Key Difference: YouTube is a video-sharing website that enables a user to watch videos online. Vimeo is also a video-sharing website and it is owned by IAC.

YouTube was founded in February 2005 by PayPal employees. Google acquired it in November 2006 for US$1.65 billion. YouTube is a website where a user can watch, upload and share a video online. Unregistered users can watch videos; but to upload a video, one must get registered on YouTube. Some videos with offensive or unsocial content are available only to registered users of least 18 years of age.

On the other hand, Vimeo is a U.S.-based video-sharing website on which users can upload, share and view videos. It was founded in November 2004 by Jake Lodwick and Zach Klein. In August 2006, IAC/InterActiveCorp purchased Vimeo, as part of its acquisition of Connected Ventures. As of December 2011, Vimeo attracted 65 million unique visitors per month and more than 8 million registered users.

The main differences between these two video-sharing websites are their content control and purpose of use.

• YouTube is an open ended website that allows anyone to use the site. A user can upload a short porn movie as well. The content control is not strict as it becomes difficult to manage large volume of users.
• Vimeo has strict content control policies. However, it has many limitations on who can use it. It becomes easier to control the user traffic because of content controls.

Other differences are as follows:

• Youtube is a website that allows free ad posting. This makes the ad appear at the start, during or at the end of the video. Whereas, Vimeo offers both, a free and a paid ‘Vimeo Plus’ and ‘Vimeo Pro’ accounts.
• Vimeo Non-Plus users can upload up to 500 MB of videos per week, and up to one HD video per week. Whereas, YouTube does not have any limitations for uploads.
• Vimeo offers two types of accounts; Vimeo Plus and Vimeo Pro. Vimeo Pro has more features and content control options than Vimeo Plus. On the other hand, YouTube is free for all and does not differ from user to user.
• YouTube allows 2GB for uploads from the YouTube webpage, or 20GB when up-to-date browsers are used. Whereas, Vimeo Plus users can upload videos that are up to 5GB of footage. Vimeo PRO account type is for business and commercial use, which allows 50GB of storage and there is no limit for the length of videos.

Image Courtesy: edudemic.com, telegraphicsinc.com