Vimeo vs Lumen5: which video maker and editor should you choose?

October 7th, 2024
Vimeo vs Lumen5

Vimeo and Lumen5 are two popular video creation and editing platforms for businesses, teams, and creators. Both offer AI-powered editing tools, but they differ in the scope of their video creation and marketing capabilities, such as screen recording, live streaming, and mobile accessibility. Understanding the differences between Vimeo and Lumen5 will help you decide which platform best meets your needs. 

What is the difference between Vimeo and Lumen5?

Both Vimeo and Lumen5 offer comprehensive video editing tools, including AI-driven capabilities. However, if you’re looking for an end-to-end solution that offers flexible video creation capabilities, Vimeo stands out with capabilities like video marketing, screen recording, live streaming, and virtual events. Let’s compare the two solutions to determine which video platform is best for you.  

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Vimeo vs Lumen5: Quick comparison

If you’re looking for a comprehensive video platform that offers video hosting, live streaming, screen recording, and advanced editing capabilities, check out this comparison table which provides an overview of how Vimeo compares to Lumen5. 

With an ad-free, customizable video player, tools to make your videos accessible, and the ability to broadcast live streams and virtual events, Vimeo offers everything you need to create, edit, and share your videos with the world. Lumen5 also offers video creation and editing tools, although it lacks a customizable video player and doesn’t support live streaming or virtual events.

Features

Vimeo

Lumen5

Video quality

4K HDR

(up to 8K)

Up to 1080p

Maximum video recording length 

Unlimited

2 minutes on free plan 


10 minutes on paid plans

Maximum video file size 

Unlimited

2 GB 

Live streaming

Yes

No

Screen recording

Yes

No

Video templates

Yes

Yes

Video AI

Text-based video editor

Automatic transcription

Video translation with automatic voice cloning

AI video summary

Auto caption

Video highlights

Ask a question

Search by caption,

Auto-generated video titles, summaries, and chapters

AI voiceover and AI voice library

Talking head

Create videos from photos 

Teleprompter

Generate videos from text 

Analytics dashboard

Yes

Yes

Video library & team folders

Yes

Yes 

Video storage

Up to 25 videos on free plan  

60, 120, or 500 videos depending on the paid plan


Unlimited videos with Enterprise

Up to 5 videos per month on free plan


Unlimited on paid plans

Vimeo video platform overview

Vimeo offers a range of powerful tools to enhance your video content and streamline collaboration. From an ad-free, customizable video player with top-tier quality to accessibility features, privacy controls, and live streaming capabilities, Vimeo provides everything you need to create, share, and manage your videos efficiently.

  • Ad-free, customizable video player. Vimeo provides an uninterrupted, ad-free viewing experience through its fully customizable video player. With support for 4K, 8K, HDR, and Dolby Vision, it guarantees top-tier video quality without any distractions.
  • Accessibility features. Help increase your video's accessibility and audience reach by adding multiple audio tracks, including options for different languages, descriptive audio, and commentary, along with captions and subtitles. Advanced plan users and above can also take advantage of Vimeo’s AI-powered tools to automatically generate captions in seven languages on any paid plan.
  • Embed videos. Vimeo automatically creates simple, copy-and-paste code, allowing you to easily embed videos on your website.
  • Privacy and access controls. When you host your videos on the Vimeo video hosting platform, you can control video access by making them public, private, or password-protected, depending on your plan. You can set permission levels for specific users, folders, or individual videos. Vimeo Enterprise plans provide advanced security features, including multi-factor authentication (MFA), single sign-on (SSO), and domain-level privacy, which lets you control which websites are authorized to embed your videos.
  • Live streaming and virtual event capabilities. Live streaming with Vimeo is easy and efficient, featuring branding tools and browser-based multistreaming. You can host private streams or stream securely to platforms like YouTube and Facebook while enhancing audience engagement with interactive features such as chat, polls, Q&A, and live links, all through Vimeo's video platform. 
  • Collaboration and video communication. Vimeo users with paid plans can organize video content into shared folders and invite team members to join a team as an admin, contributor, or viewer for collaborative video editing. You can share select chapters for team members to review, and collaborators can add time-stamped notes while Slack and email notifications keep everyone in the loop. 

Get started with Vimeo’s free video platform → 

Lumen5 video overview

Lumen5 doesn’t have a customizable video player, but it does allow you to organize videos through workspaces and projects. It offers browser-based editing from desktop browsers (though not compatible with mobile) and provides access controls, enabling admins to assign permissions and manage video privacy settings.

  • Workspaces and projects. Lumen5 allows you to organize your videos into workspaces and projects. Projects are organizational layers within workspaces that function like folders, allowing you to create separate projects within each workspace to keep videos, campaigns, and templates separate. This helps manage multiple campaigns or events while maintaining access to relevant templates within a single workspace.
  • Browser-based editing. Lumen5 can be used from any desktop browser. However, it’s not compatible with mobile browsers, and Lumen 5 doesn’t offer mobile apps. 
  • Access controls and permissions. If you’re working with a team, you can assign users to either an Admin or Editor role. Admins can control what projects editors are able to access. You can also change privacy settings for individual videos, making them public, accessible via a link, or private.  

Video creation comparison: Vimeo vs. Lumen5

Both Vimeo and Lumen5 offer simple video creation tools. However, Lumen5 is a browser-based video editor that’s not compatible with mobile browsers, while Vimeo allows you to create videos from your desktop or mobile. Lumen5 lacks screen recording capabilities, while Vimeo supports screen recording from your browser or mobile device.  

Vimeo video maker overview

With mobile and desktop video creation, easy screen recording, seamless video uploads, and a vast library of customizable templates and stock media, Vimeo simplifies the video creation process. Advanced features like live streaming and detailed analytics allow users to engage their audiences and refine their video strategies for maximum impact.

  • Create on mobile or desktop. Vimeo’s video platform lets you create, edit, share, and watch videos from anywhere, whether on mobile or desktop. With Vimeo, you can record your screen, webcam, or both. Advanced and Enterprise users can also live stream directly from their mobile devices.
  • Upload and customize videos. Effortlessly upload and customize videos in minutes using the Vimeo video maker. You can upload videos from your device or through integrations with Google Drive, Dropbox, Zoom, Box, Webex, and more.
  • Customizable video templates. If you're unsure where to begin or want to get started quickly, Vimeo provides thousands of ready-made video templates. Customize them with your own text, images, music, and other elements to make them uniquely yours.
  • Stock media library. Enhance your video content with Vimeo’s vast library of royalty-free stock media, including images, videos, and soundtracks.
  • Advanced analytics. Vimeo’s advanced analytics dashboard provides insights into who’s watching your videos, where viewers drop off, and how they engage with your content, helping you fine-tune your video strategy over time.

Explore video templates now → 

Lumen5 video maker overview

Lumen5 offers a set of essential tools for creating videos. One of the platform’s main features is the ability to record talking head videos. However, the platform does not offer screen recording tools. 

  • Video templates. Like Vimeo, Lumen5 allows you to start from scratch or choose from its library of pre-designed templates, including templates for common aspect resolutions, such as 16:9, 1:1, and 9:16. You can also change the format later if needed. 
  • Talking head videos. Lumen5 makes it easy to record talking head videos via your webcam.  
  • Teleprompter. Lumen5 offers a built-in teleprompter. You provide the text; Lumen5 automatically scrolls through it as you record. 
  • Brand kits. Brand kits, available with Starter and above plans, allow you to incorporate your brand colors, fonts, and a watermark into a video template with a single click.  
  • Stock media library. Lumen5 offers a stock media library of still images, videos, and graphics. Access to these assets is limited based on your plan. 

Video editing comparison: Vimeo vs. Lumen5

Both Vimeo and Lumen5 offer innovative video editing tools, including AI-powered video editing capabilities to streamline the video editing process. Lumen5 excels at transforming written content into engaging videos using AI but lacks direct social media sharing and interactive features. While Lumen5 doesn't support clickable links within videos, it allows easy aspect ratio adjustments for repurposing content across various platforms.

Vimeo video editor overview

Vimeo offers a powerful suite of editing tools designed to streamline video editing and enhance brand consistency. Advanced editing features allow you to trim or resize videos, add professional touches with filters, transitions, and custom graphics, and tap into a vast stock media library.

  • Timeline-based editor. Vimeo’s intuitive timeline-based editor offers drag-and-drop functionality, allowing you to easily adjust video length, timing, and flow in just minutes. 
  • Integrated brand kit. Vimeo’s Brand Kit, available with Standard, Advanced, Enterprise, Business, and Premium plans, ensures your video content stays on-brand by providing team members access to logos, brand colors, fonts, and other approved brand elements.
  • Advanced editing capabilities. Vimeo provides tools to trim, resize, and crop videos, allowing you to remove unwanted sections, adjust the frame size, and modify the aspect ratio to fit any platform's requirements. Enhance your videos with music, filters, styles, transitions, text, stickers, animations, and custom graphics for a professional, standout look.
  • Stock media library. Vimeo’s video maker allows you to elevate your content by adding video, images, and audio from our vast library of royalty-free stock media. Customize your videos further with audio clips, custom fonts, video graphics, and other elements to create a perfectly polished result.
  • Compress videos. Compress your video for easy sharing via email or apps like Dropbox and Google Drive without sacrificing quality.

Upload and edit your video → 

Vimeo AI video tools

Vimeo’s innovative AI tools enable marketers and creators to create professional-quality videos in a fraction of the time — no technical expertise needed.

  • Text-based video editor. With a Vimeo Standard or higher plan, you can effortlessly remove filler words, unwanted phrases, and awkward pauses from your auto-generated transcript, instantly cutting them from your video like magic.
  • One-take video creation. Vimeo Standard and above users can beat writer’s block with the AI script generator, which creates a video script from a brief description. Stay on point with the built-in teleprompter, helping you nail your take in one go.
  • Auto-generated video information. Vimeo’s AI-powered video creation software streamlines your workflow, saving you valuable time. Advanced and Enterprise users can enhance videos with interactive features while automatically generating titles, chapters, summaries, and tags. 
  • AI dubbing. Vimeo's voice-cloning AI replicates your natural voice, enabling you to sound like yourself in a wide range of languages, from Spanish to Arabic. This feature is available to select Enterprise users.
  • Auto-generated highlight reels. Vimeo Enterprise users can harness AI to automatically generate highlight reels, delivering a concise, digestible summary that captures all the key points for viewers.

Explore Vimeo’s AI tools → 

Lumen5 video editor overview

Lumen5 provides a range of easy-to-use editing tools designed to help you create polished videos quickly. The platform has intuitive sliders for adjusting brightness, contrast, and saturation, as well as simple tools for merging, cutting, and compressing videos.

  • Adjust video brightness, contrast, and saturation. Lumen5 allows you to adjust light, contrast, colors, and saturation in seconds with intuitive slider bars. 
  • Merge, cut, trim, and compress videos. Lumen5 offers tools to merge, cut, trim, and compress videos with ease. 
  • Add text, images, and audio. Enhance your video with Lumen5’s video editor by uploading audio files and adding text, your logo, a watermark, or still images. Lumen5 supports all common image and audio formats.  
  • Slide-based editing. Scenes in Lumen5 videos are represented by slides, allowing you to easily delete, add, and rearrange slides to create a seamless video. 

Lumen5 AI video tools

Lumen5 harnesses the power of AI to simplify video creation, offering tools that generate scripts, voiceovers, and AI-powered talking heads. With features like automatic script generation, text-to-video conversion, and AI voiceovers, Lumen5 makes it easy to create video content in minutes.

  • AI script composer. Lumen5’s AI can automatically generate video scripts based on an outline of your video concept. Lumen5 can also fetch content from a URL you provide, analyze it, suggest scenes, and generate multiple video scripts, allowing you to easily repurpose content such as blog posts and ebooks. 
  • Convert text to video. Lumen5 leverages generative AI to automatically generate video content from text. 
  • AI voiceovers. With Lumen5, you can add AI voiceovers to your videos. Access to Lumen5’s premium AI voice library requires a paid plan. A free plan offers 2 minutes of AI Voiceover, and this may include limited access to the premium voice library.
  • AI talking heads. While you can create a talking head video by recording your face and voice, you can also use an AI-generated talking head and voice instead of your own. 
  • Automated captions. Lumen5 automatically generates captions to match your script, which you can customize by changing the font and colors. This feature requires a paid plan. 

Video marketing capabilities comparison

Once your video is edited and polished, video marketing ensures that it reaches your target audience. Lumen5 excels at transforming written content into engaging videos using AI but lacks the direct social media sharing and interactive features Vimeo offers. 

Vimeo video marketing overview

Maximize your reach and track your performance with Vimeo's marketing tools, including a robust analytics dashboard, a customizable video player, and seamless marketing integrations. From production to distribution, Vimeo offers capabilities for end-to-end video marketing.  

  • Marketing integrations. With an Advanced plan or higher, you can seamlessly integrate with CRM platforms like Marketo, HubSpot, Constant Contact, and Salesforce Marketing Cloud, simplifying the process of incorporating videos into your marketing campaigns. Some integrations require a Vimeo Enterprise plan, although most are available to Advanced plan users.  
  • Social media video templates. Vimeo provides editing tools for repurposing and resizing content, along with video templates designed specifically for social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
  • In-depth analytics. With Vimeo, you can access all your essential performance metrics in the Vimeo analytics dashboard, including views, unique viewers, and watch time. Easily filter by date, region, source, content, device, or type to measure and optimize your results.
  • Create and share reports. Vimeo makes it easy to create and share customized reports based on various parameters, including device, region, source, video, date, social platform, and more.
  • Create interactive, shoppable videos. Enterprise users can potentially increase engagement with interactive content, including calls to action, quizzes, polls, and shoppable links.

Explore Vimeo’s marketing tools → 

Lumen5 video marketing overview

Lumen5 does not offer the ability to add clickable links to videos or share videos directly to social media platforms. However, you can download videos to your device, upload them to a social media platform, and overlay clickable links through the options provided by the social platform. 

  • Repurpose written content. With its AI capabilities, Lumen5 can transform written content from ebooks, whitepapers, blog posts, and infographics into engaging marketing videos. 
  • Easily adjust aspect ratio. Lumen5 allows you to easily change the aspect ratio of a video at any time, making it easy to repurpose your video content for different social media platforms. 

Which video maker is best for you: Vimeo or Lumen5?

Both Vimeo and Lumen5 offer valuable video creation and editing tools, but Vimeo stands out as the more comprehensive platform for businesses and creators seeking an all-in-one solution. With its advanced features like live streaming, customizable video player, AI-powered editing, and robust marketing integrations, Vimeo provides an end-to-end experience that supports everything from video production to distribution. 

Lumen5 can be good for repurposing written content into videos, but its lack of live streaming, mobile accessibility, and interactive features may limit its use for more advanced video marketing needs. For those looking to maximize their video content’s reach and impact, Vimeo offers an advantage with its versatile capabilities.

Elevate your video strategy with Vimeo →