Recommended Video Platforms
YouTube is the default. That gives one company the power to demonetize, age-gate, or delete a video for stepping outside its guidelines. The platforms here exist because creators got tired of that. Some are independent sites built around free speech and creators who can actually earn. Others are open or decentralized, spreading video across many servers so there is no single off switch.
How to choose a video platform
Video is expensive to host. Every platform has to pay for it somehow, through ads, memberships, crypto, or users sharing the load. That shapes what each one can promise. Independent sites give creators looser rules and a way to earn. Open and decentralized ones make a video much harder to erase. None of them match YouTube for raw audience, which is the trade you make.
Here are some things to look for.
- Free speech, not viewpoint policing. Rules applied evenly to everyone, not used to silence views the platform dislikes.
- Ways for creators to earn. Memberships, tips, or ad share rather than demonetization on a whim.
- Open or decentralized. Spread across many servers or a protocol that no single company can pull down.
- You control your channel. Your videos and audience are not at the mercy of one platform.
- Watch without an account. No login or tracking required just to view.
- Open source. A public codebase anyone can inspect or run.
Rumble
Mainstream-scale video with lighter moderation, based in the US.
BitChute
Minimal-moderation video hosting, now US-registered.
Odysee
Censorship-resistant video, migrating from LBRY to Arweave.
PeerTube
Federated, self-hostable video with no company in charge.
