HTML video player is a technology that helps broadcasters share their video content with viewers over the internet. Their HTML5 streaming technology was built as a compatible alternative to Abode’s Flash player, and it was the most monumental development in video streaming.
These video players offer the support that broadcasters need to reach large audiences in a more efficient manner. This is the reason it has gained popularity so quickly and is the top choice for broadcasters.
Here, we will provide a comparison of the best HTML5 video players. Some of these options will require your technical know-how in the coding and development area. The simplest way to access it for streaming is through an online video platform. When you do that, it is just as easy as copying and pasting a generated code by the platform. Here, we have a list of the best HTML5 video players that you can choose from.
How to Choose the Best HTML5 Video Player?
It is imperative that you do thorough research before you make a choice of your best HTML5 video player. There are some parameters that you especially need to consider when looking for an HTML5 video player, which are:
- Make sure that the HTML5 video player is compatible with almost all mainstream operating systems and browsers. Just that will increase the scalability of the video player exponentially.
- Make sure that the HTML5 video player is easy to customize and that you can add different functions and buttons to the video player, and also customize the size and aesthetic. Make sure that the video player is adaptive or responsive.
- Make sure that streaming with the video player you choose is affordable and accessible. HTML5 is the default video player for several streaming platforms, and you can find many free and open-source HTML5 video players.
10+ Best Html5 Video Players to Try in 2021
1. Brightcove
The Brightcove Player offers an open-source core, which means you get their dedicated in-house team and members of the video.js open-source community, all contributing to the video player on the web. With this, you can deliver a user experience that puts focus on your content, so you can create deeper engagement with native and 3rd-party interactive capabilities. They offer a seek bar that allows the audience to find specific points in the video, an explicit video description bar, and easy-to-use volume and mute controls. They have the fastest load times and video starts and can optimize each player by pre-compiling plugins, skinning assets, and thumbnails to minimize download size. Their AMP-compliant players provide an added boost on the mobile web and can host and deliver players through a high-performance, globally optimized CDN.
Features:
- Allows you to take advantage of the player controls or create a custom look to fit your app.
- Helps easily retrieve videos from any CMS using open APIs.
- Helps download, manage and offline playback content through a set of out-of-the-box APIs. It allows developers to focus on building out exceptional end-user experiences.
- Offers robust APIs that help easily integrate multiple components and customize player behaviour based on app requirements.
- Offers support for interactive, pre-rolls, mid-rolls, post-rolls, companions and overlays, as well as server-side ad insertion via Brightcove SSAI and direct integration with multiple ad servers and networks through plugins.
Pricing: Their player is free to use. But if you are looking to host, ad serve and customize, you need to contact the sales for a customized quote.
2. Dacast
With Dacast, you can stream video through a customizable video player. You can set up as many pay-per-view streaming prices as you want on your video content and control rates, promo codes and viewing windows. You can also use their white-label solutions and embed features to reflect your brand and eliminate external distractions across all devices.
Features:
- Helps maintain control over your branding and can be white-labelled and customized to reflect your brand.
- Helps produce high-quality streaming and offers HLS that works by chopping videos up into smaller segments that are more easily transmitted.
- Helps add a video player to your website, mobile, and smart TV apps to increase views and reach a broader audience.
- Helps enhance your user experience with the chapter marker tools that help you indicate subject changes or section separations in your on-demand video content.
Pricing: They offer a free 30-day trial. Their Starter plan will cost you $39 per month. Their Event plan will cost you $63 per month. Their Scale plan will cost you $188 per month. If you have high volume needs, you can contact them for a custom plan.
3. Brid. tv
Brid. Tv will empower you with their fast, intuitive, and feature-rich HTML5 video player solution. They provide support for several video formats, and their Video Player features HLS support for HTML5 desktop, mobile browsers (Android and iOS support). They also offer MPEG-DASH standard, which you can use for streaming content across multiple devices.
Features:
- Offers a lightweight and fast player, with impressive load times and impeccable functionality.
- Allows you to select between user-created playlists or start implementing dynamic playlists like the latest video feed, video playlist by tag, and video playlist by channel.
- Offers flexible and streamlined video player tech and Roku and Fire TV integration via MRSS feeds.
- Helps extend your reach with embed codes, link sharing, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, WhatsApp, and more.
- Allows you to customize skins to represent yet another integral part of our flexible video player. Tailor your video player to suit the layout of each and every one of your websites.
Pricing: You can start for free. It offers 100,000 video plays with video monetization. Their Essential plan will cost you $24.99 per month and offers 150,000 video plays along with 300 GB of streaming.
4. Panopto
With Panopto, you get an interactive video player, using which your viewers can see the presenter, the presenter’s on-screen content, and any other media streams, which would all be synced in a single interface, in full HD. The viewers can make a switch between video feeds, zoom in on a preferred stream for a full-screen view, and even take time-stamped notes. They auto-generate a table of contents with video thumbnails and help easily search the content of the video. They offer interactive, embedded, and mobile video players that all support the playback of 360-degree videos, so you can view and rotate simulations, demonstrations, virtual tours, and anything else recorded with virtually any 360-degree camera.
Features:
- Allows search for any word spoken or shown on-screen in your video and instantly fast-forward to any relevant moment, all without ever leaving the player.
- Helps watch at your own pace and enables viewers to speed up or slow down video playback to suit their individual learning needs.
- Offers in-video navigation, so you do not have to hunt and peck. Panopto creates a table of contents and thumbnails so viewers can quickly jump to a specific moment in the video.
- Helps take notes directly in the video player while you watch. Each note is saved automatically as a personal bookmark that you can review in the future.
Pricing: If you are just an individual, Panopto Basic will be available to you free of cost. Panopto Pro will cost you $14.99 each month. For Panopto Enterprise, you have to connect with their sales team.
5. Vimeo
With Vimeo, you can customize whatever you want in your video player to match your vision: choose your colours, logo, and thumbnail; add or remove the play bar, speed controls, and more. They help you easily add a video to your site, blog, or anywhere around the web. It looks great on mobile, irrespective of connection, even without writing a single line of code. It allows you to embed GIFs of your videos in your email campaigns to increase engagement and gather leads from the player with customizable contact forms. You can sync the info you collect with top email marketing platforms and create custom end screens that point viewers to your site, store, or social channels.
Features:
- Supports live and 360 videos across devices.
- Shows no ads before, during, or after your video.
- Offers high-speed, high-quality transcoding with H.264 and all major codecs.
- Offers adaptive streaming to ensure the highest quality for any connection speed.
Pricing: They offer a 30-days free trial, or you can choose to get started with Vimeo Basic for free. The Plus plan will cost you $7 per month. Their Pro plan will cost you $20 per month. Their Premium plan will cost you $75 per month. For their Enterprise plan, you have to connect with their sales team.
6. Radiant Media Player
The modern go-everywhere HTML5 video player, Radiant Media Player, enables you to create web, mobile and OTT video apps in real-time. They offer flexible subscriptions and savvy support with two-player editions to best meet your needs. They make sure you get fast technical support from player engineers.
Features:
- Offers first-class streaming to the mobile web: iOS & Android Next-generation mobile-first UI Second screen experience: Google Cast & AirPlay.
- Allows you to stream live everywhere with HLS and DASH Low-latency HLS (LL-HLS) support Dedicated DVR UI.
- Offers powerful and well-documented API with easily configurable skins, icons & colours Advanced CSS tuning.
- Offers features like ad scheduler & waterfalling along with outstream plays.
Pricing: They offer two plans. For the RMP Edition, you will be charged $75 per month. For the Platform Edition, you will be charged $75 per month.
7. Vadoo. tv
Vadoo offers an online video player, which allows you to customize your video player to match your brand: choose your colours, logo, and thumbnail; add or remove the play bar, speed controls, and more; and keep your work private with password-protection, domain security and encryptions.
Features:
- Plays videos at 4k resolution and supports all significant codecs for high-quality playback.
- Allows you to embed videos on your website, blog, email or anywhere else and reach your users on any device or platform.
Pricing: It is free to get started and offers ten videos and up to 1 GB of storage. Their Starter plan provides 50 GB storage and unlimited videos.
8. Ultimate Video Player: Best HTML5 Video Player for WordPress
A powerful responsive video and audio player, Ultimate Video Player can play local video and audio, stream videos or audios from a server, Youtube videos or Vimeo or Vimeo Pro videos. It only requires the mp4 / mp3 format, and it will work on mobile devices, and desktop machines irrespective of the browser and the same happens by incorporating multiple video engines in a really smart way inside the video player logic.
Features:
- Supports multiple video quality and playback rates.
- Offers Chromecast support so that you can play audio on screen, and the media can be controlled by the player interface.
- Offers analytics.
- Supports multiple video quality and optional video quality selections.
- Offers real-time spectrum visualizer for audio and mp3 files.
- Offers optional deep linking and allows you to share and embed windows.
Pricing: Their Regular License plan will cost you $59. Their Extended License plan will cost you $186.
9. Cincopa
CIncopa offers the most customizable video plates in the market, offering branding, interactive elements, complete API, and a variety of template style designs. Their video player makes it easy for any business to embed a video on any website, customize and brand it. Their complete JavaScript Player API offers complete control over the player and its features.
Features:
- Allows you to better engage viewers by creating a playlist like an appearance, segmenting the video into markers and providing a better user experience by helping them easily find what interests them the most.
- Offers fully responsive design and an incredible experience on any device and screen size.
- Helps increase engagement and ad viewability with a floating video player that follows the viewer as he scrolls the page.
- Helps increase marketing conversion and video training efficiency by adding interactive clickable annotations with four types of video annotation.
- Helps protect and brand your videos with watermark, password protection, player logo, and right-click protection.
Pricing: They offer a 30-days free trial. Their Plus plan will cost you $25 per month. Their Corporate plan will cost you $99 per month. Their Enterprise plan will cost you $350 per month.
10. JWPlayer
The fastest HTML5 video player on the web, JW Player makes sure your content and ads render reliably and beautifully on every screen. This player delivers what you need: speed, quality, and flexibility. It helps configure your video player to create fully branded experiences using CSS customization and APIs. You can adjust colour, speed, thumbnails and more to deliver a viewing experience that’s on brand.
Features:
- Helps deliver a buffer-free experience for your viewers using HLS and DASH adaptive streaming.
- Helps set up your custom video gallery quickly with the turnkey Showcase solution.
- Helps create unique experiences to engage users by streaming 360 videos across devices.
- Helps optimize your business strategy with valuable insights from our video intelligence.
Pricing: They offer a 30-day free trial. Their Starter plan will cost you $10 per month. If you have more specific needs, you can opt for their Enterprise plan which has custom pricing.
11. Wistia
Wistia is an excellent video hosting platform that helps see measurable results from the videos. Their video player is optimized to provide the best viewer experience even before you press play. They provide support for high-resolution videos and adaptive streaming with HLS, to prioritize viewer engagement and deliver the best quality for any environment and connection speed.
Features:
- Helps add videos to websites easily with their lightweight embed costs.
- Optimizes videos for mobile viewers with their responsive player that scales to fit any screen size.
- Plays videos inline on mobile to keep the focus on your content.
- Helps increase engagement by tailoring the player to match your brand colours and selecting the most compelling thumbnail.
- Helps make videos interactive, collect leads, build relationships, and keep viewers engaged.
Pricing: They offer a Free plan. Their Pro plan will cost you $99 per month. For their Advanced plan, you have to connect with their sales team.
12. Adilo
Adilo brings you the most lightweight and secure 4k video player. It automatically detects the speed of your audience’s internet connection and plays the version of your video that matches their internet speed to avoid buffering or choppy footage. It allows the audience to manually choose which quality of your video they prefer to consume, and our player dynamically adapts in the background without interrupting their experience.
Features:
- Offers adaptive streaming.
- Helps easily share content to social networks or allows you to copy your embed code or even download your video.
- Gives your audience a Hi-Res dynamic viewing experience to fit any screen.
- Allows you to embed videos anywhere.
- Allow you to customize your player.
Pricing: Their Basic plan will cost you $29 per month. Their Growth plan will cost you $49 per month. Their Unlimited plan will cost you $149 every month.
HTML5 video players are important in the present state of the video streaming industry. This kind of video player is compatible and customizable, which makes it better than all the technology that came before. Several HTML5 video players are open source, however, we recommend starting with a well-established live streaming platform. You can check our list of the best HTML5 video players for options and make a choice of video player that suits your needs the best.