Panopto Pricing, Features, Reviews & Comparison of Alternatives

Pros
I love how it manages our video content. The ability to manage 1000's of videos with ease and update user permissions or move content around all without breaking the link to the video was the biggest selling point for me. Other products I've evaluated managed video very differently and left things more up to the user. If the user were to leave their content would be difficult to hand over to the next person that may need it. The LMS Integration is excellent. Biggest workflow saver is when an instructor makes a recording in class the hit stop and upload and the video automatically goes into the course it needs to be in and even gives students a progress bar for it. Other products required the instructor to go in after they made the recording and move the video into the course manually or move it into a specific playlist. When an instructor finishes class they don't have time to go moving their recordings around. They need to finish up and leave before the next class starts coming in. It has so many bells and whistles. Live broadcasting, quizzing that integrates with the LMS Gradebook, scheduled recordings, so many great video player features, the mobile app. It's overall an excellent product and I couldn't find anything else that checked all my boxes.

Cons
The recorder has a lot of options in regards to setting the quality when we always encourage our faculty to set it at the highest possible. I wish the recorder could be streamlined so I could start up recordings faster and have a share link go right to my clipboard so I could send it out like how Jing does it. There is value to all of the options on the recorder but I wish they had a lighter weight version.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
Panopto integrates with our LMS, D2L quite well. It makes the process very simple for our instructors and students to record and watch videos. It does not require any plugins or software to watch videos, as they load up in a web browser. The videos work on mobile and embed easily in courses or on websites. We also enjoy the easy sharing of videos and simplified management in the web portal.

Cons
The Panopto Recorder software can be a little bit buggy and simplified. It could use a more modern look and feel. The software does give our end users some trouble - but not the service or website itself. If a student or instructor has an issue with the software, luckily any .mp4 video file can be easily uploaded to Panopto.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
There are many features that I like about Panopto; ease of use is near the top of the list. I have been using it for several years and it is comforting to know how reliable and simple it is to get a recording completed. I have had situations where an opportunity arose and I wanted to capture it for my students to see later, and I simply pulled out my phone and recorded and uploaded it to the Cloud with a few simple clicks. My students love it because regardless of their hardware (PC, phone, iOS device), they can record their assignments and get feedback almost as if they were in front of me. The simple-to-use editing features allow me to update/enhance legacy content enabling me to leverage existing resources. I could go on and on...

Cons
Some of the more advanced features are a bit more challenging for some of my students to understand; however, the good news is that the basic features provide more than enough opportunity for successful resource generation.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
Panopto has so many useful features such as embedding Youtube videos, Websites, PDFs right into your recorded sessions. This has allowed us to create a learning experience for our students like they haven't seen before. Cloud hosted makes it easy to configure who can see what and when. It has also helped us with CPD training, the ability for a member of staff to record something just once and allow all staff to view it in their own time with quiz questions throughout to check their understanding.

Cons
Its great for multiple video feeds at one time but to be able to select mulitple audio source (say several microphones in a conference room) would be benifical. The length of time between updates varies and can be lengthy in between but then they do arrive they don't dissapoint.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
Using the integration with our LMS, D2L has been a life saver. It simplifies the process for our instructors to record videos and share them with their students. Additionally, students can record back for public speaking classes. We also really appreciate the automatic closed captioning service. While it is not 100% accurate, it does encourage the use of the captions, which is a nice feature.

Cons
The recorder can be buggy at times. Some of our users have difficulty installing it. We would love to see a web based advanced editor as well. Right now there is one, but it only works in Internet Explorer.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10