Hosting
Cheap video hosting.
Affordable, as long as you read the meter.
Cheap video hosting is easy to find: almost every host has a free tier and a low first plan. What makes a host affordable over a year is what it counts. Some count the gigabytes you store, some the gigabytes your viewers pull, some the people on your team, and some charge you in ads or branding instead. Here is how to compare them.
Video hosting for filmmakers · 5 GB free · Paid plans from USD 9/month
By uncompressed.io · Updated October 2026
Short answer
What is the cheapest video hosting that is still good?
For a small library, a free tier is enough: uncompressed.io Starter (5 GB, one film at a time) and Vimeo Free both show no ads. For paid hosting on a budget, uncompressed.io Lite costs USD 9 a month for 200 GB and streams your file as exported. The cheapest host is the one whose meter matches how you work.
- uncompressed.io Starter: free, 5 GB, no ads, no logo
- uncompressed.io Lite: USD 9 a month, 200 GB
- Vimeo Free: no ads, 1 TB bandwidth a month, 3 GB embeddable
- Wistia Free: 25 GB with Wistia branding
- Frame.io Free: 2 GB; Pro USD 15 per member
- YouTube: free, but its terms allow ads
The meters
What a host counts
decides the real price
Every affordable host is cheap on one meter and expensive on another. Find yours before you compare sticker prices.
Storage
The gigabytes you keep online. Predictable: it only moves when you upload. This is how uncompressed.io prices hosting.
Bandwidth
The gigabytes viewers pull. Cheap for a quiet portfolio, expensive for a film that travels. Vimeo Free includes 1 TB a month.
Seats
The people on your team. Frame.io charges per member: USD 15 on Pro and USD 25 on Team, a month.
Attention
Free with ads or branding. YouTube's terms allow ads on your content; Wistia's free plan carries its branding.
Low-cost plans
uncompressed.io, plan by plan
from the live price list
Every core hosting feature is on every plan, the free one included. Plans differ by storage, seats and caption minutes, not by features.
Free
Starter
5 GB, one film at a time
USD 9
Lite a month
200 GB (100 GB ready to play + 100 GB archive)
USD 99
Lite a year
one month free against monthly billing
uncompressed.io prices in USD before tax, from the live price list, read 12 October 2026. Archive storage holds files off the player until you restore them.
Other affordable hosts
Free and entry plans elsewhere
on their own figures
Figures from each platform's own pages, read 12 October 2026. Vimeo's paid prices vary by region and billing term.
Keep it cheap
Five habits that cut the bill
for a year
Export sensibly
A 4K H.265 export at 40 to 80 Mbps looks excellent and is a fraction of a ProRes master's size.
Archive finished work
Move delivered projects to archive storage instead of keeping them ready to play.
Replace, do not re-upload
Upload a new cut to the same link so old versions do not pile up.
Pick the plan for storage, not features
On uncompressed.io every plan has every core feature; buy only the space you use.
Bill yearly once you are sure
One month free on uncompressed.io; most hosts discount annual terms.
Who this is not for
Choosing between quality and cost? Read video hosting that does not compress; on uncompressed.io the cheapest plan streams at the same quality as the most expensive one.
Questions
Frequently asked
What is the cheapest video hosting?
Free tiers: YouTube is free but its terms allow ads on your content; Vimeo Free, Wistia Free (25 GB, with Wistia branding), Frame.io Free (2 GB) and uncompressed.io Starter (5 GB, one film at a time) cost nothing. For paid hosting, uncompressed.io Lite is USD 9 a month with 200 GB of storage.
What is the cheapest video hosting without ads?
uncompressed.io Starter is free with no ads and no platform logo, limited to 5 GB and one film at a time. Vimeo's Free plan also has no ads, with embeddable and non-public videos limited to 3 GB and 1 TB of bandwidth a month.
Is cheap video hosting lower quality?
Not because of price. Quality depends on whether the host re-encodes your upload. Vimeo lists a 22 Mbps maximum at 4K for H.264. uncompressed.io streams the uploaded file without an additional re-encode on every plan, the free one included.
Does uncompressed.io charge for bandwidth?
Hosting plans are priced on storage, seats and caption minutes; plays and viewers of your hosted films have no extra charge. If you sell films through the streaming shop, each paid plan includes a monthly allowance of viewing hours for buyers, and an extra block is added above it.
Is yearly billing cheaper?
On uncompressed.io, yearly is one month free: Lite is USD 99 a year instead of USD 108. Wistia's pricing page lists its Business plan at USD 79 a month billed annually. Frame.io says annual billing saves 13%.
When is a cheap host the wrong choice?
When the cheap plan meters the thing you use most. A free plan with a low bandwidth ceiling is expensive for a popular film; a per-seat plan is expensive for a large team; a free plan with ads costs you the viewer's attention.
Start at zero, pay only for storage.
Starter is free with 5 GB and one film at a time. Paid plans: Lite USD 9, Pro USD 39, Max USD 99, Studio USD 219 a month, yearly one month free.
Sources
- 1.About the Vimeo Free plan, Vimeo help center (read 12 October 2026)
- 2.Guidelines for determining playback resolution, Vimeo help center (read 12 October 2026)
- 3.Wistia pricing (read 12 October 2026)
- 4.Frame.io pricing (read 12 October 2026)
- 5.YouTube Terms of Service (read 12 October 2026)
- 6.uncompressed.io pricing (read 12 October 2026)