Kaltura vs. Vimeo Enterprise

Kaltura and Mediaspace are well suited for any business that has a need for an easy to use video conversion software. We use the SaaS solution, but Kaltura is also open-sourced which means if you have the server resources available, you could get Kaltura up-and-running for a minimal cost or customize it to your hearts content. We have gone with the SaaS solution to minimize the amount of administration required as well as give us the benefit of getting the most-up-to-date version of the software. There are ways to monetize videos by adding ads and other things, but unfortunately I don't have much experience with these since we are a University. Kaltura is excellent from our University's perspective because it gives our campus a way to share their videos in a very easy to use package that basically "just works." If you're a small company or institution that doesn't need a lot of control over the back-end of a video solution, then there may be other, better alternatives that are free such as YouTube.

Although there is room for improvement, it is a fantastic service and I would suggest this to many clients. In fact, I already have and overall they're happy with it. It does what is needed, has impressive features in the free version as well as the Plus version, and they seem to truly listen to what their clients want for features. They're head and shoulders above the competition with delivering a service that works (unlike other mentioned) along with having a slick end product. I'm so happy that I moved over to Vimeo

Incentivized

• Kaltura Classroom is one of the best ways to teach online, including the capacity of instructors to record classes directly to the LMS
• Integrates very well with enterprise application via strong API system
• Cutting edge implementation of emerging technologies like 360 videos
• Robust and flexible transcoding profiles

Incentivized

• Embed & Livestream permissions
• Download protection
• Advanced livestream & multi-cam options

Incentivized

• As it relates to the LMS integration, we would like to see improved workflow. But that may be just as much a Canvas issue as a Kaltura issue.
• I would like to see the ability to add inline, anchored comments to the video timeline.
• We are seeing issues with compatibility with certain browsers - especially Chrome. The faster Kaltura can move away from Flash the better.
• The capture appliance (CaptureSpace Lite) needs to be reconsidered. It's not intutive enough.

Incentivized

• The video library management is not well designed
• The Livestream studio software could use feature updates more frequently
• Batch uploading and large file uploading is not reliable
• When replacing a video file the platform does not show progress

The choice to renew our subscription does not belong to us, though we are able to provide input. We are aware of competitive products who have matured in the past three years, and we are aware now of alternatives to conventional plugin usage (LTI).

The layout is inconsistent for different parts of the platform, it takes a very long time to find specific settings. Labels aren't clear sometimes - not to the first-time/average user. They actually just changed the interface with zero warning or tooltips and had to contact support to get it back to the version our teachers are familiar with.

Incentivized

The first line support agents seldom are able to diagnose or troubleshoot any problems that we have. These agents simply open support tickets in their system which are escalated to a foreign level 2 support agent which creates at least a day delay between reporting a problem and getting initial feedback. Any back-and-forth questions add at least another day delay.

Incentivized

Generally Vimeo is fast to respond to support tickets with more or less the answer to the question/problem with documentation and clarity in the answer. Usually only takes on message to solve the issue.

Incentivized

Panopto is a much cheaper option (based on a pay per view model) but the user experience is not nearly as good. The video portal UI is difficult to navigate and the recording feature requires downloading separate desktop software that differs greatly from PC to MAC. Inline quizzing features are far behind Kaltura. It does have stronger analytics tools but they are the type that are better exported to .csv and processed by an advanced Excel user. Vimeo Pro is a very cheap and solid option for a small program or business that is just starting out, but it isn't highly searchable, it doesn't support a large body of users and does not offer any type of online features. It isn't really much more than a repository but it is a bit nicer than using freeware such as YouTube.

Incentivized

Vimeo is awesome because it is a seamless experience that blends software and a cloud platform and end user experience. No other competitor offers a holistic solution the way Vimeo does. With other platforms you have to piece together multiple pieces of hardware and software and even with those pieces you don't get the same ease of use and performance that Vimeo gives you with their software and cloud solution

• Managing video content with the KMC has greatly reduced the amount of hours previously needed to manage.
• User issues ie: uploading video, viewing video has been greatly reduced.
• Increased user engagement with using video in LMS courses. We currently have 6,929 videos on our system. Last month , 2/1/14, 17,623 videos were viewed at least 75% of the way through.

• As a University we view this as way to include a larger community in our events and ROI is not direct.
• We moved from a pay per event streaming service to a yearly subscription with Vimeo Live and our usage has increased as departments don't have to consider the cost of each event.

Incentivized