Leaving Wistia — a checklist, with an importer that does the files

What should I do before I cancel Wistia?

Get your own copy of everything while the plan is still paid. Wistia says that once you cancel you can no longer access your media, that media in cancelled accounts generally remain untouched, and that it cannot guarantee they will be stored indefinitely. It recommends downloading before you cancel.

Wistia exports originals per folder as a ZIP, with a 4 GB limit per ZIP, and bulk downloads from the library up to 1,000 files at a time. Or connect the Stillhaven importer and let it fetch the originals. Either way, the bytes leaving Wistia count against your Wistia bandwidth, so do it while a paid plan's allowance is there.

Download the original of every video you want to keep, or run the importer.
Download captions as SRT or VTT for every language you need. Wistia offers them under Download, on the Transcript tab.
Copy out the comments you still need. Comments stay in Wistia and are not in its public API.
Save any custom thumbnails.
Export the analytics you will want later.
List every page where a Wistia video is embedded, and every call to action or form attached to one.
List every Wistia link you have sent to a client or a student.
Note the date your plan renews, and who the account owner is. Only the owner can create an API token.

What does not come with the file?

A download, or an import, gives you the video, its title and description, and its captions. Nothing else around it travels.

Comments and approvals. Share for Review feedback, audience comments and team comments stay in Wistia. Wistia says they are not available through its public API, so there is no export. Close open reviews, or copy out the notes you still need, before the plan ends.

Team access. Wistia's free plan is one user. Decide who needs a seat in the new place, and tell them the date.

The marketing layer. Calls to action, forms, A/B tests and the player's custom look are Wistia settings. If you depend on them, read the section below before you move.

Links and embeds. A Wistia link cannot be pointed at a new host. Every embed is replaced by hand, and every link you have sent is sent again.

What breaks when the plan ends?

Two cases, and Wistia documents one of them.

You cancel the account. Wistia says you can no longer access your media. Embeds and links stop with it.
You drop to the free plan. Wistia says the free plan is 25 GB of storage and one user, that it cannot exceed its included storage, and that you cannot upload past a media limit. Its pages do not say what happens to media already over the free limits after a downgrade. Ask Wistia before you rely on it.

The safe order is the same either way: move the videos, replace the embeds, check each page, and only then let the plan end.

Where should the videos go?

It depends on what the videos are for.

Video does marketing work for you. Lead capture forms and calls to action in the player, A/B tests, heatmaps, HubSpot or Marketo feeding from views. Stay with Wistia. We have built none of that, and Stillhaven vs Wistia says so first.

You host, embed and share, and the bill is the problem. That is us. Two meters, storage and bandwidth, and the same features on every paid plan apart from four that start on Studio.

Clients review and approve your cuts. That is us. A reviewer leaves timestamped notes on a share page without an account, you reply or resolve, and they sign off. On every plan.

More than one person runs the library. That is us from Studio, with up to 3 admins and 3 editors. Creator adds editor seats one at a time.

Students or members watch privately. That is us from Studio. Private channels put viewers behind their own sign-in and show each viewer's progress.

You work alone, the library is large, and you want the most storage for the money. Use Livid. Stillhaven vs Livid has the numbers.

You run webinars or a podcast. Stay with Wistia or choose a tool for that. We host recorded video only.

Moving to Stillhaven, step by step

Start a plan. Every plan billed monthly starts with 14 days free, card on file.
Write to us before you import a whole library. Each plan takes a set number of hours of new video a month, and the trial takes fewer. Tell us what you are moving and we lift the limit.
In Wistia, as the account owner, create an API token under Account settings, API, with read permission and access to all project and video data. Wistia shows it once.
In the console, open Import, paste the token, and pick the projects. They arrive as folders, sections as subfolders, with titles, descriptions, your captions and the original files. Re-running never duplicates a video, so you can import in batches.
Set allowed domains once, as the default for the library, so embeds play only on your sites.
Replace the embeds page by page, and open each page to check it. Anything a call to action or a form did in the player needs a home on the page instead.
Send clients a share page with client review turned on, in place of the old Wistia link.
Keep Wistia paid until the last embed is replaced and the import is complete. The import's downloads count against Wistia bandwidth.

Start 14 days free Ask about moving a library

Questions people ask

Does Wistia delete my videos when I cancel?

Wistia says that once you cancel, you can no longer access your media, that media in cancelled accounts generally remain untouched, and that it cannot guarantee they will be stored indefinitely. It recommends downloading your media before you cancel. Treat the download as the only copy you control.

Can I download all my Wistia videos at once?

Per folder, yes: Export all media on a folder produces a ZIP of the original files, with a 4 GB limit per ZIP. From the video library, a bulk download is limited to 1,000 files, and the link is emailed to you. Or let the Stillhaven importer fetch the originals for you.

Will my Wistia embeds keep working after I cancel?

If you cancel outright, no: Wistia says you lose access to your media. If you downgrade to the free plan, Wistia's pages say the plan cannot exceed its storage and that you cannot upload past the limit, but not what happens to media already over it. Ask Wistia before the plan ends, and replace the embeds first either way.

Is there a Wistia importer for Stillhaven?

Yes, on every plan. Connect a read-only Wistia API token, pick the projects you want, and they arrive as folders with titles, descriptions, your captions, and the original files. Re-running an import never creates duplicates.

What does the importer not bring across?

Comments, including Share for Review feedback, audience comments and team comments. Analytics. Player customisations, calls to action, forms and thumbnails. One caption language per video, English where there is a choice. Copying the originals counts against your Wistia bandwidth.

Do I need a paid Wistia plan to import?

You need an API token, which only the Wistia account owner can create, under Account settings, API. The importer needs read permission and access to all project and video data. Create it while you still have the plan and the people you need.

Wistia facts checked against support.wistia.com and wistia.com/pricing on 9 October 2026. These change. If you are reading this much later, check theirs before you act. Moving off Vimeo instead? Leaving Vimeo, in order.