9 Best Video Upload Sites & Cloud Storage Services

Are you looking for the best video upload sites and cloud storage providers? If so, you'll love today's post showing you how to upload video to the top 9 most popular platforms.

Nowadays, video is a big part of any digital marketing strategy. With over 87% of online marketers using video, you must up your game if you're to compete favorably.

Whether you're creating podcasts, demos, testimonials, event videos, interviews, etc., using video marketing helps you grow revenue 49% faster than non-video users.

But video marketing can be a pain in the neck (and expensive) if you don't know the best places to upload your video content. There are too many options, plus you must stay within your budget.

But should you even pay to upload videos?

With so many free video hosting services, you can upload your videos without paying a single dollar. Yes, that's right; you can bootstrap all the way :)

The only problem? Free video hosting sites come with plenty of limits and restrictions. Some paid video sites aren't any better either.

Several services offer you gigabytes of free storage but won't let you embed video players on your site, among other things.

Other services, such as YouTube, have strict rules and offer you a video player laden with links that siphon traffic from your website.

Plus, you can always upload videos to your WordPress media library (or website server), but there are still bandwidth, storage, and performance concerns.

So, what now?

Enter video upload and cloud storage services, and the day is saved.

Going for a third-party video upload site or cloud storage service offers you better performance and a lot of storage.

And in today's post, we point you towards nine of the best :)

Pro Tip: Keep in mind that you can always use Swarmify to import your videos from the following sources. Then use SmartVideo to serve the videos in a clean, ad-free, and clutter-free video player that looks professional.

You know, something like this:

Check out the demo for the above video here.

Note: To use SmartVideo with any of the following video upload sites, you need an active Swarmify account.

Save Money: Don't have Swarmify yet? You can start right away and take advantage of your exclusive discount - 50% off!

9 Best Video Upload Sites & Cloud Storage Services

We have not listed the following video upload sites in any particular order. That means you can choose whichever you prefer.

Use these video hosting and cloud storage services with Swarmify and save a ton of money in bandwidth and storage fees.

Without further ado, let us start.

Amazon S3

Do you know who else uses Amazon S3? Netflix, Airbnb, and Nasa, among other big names.

And do you know why?

Because they offer a rock-solid cloud storage platform that's perfect for small and big businesses.

They start you off with a free tier plan that offers 5GB of storage and 15GB monthly bandwidth for a year.

Amazon S3 is durable, scalable, secure, and easy to integrate with Swarmify.

Why integrate with Swarmify?

Videos uploaded to Amazon S3 are not optimized for streaming, since they are basically offering you storage space. Another thing, it's hard for beginners to embed videos from Amazon S3 on their websites.

To offer faster video experiences on your website, you need a video acceleration service such as Swarmify. Swarmify makes it incredibly easy to embed and deliver 12x faster videos from Amazon S3.

How to Upload Video to Amazon S3

Uploading your video to Amazon S3 and later embedding it on your website using SmartVideo is incredibly easy.

Here's how:

Step 1: Upload your video to a bucket that is accessible to the public (Set Access to Objects can be public):

Step 2: Once the video uploads, click the video title, click the Make public button, and copy the Object URL, as shown below:

Step 3: If you're using the SmartVideo WordPress plugin, paste the Object URL in the Video URL field, as we highlight below.

If you're not using the SmartVideo WordPress plugin (perhaps you're on a different CMS or have a simple HTML/CSS website), use the Object URL as the src in a SmartVideo tag, which looks like this:

Replace "path/to/my/video.mp4" with the Object URL you copied from Amazon S3:

And that's it; you've learned how to upload a video to Amazon S3 and embed it on your website easily.

Swarmify SmartVideo will download, encode, and store your video on our global delivery network.

From there, your web visitors will enjoy fast, buffer-free, and high-quality video on any device and from anywhere in the world.

And the best part?

Your Amazon S3 video will play inside the SmartVideo clutter-free video player we mentioned earlier.

Let us move on to the next cloud storage site.

Dropbox

Dropbox is a file hosting service that offers you cloud storage and seamless file sharing to streamline your workflow.

Instead of carrying your files around in a USB disk, Dropbox allows you to synchronize your files across multiple devices.

It's also a fantastic place to upload video content since they offer you plenty of storage space and bandwidth.

The service offers you plenty of features to store and share content and collaborate with team members effortlessly.

The free plan offers you 2 GB of storage space to get you through the door. Premium plans offer you between 2 TB and as much storage space as you need.

Adding a Dropbox video to your website isn't exactly straightforward. For instance, they don't offer you a video player or any embed code to add to your website.

Luckily, Swarmify makes sharing the video you upload to Dropbox effortless. Here's how.

How to Upload Video to Dropbox

Step 1: After uploading your video to Dropbox, select the video, and click Share:

Step 2: Click Create link:

Step 3: Click Copy link:

If you're using the SmartVideo WordPress plugin, copy-paste the link into the Video URL field, and change the 0 value at the end of the URL to 1 like so:

If you are not using WordPress, copy the SmartVideo tag below and paste it where you wish to embed the video.

Then, replace path/to/my/video.mp4 with the Dropbox link, then change the 0 value at the end of the Dropbox URL to 1, as shown below:

And that's it; your video will be accelerated and served from Swarmify SmartCDN.

We are moving on swiftly.

Google Cloud

Trusted by the world's leading companies such as Nintendo, PayPal, and Airbus, Google Cloud offers you the same infrastructure that Google uses for its products, including YouTube and Gmail, among others.

Google Cloud suite of cloud computing services is the perfect solution you need if you are looking to upload a ton of video content without bogging down your server.

They offer you a robust platform that's easy to manage and scale, even for beginners. If you're looking to upload one video, Google is an overkill. It's perfect for businesses with many videos to manage.

But just like Amazon S3 and Dropbox, Google doesn't optimize videos for streaming. They offer you decent storage options, yes, but that's it. You don't get an embed code or video player.

Swarmify offers you precisely what you need to store your videos on Google Cloud and deliver them via SmartVideo.

How?

How to Upload Video to Google Cloud

If it's your first time, uploading videos to Google Cloud might seem daunting, but worry not; we have your back.

Step 1: Create a bucket and set Access control model to Set permissions uniformly at bucket-level (Bucket Policy Only), as shown below.

Step 2: From the Storage Browser, click on the bucket name, click Permissions, click Add members, type allUsers in the New members field, click the Select a role dropdown menu, type Storage Object Viewer, click the first search result, and finally click Save.

Here's a GIF to illustrate:

Step 3: Click the Upload files button and upload your video:

Step 4: Once your video uploads, click on the video's title, right-click the link icon in the Access row, and click Copy link address in the context menu that pops up.

Note: Make sure your video's access level is set to Public. If it is not, SmartVideo will be unable to process your video.

If you're using the SmartVideo WordPress plugin, paste the link into the Video URL field:

If you're not using WordPress, use the following SmartVideo tag to embed your Google Cloud video anywhere on your website:

Replace path/to/my/video.mp4 with the Google Cloud link you copied earlier.

Easy, right?

Perfecto; let us move on to the next cloud storage service.

Google Drive

Google rarely disappoints, if ever. If Google Cloud proves a bit technical for you, perhaps you'll love Google Drive.

It's more beginner-friendly, and you get 15 GB just by signing up for a Google account.

Uploading videos to Google Drive is easy but embedding the video on your site can be challenging.

Luckily for you, SmartVideo makes it relatively easy. Here's how.

How to Upload Video to Google Drive

Step 1: Upload the video to Google Drive

Step 2: Right-click the video and select Preview:

Step 3: From Preview, click the ellipsis, then click Open in new window:

Step 4: From the new window, click the ellipsis, then click Share, click Advanced, click Change, select Public on the web, click Save, click Done:

Step 5: Click the ellipsis, click Embed item… , copy the source URL, click OK:

If you're using the SmartVideo WordPress plugin, paste the link into the Video URL field:

If you're not using WordPress, copy-paste the following SmartVideo tag and replace the path/to/my/video.mp4 placeholder with your Google Drive link.

You know, like this:

And that's it!

SmartVideo will start delivering your Google Drive video after the video has been processed. For most video files, it takes less than 30 minutes.

pCloud

pCloud is a smart desktop application that helps you to create a virtual drive on your computer.

The virtual drive allows you to store, access, and work with your files as if they are on your computer, without taking space from your hard disk.

As such, you can access your computer files anywhere you go and, on any device, which is pretty convenient.

Other than that, they offer you other tools, including file sharing, synchronization, backups, security, file versioning, collaboration, and so on.

They offer a free account that gives you 10 GB of free storage, but you can always upgrade to their generous premium plans.

It's an excellent cloud storage service to upload videos no matter the size of your business.

But since pCloud, like all the others on today's list, are merely cloud storage services, they don't optimize your video for streaming.

Which is where SmartVideo comes in :)

How to Upload Video to pCloud

Upload your video to the Public folder in pCloud:

Once the video uploads, select the video, click Get Link, and then copy the Direct Link URL:

If you're using the SmartVideo WordPress plugin, paste the link into the Video Url field:

And that's it; SmartVideo will start processing your pCloud video immediately and serve it from our fast global delivery network.

If you don't use WordPress, you can deliver your video via SmartVideo using the following SmartVideo tag:

Please copy the above tag and paste it on your website where you want to embed your video. Then, replace path/to/my/video.mp4 with the direct link you copied from pCloud.

You can change the height, width, and customize the SmartVideo video player further using other SmartVideo tags.

As simple as A, B, C.

Publitio

Publitio is a cloud-based media asset management platform that stores, processes, and delivers images, videos, and rich-media files for businesses.

With plenty of features to help you store and deliver video content, Publitio is a superb cloud storage service to consider as you compare video upload sites.

You can start with a free account that offers you 10 GB of free storage and 20 GB monthly bandwidth.

But storage and bandwidth limits can make Publitio an expensive option for businesses with many videos.

Also, Publitio embeddable video players are hard to customize and implement. Swarmify's SmartVideo makes embedding Publitio videos on your website not only comfortable but also fun.

To add salt to the wound, Publitio video players are not optimized for speed. In one of my tests, the video player didn't load at all.

How to Upload Video to Publitio

Upload your video to Publitio using the default privacy settings:

Next, click Copy URL once the video finishes uploading:

Here comes the fun part :)

I promise you that you will forget about Publitio's horrendous video players forever.

If you are using the SmartVideo WordPress plugin, paste the link you just copied to the Video URL field:

And, in all honesty, that was way easier than dealing with Publitio video players. If you're an existing Publitio user, you know what I mean. If you plan to use Publitio to upload video, you'll be glad you found SmartVideo :)

We are moving on.

If you don't use WordPress, you can always embed your Publitio videos on your website using the following SmartVideo tag:

To get it working, paste the above tag on your website where you want to embed the video, and replace path/to/my/video.mp4 with the Publitio link. It's undoubtedly the stuff of fourth graders.

Spaces on DigitalOcean

DigitalOcean's Spaces is a cloud storage service that offers you Amazon S3-compatible object storage, which lets you store and serve massive amounts of data.

If you're working with many videos, Spaces is the ideal storage partner for your business. It is also perfect for developers with gigantic projects that require a lot of storage space.

Spaces is excellent for videos since the offer you the Spaces CDN at no additional cost. A CDN can significantly improve the performance of your video content. That's why, at Swarmify, we use the Smart CDN to accelerate your videos for the world :)

And we would love to help you deliver your Spaces videos at even faster speeds than Spaces itself. It's a win-win kind of thing - you upload videos to Spaces, and we deliver them to your visitors at blazing-fast speeds. You can't find a better combo :)

That said, here's how to store your videos on Spaces and deliver them via SmartVideo.

How to Upload Video to DigitalOcean Spaces

Upload your video to a Space in DigitalOcean, setting the file to Public:

Next, mouse over the blue icon that looks like a piece of paper and click the Copy URL button, as shown below:

If you're using the SmartVideo WordPress plugin, paste the link into the Video URL field:

If you are not taking advantage of the WordPress plugin, or are on another platform such as Shopify or ClickFunnels, use the URL you copied as the source (src) in the following SmartVideo tag:

Replace path/to/my/video.mp4 with your Spaces link.

As easy as pie.

You're a natural at this :)

Let's move on to the next video upload site.

Wasabi

Little-known Wasabi is a force to reckon with in the cloud storage industry. They offer excellent cloud storage solutions at incredibly low prices. The claim on their website is they are 80% cheaper than Amazon S3.

The company partners with some of the best names in the industry, offering you the perfect solution to upload unlimited videos without a heavy financial burden.

Sure, they offer fast cloud storage solutions, but they are not a video acceleration company, just a hot cloud storage provider. That means optimizing videos for fast performance and building video players is not at the top of the priority list.

But can you store videos on Wasabi and deliver them via SmartVideo?

Yes, of course, and here's how :)

How to Upload Video to Wasabi

Upload your video to a bucket that has Public Access set to Default or Enabled:

Next, click on the video, click the globe icon to make the file public, and click the clipboard icon to copy the link.

Next, it's time to add the video to your website via SmartVideo. If you're using the SmartVideo WordPress plugin, you already know it's going to be simple. Paste the link into the Video URL field, and your work is done:

Are you not using the SmartVideo WordPress plugin? Are you using a different platform? Perhaps you have an HTML/CSS website? No problem at all. You can always embed your Wasabi videos using the following SmartVideo tag:

Paste the code to your webpage and replace path/to/my/video.mp4 with your Wasabi video link.

It can't get easier than that.

WordPress Media Library

I bet you didn't expect to see the WordPress media library in a list of video upload sites. But the WordPress media library is a fantastic place to upload videos.

Provided you have adequate server resources, i.e., storage, bandwidth, and RAM, why would you consider a third-party storage solution?

You can upload videos directly into the WordPress media library, but instead of using the default WordPress video player, you can leverage the power of SmartVideo to supercharge your videos.

That way, you only store videos on your website, but no matter how many viewers you have, your website will never slow down.

Why?

Because SmartVideo will be serving the videos from our global delivery network. That takes the load off your server.

You will deliver fast, buffer-free, and high-res video experiences even if you're on a budget host.

Sounds interesting, right?

Here's how to upload videos to the WordPress media library and deliver them via SmartVideo.

How to Upload Video to WordPress Media Library

While editing a page in WordPress, click on the SmartVideo logo to add a SmartVideo block. A placeholder video will be shown in the live preview:

Next, click the Select video button:

Click Upload Files, then drag and drop your video file from your computer:

Once your video finishes uploading to WordPress, click the Select button:

And there you have it!

Are you a pro or what? Now you can upload videos to any of the above sites (including your own), and deliver fast, lag-free, and customized video experiences via SmartVideo.

Your web visitors will thank you for it. You will enjoy better user engagement, higher retention rates, more conversions, and grow your revenue like a boss.

Oh yeah, I didn't mention YouTube, Vimeo, Wistia, and such websites, because the free ones try to siphon your traffic, and the paid ones have rigid limits that stifle your growth.

Any thoughts about our list of alternative video upload sites/cloud storage services?