Looking for an Alternative to Panopto?
Panopto is a comprehensive video platform that offers a range of features designed to facilitate video recording, management, and sharing. Its primary focus is on supporting educational institutions, businesses, and organizations in creating, managing, and delivering video content.
The three main features of Panopto are:
Video Capture and Recording
Content Management and Search
Secure Sharing and Accessibility
While Panopto is well thought of in the industry - common drawbacks are often cited as:
Cost: Pricing structure that is not usually affordable to smaller use cases and organizations
Learning Curve: Panopto's extensive feature set may result in a steeper learning curve, particularly for users who are not familiar with advanced video recording and editing tools. Some users might find the platform to be more complex than simpler alternatives.
Top 3 Panopto Competitors for Learning Management Systems
Below are the three main competitors or alternatives to Panopto with a comparison of their relative pro’s and con’s
MEDIAL
MEDIAL is a video and audio streaming system that is used by educational institutions and businesses in over 20 different countries to simplify the way they stream their media content
MEDIAL is an easy to use and affordable solution to integrate Video Content Management with Learning Management Systems like Moodle, Blackboard, Canvas & D2L Brightspace
MEDIAL is a Complete Video Solution for On Premise and Cloud Video Streaming that also allows deep integrations with Meeting Recording software like Zoom and Teams so that meeting recordings can be automatically ingested for use within an LMS
Moodle Plugins
MEDIAL’s Moodle Plugins allow:
Teachers and Students to quickly and easily upload, edit and manage video within Moodle using our MEDIAL Activity Plugin.
Teachers to create Video Assignments that Students can respond to with Video using the MEDIAL Video Assignment Activity
Students get Video Feedback for from Teachers who have used the MEDIAL Video Feedback Plugin via the Moodle Grade Book
Provides industry strength protection for your videos in Moodle. For convenience of adding content this can be done via the MEDIAL Atto Editor Plugin where the MEDIAL button appears in the default text editor for Moodle
Allows you to directly integrate with Zoom and Teams to ingest meeting recordings automatically that can appear in the users account in Moodle
Your options for trialing MEDIAL are here - https://www.medial.com/moodle-event-english
To trial the MEDIAL Plugins for Moodle there is an easy to follow Moodle course - https://moodle.medialibrary.com/course/view.php?id=96
You could also see how easy it is to use the MEDIAL Plugins for Moodle by going here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYdDi_fk0s8&t=17s
MEDIAL’s Plugins for Moodle can be used with a MEDIAL video solution in a very affordable way when compared to Panopto.
MEDIAL’s MEDIALite solution starts at just $195 per month and provides a fully integrated video solution for Moodle with a low price entry point with comparable feature set. It is perfect for organizations who want a video solution for Moodle with a key feature set which covers most of the educational use cases but aren’t necessarily interested in a lecture capture solution with a high price tag.
MEDIAL’s solution scales so that high demand use cases can also be catered for but their entry level products include most of the key feature set you will need for your educational use cases. MEDIAL can also be deployed On Premise for a low cost if having the software on your own servers is your preference.
Integration with Blackboard
MEDIAL’s Blackboard Integration allows:
Teachers and Students to quickly and easily upload, edit and manage video within Blackboard using the MEDIAL’s LTI Integration.
Teachers to create Video Assignments that Students can respond to with Video
Students to get Video Feedback from Teachers who have used the MEDIAL to leave video feedback
Provides industry strength protection for your videos in Blackboard. For convenience of adding content this can be done via the MEDIAL LTI Integration in the default text editor in Blackboard
Allows you to directly integrate with Zoom and Teams to ingest meeting recordings automatically that can appear in the users account in Blackboard
MEDIAL’s Blackboard Integration can be used with a MEDIAL video solution in a very affordable way when compared to Panopto.
MEDIAL’s MEDIALite solution starts at $195 per month and provides a fully integrated video solution for Blackboard with a low price entry point with comparable feature set. It is perfect for organizations who want a video solution for Blackboard with a key feature set which covers most of the educational use cases but aren’t necessarily interested in a lecture capture solution with a high price tag.
MEDIAL’s solution scales so that high demand use cases can also be catered for but their entry level products include most of the key feature set you will need for your educational use cases. MEDIAL can also be deployed On Premise for a low cost if having the software on your own servers is your preference.
Integration with Canvas
MEDIAL’s Canvas Video App allows:
Teachers and Students to quickly and easily upload, edit and manage video within Canvas using the MEDIAL’s Canvas Video App.
Teachers to create Video Assignments that Students can respond to with Video
Provides industry strength protection for your videos in Canvas. For convenience of adding content this can be done via the MEDIAL Canvas Video App button in the default text editor in Canvas
Allows you to directly integrate with Zoom and Teams to ingest meeting recordings automatically that can appear in the users account in Canvas
MEDIAL’s Canvas Video App can be used with a MEDIAL video solution in a very affordable way when compared to Panopto. MEDIAL’s MEDIALite solution starts at $195 per month and provides a fully integrated video solution for Canvas with a low price entry point with comparable feature set.
It is perfect for organizations who want a video solution for Canvas with a key feature set which covers most of the educational use cases but aren’t necessarily interested in a lecture capture solution with a high price tag.
MEDIAL’s solution scales so that high demand use cases can also be catered for but their entry level products include most of the key feature set you will need for your educational use cases. MEDIAL can also be deployed On Premise for a low cost if having the software on your own servers is your preference.
Pricing
MEDIAL’s pricing starts at $195 per month.
There are two MEDIAL solutions:
MEDIAL:
This is our full video solution that has the entire feature set enabled:
MEDIALibrary - YouTube-like portal to allow users to upload, tag, playback and secure their video content using Active Directory, LDAP or SSO
MEDIALive - allowing you to Publish, Archive and Schedule your Live Streaming in just a few clicks
MEDIALearning - Integration with Moodle, Blackboard, Canvas or D2L with limited admin capabilities
MEDIALecture - Instantly record and upload screen capture videos to your Moodle, Blackboard or Canvas LMS for users to access anytime, anywhere
Zoom and/or Teams Integration - allow Teachers to add auto ingested meeting recordings to course pages with a few clicks
This can be purchased as an On Premise solution from $3,995 per annum or as a Saas solution starting from $9,995 per annum
MEDIALite:
This is our starter product that only includes:
MEDIALearning - Integration with Moodle, Blackboard, Canvas or D2L with limited admin capabilities
Prices start at $195 for 100Gb of storage.
MEDIALecture can be purchased as a monthly or yearly add on to MEDIALite
Full details of pricing are at https://www.medial.com/pricing
Kaltura
Kaltura is a comprehensive video platform that offers a range of services related to the creation, management, and distribution of multimedia content. Catering to various industries, including education, enterprise, and media.
Kaltura provides tools for video hosting, live and on-demand streaming, and video analytics. In recent times the product and messaging of their corporate web site seems to suggest that their product roadmap is focussed more keenly on areas other than education. Education is one of many markets that Kaltura serve.
Moodle Plugin
Kaltura’s Moodle Plugin offers a broad feature set and has been available for a long time so is considered to be both stable and mature. It also allows you to do most of the key things that you can also do in the main Kaltura UI (KMC) - Uploading Video, Editing Video, Video Assignments, Video Quizzes etc. The Integration is very feature rich.
Integrations With Other LMS
Kaltura also integrates with and has a similar feature set in Blackboard, Canvas, D2L and many other smaller LMS’s that other providers may not have integrations with.
Pros and Cons
Pro’s
The feature set is very complete. The vast majority of tasks that Teachers and Students want from a video solution are covered by Kaltura’s video integrations
The integrations are long standing and robust as a result
Con’s
The development of features has slowed as their focus from a product point of view seems to have been diverted to other vertical markets
The pricing for Kaltura solution is not clear and there doesn’t appear to be an easy way to find out pricing information or get a ballpark price for an entry level solution tailored to your requirements
Pricing
The pricing information on the Kaltura web site is low. Most solution options ask you to “ask for a quote” rather than showing clear and concise pricing as to what you get and for how much. The pricing for LMS integrations was not mentioned on their pricing page at the time of writing
Yuja
YuJa is a company known for providing enterprise video solutions, including lecture capture, video management, and live streaming for educational institutions and businesses. Their platform typically offers features such as video recording, editing, and sharing, as well as tools for creating interactive and engaging online content.
Yuja serves all vertical markets but appears to target educational organizations more than any other vertical. They have a range of complimentary products such as proctoring tools as well as data archiving
Integrations With Learning Management Systems
Yuja has integrations with all of the major Learning Management Systems - Moodle, Blackboard and Canvas. Their feature set is similar to those of competitors - allowing upload, search and record
Pros and Cons
Yuja is generally more modestly priced than Kaltura and Panopto but it depends a lot on the use case.
It provides an extensive feature set which covers a lot of the key features and requirements associated with an enterprise video platform.
That being said a lot of features have been developed in a shorter period of time than the other systems so it is debatable how well rounded those features are when compared to the competition
The Yuja Moodle integration is an External Tool rather than its own activity. This makes it easy to set up and configure but potentially harder for users to find.
Pricing information is difficult to get hold of
Pricing
Pricing is not readily available on their corporate web site. Yuja claim to offer transparent pricing and promise to match any competitive quote.
However, in order to get a price quote you must request one via their web form where you need to specify which products you are interested in. It is not possible to find per user pricing or pricing based around storage use or use case.
How to Choose the Best Alternative to Panopto
Your choice of an alternative to Panopto is being around a number of factors and specific to both the size of your organization its budget and its use case for video
Kaltura is a good solution for Educational organizations with larger budgets whose main requirement is a fully featured solution with little or no gaps in functionality. Kaltura lack focus in terms of the educational market as their website seems more focussed towards Broadcast and Business.
Yuja has a similar feature set but is not as long standing in the market and has been developed in a much shorter period of time. Yuja have a range of educational solutions so aren’t 100% focussed on video. It is hard to tell what Yuja’s price point is but anecdotally it is seen as a lower cost solution to Panopto.
MEDIAL is a great solution for those educational organizations who want a low cost entry point into an Enterprise Video Solution with integration into their chosen LMS. MEDIAL measures up favourably in terms of feature set to Panopto, especially in the area of LMS integration.
Pricing starts at $195 per month and all pricing options are displayed on their web site. Full product support is available as well as product onboarding.
If you are interested to know more about MEDIAL go to https://www.medial.com/schedule-appointment to schedule a demo