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Vimeo vs Spike

Vimeo vs Spike is a stream versus a door. Vimeo hosts a player so people watch. Spike hosts a folder so people can look, pay, and take the master. You can use both. They are not the same job.

Hanne Vestergaard

SilkeborgUpdated 3 min read

Vimeo vs Spike is a player versus a pack. Vimeo earned the category by making a video look like a film: a player, privacy, a page. Strong when the work should be watched. Weak when the deliverable is a master the editor must open. A stream is not a ProRes. Spike is not a player. It is a folder with a treated preview and, if you want, a price.

People search the pairing because a client asked for the files after they watched, or a festival needs the export, or they still send a Drive after a Vimeo review link. Those leftover jobs are a library. Keep Vimeo for the cut. Hand off the master on Spike.

A player on the left. A folder on the right. Watch there. Take the master here.

What Vimeo is for

  • A player people already know how to use.
  • Privacy settings, a page that looks like a film.
  • Cuts you want watched, not downloaded.
  • OTT or a channel when the product is a stream.

What the player will not be

Camera masters. A ProRes the colourist opens. A wedding set of stills plus a highlight. A stock pack. How filmmakers deliver video to clients is that door. Vimeo can still host the cut. The folder holds what they take home.

What you getVimeoSpike
Watch in a playerYes, the jobA clip, not a cinema
Download the masterPossibleThe starting point
Review comments on a timelineNot Frame.ioNot the job
Checkout on the same URLTheir toolsOptional on the folder
Still there next monthDepends on the planThe library is the point

  1. If they should watch, keep the player

    Vimeo. Spike will not become a channel.

  2. If they should comment on a timeline, keep a suite

    Frame.io or Replay. Export when it locks.

  3. If they should take the file, pick the folder

    Spike. A clip on the unpaid view. The original after checkout, or a free share if they already paid.

Host the cut where people watch. Hand off the master where people take.

Spike takes 5% on Free, 1% on Pro, 0% on Business, plus Stripe, only if you attach a price. Sharing can stay free. Free shares last three days; Pro and Business until you turn them off. Free-plan files follow 30-day retention. A Vimeo link that must stay up for a year is a player job. A client who will re-download the export in March is a library job.

Filmmakers often keep two rooms. That is fine. Vimeo for the cut the producer plays in a meeting. Spike for the pack the colourist fetches at midnight. Do not dump 40 GB into a player because that was the share you had open. Do not ask them to join a workspace to finish a job you already invoiced. Treat the unpaid view so a forward is not a theft of the master. Price it if they still owe you. That is the extra: not a better Vimeo, a refusal to pretend a stream was the delivery.

Questions

Good to know

Not for a player, a channel, or OTT. Yes for the ProRes, the gallery, or the pack the colourist must open. Keep Vimeo for the cut you want watched. Use Spike when the deliverable is a file. Frame.io alternatives maps review suites versus libraries.

Keep reading

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Try the workflow in the article.

Upload a folder, protect the preview, share or sell from one link.

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