Following the trends as closely as I do, I can confidently state that video is the present and future of digital content — so much so that I’m excited to share what I know about some of the best video content management systems.
Alongside the rise of TikTok and the current plethora of streaming services, we’ve seen amazing advancements in online video technologies and the video content management systems (CMS) that support those technologies. With 92% of internet users worldwide using videos online and the average user consuming up to 17 hours of digital video media a week, it’s no wonder video has emerged as the primary means of online engagement.
Because video has evolved into the most significant means of communicating with our virtual visitors, the challenge for us is how to efficiently incorporate video into our online content. This is where a video CMS comes in, providing the delivery features, organization, security, storage, and support necessary to successfully integrate video into all your online projects.
Table of Contents
- What Is Video Content Management?
- What Is a Video Content Management System?
- What Are the Best Video Content Management Systems?
- Why Use a Video CMS?
- How to Choose a Video CMS
What Is Video Content Management?
Video content management is the process used to efficiently generate, store, distribute, monetize, and organize online video media assets. From small individual endeavors to massive online campaigns, the management of video content is necessary for effective video creation, organization, and secure dissemination.
What Is a Video Content Management System?
A video content management system, or video CMS, is a software application that provides the platform for you to create, store, organize, manage, and present your online video content smoothly and securely.
I find video CMS especially helpful in allowing users to streamline the process of building intricate, scalable video systems and to store and present those videos without the need for programming knowledge.
Take it further: If you’re trying to develop or increase your video marketing, I recommend that you check out The Video Marketing Playbook, which gives a great overview of how to get started.
Why Use a Video CMS?
You might wonder why you need a new system just for your videos, especially if you already have software in place for storing media, such as a CMS. If your video library is limited, you can pass on a video CMS without much interruption to your workflow.
However, organizations that rely heavily on video for external and internal communications should consider incorporating a video CMS to their advantage over a non-specialized system.
Here are the key benefits I’ve identified.
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1. Dedicated Storage for Large Files
The key difference between video and other media types is size. Videos take up a lot of space.
While a typical JPEG image is around 15 kilobytes, a well-compressed video around five minutes long uses up at least 1000x more space and even more as quality and length increase. In addition, files this large easily exceed the maximum size allowed in many content management systems, putting longer training and meeting videos out of the question.
Video CMSs are built with size in mind. They’re designed specifically for hassle-free uploading, storage, and delivery of large video files. As your content library expands, your video CMS scales with you.
2. Disruption-Free Streaming
The best video CMSs ensure that viewers can engage with your content across all devices, including mobile, without disruption. Accommodation for smartphones is a must, as mobile devices account for over half of global internet traffic.
Storing your videos on a regular CMS doesn’t guarantee they’ll play well (or at all) on mobile since different devices prefer certain formats over others. To solve this, video CMSs automatically convert the video file to the best format for the device through a process known as “transcoding.” Transcoding optimizes the streaming experience for all viewers, regardless of device.
I find that most reputable video CMSs also adjust for internet connection speed. Similar to YouTube, these systems can detect users’ connections and adjust video quality to limit buffering.
3. Better Privacy and Security
Speaking of YouTube, why not just post all your videos there?
YouTube is an excellent video marketing platform, but it's also a public platform. So anyone can view the videos you post. On the other hand, video CMSs work well for private content like training videos, informational videos, and meetings.
CMSs can also manage customer-facing restricted videos — for example, if you want to limit access to certain content behind a barrier (e.g., a sign-up or paywall), you shouldn’t put these videos on YouTube. You can also embed full-length videos and clips directly on your website using a video tool.
In my opinion, a good video CMS will also enable secure viewing of your private videos. Alongside an authentication process, your system needs to encrypt the connection between the viewers’ browsers and your hosting server. These measures prevent unauthorized access to your video streams.
4. Enhanced Search
Video CMSs let you search for videos by title, filename, and manually entered metadata. For this reason, it’s recommended you develop a system for organizing your videos by category. Planning out your video tags is an excellent approach to cut down on search time later on.
Some video CMS services take their search capabilities further by allowing users to search within the video. If you’re familiar with auto-captioning on video platforms like YouTube, these CMSs will conduct the same speech recognition with your own videos.
I believe that indexing information in this way lets users search by words spoken in videos or displayed onscreen within videos. Viewers can even select parts in the video where target words are mentioned, saving the annoyance of skipping around for the correct information.
5. Live Streaming
In addition to storing pre-recorded (or “on-demand”) video, some video CMSs let users broadcast live. These can be a great way to hold team (or company-wide) meetings and webinars for product launches and live events with your audience. After the live stream ends, you’ll be able to save the video in your CMS for those who missed it.
6. Video-Specific Analytics
Tracking your video metrics will allow you to comprehensively understand your video performance to help shape your video strategy. Analytics tools through a video CMS can tell you, for example, how many people watch specific videos, for how long, which video sections are viewed most, and when viewers tend to stop watching. Depending on your video CMS choice, extra analytics features can provide even more powerful insights.
7. Integrations
If you’re already comfortable with a non-video CMS, don't worry. Video content management systems can link to your existing setup, so you don’t need to transfer all your content at once.
How to Choose a Video CMS
When choosing a video CMS, here are the main things I look for:
- Easy organization and searchability.
- Efficient means of video publication.
- User-friendly interfaces.
- Analytics tools that give quick and clear feedback.
But the ideal video CMS for you, of course, depends on your particular requirements. Here are some questions to ask as you choose your video CMS:
- What are you trying to accomplish?
- Are you planning to share videos externally and/or internally?
- Are you only sharing on-demand video, or do you want to live-stream video as well?
- Do you need integrations with certain other apps?
I recommend you consider the specific goals of your team or project when choosing a video CMS. If you’re trying to improve visitor engagement, communication, or targeting, then video content should play a major role in your project. Video troubles are a significant obstacle to growing an online business. If not dealt with properly, it could cause a lot of friction for you, your employees, and your customers — the exact opposite of what it’s intended for.
Now, let’s get into some of my favorite video CMS tools.
What Are the Best Video Content Management Systems?
- Content Hub
- Panopto
- Microsoft Stream
- Brightcove
- VPlayed
- Kaltura
- IBM
- Zype
1. Content Hub
Ideal For: Developers and marketers
Price: $15/month/seat (Starter)
Features
Hubspot’s Content Hub CMS prioritizes enabling quick and secure content production, marketing, and management. Content Hub’s video CMS is no exception to this, offering advanced tools and functionality to promote not only the generation of video content but also manage its organization and distribution.
Better yet, it’s now AI-supported, featuring brand voice and video creation as well as content remixing. Beyond improved video embedding, analytics, and administration, Content Hub’s video CMS offers Vidyard integration for improved video messaging, hosting, and revenue generation.
Content Hub allows you to easily place videos on your website to engage and delight your visitors. Easily host and manage your video files within your HubSpot infrastructure, then embed videos onto your website pages, blog posts, and social media channels. In addition, you can add CTAs and forms within videos, track video performance, and use HubSpot’s lead nurturing tools to provide targeted content for viewers.
Besides simple marketing, HubSpot also helps you leverage video in your sales and service processes. For example, record your screen to educate prospects on your product or create video tutorials for your knowledge base to send customers the answers they need quickly.
Pros:
- All-in-one solution
- AI content generation and remixing
- Vidyard integration for actionable marketing
- User-friendly embedding
- Easy video integration
- Simple hosting
- In-video CTA and form capable
- Performance tracking
- Tools for targeted content
- Screen recording
Cons:
- Fewer pricing plans
- Limited features on the free plan
- More skills are needed for advanced customizations
2. Panopto
Ideal For: Enterprise businesses and academic institutions
Price: Custom pricing
Features
Panopto is another leading developer in the video content management space. Panopto’s video CMS is their flagship product and has been well-received as a solid all-around option. In my opinion, its ease of use and flexibility make it suitable for most businesses looking to create and distribute videos.
Panopto can stand alone or integrate with your current learning management system, unified communications platform, hardware, and CRM software. It auto-indexes spoken and visually presented words within videos and automatically transcodes videos to the best format based on the streaming device. Panopto also emphasizes security — it offers integration with single sign-on solutions and strict access controls for all videos.
Pros:
- Solid all-around product
- Integrable with multiple systems
- Ease of use
- Flexible distribution options
- Auto transcodes for optimization
- High security and access solutions
- Accommodates multiple camera angles
- Integration options, including PowerPoint
Cons:
- User interface complaints
- Slow on feature updates
- Limited export options
3. Microsoft Stream
Ideal For: Small to mid-sized organizations
Price: $8/month - $35/month
Features
If you’re happily invested in a Microsoft 365 plan, Microsoft Stream (previously Office 365 Video) can handle your internal video distribution.
Designed for company-wide information sharing and training, Microsoft Stream allows on-demand video sharing and streaming for up to 10,000 viewers. In addition, thanks to auto-transcription and facial recognition technology, viewers can skip to specific timestamps by searching for a particular word or even a video subject. Personally, I find the exclusive internal organizational sharing rather limiting.
However, as you might guess, Microsoft Stream integrates with other Microsoft applications so that users can move videos from Stream straight into other apps like Teams and SharePoint. Depending on your 365 plan, you can integrate Microsoft Stream into your system with minimal extra cost.
Pros:
- Available with Microsoft 365 plan
- Integrable with other MS applications
- Allows on-demand sharing and streaming
- Simultaneous delivery for up to 10,000 viewers
- Instant auto-transcription enabled
- Searchable by word and facial recognition
Cons:
- Expensive for smaller organizations
- User interface limitations
- Searching constraints
- Sharing restrictions
- Simplified analytics
4. Brightcove
Ideal For: Large enterprises concerned with video security
Price: Custom pricing
Features
Brightcove specializes in video solutions for digital enterprises — their video CMS is one of the best-received in the industry. In addition, Brightcove prioritizes organization in their platform: They offer a robust playlist feature to group related videos manually or automatically by tags, custom metadata options for labeling and searching for content, and an intuitive graphical user interface that streamlines workflow.
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Also noteworthy is Brightcove’s quick publish feature, which lets users publish video clips straight to their website and other online channels by just pasting a snippet of embed code. However, additional integrations are necessary for in-depth analytics in embedded videos.
Pros:
- High industry endorsement
- Prioritizes organization
- Quick publish feature
- Versatile playlist features
- Customizable tagging and indexing
- Flexible metadata options
- Intuitive graphical interface
Cons:
- In-depth analytics requires additional integration
- Navigation issues
- Some customization limits
5. VPlayed
Ideal For: Content aggregators and businesses
Price: Custom pricing at a one-time cost
Features
CONTUS VPlayed Is a cloud-based, ‘over-the-top’ (OTT), a monetizable software platform designed to facilitate the creation, management, and streaming of video content over a broad range of internet-connected devices.
VPlayed focuses on empowering media owners, digital streamers, and broadcasters to build their own video CMS platform to promote their content via streaming services, in search engines, and across social media.
VPlayed lets you stream, manage, and monetize any sort of streaming content with a centralized library online. It offers attributes like collaboration with content partners, bulk import and export within an advanced CMS, multi-lingual support for personalized streaming, and white-labeling video CMS product rebranding.
I find VPlayed’s drag-and-drop video scheduling especially helpful in allowing professional streaming specialists to manage their workflow smoothly. In addition, the platform’s HLS player optimizes your content with fast playback that’s backed by robust marketing and analytical tools.
Pros:
- Customizable, buildable video CMS
- Allows white-labeling rebranding
- Content portal for partner collaboration
- Broad encoding and transcoding
- Centralized library with bulk import/export
- Drag-and-drop video workflow scheduling
- Streaming monetization feature
- Marketing and analytics empowered
Cons:
- No trial version is available for user assessment
- Lack of service pricing transparency
- Rare slowdowns and glitches have been reported
- More skill is required for advanced features
- Smaller industry presence and acceptance
6. Kaltura
Ideal For: Educational institutions
Price: Custom pricing
Features
Kaltura’s video CMS is a cloud-based solution for a wide range of video applications, particularly educational ones. I find their “meetings” tool helpful as an interactive collaboration area for academic and business communications, with live video at the center. Kaltura’s on-demand video and live stream for marketing capabilities function across many different online platforms and devices. Its virtual classroom feature makes it an excellent fit for learning institutions looking to adopt remote teaching.
Kaltura also created the first open-source video platform service, enabling developers to build custom video CMS applications specific to their enterprise. I’m encouraged that Kaltura now offers AI-enhanced products with improved scalability and increased customization.
Pros:
- Broad application use
- Live video interactives
- Cross-platform marketing capable
- Flexible virtual classroom feature
- First open-source video platform
- Customizable video application service
- Customer service improving
Cons:
- Some features reported glitchy
- Some features are not iOS-supported
- Fewer integration capabilities
- Older videos are subject to deletion
7. IBM
Ideal For: Large-scale video campaigns and events
Price: $99/month - $999/month and custom pricing depending on features and volume needs.
Features
IBM’s video streaming service is built for live and pre-recorded video streaming for external distribution. We recommend this platform for large-scale video campaigns and events for your visitors, leads, and customers.
IBM’s system ensures that streams are secure and allows you to track analytics in real time during live events. In addition, its adaptable setup and interface can accommodate novice and experienced administrators alike.
The IBM video CMS utilizes its trademark Watson system for auto-captioning on-demand and live video. I find the machine learning algorithm adapts to your vocabulary and speaking patterns throughout the video, creating highly accurate and readable transcriptions that can be indexed and searched when needed.
Pros:
- Large scale reliability
- Designed for streaming
- Best for large-scale events
- Includes storage
- Secure streams
- Analytics tracking in real-time
- Mostly user-friendly interface
- Instant captioning with machine learning
- Auto indexing of transcripts
- Custom branding
Cons:
- Expensive
- Fewer integration features
- User count limits streaming
- Chat feature restricted
8. Zype
Ideal For: Video-focused enterprises
Price: $500/month - $5000/month
Features
The primary goal of the Zype VideoMeta CMS is to keep things easy. Whether creating on-demand videos for internal or external distribution, you can take advantage of Zype’s tools, which are designed to simplify the entire process.
Zype’s OTT platform provides a simple framework to reliably connect, manage, integrate, present, and monetize video content.
This video CMS gives users easy access to media imports, metadata control, playlist structuring, backups, distribution protocols, and transcoding, all of which can be handled with automated workflows. To top things off, Zype allows unlimited cloud storage for all videos.
Pros:
- Unlimited cloud storage
- API SaaS app integration
- Simple tools for ease of use
- Transcoding capable
- Easily import media
- Customizable distribution rules
- Automation features
Cons:
- Expensive
- Limited analytics
Choose Your Video CMS and Start Creating
I hope I’ve convinced you why a video CMS greatly benefits your video marketing — and why it’s crucial to find the right video CMS for your business endeavor or marketing project.
Incorporating a video CMS may require some initial adjustments, but I believe it can be a significant leap forward for your organization, saving time, effort, and resources.
Editor's note: This post was originally published in July 2020 and has been updated October 2024 for comprehensiveness.
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