Comparison of YouTube, Vimeo, and Streamable Embedded Video Players

How each video player looks different in dimensions of 16:9, 9:16, 1:1, 4:5, and 1.91:1 when embedded

Dave Schools
2 min readNov 6, 2023
YouTube vs. Streamable vs. Vimeo

Videos look different when you embed them using different video hosting platforms. More specifically, embedded video players treat video dimensions differently, including:

  • 16:9 (YouTube Video, Twitter/X Post)
  • 9:16 (TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts)
  • 1:1 (Instagram Post Square, Facebook Video)
  • 4:5 (Instagram Post Portrait)
  • 1.91:1 (Linkedin Landscape, Facebook Post)

Below, you can see the differences between YouTube, Vimeo, and Streamable and how their video players appear embedded on a standard Medium page.

For the sake of comparison, I used the same video clip for each size to control variables.

My observations are at the bottom of this post.

Full disclosure: Hopin owns Streamable, and I work at Hopin.

16:9 (YouTube Video, Twitter/X Post)

YouTube:

16:9 video on YouTube’s embedded player

Vimeo:

16:9 video on Vimeo’s embedded player

Streamable:

16:9 video on Streamable’s embedded player

9:16 (TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts)

YouTube:

9:16 video on YouTube’s embedded player

Vimeo:

9:16 video on Vimeo’s embedded player

Streamable:

9:16 video on Streamable’s embedded player

1:1 (Instagram Post Square, Facebook Video)

YouTube:

1:1 square video on YouTube’s embedded player

Vimeo:

1:1 square video on Vimeo’s embedded player

Streamable:

1:1 square video on Streamable’s embedded player

4:5 (Instagram Post Portrait)

YouTube:

4:5 video on YouTube’s embedded player

Vimeo:

4:5 video on Vimeo’s embedded player

Streamable:

4:5 video on Streamable’s embedded player

1.91:1 (Linkedin Landscape, Facebook Post)

YouTube:

Landscape video on YouTube’s embedded player

Vimeo:

Landscape video on Vimeo’s embedded player

Streamable:

Landscape video on Streamable’s embedded player

Observations:

Each video hosting platform has its strengths and weaknesses when it comes to embedding videos. Here are my observations:

YouTube Video Embedding:

  • Strengths: It’s free, widely recognized, and reliable. You can also use embedding to rack up views on YouTube if that’s your goal.
  • Weaknesses: The call-to-actions, “Watch on YouTube” branding, and ads on pre-roll and post-roll all compete and distract viewers from your video content. Also, because YouTube’s player is only 16:9, it shows empty spaces and black bars for vertical videos.

Vimeo Video Embedding:

  • Strengths: No center “Play” button covers the thumbnail image. Vimeo is established in the film community and has a robust platform with lots of customization on paid plans.
  • Weaknesses: Distracting buttons overlay the video, Vimeo’s branding, and only two videos are allowed on the free plan so I had to use three separate accounts to create this post (paid plans start at $20/month for 60 videos).

Streamable Video Embedding:

  • Strengths: No branding is nice and the minimal player has a professional appearance. Better pricing. Super simple tool in general.
  • Weaknesses: Not as well-known. Free plan has unlimited video uploads but each is limited to 10 minutes/250MB in size (however, the next tier up has no limits for only $10/month).

Hope this was helpful — thanks for reading.

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Dave Schools

#2/VP Growth at Hopin. Bylines in CNBC, BI, Inc., Trends, Axios. Founder of Entrepreneurship Handbook (260k followers). Cofounder of Party Qs app. Dad of 3.