Vimeo vs. YouTube

So what is better, Vimeo or YouTube? The truth is that these platforms are different so it is really more about which platform best suits you as a business.

As Vimeo limits the kind of content you can upload, Vimeo is seen as the more upmarket platform so therefore attracts a different audience to that of YouTube. YouTube which is part of Google does, however, have far more reach than Vimeo with a wider audience group.

What are the audience numbers on YouTube against Vimeo

YouTube currently is reaching over 1.8 Billion users per month, catching up with Facebooks 2 Billion Users. Vimeo is on the rise with around 280 million users per month.

Is Video quality better on Vimeo or YouTube?

If you upload the same video to Vimeo and YouTube, you will find the video resolution is much higher as it uses a much higher bitrate. Sound quality will also be higher as Vimeo supports 320Kbps. However, to benefit from the improvements Vimeo gives you, you need to be subscribed to Vimeo’s Plus, Pro or Business accounts.

Vimeo Sophistication

If you are familiar with Vimeo and YouTube you will know that you can pretty much put anything up on YouTube whereas Vimeo is more strict about what it allows to be uploaded.
This means that the quality of video content tends to be better, visitors more sophisticated in what they view and also more engaged with video content.

This does obviously limit what is displayed on Vimeo but it tends to be higher quality content.

So Vimeo Vs. YouTube what do you think.

At the end of the day, I think it is down to what you think suits you as a business. The choice for most businesses is normally YouTube, as it’s FREE, generally performs better in search results but then that could be down to YouTube being owned by Google.

YouTube has a massive number of users and strong reporting tools if you want to track your ROI. So if you have business goals that revolve around search, optimisation and sales ads then YouTube is probably the answer.

If you are a creative looking for a creative community with more niche audiences, then Vimeo is probably the right choice for you.