A service that stores, processes, and delivers video files so they can be embedded and played anywhere on the web.
Video hosting is a service that stores your video files on remote servers, processes them into streamable formats, and delivers them to viewers through a global network. Think of it like a warehouse for your videos that also handles packaging and shipping — you upload the raw file, and the platform takes care of everything needed to make it play smoothly in a browser, on a phone, or inside an app.
When you upload a video to a hosting platform, several things happen behind the scenes. First, the platform transcodes your file — converting it from whatever format you recorded in into optimized streaming formats like HLS. It generates multiple quality levels so viewers on slow connections get a watchable stream while those on fast connections get full resolution.
The transcoded files are distributed across a content delivery network (CDN), which places copies of your video on servers around the world. When someone clicks play, the video loads from whichever server is closest to them, reducing buffering and load times.
The hosting platform also provides an embeddable player — typically an iframe or JavaScript snippet you paste into your website. This player handles adaptive bitrate switching, playback controls, and analytics, all without you writing any code.
Self-hosting video is technically possible but practically painful. Video files are large, bandwidth is expensive, and building a reliable player with adaptive streaming support is a significant engineering project. A single viral video can take down a server that was not designed to handle the load.
Dedicated video hosting solves all of this. It gives you predictable costs, global delivery, professional playback, and analytics — without building or maintaining any infrastructure. For businesses, this means faster page loads, better viewer experience, and the ability to actually measure whether people are watching your content.
host.video handles the entire pipeline: upload via resumable TUS protocol, automatic transcoding to HLS with multiple quality levels, and delivery through a multi-CDN network with over 700 Tbps of capacity. Every upload also gets auto-generated thumbnails, chapters, and subtitles at no extra cost.