Honest comparison
OAcast vs Vimeo Streaming
Vimeo Streaming (formerly Vimeo OTT) is the cheapest way to open a paid video channel — $0 platform fee, pay as you grow. The price of that is control: Vimeo is the merchant of record, your revenue arrives once a month, live streaming and branded apps sit behind the custom-priced Enterprise tier, and upload capacity is bought by the hour. OAcast costs more on day one and hands you the keys: your Stripe, your payout timing, and live streaming as a plan feature rather than a sales conversation.
Pricing side by side
| Cost | OAcast | Vimeo Streaming |
|---|---|---|
| Platform fee | Flat, from €99/mo | $0 on Starter — costs are per-subscriber and per-transaction Source ↗ |
| Per-subscriber fee | None | $1/subscriber/mo + 2.5% + 30¢ per transaction Source ↗ |
| One-time purchases (rent/buy) | Small transaction % (see pricing) | 10% + 50¢ per transaction Source ↗ |
| Video storage | Plan caps — hit a limit and we talk, nothing gets cut off | Pay-as-you-go upload hours: 1 hr free, then $99 / 10 hrs · $149 / 25 hrs · $199 / 50 hrs — one-time, never expire Source ↗ |
| Live streaming | Included (Broadcast and up) | Not on Starter — Enterprise only, custom-priced Source ↗ |
| Who holds your money | You — payments land in your own Stripe account | Vimeo — monthly payout on the 15th for the prior month Source ↗ |
Vimeo Streaming pricing verified September 2026. Every figure links to the official page it came from — check them yourself. Spot something outdated? Tell us and we'll fix it.
Feature by feature
Publish
| Feature | OAcast | Vimeo Streaming |
|---|---|---|
| Video on demand | Included, plan caps with a human conversation at the limit | Included, but upload hours are bought in blocks (1 hr free, then $99 / 10 hrs and up) Source ↗ |
| Live streaming | From the Broadcast plan — real-time chat and moderation included | Enterprise only, custom-priced — Starter is pre-recorded video Source ↗ |
| Articles & written posts | First-class content type, same tier gating as video | Video-only platform |
Monetize
| Feature | OAcast | Vimeo Streaming |
|---|---|---|
| Merchant of record | You (your Stripe account) | Vimeo — customers pay Vimeo, Vimeo pays you |
| Payout timing | Stripe's standard schedule — days, not weeks | Monthly, on the 15th (or nearest business day), for the previous month Source ↗ |
| Models supported | Subscriptions, PPV passes, tips, pay-what-you-want subscriptions | SVOD, TVOD rentals & purchases, AVOD/FVOD |
Grow
| Feature | OAcast | Vimeo Streaming |
|---|---|---|
| Email campaigns | Built-in campaigns, lists, and segments | Coupons & screeners; no built-in campaign tool advertised as of September 2026 |
| Push notifications | Through your own apps, wired to publishing (Network plan) | Only meaningful with branded apps (Enterprise) |
| Mobile & TV apps | iOS + Android included on Network; no TV apps today | Starter is web-only; Enterprise adds iOS, Android and eight TV platforms Source ↗ |
Brand & data
| Feature | OAcast | Vimeo Streaming |
|---|---|---|
| Custom domain | Every plan | Supported (default is a vhx.tv subdomain) |
| Subscriber data export | Full export + the billing relationship itself (your Stripe) | Full customer & transaction CSV — but billing stays with Vimeo |
| Leaving the platform | Point your domain elsewhere; subscribers keep paying your Stripe | Emails come with you; every subscriber must re-enter payment details |
Rows stating a Vimeo Streaming price, percentage or quota link to the official page they came from, checked September 2026. Rows describing what a feature does are our reading of the two products.
When Vimeo Streaming is the better choice
A comparison you can't trust in both directions isn't worth reading. Pick Vimeo Streaming if:
- You want the lowest possible entry cost — $0 platform fee with pure pay-as-you-grow pricing is unmatched for small paid libraries.
- You need distribution to a long list of TV and device platforms (Roku, Fire TV, Samsung, LG, Xbox…) — their Enterprise tier is built for exactly that.
- Player and streaming-quality reputation matter to your brand — Vimeo's player is world-class.
- You want a large public company behind your infrastructure, with dedicated support and account management on Enterprise.
The structural difference
Vimeo Streaming’s Starter pricing is honest and genuinely attractive: no platform fee, pay only as revenue arrives. What the pricing page can’t show is the shape of the relationship. Vimeo sits between you and every euro — merchant of record, monthly payouts, metered storage — and the features that turn a channel into a platform (live streaming, branded apps, email campaigns) are either absent or custom-priced behind sales calls.
OAcast inverts that: a flat fee you can see coming, payments straight into your own Stripe, and live, chat, email, and push as included platform features rather than enterprise line items. You pay more at 20 subscribers. You own everything at 2,000.
Switching without drama
Export your customers CSV from Vimeo (it’s complete — emails, transactions, geography), bring your video files, and we’ll rebuild the catalog during onboarding. The honest part: because Vimeo held the billing, your subscribers will need to re-subscribe on your new site — plan a migration offer for the transition month. It’s the last time you’ll ever have to do it; that’s rather the point. Book a demo to plan it.
Questions people ask
What does 'merchant of record' actually change for me?
It decides who your customers pay. On Vimeo Streaming, they pay Vimeo, and Vimeo pays you monthly — refunds, chargebacks, and payout timing run on Vimeo's rules. On OAcast, they pay your Stripe account directly: your money arrives on Stripe's schedule, and if you ever leave, your subscriptions keep billing without anyone re-entering a card.
Vimeo Streaming looks much cheaper. Is it?
At small scale, yes — genuinely. $0 platform fee beats any flat fee when you have 50 subscribers and 5 hours of video. The math flips as you grow: $1 per subscriber plus 2.5% + 30¢ per charge plus upload hours bought as your library grows compounds, while a flat fee doesn't. Run both models at your target subscriber count, not your current one.
Can OAcast handle rentals and one-time purchases like Vimeo's TVOD?
Yes — pay-per-view passes cover premieres and one-off broadcasts, alongside subscriptions and one-time tips. The one model we don't run is ad-supported video (AVOD); if ads are core to your model, Vimeo Streaming covers it and we don't.
Does OAcast meter my storage?
Plans carry generous caps rather than a monthly meter. If you hit one, we talk about the right plan — content never gets cut off, and there's no automatic per-hour bill.
See the difference with your content.
Book a demo — bring your library and your subscriber math.