How we make this list: we compare pricing pages, product documentation and public user reviews. Ratings come from G2, Capterra or Trustpilot, with the date we checked them.
Key takeaways
- Vimeo Streaming, the former Vimeo OTT, is the direct rival: one dollar per subscriber per month plus transaction fees, from the company that also absorbed much of this market's history.
- Uscreen now starts cheaper than its reputation, 49 dollars a month on Starter, but Growth at 149 plus 1.99 dollars per subscriber is the plan most businesses actually run, and that per subscriber fee is the reason to shop.
- Kajabi and Thinkific suit course led businesses; Patreon suits creators who will trade 10 percent of revenue for zero monthly fees and built in discovery habits.
- The honest comparison is total platform cost at your subscriber count in year two, including app fees, transaction fees and revenue shares, not the entry price.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Free plan |
|---|
 Vimeo Streaming | The direct OTT rival from Vimeo | $1 per subscriber per month | No |
 Muvi | Full OTT builds with no code | See website | No |
 Dacast | Live streaming with a paywall | $39 per month | No |
 Kajabi | Courses and marketing in one platform | $143 per month | No |
 Thinkific | Course businesses adding memberships | See website | Yes |
 Patreon | Creators trading fees for zero monthly cost | $0 to start | Yes |
 Circle | Community led memberships | See website | No |
 VPlayed | Custom OTT for media owners | See website | No |
Is your product missing or out of date?
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The best Uscreen alternatives
#1
Vimeo Streaming
Best for: The direct OTT rival from Vimeo
Visit vimeo.com
Starting price$1 per subscriber per month
Free planNo
What we like- Vimeo Streaming, formerly Vimeo OTT, prices the opposite way to Uscreen: no big monthly plan at entry, instead one dollar per subscriber per month for subscriptions plus processing, and 10 percent plus 50 cents on one off sales. It brings a proven OTT player, 4K on web, subscription and pay per view models, and branded apps at its Enterprise tier. Sellers displaced by Vimeo On Demand's shutdown in November 2026 are being pointed here by Vimeo itself, so the migration path is well staffed.
Watch out for- Branded apps are Enterprise only with custom pricing, where Uscreen sells them as named plan features, so the app comparison is not like for like. Community and marketing automation are absent
- You bring your own. Upload hour packs apply to direct OTT uploads past a small free allowance. Per transaction fees on one off sales are real money for TVOD heavy catalogues.
Starting priceSee website
Free planNo
What we like- Muvi builds the whole streaming service from no code tooling: websites and apps across phones, tablets and TVs, subscriptions, rentals, ads and pay per view, with its own CMS and analytics. Media owners who want their own Netflix shaped product without an engineering team are its market, and it launches in weeks rather than quarters. Published comparisons have put its plans from a few hundred dollars a month, tiered by usage.
Watch out for- Pricing is quote oriented in practice and rises with bandwidth and concurrency
- The entry tier's bandwidth allowance is modest at 100 GB a month in published comparisons. It is a streaming platform, not a creator business suite, so email marketing and community tools come from elsewhere. Overkill for a single creator with a course and a membership tier.
#3Dacast
Best for: Live streaming with a paywall4.3/5 on
G2 (30 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit dacast.com
Starting price$39 per month
Free planNo
What we like- Dacast covers the streaming half at published prices: Starter at 39 dollars a month billed annually, the Event tier at 63 adding the paywall, Scale at 165 with DRM and more bandwidth, with subscriptions, pay per view and ad models across live and on demand video. Churches, events and sports programmes choose it for live first workloads. No per subscriber fees anywhere in the model.
Watch out for- It is a streaming tool, not a membership business: no branded apps, no community, no subscriber lifecycle marketing, and its own competitors say so plainly. Bandwidth overages run at 30 cents per GB, which high traffic events must model. Building the Netflix experience around it is your project.
#4Kajabi
Best for: Courses and marketing in one platform4.1/5 on
G2 (93 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit kajabi.com
Starting price$143 per month
Free planNo
What we like- Kajabi replaces the stack around the video: courses, memberships, email marketing, funnels, website and payments in one subscription, at 143 dollars a month billed annually for Basic in current comparisons, with no revenue share and no per subscriber fees. For course led businesses, the all in one arithmetic beats paying a video platform plus an email platform plus a funnel tool. Its mobile app reaches customers without a custom app build on higher plans.
Watch out for- Video is hosted through Wistia rather than a native OTT stack: no branded TV apps as standard, no native live streaming, playback is a course player, not a streaming service. Coaching and community exist but the product's centre is the course business. Fitness and media catalogues built for binge watching belong on Uscreen or the OTT tools above.
#5Thinkific
Best for: Course businesses adding memberships4.5/5 on
G2 (416 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit thinkific.com
Starting priceSee website
Free planYes
What we like- Thinkific is the course platform with a free plan and a gentler ladder: course and membership sales, communities, digital downloads and its own payments handling, widely used by education businesses that sell expertise rather than entertainment. Its Plus tier serves companies training customers and partners at scale. Pricing is flat by plan, with no per subscriber fee, which course businesses with large student counts prefer on principle.
Watch out for- Like Kajabi, this is course infrastructure: no TV apps, streaming polish is functional rather than cinematic, and live teaching runs through integrations. Published plan prices have moved over the years, so we mark the entry as see website and advise checking the current ladder. Media catalogues should not shortlist it.
#6Patreon
Best for: Creators trading fees for zero monthly cost4.2/5 on
G2 (63 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit patreon.com
Starting price$0 to start
Free planYes
What we like- Patreon inverts the pricing: no monthly fee, taking 10 percent of revenue plus processing for new accounts. Creators get membership tiers, posts, community features, a native app audience that already pays for things, and video hosting included up to generous monthly allowances. For a creator whose alternative is paying 149 dollars a month before the first member arrives, the revenue share is the rational starting point, and many large memberships simply stay.
Watch out for- Ten percent forever outruns flat fees as revenue grows, which is why this list exists. You own less: no branded apps, limited data portability, your business rendered in Patreon's template, and platform policy risk sits with them. Discoverability is weaker than its reputation
- Audiences mostly arrive from your own channels anyway.
#7Circle
Best for: Community led memberships4.5/5 on
G2 (544 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit circle.so
Starting priceSee website
Free planNo
What we like- Circle is the community platform that memberships are increasingly built around: courses, events, live streams, discussion spaces and payments in a polished, own branded home, with a mobile app experience members actually open. Where the product is belonging, coaching cohorts, professional communities, masterminds, Circle carries the engagement that video platforms bolt on. It integrates with the rest of the creator stack rather than pretending to be all of it.
Watch out for- Native video is hosted through integrations rather than an OTT grade stack, and there are no TV apps. Pricing has several tiers with meaningful jumps, marked see website here
- The app tier is the expensive one. Pure video catalogue businesses will find it backwards: community centre, cinema attached.
Starting priceSee website
Free planNo
What we like- VPlayed builds customised OTT platforms for media owners and broadcasters: white label apps, multiple monetisation models, DRM and a platform engineered to your catalogue and markets rather than rented in a template. Enterprises and regional broadcasters that have outgrown creator platforms entirely evaluate it with Muvi. Migration and launch are vendor led projects.
Watch out for- Custom pricing, project timelines and a sales process sized for companies, not creators. Nothing about it is self serve. If Uscreen's per subscriber fee is your problem, VPlayed solves a different, larger problem.
How we chose
Uscreen itself is excluded because this article covers its alternatives. We selected platforms in active sale in October 2026 that can run a paid video or membership business: OTT platforms, streaming hosts with paywalls, course and community platforms, and the revenue share model. Prices and fee structures are vendor published or drawn from current comparisons in October 2026, with custom priced platforms marked see website. Nothing was hands on tested, and per subscriber maths uses the published fee figures stated in the article.
How to choose your Uscreen alternative
Run your own subscriber maths first. Take your member count today and the count you honestly expect in two years, and price every platform at both numbers, including per subscriber fees, app tiers, transaction percentages and the tools each platform forces you to buy elsewhere. Uscreen's fee is painless at 200 members and decisive at 2,000; Patreon's share is painless under five figures of monthly revenue and expensive above it.
Then match the product shape. Video catalogue businesses live or die on apps and playback: Vimeo Streaming, Muvi, VPlayed. Live led businesses start at Dacast. Course and coaching businesses start at Kajabi, Thinkific or Circle depending on whether marketing, teaching or community is the centre. Migration follows the same rule as every platform move: export your member list and content, run both through one billing cycle if you can, and tell members early. Churn during a badly communicated move costs more than any fee on this page.
Frequently asked questions
Why do people leave Uscreen?
The per subscriber fee on Growth and above, 1.99 dollars per member per month, plus plan prices for apps and community, means success raises the platform bill automatically. Some businesses also outgrow its templates or want their own app presence under different terms. Uscreen remains a strong product; the departures are mostly arithmetic at scale, not dissatisfaction with features.
Is Vimeo Streaming the same as Vimeo OTT?
Yes, renamed. Vimeo Streaming is the former Vimeo OTT product, priced from one dollar per subscriber per month for subscriptions plus transaction fees on one off sales, with branded apps at Enterprise. Vimeo also shut down its separate Vimeo On Demand storefront product in November 2026 and directs those sellers to Streaming, which is why the names collide in current discussions.
What does Patreon's 10 percent really cost?
On 5,000 dollars of monthly membership revenue, 500 dollars plus payment processing, against Uscreen Growth at 149 dollars plus 1.99 per member. At 200 members Uscreen's total is about 547 dollars and Patreon is cheaper below roughly that subscriber count at typical prices; above it the flat platforms win. Your own price point moves the crossover, which is why the maths section above matters more than any general answer.
Can I take my members with me when I switch?
Content and member lists export from the major platforms, and vendors here run migration services because switchers are their market. What does not move automatically is saved payment credentials in most cases, so members usually re enter card details, which costs some churn however well it is communicated. Plan the move at a natural renewal point and keep the old platform live through one full cycle.
Do I need TV apps for a video membership?
If members watch long sessions, fitness, faith, education and entertainment catalogues, TV apps materially raise viewing and retention, and their absence shows in churn. For short course lessons watched at a desk, web and mobile suffice. Price the app tier before deciding, because on several platforms here the apps are the expensive step, not the base plan.
Sources we checked (0)
Is your product missing or out of date?
We review this list regularly. Vendors can request a listing, send updated pricing or ask about featured placement.
Shihab Mia · Founder, Rankite
Shihab has 5+ years in B2B and SaaS SEO. He writes Rankite's software buying guides from pricing pages, documentation and public user reviews. More about Shihab.