What a yearly plan saves
The annual price shows a lower figure per month. Where a host offers both options, you usually pay the equivalent of ten monthly payments and get a full year. That is roughly 15 to 20 percent off. Some discounts are larger. Some hosts do not offer annual pricing.
Open the VSL hosting cost calculator
How to read a yearly price
Divide the annual charge by 12. That is the real monthly cost. Several pricing pages describe the offer as twelve months of access for the price of ten. On Vidalytics, paying annually also places the year's plays on the account at the start. Extra plays, bandwidth and attendee credits still have their own charges. Paying for the plan up front does not change them.
Three ways these hosts charge
Most of these products use one of three models. Some sell the same plan by the month or by the year. Livestorm sells a yearly pack of attendee credits and does not offer a monthly price on its self-serve page. Bunny Stream, Cloudflare Stream and Mux charge for storage, bandwidth or minutes, and there is no annual plan to buy.
Each table below focuses on one pricing model. A subscription discount, a credit pack and a usage meter are different commitments, and they do not belong in one column.
Read how we rate tools to see how these figures were chosen. We read each vendor's pricing page and long-term user reports.
Paid-traffic hosts, month against year
Choose TrackPlay for a sales letter funded by ads, when the checkout attributes each verified sale to the view that produced it. Its pricing page says paying for the year saves two months. Every paid plan includes the same features, and the bill is based on plays. The free plan needs no card. It includes 1,000 watermarked plays a month, and the paid features have a 14-day trial.
It is narrow by design. It has none of the channels, SEO pages or webinar tooling of a Wistia, and it is a poor fit if the video's job is content marketing rather than a direct-response sale. Independent reviews are scarce and the testimonials are on TrackPlay's own site, which fits a product this new. The player and the timed calls to action still work when the video's job is to make a sale. The sales tracking does too.
Buyers weigh it against Vidalytics, Panda Video and Voomly. Vidalytics shows both prices and labels the annual option 2 Months Free, with the year's plays paid up front. Voomly Plus labels the annual option Save 16%. Panda Video lists monthly prices only. Adilo advertises Save 40% if you pay annually. The plan amounts and the storage meter are in the Adilo pricing review.
| Host | Monthly | Annual | What changes | Meter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TrackPlay | $29 | Price of 10 months | Same features, every plan | Plays |
| Vidalytics Starter | $24 | $19 | Year's plays up front | Plays |
| Vidalytics Pro | $79 | $63 | Same annual option | Plays |
| Vidalytics Premium | $149 | $119 | Same discount | Plays |
| VSLStats Starter | $47 | $39 | $468 after the trial | Starts on the Pro plan |
| Panda Bronze | $17.90 | No annual price | Monthly list | Bandwidth |
| Panda Silver | $37.90 | Not offered | Monthly only | Bandwidth |
| Panda Gold | $97.90 | Not listed | No annual option | Bandwidth |
| Voomly Plus | $19 | $190 | 16 percent | Bandwidth |
| Adilo Unlimited | In the review | In the review | Save 40% | Storage |
VSLStats also lists monthly plans at $97 and $197. Conversion features start on the Pro plan. Longer reviews cover TrackPlay pricing, Vidalytics pricing, Panda Video, Voomly, VSLStats.
Marketing hosts and a general library
Wistia marks annual payment Save 20%. Business is $79 a month at that rate. Signals, extra users, and the free storage and bandwidth are covered in the Wistia pricing review.
Vimeo's published self-serve annual rates are Starter at $13 a month for 100 GB, Standard at $26, and Advanced at $76. The Vimeo review covers the rest of the product.
Gumlet advertises up to 35 percent off when you pay for the year. Creator is $6 a month at that rate. Spotlightr Light is $13 a month if you pay for the year and $15 if you pay each month. That option is labeled Annually (2 Free Months). SproutVideo Seed is $12 a month if you pay for the year and $15 if you pay each month.
Read Gumlet, Spotlightr and SproutVideo.
Usage meters, with nothing to prepay
Bunny Stream, Cloudflare Stream and Mux charge for storage, bandwidth or minutes. There is no annual subscription to discount.
The calculator linked above estimates that bill from your traffic. Dacast and Uscreen keep their annual figures on the Dacast pricing review and the Uscreen pricing review. Read the Bunny Stream, Cloudflare Stream and Mux reviews.
Annual discounts on webinar software
WebinarJam says paying annually saves up to 22 percent. EasyWebinar labels that option Annually 2 months free. Livestorm does not offer monthly billing on its self-serve page. You buy an annual pack of attendee credits and use one credit per unique attendee per session over 12 months.
| Plan | If you pay annually | If you pay monthly |
|---|---|---|
| WebinarJam Starter | $39 a month | $49 a month, $120 off the year |
| WebinarJam Basic | $79 a month | $99 a month, $240 off the year |
| Demio Starter | $45 a month | $63 a month, save 30% |
| EasyWebinar Growth | $96 a month | $116 a month |
| eWebinar Level 1 | $1,010 for the year | $99 a month, save 15% |
| Wistia Webinars | $429 a month | 20 percent off, 500 attendees |
| Livestorm credits | €2.50 per attendee | Yearly packs only |
On Demio, Starter is the plan with both prices shown. On EasyWebinar, that plan is Growth. Wistia Webinars is a different product from the Business plan above, and it covers 500 attendees. More on each: WebinarJam pricing, Demio, EasyWebinar, eWebinar, Livestorm.
Video sales tool Black Friday offers
The annual price is the year-round discount. The arithmetic is the same in July as in the fourth quarter. A banner, a migration offer or a vendor email can add a short-term deal on top.
Panda Video publishes monthly prices only. They are in the host table above. A seasonal promotion there is separate from an annual discount, because that page has no annual price. No holiday price is added here.
Start with the annual column. Treat a fourth-quarter email as a second offer. If the host charges for usage, open the VSL hosting cost calculator to estimate your traffic cost before you judge a promotion.
What works
- Where a host publishes both prices, the annual column is lower.
- You get one invoice instead of twelve.
- Webinar plans often offer a bigger discount on the yearly bill than a typical video host.
What to watch
- You pay for the year up front. WebinarJam refunds an annual charge in full only if you ask within 30 days of purchase. You also have to cancel at least 10 days before the next billing date.
- The renewal can cost more than the first year. One UK Vimeo Plus subscriber reported the annual renewal going from £60 to £90 and turned off auto-renew.
- Usage charges stay the same even if you pay for the plan up front. Extra plays and attendee credits still add up.
Pricing questions
- Is annual billing always cheaper?
- Only when the vendor publishes both prices, or sells a yearly pack instead of a monthly plan. Usage-based hosts have no subscription to discount. Panda Video does not publish an annual price.
- When is monthly billing the better choice?
- Choose monthly billing if you might cancel before twelve months are up, or if that tool has raised its price at renewal. A short refund window makes the prepaid year hard to recover.
- Do Black Friday deals beat the annual discount?
- A seasonal deal is priced apart from the regular annual offer. The tables show ordinary rates, not a holiday promotion.
- What happens when the plan renews?
- The first-year discount does not freeze the next invoice. As noted in the drawbacks, a Vimeo Plus subscriber turned off auto-renew after the renewal price went up.
- Which webinar tools require annual payment?
- Livestorm's self-serve plans are yearly packs of attendee credits. The other webinar rows also list a monthly price.
What we read
Related reading
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