JW Player vs. Panopto

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
Panopto
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
Panopto is a video management platform for businesses and universities from the company of the same name in Seattle, supporting the recording, sharing, live streaming, and (after recording) sharing via LMS or internal video site, video search, and virtual classroom.
$14.99
per month
Pricing
JW PlayerPanopto
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Pro
$14.99
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
JW PlayerPanopto
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
JW PlayerPanopto
Features
JW PlayerPanopto
Video Marketing
Comparison of Video Marketing features of Product A and Product B
JW Player
8.6
Ratings
14% above category average
Panopto
7.0
Ratings
7% below category average
Support for advertisements9.10 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Video SEO8.10 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Video personalization00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
eCommerce00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Video Security
Comparison of Video Security features of Product A and Product B
JW Player
7.8
Ratings
13% below category average
Panopto
8.8
Ratings
1% below category average
Video access controls9.00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
User management9.00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Video link sharing7.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
External video6.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Internal video00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Video Player
Comparison of Video Player features of Product A and Product B
JW Player
7.0
Ratings
19% below category average
Panopto
8.5
Ratings
1% above category average
Player customization2.00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Embedded videos6.00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Video quality / Bandwidth controls10.00 Ratings8.80 Ratings
Mobile compatibility10.00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Video Analytics
Comparison of Video Analytics features of Product A and Product B
JW Player
1.0
Ratings
155% below category average
Panopto
7.5
Ratings
4% below category average
Per viewer tracking1.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Per video tracking1.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Video analytics dashboard1.00 Ratings6.30 Ratings
A/B testing00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Streaming quality reports00 Ratings6.00 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
Panopto
8.1
Ratings
7% below category average
On-Demand video6.00 Ratings7.60 Ratings
Live streaming10.00 Ratings7.20 Ratings
Video upload & format support10.00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Video library / File management7.00 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Video portal10.00 Ratings7.80 Ratings
Impact of streaming on network00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Video Platform Integrations
Comparison of Video Platform Integrations features of Product A and Product B
JW Player
-
Ratings
Panopto
9.4
Ratings
41% above category average
Integration to LMS00 Ratings9.40 Ratings
Video Engagement
Comparison of Video Engagement features of Product A and Product B
JW Player
-
Ratings
Panopto
8.8
Ratings
10% above category average
Audience polling00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Audience Q&A / Live chat00 Ratings7.20 Ratings
Video comments00 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Best Alternatives
JW PlayerPanopto
Small Businesses
Wistia
Wistia
Score 9.8 out of 10
Wistia
Wistia
Score 9.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Flipgrid
Flipgrid
Score 1.0 out of 10
Flipgrid
Flipgrid
Score 1.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Panopto
Panopto
Score 8.0 out of 10
Ensemble Video
Ensemble Video
Score 9.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
JW PlayerPanopto
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.0
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
7.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
JW PlayerPanopto
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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The more I used it, the more I appreciated its ease of use. If I ever ran into a situation that I felt might be a learning opportunity at some point in the future, I would simply log in, record a session, and only allow access if/when it was appropriate later. Since the more recent versions also work on mobile phones, there really wasn't a time when I couldn't record something to review or present later. During covid, teachers didn't have access to their normal equipment, and students weren't always able to get access to a robust recording setup to do their recordings. Some students actually did recordings of presentations in their cars, or in the stairwells. Portability is powerful. I think that we all run into situations where our presentation didn't go quite as well as we had intended. As Panopto grew, they focused more on allowing the user to control their content and perform some basic (I would argue more than basic) editing, which made actions like awkward pauses easy to "fix" as you could create smooth, blended transitions easily.
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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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  • It captures multiple streams simultaneous (video, desktop, audio only etc) and is pretty smart when it comes to working with imported PowerPoint Decks.
  • The end product can easily be shared in multiple formats and it has pretty rich content editing abilities for doing basic post-production clean up.
  • They have recently introduced an in-line quizzing feature which can integrate with your LMS's Gradebook.
  • The Analytics feature is very strong - we can get student level analytics when we integrate/embed the videos into our LMS.
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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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  • Captions are always a problem for us. We would like to caption all our videos and currently, the automatic captioning is not very good.
  • We would like integration with our VLE grade book to allow seamless submission and grading for students.
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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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No answers on this topic
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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Needs some work, but I'm sure improvements will come over time
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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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Panopto has been quick to answer any questions, but their rollouts and updates have caused issues where we felt a little blindsided by unexpected changes. Their development cycle is slow and often their promises for future updates have been extremely slow or never come.
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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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No answers on this topic
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
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Panopto has the best captioning features that I've seen for a video repository. This enables us to caption videos quickly and efficiently. It also has tags and chaptering which makes viewing videos easier. We can also link videos inside Panopto to outside entities without needing them to have a Panopto account. Panopto works best if you have a LOT of video content, but if you only have some or don't care about organization, SharePoint (or Microsoft Stream) might be a cheaper/more efficient option.
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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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  • During the pandemic, Panopto allows our faculty to quickly stage up lectures that were normally delivered in person, and these recordings reached thousands of students who could not come to campus for class.
  • Both faculty and student report high satisfaction with the flexibility and convenience of having Panopto video content available in a course to watch and rewatch for learner reinforcement.
  • Panopto's adaptable media distribution reduced impact on student technology and internet speeds when they might not have access to broadband connections, allowing them to continue to access essential course materials.
  • Speech to text capabilities. increase accessibility compliance of media content.
  • Archiving training materials in Panopto allows faculty, staff, TAs, and students to easily find recordings for reference.
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ScreenShots