Trying to decide where to host your videos? YouTube and Dailymotion are two of the biggest platforms available, each with millions of active users and billions of video views each month.

But which of the two is right for you?

In this guide we'll discuss the key differences between Dailymotion and YouTube, from audience and privacy to monetization and analytics. Read on to see for yourself which platform caters best to your company's needs.

Jump to:

• Dailymotion vs YouTube: The similarities

  • Cost

  • Ads

• Dailymotion vs YouTube: The differences

  • Audience

  • SEO

  • Video limitations

  • Monetization

  • Privacy settings

  • Analytics

• Can you upload the same video to YouTube and Dailymotion?

• YouTube or Dailymotion: Which should you choose?

First things first, let's take a look at what YouTube and Dailymotion have in common.

Both YouTube and Dailymotion are free to use, even for businesses. Anybody wanting to upload videos to the platform or watch them can do so completely free of charge, so they're both a great choice for content creators with budget limitations.

One of the main downsides of both YouTube and Dailymotion is that viewers are forced to sit through ads while watching a video. Since both of these platforms are free to use, this is how they make money, but it can be annoying for some users! That said, both services offer a premium subscription service that removes ads, and provides other benefits too.

That's as far as the similarities go, so now let's hone in on the differences between the two platforms.

YouTube is the largest video hosting platform in existence, with more than 2.51 billion active users and more than one billion hours of content watched every day. That means there's a lot of potential exposure and visibility for your videos, and a huge opportunity to grow your online audience. However, the size of the platform - and the fact that anyone can upload videos for free - means that it can be hard to cut through the noise.

Dailymotion is a strong competitor, receiving 545.3 million visits in April 2023. While on paper that's a much smaller figure, it's certainly not insignificant, and the smaller user base can mean a better chance of getting your videos noticed.

YouTube is the second largest search engine on the internet, after Google. So if you're planning on creating videos tailored to a specific search query (https://transcribe.com/blog/how-to-add-captions-to-video)"), YouTube is the best choice for getting your content noticed.

Your video will appear in YouTube's own search results, and it will be more likely to appear in Google search results too. That's because Google (YouTube's parent company) has been known to favor videos from YouTube over those posted on other platforms like Dailymotion.

Top tip: Transcribe your videos to improve your chances of ranking in search results!

One of the best things about YouTube is that users can upload as many videos as they want, with a maximum file size of 256 GB or 12 hours (whichever is less). Dailymotion, on the other hand, limits videos to 60 minutes in length, and video size can't exceed 2 GB. That's fine if you're only planning on creating and sharing shorter videos, but YouTube is the better option for large and long videos.

Both Dailymotion and YouTube allow users to earn money from their content. While YouTube's offering is more diverse and sophisticated, it's easier to be eligible for monetization on Dailymotion.

To monetize your account and earn revenue on YouTube through the YouTube Partner Programme (YPP), you need at least 1,000 subscribers. You'll then receive around 55% of the revenue generated from ads shown before, during, and after your videos, and you can also charge channel memberships. The average YouTuber makes around $18 per 1,000 views.

With Dailymotion's monetization scheme (their Partner Program), you only have to reach 1,000 views on your video content (combined) to start monetizing your content. The platform then pays $57 for one hour of watch time, so it could be a great source of income!

Many businesses want to be able to control who can view their content. For example, you might want training videos to only be accessed by employees, or you might want paying subscribers to receive exclusive access to your content as a perk.

Both YouTube and Dailymotion allow you to set your videos to private or public, and they also both let you disable comments. But Dailymotion's privacy settings go a step further, allowing you to add password protection to videos too.

When you're creating video content as part of a marketing strategy, you'll want to know who's watching and how well your videos are performing. Both YouTube and Dailymotion provide advanced analytics features, but YouTube offers up the data for free, whereas Dailymotion only offers decent analytics for those who have a paid plan.

Yes! As long as you own the copyright to the video, you can upload it to both platforms.

Hopefully you now have a good understanding of the differences between Dailymotion and YouTube, and a better idea of which platform is right for you.

If you still can't quite decide which to pick (and worst case scenario, you can upload your videos to both!), then consider your business goals and ask yourself the following questions:

• Who is your target audience?

• Are your videos tailored to specific search queries?

• How long are your videos?

• What file size are your videos?

• If you want to monetize your content, how many subscribers do you have or do you think you can realistically gain?

• How much control do you need over your content's privacy?

• How in-depth do you want to go with analytics?

In general, YouTube is the better choice if you want to gain organic search traffic, target the widest possible audience, and upload long (or large) videos.

Dailymotion is the better option if you want to monetize your content but don't have hundreds of subscribers, or if you want extra control over your content's privacy.

No matter which platform you choose, it's important to add captions to your videos. This is made possible with the help of transcription tools! Learn how to transcribe a YouTube video and how to transcribe a Dailymotion video. And if you haven't already done so, check out our guide on YouTube vs Vimeo, too.

Written By Katie Garrett