16 Best YouTube Alternatives for Watching Videos Online
When it comes to watching and streaming video content online, the default choice has always been YouTube for many. There is certainly much to like about this platform. After all, anyone with a Google account can upload videos easily and for free.
YouTube offers hours of online entertainment, however, there are plenty of alternatives should you, for any reason, want something different. These similar video sites offer range of videos that can entertain, educate as well as amuse you. Here in this post, we will take a look at some of the best YouTube alternatives that the internet has to offer.
YouTube Alternatives
While YouTube is undoubtedly the most popular video streaming site, it is not the only one in the market. There are quite a few other platforms and many of them offer something different to the user. As such, they are worth checking out. All these video streaming sites allow you to watch videos online for free. Many of them also allows you to create an account and follow channels or topics as per your choice.
1. Vimeo
This is one of the most popular alternative to YouTube. Interestingly, the word Vimeo was formed as a combination of video and me but it is an anagram of the word movie at the same time.
Vimeo was developed specifically for independent filmmakers as a platform for their short movies and pieces. Nonetheless professional content can also be found on Vimeo and it offers upgrade plans for uploaders to remove certain upload limits and to gain advanced features.
2. Rumble
Rumble is a rights management video platform. It allows you to host, distribute and monetize videos. It has video app available on the app store as well. You can view daily top videos as well as videos by many channels. You can also licensee videos from this site.
3. Dailymotion
In terms of popularity, Dailymotion easily gets a second rank. It is also just behind YouTube when it comes to a comparison of sizes and is therefore considered one of the best YouTube alternatives for watching videos online. This is actually a French video sharing website and it is possible to upload and share videos here once you have an account.
The features are similar to YouTube and it is a free platform supported by ads. You can search for videos with the help of tags, channels or even user groups.
4. Metacafe
Metacafe resembles YouTube in a number of ways which is one of the reasons it is quite popular. However, few people realize that Metacafe is actually older than YouTube. Originally, Metacafe offered content on the lines of YouTube and Dailymotion.
Its materials included original videos and corporate sponsored ones. However, it has recently shifted its focus and started offering short videos in the vein of Vimeo. On the other hand, partnerships have enabled this platform to offer a lot of exclusive content.
5. Veoh
At Veoh, you can browse through an extensive range of videos. The best feature of this platform is that it does not have any upload restrictions with respect to length unlike the majority of video platforms in the internet. Therefore, you can easily find full length movies in this site apart from short clips.
The user interface is also quite smart and easy to use. Due to the lack of upload restrictions, you can find high quality video content here. Unfortunately, it requires flash for playing videos.
6. Flickr
Flickr is known to be one of the best sites for uploading and sharing images. However, it has been quite some time since it started offering videos. While it may not be the best among the different YouTube alternatives, it is certainly worth a try.
You can create a free account and start uploading videos. However, the videos have to be of 90 seconds or less. Moreover, free users can upload only two of these videos while pro users get unlimited uploads among other features.
7. Twitch
Twitch has become popular quite recently having quickly established itself as the best place for gaming enthusiasts. If you want to watch videos of games, this is the site you need to visit. The best feature of Twitch is that it offers live streaming.
Therefore, you can watch game videos as they are actually being played in real life. It has partnered with many gaming tournaments to provide live coverage of the games and tournaments.
In many streams, commentary is also provided just like television coverage of football or baseball tournaments have. Twitch is suitable for amateur gamers and professionals alike.
Side Note: YouTube also has a similar service for game streaming called YouTube Gaming.
8. Facebook Videos
Facebook videos allows you to watch the most watched and trending videos on the internet with your Facebook account. You can also watch live shows and latest clips on Facebook and save videos that you like. Overall, Facebook has created a great online platform for watching live and trending videos and can prove to be hours of fun as well as entertainment.
9. TED Talks
TED Talks is a well known website for hosting inspirational talks from thought leaders around the globe. If you want to watch clean, educative video content which are helpful in shaping the ideas of the future as well as understanding the past and human behaviors, this is a must to visit video library. All the videos are available to be watched for free.
10. Pexels Videos
Pexels is a free stock video site that hosts royalty free creative common licensed videos that can be used on your own websites and projects. There are many other free stock video sites that also offer free videos and stock footages for commercial use.
11. BitChute
BitChute offers a compelling alternative to YouTube and aims to puts creators first. BitChute is a peer-to-peer content sharing platform. It generally attracts videos and creators who were otherwise banned or restricted on YouTube. BitChute attempts to offer free speech right to these creators and their videos. You may find many controversial content including conspiracy theories on this platform so do tread with caution.
12. 9GAG Videos
9GAG is an online community for funny videos and images. The videos section of 9gag brings hot as well as fresh funny videos everyday. You can also upvote and comment on these videos and get hours of fun. Videos on 9GAG are generally short and entertaining.
13. DTube
DTube is a community powered video sharing platform where users vote on videos to reward creators, curators, influencers and viewers in cryptocurrency. The look and feel of DTube is very similar to YouTube and it offers almost same sections and features such as trending videos, watch later etc.
14. lbry.tv
LBRY is another online video watching platform that is community driven. You can follow account to watch videos uploaded by them or discover new videos on the platform.
15. Moving Image Archive : Internet Archive
Moving image archive is an archive of online videos, documentaries and movies. Created by the Internet Archive, this is a grand repository of over 6 million online videos for you to browser and watch. There are many full length movies available on this repository which are available in public domain and can be watched for free.
16. The Open Video Project
The Open Video Project is an online digital video collection. The purpose of the Open Video Project is to collect and make available a repository of digitized video content for the digital video, multimedia retrieval, digital library, and other research communities.
There you go, these are the best YouTube alternatives that you can give a shot at the moment. As you can see, you can easily find a site that caters exclusively for your specific needs, both as a viewer and as a video content maker. If we have missed any other video site, you can list them below in comments.
This article about YouTube alternatives was originally written by Jane Sheeba and has since been updated by our editorial.
Cover Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
