Frequently Asked Questions

Large subscription services license films through their own acquisition process, often with help from sales agents and distributors. It isn't a store you can upload to. For most independent filmmakers, the realistic first step is to sell direct: rentals and purchases on your own storefront or through an aggregator. Real sales, reviews and an audience are what make a film worth a licensing conversation later.

Shorts earn the most when they sell to people who already know you. Rent or sell them individually from your own storefront, or group several shorts into one paid collection. An aggregator can put a short in front of a wider audience, but your share depends on the store's terms. Festivals and screenings help you build the audience that later pays.

Use YouTube for trailers, clips and free reach, then send viewers to your own website to pay. A storefront platform gives your website a checkout, a protected player and buyer accounts on your domain. With Vodlix, rentals and purchases are included from the Launch plan, at $99 a month as of October 2026, and buyers pay through your own gateway.

Yes. Renting, known as transactional video on demand (TVOD), gives a viewer access to your film for a limited time for a one-off payment. Selling it to own, known as electronic sell-through (EST), lets them keep watching it. Many filmmakers offer both, with a lower rental price and a higher purchase price, so viewers can choose.

If a hosting store closes, expect its sales pages and player to stop working, and buyer accounts stay with that platform. Check the closing date in your own account. Before that date, download your master files, export whatever sales and buyer records the host allows, and save your reports. Then set up a new storefront, decide how you'll treat past buyers, and update every link that points to the old store.

On Vodlix, a branded web storefront with rentals and purchases starts at $99 a month on Launch, or $990 a year, as of October 2026. It includes 100 GB of storage and 500 GB of bandwidth a month, and Vodlix takes no share of your sales. Your payment provider charges its own processing fees, and phone apps start on Professional at $1,550 a month.

The VOD meaning is simple: video on demand — video content stored on a server that viewers can watch whenever they choose, rather than at a scheduled broadcast time.

VOD is any video you press play on. If the content was sitting there waiting for you — a Netflix film, a YouTube tutorial, a course video — it's VOD. If you have to be watching at a specific moment (a live match, a scheduled TV channel), it isn't.

Yes. Netflix is the textbook example of VOD — specifically SVOD (subscription video on demand), since you pay a recurring fee for access to the catalog. Its ad-supported tier also makes it partly AVOD. Netflix is also an OTT service, because it delivers that VOD content over the open internet.

On Twitch, "a VOD" is the recording of a past live broadcast, saved so viewers can watch it after the stream ends. It's the same core concept — stored video, watched on demand — applied to live-stream archives. Gaming communities often use "VOD" as a countable noun this way ("watch the VOD").

At minimum: video content, transcoding (converting files into streamable formats), storage, a CDN for delivery, a video player for each device you target, and a payment or ad system for monetization. You can assemble these yourself over months, or launch on a white-label VOD platform instantly — see the build-vs-buy section above.

Yes. YouTube is the largest VOD service in the world — an AVOD platform, since it's free to watch and monetized by advertising (with an SVOD layer in YouTube Premium). Every uploaded video is stored content played on demand.

Vimeo OTT's Starter plan charges $1 per subscriber per month plus 10% of one-time purchase revenue; its Enterprise plan is custom-quoted with an annual contract (as listed on vimeo.com/ott/pricing, verified July 2026). Vodlix charges a flat monthly platform fee — Professional is $1,550/mo, Business $2,450/mo, Enterprise $3,850/mo — with 0% revenue share, so your cost doesn't rise with each new subscriber.

Because Vodlix is a flat fee, the more subscribers you have, the more you save. Against Vimeo OTT's $1/subscriber Starter pricing, the Vodlix Professional plan ($1,550/mo) breaks even at roughly 1,550 subscribers before counting Vimeo's 10% cut of purchases. Below that, Vimeo can be cheaper up front; above it, Vodlix costs less and you keep 100% of revenue. Use the calculator at the top of this page with your own numbers.

Yes, for some. If you have a small subscriber base, sell only a handful of videos, or want to tap Vimeo's built-in audience and brand recognition, Vimeo's pay-as-you-go pricing can be cheaper and simpler to start with. Vodlix is built for streaming businesses that have outgrown per-subscriber fees and want to own their brand, apps, and revenue rather than rent them.

No. Vodlix charges a flat monthly platform fee with 0% revenue share. You keep 100% of your subscription, rental, and advertising revenue, which flows directly through your own connected payment gateway. Vimeo OTT's Starter plan keeps 10% of one-time purchase revenue on top of the $1/subscriber fee.

Multi-DRM (Widevine and FairPlay) is included on Vodlix's Apps+ plans, subject to T&Cs, alongside AES-128 encrypted HLS streaming, geo-blocking, and signed URLs. On Vimeo OTT, DRM is available as a paid add-on for Enterprise sellers.

Vodlix delivers native, white-label apps on Web, iOS, Android, Android TV, Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung TV, and LG TV. Our team builds and submits the apps under your own developer accounts, so they carry your brand in every app store. Which ones you get depends on the plan: web plus iOS and Android from Professional ($1,550/mo), Android TV and Fire TV from Business ($2,450/mo), and Apple TV and Roku on Enterprise ($3,850/mo), with LG and Samsung included subject to T&C.

Yes. A dedicated migration specialist handles catalog import (videos, thumbnails, metadata, categories), subscriber transfer, and platform setup — for free. See our step-by-step Vimeo migration guide for exactly how the move works, or book a migration consultation.

No. Vodlix runs on flexible, month-to-month plans. Vimeo OTT's Enterprise tier, by comparison, requires an annual subscription agreement. You can also start with a 14-day free trial.