GrooveVideo Review 2021 - Is It Worth It?
In this GrooveVideo Review 2021, we are going to investigate what GrooveVideo is and whether GrooveVideo is the right type of video hosting software for your business.
What Is GrooveVideo?
GrooveVideo is the video hosting and analytics platform/application within the Groove™ (formerly GrooveFunnels) software suite. The suite was created by Groove Digital.
GrooveVideo is a competitor to the likes of Vimeo and Wistia and while it doesn't yet have ALL the same functionality as these services, the ultimate goal is for the application to surpass it.
This will represent a saving to most people of about $240 per year for video hosting.
The savings come from the fact that GrooveVideo is part of the entire free and paid versions of Groove. That is, if you have a free Groove account, you get GrooveVideo for free with some limitations, while with a paid account it's unrestricted.
With the current, pay-once-never-again price of Groove, the savings add up quickly.
In addition to the basic functions of storing, hosting videos and tracking video analytics, GrooveVideo is being developed with marketing in mind, so that features you would normally buy as add-ons, like overlays and frames, are instead, built into the system, saving time, energy and creating seamless presentation.
What Is Included In GrooveVideo?
When you log into GrooveVideo you see 6 main sections plus 2 graphic/table displays of data. The 6 sections are the menu items, which are also displayed to the left of your screen upon login, but are also shown here as quick links for easier access.
Library
In this section you can view existing videos, clone, delete, edit or get the video embed code to place the video on your site. In GroovePages, you can use either a code embed or the video widget to place videos on pages. On sites not created in GroovePages you would use the embed code only.
Categories
Here you create the various categories for your videos, based on their content or categorisation method of your choice. It helps keep videos under your control as you add more to the system.
Storage Settings
Paid members can ignore this area. Simply because all videos are stored within Groove's system. Free members need to set up a storage location, such as Amazon's S3 for example, that Groove can download the viewed video from. Storage size for paid members is currently 100GB.
Encoder Settings
All videos are automatically encoded for paid members. Free members need to set up an encoder, such as coconut for example, so that videos can be viewed across devices and sizes. Setting up storage or encoding is easy and once done, needs no modifications.
Analytics
Analytics currently show impressions, uniques, finishes and total time watched. Future analytics will include partial time watched. You can also tag people who watch or take actions on your videos and pass that information to your autoresponder or directly into Groovemail. When you first log in you can also see data on plays and visitors for various periods throughout the month.
New Videos
Here you upload your new videos and add relevant titles, descriptions and other SEO items as well as choose elements such as colours, players and video thumbnails. You can also set up autoplays, responsiveness, overlay text, lower-thirds, opt-in forms (brilliant) and many other marketing style elements.
GrooveVideo Analytics
GrooveVideo Marketing Elements
An exceptional feature of GrooveVideo is the built-in marketing elements that in other systems you'd require an add-on or even a complete separate system (at extra cost of course).
In the last stages of video creation you can include any of the options in the image below which massively increase the effectiveness of the video.
The Text Overlay With Call To Action (CTA) option is incredibly powerful and each of the elements allows you to control various aspects of the element such as timing and duration which further enhances the power.
GrooveVideo Pricing
What Does GrooveVideo Cost?
As mentioned earlier, Groove has both a free and a paid version of its system. The paid version gives you unlimited lifetime access to the entire Groove™ system and is currently $1,397.00 USD as a one-time payment, never pay again option.
While you may "never pay again" for the system, if you become a huge user of video, and by this I mean 100GB bandwidth per month or more, Groove will charge a very small amount per gigabyte over and above your current free usage. This is a practical approach so that the average user can use the system for free, for ever.
As a free user/member, there is no cost whatsoever except for what you may pay Amazon for their S3 service if you also become a huge video user.
In that event, it would simply pay to become a paid member of Groove and take advantage of all the other features that being a paid member gives you.
Cost Comparison Between GrooveVideo And Other Systems
GrooveVideo is only one of the applications within the entire Groove™ system, so it doesn't sell as an application in its own right.
When you become a member of Groove, you also get either 6 additional applications if you get the free version or 16 additional applications if you get the paid version.
In the image below, you can see that if you got GrooveVideo for free you would be getting a system that you would pay $240 per year for, if you had the equivalent system with Vimeo (for example).
If you got GrooveVideo with the paid plan, you would not only get GrooveVideo, but all the other software for $1,397 (one-time payment) which would otherwise cost you around $17,000 per year with equivalent systems.
Benefits Of GrooveVideo Hosting And Analytics Platform
Unlimited Video Hosting
There is no limit (in the paid plan) on how many videos you can upload and host.
Built-in Marketing
You don't have to add third-party systems to GrooveVideo such as players, lower-thirds and overlays.
Integration
GrooveVideo integrates with all other Groove applications creating a seamless system.
GrooveVideo Vs Vimeo Comparison
To make this Groovevideo review more complete, let's do a comparison. The following comparison of GrooveVideo and Vimeo is designed to provide an overview of both systems and is not designed as a full in-depth comparison.
You can find multiple comparisons between these two video systems online, so this quick overview is to help you with your decision making or to prompt you for further investigation at a later date.
The main difference between the two systems is that Vimeo is a stand-alone application while GrooveVideo is part of a combined business suite of applications.
GrooveVideo Features
Vimeo Features
GrooveVideo Pros and Cons
If there is anything that annoys me with GrooveVideo at the moment it's that social sharing is not automatically available on video embed or through the integration widget.
This however is being investigated by Groove and due to their constant system improvements, is likely to be added before to long. I'll update this GrooveVideo Review when they do.
GrooveVideo Review 2021 Conclusion
There's not a lot to dislike about GrooveVideo. It's super easy to use, has huge amounts of storage and with the paid version of Groove you dont need to set up any additional external storage or coding applications. It's all provided.
The biggest benefits from my point of view are the marketing features and these will prove to be a huge bonus to any business owner, affiliate marketer, e-commerce seller and in fact, any one who has an online presence.
By being able to easily add these to a video the time component of creation will be dramatically reduced.
The integration factor COULD be a downside for some people if they are looking for a pure stand-alone system, but the fact that you can start using this application for free, AND get the benefit of most of the other applications at the same time makes this system hard to pass up.