and on-demand content across various devices, with diverse monetization options, including subscriptions, advertising, and pay-per-view. 

• Your own branded app. Vimeo Streaming offers Enterprise users branded apps across a wider range of platforms than competitors like Uscreen and others. This includes iOS, Android, AppleTV, AndroidTV, Roku, Xbox, Amazon Fire TV and Tablet, and Samsung TV, with added support for LG and Vizio.
• Seamless checkout experience. Vimeo facilitates smooth transactions by accepting 100 currencies and processing payments from major credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express), Google Pay, and Apple Pay. It also supports JCB and Discover cards (depending on location), offers saved payment options, and enables one-click checkout via Stripe.
• Multiple monetization avenues. Vimeo Streaming empowers creators to monetize their video content through various strategies, including SVOD, TVOD, and AVOD along with video bumpers.
• Earn money with subscriptions. Vimeo’s OTT offerings can help you to reach customers and subscribers directly as well as a tiered membership subscription option to provide your biggest fans with exclusive content.
• Dedicated subscriber support. With Vimeo’s OTT services, creators can focus on what they do best – creating compelling content. Vimeo handles subscriber support, offering assistance to both creators and their customers, while ensuring creators retain full control over their subscriber data.  
• Community building tools. Vimeo Streaming fosters audience engagement through web-based community forums. These forums, while not available on mobile apps, provide a dedicated space for viewers to connect, discuss, and build a loyal following around video content. Creators can leverage these forums to initiate conversations through dedicated boards and create exclusive member spaces.
• Content protection. Vimeo helps you protect your video content with digital rights management (DRM), geoblocking, and other privacy settings to prevent sharing, screen recording, and viewing in restricted locales.

Monetize your videos with Vimeo →

Dacast video monetization platform overview

Dacast’s OTT streaming platform supports pay-per-view, subscription-based, and ad-based models for monetizing live streams, events, and video content. It has a secure, customizable paywall, plus global currency and multilingual support to help you reach a global audience. You can set flexible pricing, promo codes, and group pricing options, and you get features like 24/7 technical support and customizable themes. The platform accepts many methods of payment and provides the option of "Authentication only" to gate content without a payment. Note that Dacast’s monetization capabilities, particularly for secure paywalls and potentially integrated pay-per-view and subscription services, are handled in part through integrations with third-party platforms like Cleeng and InPlayer rather than by Dacast itself.

• Multiple monetization options. Dacast lets you make money in several ways — like Vimeo. AVOD, SVOD, and TVOD. 
• Secure, integrated paywall. Dacast’s integrated paywall is secure and allows you to make money from your content easily by choosing a payment method and the price you want to set. You can brand your paywall using your logos, brand colors, etc.
• Live event support. You get customer support for your live events around the clock from Dacast. This helps you keep your streams working without problems.
• Discounts, promos, and group pricing. You can offer your viewers various pricing options like group pricing, channel packages, promos, and discounts.
• Accepts global currencies. Dacast performs currency conversion automatically so that your viewers know how much they’re paying, whatever their currency or location.

Video hosting platform comparison

Many people don’t realize just how much video has become an essential part of everyday life. Video content is popular throughout digital media and has affected the way we consume, share, and interact with content. But how does that video get to your screen? Video hosting platforms are the tools that make it happen. They’re more than just channels for video distribution, though — they play a critical role in accessibility, management, user experience, analytics, monetization, and community building.  

Vimeo video hosting overview

Vimeo is a video hosting platform with tons of features, making it a valuable tool for any video creator — professionals, businesses, content creators, etc. Vimeo provides quality video streaming, various ways to customize your videos and video player, and security and privacy functions to distribute and manage your videos securely. 

• High-quality video hosting. Vimeo supports 4K, 8K, HDR, and Dolby Vision video quality that looks great on any device.
• Customizable video player. The video player can be fully customized with logos, colors and more so all videos maintain a consistent branding. And you can easily embed the live video player on your site so that it becomes a fully integrated viewing experience for your audience.
• Advanced security and privacy features. With password protection, single sign-on (Enterprise), and the ability to select what sites you allow your videos to be embedded on, you can protect your videos by preventing people without permission from accessing them. 
• Analytics and insights. With Vimeo, you get detailed analytics to track how viewers are engaging with your videos, so you can measure the effectiveness of your videos and adjust your strategies as needed.
• Seamless integrations. Vimeo works with other tools — Google Drive, Dropbox, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, HubSpot, and more — to simplify workflows for uploading and managing videos.

Start hosting videos for free on Vimeo →

Dacast video hosting overview

Dacast’s video hosting platform has tools for managing your content, adaptive bitrate streaming, and security features to keep your videos safe. There’s also mobile streaming and live recording, and a customizable video portal to create galleries that match your branding. 

• Video content management system (CMS). Like Vimeo, you can organize and manage your videos easily with the capability to group, upload, delete, and edit multiple videos at the same time.
• Live recording. You can record your live streams and upload them in your on-demand library, so if someone missed the live broadcast, they can still catch a replay.
• Video privacy and security. Dacast has password protection and domain-level restrictions to keep people without permission from accessing your videos.
• Expo video portal. In Dacast’s Expo video portal, you can build a branded gallery to feature a collection of on-demand videos. The landing page is customizable, and you can group content into collections. Make money from it by running ads or setting up a secure paywall to charge for access. 

Live streaming comparison

Live streaming has had a major impact on how businesses and creators interact with their followers. Livestream tools can help you reach a global audience in real time, which may help to improve your brand and boost engagement. 

Vimeo livestreaming platform overview

Vimeo’s livestreaming solution can make broadcasting simple and, at the same time, provide your viewers with a high-quality viewing experience. You can easily embed livestreams on your site or other platforms, and run your streams on social media channels at the same time. Plus, it’s ad-free. 

• Reliable, high-quality streaming. Vimeo delivers exceptional viewing experiences with adaptive bitrate streaming, ensuring smooth playback in 720p or 1080p. If you have an Enterprise plan, you have the option of enabling low-latency streaming in the event settings.
• Effortless browser-based production. Vimeo's intuitive browser-based studio simplifies the creation and delivery of professional-looking live streams. With features like screen recording and editing tools, you can produce polished content directly from your browser or mobile device.
• Flexible event formats including live, pre-recorded, or hybrid. Choose the format that best suits your needs. Conduct your events live for real-time interaction, pre-record content for a polished presentation, or combine both with a hybrid approach.
• Expanded reach with simulcasting. Broadcast your live streams across multiple social media platforms, including YouTube, Facebook, X, and LinkedIn, to maximize your audience reach. You can also embed a live video player and engagement tools on your site.
• AI-powered tools for efficiency. As a Standard and above user, you can leverage Vimeo's AI script generator and teleprompter to streamline content creation and ensure smooth presentations.
• Interactive audience engagement. Foster active participation and interaction during your events with features like Q&A sessions, live chat, polls, and surveys.
• Actionable event analytics. Keep your audience actively engaged throughout your live streams and virtual events with tools like Q&A, live chat, polls, surveys, and more. For webinars, you can identify who registered for your event as well as those who actually attended. 

Start live streaming with Vimeo →

Dacast live streaming overview

Dacast lets you live stream and host virtual events — webinars, town halls, sales demonstrations, etc. — to maximize viewer engagement. We should note, though, that Dacast does not include user-level metrics, or integrated editing tools that make it easy to recycle your live stream content after your stream is done (you can, though, set your streams to be available for on-demand viewing). Keep in mind that bandwidth is limited on lower-tier plans, so if you have lots of viewers or high-volume streaming, you will need one of the higher-priced plans.

• Customizable video player. Use Dacast's white-label video player to broadcast your livestreams without any third-party ads or logos distracting your viewers. This helps create a seamless, professional experience for your audience, and it also enhances brand awareness.
• On-demand playback. You can offer your recorded live streams for on-demand viewing once the live stream ends. That way, your viewers can watch whenever it’s convenient.
• Limited bandwidth on lower-tier plans. You get 2.4 TB of bandwidth per year on Dacast’s Starter plan. With the Event plan, you get 6 TB of bandwidth up front, and you get 24 TB per year on the Scale plan. If you host live streams often or have a large number of viewers, you might need to pay for the custom enterprise plan. 

Video marketing capabilities comparison

Marketing with video content is one of the best strategies out there for businesses and creators. With video marketing platforms like Dacast and Vimeo, you get a variety of tools to interact with your audience, help increase your brand’s visibility, and potentially generate leads and conversions. Vimeo and Dacast both provide video marketing tools, but Dacast has more limited features — it doesn’t have social video templates or video repurposing tools.    

Vimeo video marketing overview

With Vimeo’s marketing tools, you can grow the number of people you reach and optimize your performance. There are useful tools like an analytics dashboard that’s easy to understand, a video player you can customize to match your brand, and ways to connect Vimeo with your other marketing platforms. Vimeo’s platform is a complete solution for effective video marketing covering everything from video production to distribution. 

• Marketing integrations. Vimeo users who are on an Advanced Plan or higher can connect Vimeo with CRM platforms — Marketo, HubSpot, Constant Contact, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, etc. Most of these integrations are available to Advanced Plan users, but some require a Vimeo Enterprise Plan.
• Advanced analytics. In Vimeo’s analytics dashboard you get essential performance metrics like how many people watched and for how long. You can filter the data — by date, region, device, etc. — for a more detailed analysis. 
• Create and share reports. Key stakeholders and decision-makers need all the information they can get to make the right decisions. You can keep them in the loop with our easy-to-understand reports that you can customize reports based on device, region, source, and social platform, etc.
• Social media video templates. With Vimeo you get editing tools and pre-designed templates tailored for social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram. This makes it easy to repurpose and resize your videos to get the best performance from each channel. 
• Create interactive, shoppable videos. You can make your videos interactive by including calls to action, quizzes, polls, and shoppable links. This may help you generate leads and conversions from your videos directly.

Explore Vimeo’s video marketing tools →

Dacast video marketing overview

Dacast’s platform is designed for professionals in industries like sports, entertainment, enterprise communications, and non-profits. It has tools to help businesses deliver their video content to a worldwide audience and has flexible customization and integration options.

• VOD and video playback. Livestreaming, video on demand, and playback are possible with Dacast, so you can get value from your content beyond the live streams themselves.   
• No content repurposing or editing capabilities. Unlike Vimeo, Dacast doesn’t offer any built-in video editing capabilities or tools for repurposing your video content, outside of offering them on-demand. 
• Calls to action. Dacast makes it easy to add CTAs to your videos in just a few clicks. 
• White-label video player. Dacast’s HTML 5 video player is white-label, so you can customize it to match your branding without any logos or watermarks that you didn’t add yourself. 
• Some video analytics. You can find out where your viewers are watching from, the devices they’re using to watch, and when they tuned in. However, Dacast does not provide user-level analytics.

Employee communications comparison

It’s a must for all businesses today to communicate effectively with their employees. Employee communications platforms and tools are designed to help you encourage engagement and collaboration as well as improve understanding and support your company culture — they’re critical tools for building a strong and connected team. 

Vimeo video communications overview

With Vimeo’s video communication platform, you can improve team collaboration and simplify your internal communications. There are easy-to-use tools to create videos, record your screen, and broadcast live to your team. These tools make it easier to collaborate across time zones, onboard employees, and host virtual events.

• Central video hub. With Vimeo, you can keep all your videos in one place, which makes it easy to search for, discover, and share your company’s communications. Vimeo automatically transcribes your videos, which makes it possible to search for keywords in captions and transcriptions to quickly find what you need. 
• Interactive videos. Improve your onboarding and training processes by including interactive features like clickable video chapters, quizzes, polls, and links to related content when you have an Enterprise plan. This makes training and onboarding more enjoyable for employees and helps to keep their attention. 
• Seamless sharing. You can share video messages from your browser with your team, which enables asynchronous communication, allowing team members to send messages when they don’t expect their coworkers to respond right away. You can also embed our customizable video player on your company website or share links to videos.
• Integrations streamline your workflows. Vimeo connects with other tools like Asana and Slack to send notifications when someone uploads a video, leaves a comment on a video, or for other updates. That means team members can leave feedback or reviews, which helps improve collaboration and decision-making. 
• Monitor engagement with Vimeo Central. Find out how effective your internal communications actually are. Vimeo Central offers a detailed analytics dashboard so you can see which team members have watched videos, and how long they watched, so you can easily figure out who still needs to complete training. Enterprise users can also use our new Analytics API to combine Vimeo engagement data with other systems — Tableau, Looker, and PowerBI, for example — to get a more comprehensive view of how your employees interact with your comms.

Improve your team communications with Vimeo →

Dacast employee communications overview

Dacast’s platform can be used for corporate communications, training sessions, and live events. Their analytics dashboard helps you keep tabs on performance, and it has security features like password protection, HTTPS delivery, and geo-restrictions to help keep your content safe. But Dacast’s video quality is 1080p HD max — it doesn’t support higher resolutions like 4K or 8K — so it’s not ideal for businesses that need ultra high-definition content. Additionally, Dacast does not provide visibility into whether a user has watched a particular video, or for how long. Only general viewership analytics are available.

• Chapter markers and closed captions. You can add chapter markers, making it easier for people to find their way through your videos, and closed captions to improve accessibility. 
• Multi-user access. Invite team members to your Dacast platform for collaboration and improved workflows. 
• Organize trainings and other corporate comms in galleries. Create a branded, professional video gallery for your company communications. Customize the portal to showcase featured videos and offer an immersive, web-like experience for your internal video library.
• Mobile streaming. Reach your employees on the go with Dacast’s mobile streaming capabilities. 

Which video streaming service is best for you: Vimeo or Dacast?

Vimeo and Dacast are both suitable solutions for hosting videos, streaming live, and offering video-on-demand (VOD) content. But each has different strengths that make them more useful for certain business needs. Vimeo has more solutions for video marketing, internal communications, and monetizing content, and also has advanced features like AI-enabled video editing; it integrates with CRM and marketing tools; and it can host 4K video content, while Dacast is limited to 1080p at most. 

Dacast lets you live stream with a white-label video player, and it has various ways to monetize your content (as does Vimeo), but it doesn’t have the same content repurposing and editing tools that Vimeo has. If you’re looking for high-quality video hosting, the ability to integrate your video campaigns with your other marketing tools, and tools to edit your videos, Vimeo is the way to go. Our platform can handle everything from internal communications to marketing, thanks to our AI-powered tools for video production and advanced analytics to track your performance.

Monetize your content with Vimeo →