Since September 21, Vimeo On Demand can no longer take new purchases or subscriptions. If you sell films or rentals there, the storefront is on a fixed countdown, and Vimeo's own notice gives the dates:
- August 22, 2026: new uploads blocked
- September 21, 2026: new purchases and subscriptions blocked
- October 21, 2026: final seller payouts processed
- November 20, 2026: platform fully shut down
For your buyers, the notice says: "you can continue watching your library until November 20, 2026. After that date, access will no longer be available." Anything they paid for on Vimeo needs a new home, and finding that home is your job.
What Vimeo points you to
The only alternative Vimeo's notice names is Vimeo OTT, "which provides tools for video monetization and audience building." That is another Vimeo product, and Vimeo has been owned by Bending Spoons since the deal closed on November 24, 2025, for about $1.38 billion in cash according to Vimeo's SEC filing. Bending Spoons also bought the video platform Brightcove, closing that $233 million deal in February 2025, per Brightcove's announcement.
None of that makes Vimeo OTT a bad option. It is worth knowing if part of your reason for leaving is not wanting to depend on the same company again.
What Vimeo OTT charges
From Vimeo's own pricing breakdown. Check it again before you commit, because prices change:
- Subscriptions: $1 per subscriber per month, plus merchant fees of 2.5% + 30 cents. Annual subscribers are $12 upfront.
- Buy and rent: 10% + 50 cents per transaction. On a $10 rental, that listed fee is $1.50.
A checklist for moving
- Find your originals. If you still have the files you uploaded, use those rather than downloading copies back from Vimeo.
- Decide where checkout will live. Vimeo On Demand handled the checkout for you. Wherever you go, work out who takes the payment, who issues refunds, and who answers a buyer's email.
- Find your buyer list. Check what your Vimeo seller dashboard lets you export while you still can.
- Tell your buyers before November 20. That is the day their access on Vimeo ends.
- Move the videos, then test a real purchase end to end. Buy your own film as a stranger would, on a phone, before you tell anyone the new page is live.
- Update every link. Newsletters, your website, social profiles, festival pages.
How the move works on Long Play
Long Play does not process payments. You keep a payment platform of your own, and that platform tells Long Play when someone has paid. Long Play works with any platform that can send a webhook, with Zapier or Make as a relay where a platform's format doesn't match. When the notification arrives, Long Play records the buyer's email address and emails them instructions to watch.
- Ways to sell: permanent purchases, rentals (the clock starts when the buyer first presses play), gift links, and creator subscriptions.
- Cost: paid access and subscriptions are on the Creator plan, $4.99 a month (shown in your local currency).
- Your existing buyers: upload a CSV of their email addresses and Long Play grants each one permanent purchase access.
- Your videos: the Vimeo importer pulls your library across if your Vimeo account is Pro or above. On lower plans you download them manually. Imported videos start private, with the title carried over, so you set each one up before publishing.
There is a trade-off, and you should know it before you move. Long Play does not process payments and cannot assist with payment disputes, so refunds, receipts and support stay with you and your payment platform. Long Play also requires you to enable creator contact, which makes your contact details visible to logged-in viewers, before it lets you save a paid link.
And because you are leaving one platform partly over trust, here is our commitment in writing. Under the Permanence Pledge, if Long Play is ever acquired, merged into another company, or shuts down, you get at least 90 days' notice and a one-click export of every original file before any material change takes effect.
The short version
Vimeo's dates are fixed and buyer access ends on November 20. Work out where checkout will live, get your buyers' emails, and move the films while there is still time to test properly. The full walkthrough, including how to bring existing buyers across, is on our Vimeo alternative page.
Correct as of 21 September 2026 at 22:25 AEST (12:25 UTC), the time of publication. The dates and Vimeo OTT fees above were checked against Vimeo's shutdown notice and OTT pricing breakdown, and the Long Play plan price against our own plans page. Any of them can change, so check those pages before you decide.