If you sold films, courses or classes on Vimeo On Demand, you need a new place to sell them. Vimeo stopped new purchases and subscriptions on 21 September 2026 and will shut Vimeo On Demand down completely on 20 November 2026 (Vimeo's shutdown notice). DCAST is a Vimeo On Demand alternative where you upload your library once and sell it as one-time purchases, paid memberships, or tickets to live events — with the money going straight to your own Stripe account.
This guide covers who DCAST fits, what you get, how it compares with Vimeo On Demand and Vimeo OTT, and how to move step by step. It also says plainly what DCAST does not do. Vimeo facts were checked on Vimeo's official pages on 2 October 2026.
Who DCAST fits instead of Vimeo On Demand or Vimeo OTT
DCAST is a good fit if you:
- sell individual videos — a film, a masterclass, a recorded event — for a one-time price;
- run a paid channel where members pay monthly or yearly to watch your library;
- also go live, or want to: classes, premieres, concerts, Q&A sessions with paid tickets;
- want buyers to pay you directly, with your own Stripe account, rather than wait for a monthly payout from a marketplace.
DCAST is not the right fit if you depend on rentals (48-hour or 7-day access), native TV apps (Roku, Apple TV), or uploaded caption files. We do not offer those today — more on that below.
What you get on DCAST
Sell a single video. Set a video to Paid (PPV) — "One-time purchase to watch" — and give it a price. A buyer pays once and keeps access; it does not expire. Buyers do not need an account in advance: they can pay with an email address, and the receipt with an access code arrives by email.
Sell a membership to your channel. Create membership tiers with a monthly price, an optional annual price and free-trial days. Then mark videos as For subscribers (any member can watch) or require a specific tier.
Sell tickets to live events. Live streaming is part of the same account. A live stream can be paid in the same way as a video, so your on-demand library and your live events sit side by side.
Get paid directly. Payments run through Stripe Connect: you connect your own Stripe account, and each sale is charged on that account. You are the merchant of record, the money lands in your Stripe balance, and Stripe pays it out on your own payout schedule. The buyer pays the price you set; DCAST's commission and Stripe's processing fee come out of the sale, not on top of it. If you refund a purchase in full in your Stripe dashboard, DCAST removes that buyer's access automatically.
Your own channel site. Every creator gets a public channel page at dcast.tv/creator/<your-name>. On STAR, PRO and VIP you can use a <your-name>.dcast.tv address; on PRO and VIP you can connect your own domain. Group videos into collections ("rails") on your site — private and unlisted videos never appear there.
Less DCAST branding on PRO and VIP. On these plans, "Powered by DCAST" disappears from your site's footer, DCAST links disappear from your terms and privacy pages, and buyer emails no longer carry DCAST wording. Some parts still show DCAST today — for example, the name on the buyer's card statement.
Video that plays the way you made it. DCAST encodes your video into adaptive H.264 quality levels for smooth playback on any connection, keeps your original frame rate (it never raises it), and plays at normal speed. The highest resolution depends on your plan: up to 720p on FREE, 1080p on STAR, 4K on PRO and 8K on VIP.
A storefront that sells. Add a cover image and your own promo clip, which plays behind the buy button. You can embed the player on your website and limit embedding to the domains you choose. Analytics show views, watch time and completion per video, revenue and where your viewers are.
DCAST vs Vimeo On Demand vs Vimeo OTT
Vimeo facts are from Vimeo's official pages, checked on 2 October 2026. "Not checked" means we did not find the answer on those pages.
|
Vimeo On Demand |
Vimeo OTT (Starter) |
DCAST |
| Availability |
New sales stopped 21 Sep 2026; shuts down 20 Nov 2026 |
Available |
Available |
| Sell a single video |
Yes, until 21 Sep 2026 |
Yes |
Yes — one-time purchase, access does not expire |
| Rentals (time-limited access) |
Yes, until shutdown |
Not checked |
No |
| Paid memberships |
Yes, until 21 Sep 2026 |
Yes |
Yes — monthly, optional annual price, free trial |
| Live streaming and paid live events |
Not checked |
Pre-recorded video only (live is on Enterprise) |
Yes, in the same account |
| Pricing model |
Sellers kept 90% after transaction costs and taxes |
$1 per subscriber per month + 10% of one-time purchases |
Free or paid plan + sales commission + payment processing; no per-subscriber fee (pricing) |
| How you get paid |
Monthly via PayPal, about 30 days after month end |
Not checked |
Directly to your own Stripe account, on your Stripe payout schedule |
| Payment currency |
Payouts in USD |
Checkout in 100 currencies |
Card payments in USD |
| Your own domain |
Not checked |
Not checked |
PRO and VIP |
| Native TV apps |
Not checked |
Enterprise plan |
No |
Sources: Vimeo On Demand shutdown notice, seller FAQ, viewer FAQ, Get paid with Vimeo On Demand, Vimeo OTT pricing.
What DCAST does not do (yet)
We would rather you know this before you move:
- No one-click import from Vimeo. There is no import by link. You download your files from Vimeo and upload them to DCAST.
- No automatic transfer of your buyers. DCAST cannot import a buyer list or grant access to a list of emails. You can give previous buyers access with access keys (see step 6).
- No rentals. A purchase on DCAST gives lasting access. If you need time-limited access, use a membership instead.
- No discount codes for video sales, no CSV export of buyers, no caption-file upload, no chapters, no password-protected videos. Videos can be public, unlisted, private, for subscribers, for a specific tier, or for signed-in viewers.
- Card payments are in US dollars. PayPal is not available for creator sales today.
- No native TV apps.
How to move from Vimeo On Demand to DCAST, step by step
1. Save everything from Vimeo before 20 November 2026
Your Vimeo videos are not deleted by the shutdown, but the storefront and your buyers' access end on 20 November 2026. According to Vimeo's seller FAQ and download guide:
- Download your videos. This needs a paid Vimeo plan. In your library, open a video, click the arrow next to Share, choose Download and pick the version to save. There is no bulk download, so you download videos one by one. The original file is available only if your account kept source files.
- Export your sales data from the analytics dashboard.
- Export customer emails: in your VOD settings, open the Audience tab and click Export email addresses. Only viewers who explicitly opted in are included.
Keep your original files in your own storage as well. DCAST lets you download the processed versions of your videos, not the file you uploaded.
2. Create your DCAST account and verify your email
Sign up and confirm your email address — your public channel page goes live only for a verified account.
3. Connect Stripe
Open Monetization → Payment gateway and connect your Stripe account. Paid options unlock once Stripe has verified the account: until the status shows Connected & verified, viewers cannot pay you.
4. Upload your library
In the web dashboard you upload one file at a time, up to 100 GB per file, in most common formats (MP4, MOV, MKV, WebM and more). Uploads are resumable, so a dropped connection does not restart a large file. For a whole library, use the free DCAST Mini Uploader desktop app for Windows and Linux: select many files at once, or add a watch folder and it uploads new videos you put there. Add a cover image and, if you like, a promo clip for each title.
5. Choose how you sell
- Single purchases: in Monetization → Content Management, open a video, choose Paid (PPV) and enter the price.
- Memberships: in Monetization → Membership Tiers, create your tiers (monthly price, optional annual price, trial days), then set your videos to For subscribers or to a specific tier.
You can combine both: some titles for purchase, the rest for members.
6. Give your previous buyers access
Open Monetization → Content Management, switch to the Access control tab and generate access keys for the video your buyers paid for — up to 1,000 keys at a time. On paid content, each key is for one viewer. Copy each key or its link and send one to every buyer on the email list you exported from Vimeo. Only write to people who opted in to hear from you.
7. Publish your channel and tell your audience
Share your channel page (or your subdomain or own domain on higher plans), arrange titles into collections, and embed the player on your website if you have one. Then tell your audience where to find you before Vimeo On Demand closes on 20 November 2026.
