Stillhaven or YouTube?

YouTube costs nothing and puts your video in front of more people than any other place on the internet. It is also an advertising business, and the player is built for its goals. If you want a YouTube alternative for business, course or client video, here is the split, with every YouTube claim taken from a page Google publishes itself.

The short version

If you want to be found, use YouTube. Nothing else comes close for discovery, and it is free. Someone optimising for reach should be there, and we would say so to their face.

If the video is for your customers, your students or your clients, and it should play on your site without ads, without somebody else's video queued up after it, and without a logo that is not yours, that is us.

Where Stillhaven is the better choice

No ads on your videos, on any plan

Nothing plays before, during or after your video, including on Free. YouTube's terms grant it the right to monetise your content, and it may run ads on videos from channels that are not in its Partner Program, with no revenue share to you.

Your video ends, and nothing else starts

Our player stops, or loops if you tell it to. YouTube's embedded player keeps viewers on YouTube: related videos appear when playback ends and cannot be removed (setting rel to 0 limits them to your own channel, so a studio sees its own reel there rather than a stranger's; without it they can be anyone's), the pause screen offers more videos, and the logo links to the watch page on youtube.com, where the sidebar is other people's videos. Your video is also a YouTube URL, public or unlisted, that anyone can open away from your site.

Your branding, not theirs

From Creator up: your logo, your accent colour, and no Stillhaven badge at all. YouTube's player carries the YouTube logo, which links to youtube.com, and the parameter that used to soften it, modestbranding, was deprecated in August 2023 and now has no effect.

Embeds that stay where you put them

Allowed domains, on every paid plan: the video plays on the sites you list and nowhere else, and your analytics name any site that tried. YouTube offers embedding on or off; its domain rules exist only for partners using Content Manager.

Your original file, back whenever you want it

Every upload is kept as you sent it and is downloadable on every plan, including Free. YouTube hands back an MP4 at 720p or 360p.

Privacy that means private

Share pages can be turned off per video or for the whole library, can carry a password, and private channels put viewers behind their own sign-in. Nothing here recommends your video to strangers, because nothing here recommends anything.

Where YouTube is the better choice

You want to be discovered

YouTube is where people search for video, and its recommendations put your work in front of people who have never heard of you. We have no audience to offer you. If growth is the goal, YouTube is the better tool and it is not close.

You want it free, at any size

YouTube hosts as much as you upload for nothing. Our Free plan includes 10 GB of storage, 50 GB of monthly bandwidth and up to 30 minutes of new video a day, and paid plans start at $27 a month. If you are not spending anything and never want to, YouTube wins.

Your showreel belongs there

A public showreel or a channel you want found is exactly what YouTube is for, and we do not argue with it: the reach is real and the price is nothing. Client deliverables are a different job. A training cut or a wedding film usually should not be a YouTube URL at all, unlisted or not, and that is where a private page, review notes and the original file earn their keep.

You want the ecosystem

Subscriptions, live streaming, Shorts, community posts, and the possibility of being paid for views once your channel qualifies. We host video and stay out of the way: a share page here can take comments and reactions from the people you send it to, and that is as social as it gets.

Stillhaven and YouTube, side by side

Row by row, for the video you would rather keep on your own site. YouTube has no plans to compare, so the YouTube column describes the free service as Google documents it.

	Stillhaven	YouTube
Price	Free plan; paid from $27/mo	Free
Ads on your videos	Never, on any plan	May run, with no revenue share outside the Partner Program
Where a click can take the viewer	Nowhere but your page	To youtube.com, from the logo, the title, or the pause screen's "More videos"
Platform logo on the player	None from Creator up	YouTube logo, linking to youtube.com; modestbranding deprecated
Where it can be embedded	The domains you allow, every paid plan	On or off; domain rules for Content Manager partners only
Your original file	Downloadable, every plan	MP4 at 720p or 360p
Who can find it	People you send a link to; add a password or a private channel to narrow it	Anyone, if public; anyone with the link, if unlisted

YouTube claims checked against support.google.com/youtube, developers.google.com/youtube and youtube.com/t/terms, and the logo, title and pause-screen links observed in an embedded player on 28 September 2026, on 18 September 2026. Prices move; if you are reading this much later, check theirs before you decide. Ours are on our pricing page, checked the same day.

What both of us do

Adaptive streaming that fits the viewer's connection.

Captions, either uploaded or generated.

An embed code that works on any site.

Analytics on plays and how far people watched.

Reach is worth calling out, because it is the whole reason to choose YouTube and we do not pretend to compete: a public video there can be seen by anyone; a video here is seen by the people you send it to.

Questions people ask

Why not just use YouTube and set the video to unlisted?

Unlisted hides the video from search, but the player still carries YouTube's logo and its links to youtube.com, still ends with related videos (your own channel's if you set rel to 0), and YouTube may still run ads on it. Anyone with the link can watch and share it. Stillhaven plays without any of that and, on every paid plan, lets you limit embeds to your own domains.

Does YouTube really put ads on videos I did not monetise?

It can. YouTube's help centre says it may place ads on videos in channels that are not in the Partner Program, and that there is no revenue share until the channel qualifies. Its terms grant YouTube the right to monetise your content.

Can I turn off the related videos on a YouTube embed?

Not entirely. Google's player documentation says related videos cannot be disabled; setting rel to 0 limits them to videos from your own channel, which for a studio means its own reel rather than a stranger's. The logo and title still link to youtube.com and the pause screen still offers more videos. A Stillhaven embed simply stops, or loops if you ask it to.

Can I move my videos from YouTube to Stillhaven?

Download your originals from wherever you keep them, then drag the folder into the uploader and its structure becomes your folders. YouTube itself only returns an MP4 at 720p or 360p, so use your source files if you have them.

More comparisons: Stillhaven vs Wistia · Stillhaven vs Vimeo. All three.

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