JW Player vs. Wistia

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
JW Player
Score 9.8 out of 10
N/A
JW Player (or JWP) is a video platform boasting 40,000 broadcasters, publishers, and other video-driven brands whose business relies on video as users. It provides these companies with a way to accelerate and scale their video strategy and is a video platform that can be used to stream video, engage audiences on any screen, and monetize content.N/A
Wistia
Score 9.7 out of 10
N/A
Wistia is a video marketing platform that helps teams create, host, market, and measure their videos and webinars. Wistia is used to create professional videos, host webinars, collect and send leads to a connected marketing automation platform. Wistia additionally offers customers support and educational resources.
$0
up to 10 videos
Pricing
JW PlayerWistia
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Free
$0
up to 10 videos
Plus
$24
per month
Pro Plan
$99
per month
Advanced Plan
$399
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
JW PlayerWistia
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details20% discount for annual pricing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
JW PlayerWistia
Considered Both Products
JW Player
Chose JW Player
JW had more player options, a better/more intuitive user interface, was altogether faster both in rendering the uploaded videos and in time to load on the web page. The integration with OpenX for pre-roll was faster and easier than with Brightcove, and lastly, they offered a …
Chose JW Player
JW Player is the most widely used internet video player out there, so it was an easy choice for us to trust JW with our video content and delivery. What impressed me most was their hunger to improve and satisfy our business needs. Many of their competitors weren't nearly as …
Chose JW Player
JW Player is competitive with VideoJS and MediaElements. Though we preferred VideoJS based on some features for its player attributes for years, we ultimately switched to JW Player due to its platform capabilities, functionality and recent investments the firm was making to …
Wistia
Chose Wistia
Vidyard was much more expensive even though it has tighter integration with HubSpot. This put Wistia in a better category from a cost perspective because most of the heavy lifting with automation is handled on the HubSpot side of things. Vidyard also felt like it was geared to …
Chose Wistia
Wistia is for business. Period. Vimeo has none of the benefits for a business that Wistia offers. The SEO value and SUPER FAST playback speed are essential. Wistia has it all. Personally, I can rarely get thought a video if hosted on Vimeo because of the glitchy playback and …
Chose Wistia
I found Vidyard to be a tad clunky, at least when I tried to use it. Vimeo's design features didn't seem as modern to me and didn't integrate as well with other apps/website platforms, at least when I was investigating a video hosting platform. Wistia is more expensive than …
Chose Wistia
Wistia is much easier to integrate into our site than using S3 directly.
Chose Wistia
I wasn't part of the selection process.
Chose Wistia
We've used Youtube in the past, and still use it to host some videos today, but we didn't like how mainstream it feels when you embed it on a website. For one thing, you can't customize the appearance so it feels out of place with our branding and color scheme on our website …
Chose Wistia
Honestly, I haven't gotten too in-depth yet, but that is the closest thing. Gotta give that point to Wistia, though, still because in my experience, at least, trying to learn Vidyard's features did not seem to be the right path at the time when Wistia was not causing any …
Chose Wistia
Vimeo is less customizable. They both offer a free plan and paid premium plans. Vimeo doesn't have the A/B testing and ability to focus on the marketing aspect of the videos to obtain more revenue. The CTAs are much better in Wistia and are much easier to work with.
Chose Wistia
Wistia had the best site speed performance out of these competitors and had the most functionality. We really loved the ability to track usage and plays on the videos, the lead capturing, bookmarking, CTA build-outs, and all of the customizations we could do with it compared to …
Chose Wistia
Wistia is pretty comparable to Vimeo but it seems to cost more for the same features. I liked the Wistia brand and the great educational and entertaining content they produce which is largely why we chose Wistia. With a smaller budget, I would probably go with Vimeo next time …
Chose Wistia
  • Prices are better.
  • No useless options.
  • Easier to use
Chose Wistia
Wistia offers more features overall and a better interface. I have found that they have the best analytics and provide helpful insights into the performance of each video. You can integrate incredibly easy into websites, without technical savvy or any kind of expertise with …
Chose Wistia
Wistia proved to strike a balance between features, support, reliability, and ease of use. Some offer deeper features, but require much more of executional teams, which increases drag and friction in continually distributing new content.
Chose Wistia
We have used Wistia so long I can't remember.
Chose Wistia
Wistia is much more user friendly and gives the ability to replace videos. Also the the statistics were easier to access and use with Wistia.
Chose Wistia
We haven't really explored other products. I've been using Wistia for so long that there was nothing like Wistia when I started. It's still a solid product for a good price.
Chose Wistia
In the past we have tried to host some of our video content in Dropbox. Wistia has proven to be a much better solution as it allows for much more flexibility in sharing the content externally and also having an easy interface for admin users to add and locate video content.
Chose Wistia
I have used Vimeo as an alternative, and I prefer Wistia for marketing and embedding videos on my site. I also use YouTube, of course.
Chose Wistia
Wistia provides the functionality that most companies need for video marketing and video hosting/analytics. When we compared with Vidyard, the cost of Vidyard was far higher, but the functionality did not seem to be much more advanced than Wistia. Wistia seems to be a good …
Chose Wistia
Wistia is slightly more expensive, but the metrics/data provided, combined with the ease of use, makes it the perfect choice for us. Being able to break videos into series/projects is very useful. Additionally, the chapter feature makes it easy to allow users to watch all or …
Chose Wistia
We looked at self-hosting videos on our client sites using AWS and Cloudflare, but we really didn't want to have to code our own product or have to deal with server configurations. Wistia made it simple to sign-up, upload, and start embedding our content on our sites. We also …
Chose Wistia
Vimeo Pro works well for artistic folks, those on a budget, or those not looking to leverage video for demand gen or lead capture. It served us well for a while, but just wasn't cutting it. Wistia has more on the integrations end than Vimeo, and we have benefitted the most from …
Chose Wistia
We have found that many companies do not whitelist YouTube, and it is against policy to access the channel. By using Wistia, we can get around that predicament.
Chose Wistia
Wistia was our default choice because of the popularity and the quality of videos generated by the team. We did not evaluate other software platforms and directly went with Wistia.
Features
JW PlayerWistia
Video Marketing
Comparison of Video Marketing features of Product A and Product B
JW Player
8.6
Ratings
14% above category average
Wistia
-
Ratings
Support for advertisements9.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Video SEO8.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Video Security
Comparison of Video Security features of Product A and Product B
JW Player
7.8
Ratings
13% below category average
Wistia
-
Ratings
Video access controls9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
User management9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Video link sharing7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
External video6.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Video Player
Comparison of Video Player features of Product A and Product B
JW Player
7.0
Ratings
19% below category average
Wistia
-
Ratings
Player customization2.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Embedded videos6.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Video quality / Bandwidth controls10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile compatibility10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Video Analytics
Comparison of Video Analytics features of Product A and Product B
JW Player
1.0
Ratings
155% below category average
Wistia
-
Ratings
Per viewer tracking1.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Per video tracking1.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Video analytics dashboard1.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Video Hosting, Management & Storage
Comparison of Video Hosting, Management & Storage features of Product A and Product B
JW Player
8.6
Ratings
1% below category average
Wistia
-
Ratings
On-Demand video6.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Live streaming10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Video upload & format support10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Video library / File management7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Video portal10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
JW PlayerWistia
Small Businesses
Wistia
Wistia
Score 9.7 out of 10
Sendspark
Sendspark
Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Flipgrid
Flipgrid
Score 1.0 out of 10
Atlassian Loom
Atlassian Loom
Score 9.2 out of 10
Enterprises
Panopto
Panopto
Score 8.0 out of 10
Vyond
Vyond
Score 8.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
JW PlayerWistia
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(0 ratings)
9.9
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
7.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
JW PlayerWistia
Likelihood to Recommend
I think they do a great job of converting a video into various formats (file/size) that will accommodate a variety of devices. From computer to phone to tablet, it streams really nice with little or no latency. I would really, really like to see an easy way to add clickable text and links to the video (in a similar fashion to how YouTube does it).
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It's so awesome to see my videos come up on Google Search. A click brings viewers right to my website!!! Incredibly powerful. If I were just posting on YouTube, visitors would end up there and then off to the next best cat video instead of taking action with me on my website.
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Pros
  • Delivers the video/podcast in the best manner it can - streaming cleanly.
  • It automatically converts the video in various delivery formats for different devices.
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  • Wistia enables a lot of customization in the video player, making it personalized to your business.
  • The user experience is pretty intuitive and easy to use without too much training.
  • Wistia's help articles, blog and instructional videos were very helpful as we began investing more resources into video production.
Read full review
Cons
  • I could use a little more info on some of the videos. an info panel with things like, for example, bitrate would be helpful.
  • Our previous video player had a publish to YouTube button - so that with one button it took care of a whole other channel. That would be nice to see.
  • I'll be honest, i don't really have a lot of points here. In my experience, it's a solid, all-around well built platform.
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  • Obtaining embed codes for a significantly large number of videos can be very time consuming as there is no way to automatically pull a report.
  • Within a project, there is no way to set the list to show a specific number of videos and you may only have a certain number of videos shown unless you click to expand the list and continue to do so.
  • Once the list is expanded and you click in to a video, when clicking back, the list reloads and you must expand the entire list again which can become very time consuming.
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Likelihood to Renew
Just made the decision to renew given demonstrated improvements being made to the platform to expand compatibility for its player use on devices such as Apple TV, as well as improvements made recently to its JW Platform Dashboard
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Wistia is super easy to use and very reliable, anytime a video needs to be updated, the existing media can be replaced, but the url remains the same so anywhere this media is shared or embedded, it is immediately updated. Their support is extremely helpful, and there is very rarely any issues with this product.
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Usability
Reliability and compatibility on a majority of platforms. Would have received a 10 except recent versions of browsers such as Firefox are now defaulting against Flash components and thus prompting approval from users BEFORE loading which is a HUGE obstacle to an effective user experience thus creating concerns by end-users unnecessarily and risking that they will NOT accept the prompts, thus leaving unable to view video content hosted using the JW Player. Assurances by JW support suggest they will resolve this, so we'll see...
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I just love the interface and the way things are organized. You can find all of the various controls and have the ability to enable/disable each. You can also get to help quickly from any screen. The screens are not cluttered and have a good use of whitepace, without the need to page through controls or reload the screen.
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Reliability and Availability
No answers on this topic
After several years, we have not come across a situation for which Wistia was not available when needed.
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Performance
No answers on this topic
Couldn't be happier with the overall performance of the platform. Videos load fast, rarely have loading issues, look sclean and the styling and sizing doesn't have issues. The data comes in quickly and in real time. Also, on the administrative side, the videos seem to upload well without much issue. There's always issues uploading video, but we had way less upload issues with Wistia than with Vimeo.
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Support Rating
Support is reasonable. I from time to time have made suggestions on improvements that would be nice to see (like the ability to have a clickable link within the video - that is easy to create, without tons of coding) and it seems as though I never see it happen or get much response to "suggestions" to upgrade the software. The good news, other than a few things as I mentioned above, overall, I don't have many "technical issues" in the platform, which is a good thing. On occasion, I have seen some "issues" with the delivery of the video, but it has been pretty scarce. So it is dependable.
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We have only had to reach out to Wistia support a handful of times in the 4 years we have been using Wistia. They have always been quick to respond and help us solve the problem. The system is self-service so there should be very little to no need to reach out to support on a regular basis.
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Implementation Rating
One of the primary features promoted by JW Platform is its SEO definition. However, there did not seem to be a way to integrate that data to our platform if selected thus only leaving the benefits of that data to be established on the individual video page hosted by JW Platform, which isn't useful in the end to the client value we are trying to deliver for our VideoproFile.net solution
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We were in the process of changing our website so that took some time to get Wistia implemented in to our website.
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Alternatives Considered
JW Player is the most widely used internet video player out there, so it was an easy choice for us to trust JW with our video content and delivery. What impressed me most was their hunger to improve and satisfy our business needs. Many of their competitors weren't nearly as interested in our bottom line as they were in their own
Read full review
Wistia is in the process of making their livestreaming way better than the free alternative like YouTube and a well known competitor like gotomeeting. It's easy to add in cohosts, interact with chat members, add in polls and other features which can be a bit clunky on gotomeeting.
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Scalability
No answers on this topic
We use many platforms and Wistia has been a standout in terms of reliability and scaleability.
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Return on Investment
  • JW Player has was less expensive (without sacrificing quality) than our previous video platform so the ROI was instant.
  • We were easily able to add a variety of video advertising options including pre-roll, mid-roll and post-roll.
  • The quality and consistancy of the look of the video has enabled us to grow our video views by well over 100% since starting with JW.
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  • Doubled lead capture from lead magnet on website from one year to the next.
  • Increased email interaction on newsletters when embedding Wistia video thumbnail into email campaigns (10-15% links clicked bumped to 30-40% links clicked).
  • Can save us about 50+ hours of one-on-one client meeting time per year for pointing clients to video content rather than presenting the same info in a live setting.
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ScreenShots

Wistia Screenshots

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