Why Look Into Kaltura Alternatives
Maybe you are already a Kaltura customer and you are looking for lower cost alternatives?
Kaltura is a great video platform, and many users love its flexibility and feature rich environment
However, common customer/user complaints are around the technical support received when key issues arise. Many reviewers also cite the high price of the solution as a barrier to either initially purchasing it or maintaining/renewing it once they are using it
What users are saying about Kaltura Video Cloud on G2.com:
"Our institution has been using Kaltura as a video cloud for education for nearly three years, and we have been delighted with its services"
"The support assistance is awful even paying the platinum assistance. It took more than 3 months to identify an issue, issues that are never corrected/solved or the lack of information regarding technical issues"
"They are more expensive than some competitors"
How to Choose the Best Video Platform for Learning Management Systems
Choosing a Video Platform for integration with your LMS is a taks which involves multiple stakeholders and criterion. Below are a range of factors that could be useful in deciding which video platform to opt for.
Kaltura
Flexibility (Pass)
Kaltura support a wide range of Learning Management Systems
Support (Pass)
It is important to understand what support options there are available from Kaltura for your use case - telephone, email or self help. It is also vital to find out how focussed Kaltura is on your vertical market and use case as this could dictate the quality of the product support available.
Usability (Pass)
Kaltura seems to have a fairly lengthy set up and onboarding process where extra charges may apply for the completion of various professional services. As a potential customer it is important to understand how complex this process could be based on your use case and if there will be any additional costs incurred.
Pricing (Fail)
Kaltura closely guard their pricing information and want you to inquire to get a price quote. They also don’t mention what the pricing is based upon e.g. usage or number of users etc so it is difficult to even guess what the price could be. They also don’t mention if particular features are included or not and what the packages are
Reliability (Pass)
Kaltura do appear to be reliable in terms of system uptime and it is easy to find this information on their web site. It is harder to find their Service Level Agreements which appear to be tailored towards the use case and most likely the value of the customer's contract.
The 3 Kaltura Competitors to Consider
Below is a list of three companies that offer similar solutions to Kaltura
MEDIAL
Flexibility (Pass)
MEDIAL works with all of the leading Learning Management Systems - Moodle, Blackboard, Canvas and D2L. MEDIAL also supports linking to more than one LMS at a time if your organization requires that level of flexibility. The system offers a VOD Library (MEDIALibrary) and Live Streaming (MEDIALive) as well on full MEDIAL packages
Support (Pass)
MEDIAL offers full product support via telephone and e-mail. It has a self service portal where customers can log and track support tickets. It also has an extensive documentation web site at https://help.medial.com and lots of how to and related videos both on its blog https://www.medial.com/blog and YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@Medialstreaming
Usability (Pass)
MEDIAL is simple and intuitive to use. It focuses on giving users core functionality like video upload, management and recording within Learning Management Systems. This tight integration makes it possible for Teachers and Students to use video in meaningful ways both in the context of course materials but also from the perspective of video assignment submissions.
Pricing (Pass)
MEDIAL makes all of their pricing information available & transparent on their website for all potential deployment options of the software. It is possible to start with a relatively fully featured solution from $195 per month.Pricing is also available for On Premise deployments as well as SaaS. The solution can scale to fit high demand use cases. MEDIAL is deployed as the campus wide video solution in many of the world’s leading Universities.
Reliability (Pass)
MEDIAL is a long standing solution in the market and has been used by some of the world’s leading Universities since 2015. MEDIAL has a clearly defined SLA for both its On Premise and SaaS solutions. 24/7/365 is available with 4 hour response times.
Panopto
Flexibility (Fail)
It is not clear from the Panopto website as to how flexible the solution can be in terms of turning on or off features to achieve a more customized solution in terms of price.
Support (Pass)
Panopto offer all of the main support options - Telephone, Email, Ticketing System and have a good and extensive knowledge base.
Usability (Pass)
While the platform is feature-rich, navigating and using these features may not be as straightforward for everyone due to the sheer volume of features available and the learning curve involved in acclimating with them
Pricing (Fail)
Unfortunately we have to give this factor a “fail” as it is not currently possible to see clearly from the Panopto website what the price is of various Panopto video solutions. There are good ROI calculators but no clear indication of what a solution might cost.
Reliability (Pass)
Panopto is a long standing video solution. A check of their uptime status page at the time of writing suggests no recent issues and an excellent level of uptime
Yuja
Flexibility (Pass)
The Yuja website does not provide clear information regarding the flexibility of the solution in terms of enabling or disabling features to create a more customized pricing solution. That being said they offer a wide range of complimentary solutions to augment their video offering so offer flexibility to a potential user in that sense.
Support (Pass)
Yuja provides a comprehensive array of support avenues, including telephone assistance, email support, a ticketing system, and an extensive knowledge base
Usability (Pass)
Although the platform boasts a wealth of features, navigating and utilizing these functionalities might not be straightforward for everyone, attributed to both the extensive range of features and the learning curve associated with becoming familiar with them. That being said Yuja offer onboarding for new customers so this issue is likely to be overcome by that
Pricing (Fail)
Regrettably, we must assign a "fail" to this aspect, as it is presently challenging to discern the pricing details for different Yuja video solutions directly from the Yuja website
Reliability (Pass)
Upon reviewing their Health Dashboard as of the current writing, there appear to be no recent problems, indicating a commendable level of service uptime
The Bottom Line
All of the solutions that are alternatives to Kaltura shape up pretty well in terms of feature set as well as overall credibility. None of these solutions would be a bad pick if you were looking to migrate away from Kaltura with those two factors in mind.
However, in today’s economic environment cost is a huge factor in the solution that you select. Only one solution (MEDIAL) is 100% transparent with its pricing structure and does not require you to request a quote to gain pricing information.
Since pricing starts at $195 per month for a SaaS solution and there are affordable On Premise packages available too, MEDIAL is a great choice if you want a solution that can grow with your requirement that has transparent and affordable pricing.
If you are interested to know more about MEDIAL go to https://www.medial.com/schedule-appointment to schedule a demo