Likelihood to Recommend Panopto is great if you have a lot of video content that you need to put in a central repository. It makes it easy to manage who sees it and how it is categorized. The captioning features are also really good too. For folks to view the video, they don't need a Panopto account. You can send them a direct link. If you want to upload videos, however, they will need a Panopto account. If you only have a few videos or care less about usage statistics,
SharePoint may be a better file repository option
Read full review For companies that want to integrate their videos into actionable steps like behavioral follow up through a CRM, Wistia is the best tool to use. You can automate your systems to track when a video is viewed, engaged with or how long a person has been watching along with heatmaps to show where people were most interested and least interested so you can adjust your videos to optimize their performance.
Read full review Pros Simple to use - It really is a click-and-go system. Log in, click on record, and you're set. Flexible - It allows multiple information-rich inputs to be recorded simultaneously (for example, the screen, webcams, microphones, etc.). For some demonstrations, having multiple perspectives/views can be beneficial. The ability to add multiple webcams enhanced the value of some of my recordings. Reliable - This is critical when an unforeseen opportunity arises and you want to capture it visually and with audio. I had multiple experiences where a unique person was available briefly and due to Panopto's reliability, I was able to capture content that would otherwise have been seen by only those physically present at the time. Read full review 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 Panopto doesn't fully support Ultra courses in Blackboard - we can do quizzing, which is very helpful, but we can't do video submissions like an Original course. There is no built-in certificate option for completing a video and its quiz questions, which requires us to use additional systems for tracking and awarding. Analytics are mediocre. The reporting tools are challenging to use and to get clear information on a consistent basis. Quizzing is limited to multiple choice or T/F -- there is no reflection point or open-ended question format. Read full review 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. Read full review Likelihood to Renew 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.
Read full review Usability Needs some work, but I'm sure improvements will come over time
Read full review Great, simple, usable product. Would have given it higher marks, but sometimes the folders and permissions aren't the most intuitive. Interface for uploading, tagging, describing videos is simple. Sharing is also relatively intuitive. Overall, a clean and simple interface and most of our marketing team had no issues using it. I think it was easier than using Vimeo.
Ian Nate Digital Marketing Operations Manager
Read full review Reliability and Availability After several years, we have not come across a situation for which Wistia was not available when needed.
Read full review Performance I have never had any technical issues with Wistia. The service is fast and reliable. video play back begins as soon as a few seconds of video have buffered. The stats are accurate and available within a few hours of current use. I have integrated it with Marketo and found that the integration is clean and is easily incorporated into the campaign logic flow. (ex. If the user played more than 50% of the video, do Action-A, otherwise do Action-B.
Read full review Support Rating 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.
Read full review 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.
Read full review Implementation Rating We were in the process of changing our website so that took some time to get Wistia implemented in to our website.
Read full review Alternatives Considered Cost wise, unless you have a huge audience, Panopto is better. Both Zoom Meeting and
Kaltura and for more expensive and a smaller program/company may not have the demand to justify them.
Kaltura - is a far superior tool, the UI is much more modern and easier for a novice user to understand, and it makes sharing videos amongst faculty much easier. The LMS integration if far smoother and the recording is much easier and faster (from within the LMS). The analytics are also present in a much cleaner and digestible way. Lastly, the quizzing feature is far more robust.
Zoom - Smoother at streaming and live interactions. Stronger chat feature and supports larger audiences, it can handle over 100 HD webcams at once if needed. It does basic desktop capture and supporting audio-only formats that can easily be converted to Podcast or Soundcloud.
Google Loom - This one is not listed above as it's rather new but its a FREE tool for fast video/desktop/PPT recordings and it's extremely fast and easy to share. That said it's pretty basic as far as any additional features are concerned. Post-production editing is limited to basic timeline trimming.
Read full review 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 slow rendering.
Read full review Scalability We use many platforms and Wistia has been a standout in terms of reliability and scaleability.
Read full review Return on Investment Panopto integrates with our LMS, D2L quite well. It makes the process very simple for our instructors and students to record and watch videos. It does not require any plugins or software to watch videos, as they load up in a web browser. The videos work on mobile and embed easily in courses or on websites. We also enjoy the easy sharing of videos and simplified management in the web portal. Read full review 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. Read full review ScreenShots