Top MediaElement.js Alternatives for Enhanced Video Playback
MediaElement.js has long been a popular choice for developers seeking an HTML5 video player with robust Flash and Silverlight fallbacks, ensuring compatibility across a wide range of browsers. Its pure HTML and CSS players, custom Flash and Silverlight mimicking the HTML5 MediaElement API, and strong accessibility features (including WebVTT) have made it a go-to solution. However, as technology evolves and specific project needs arise, exploring a MediaElement.js alternative can offer new features, better performance, or a more streamlined development experience. This article delves into some of the best alternatives available today.
Best MediaElement.js Alternatives
Whether you're looking for a lightweight option, extensive customization, or specific platform integrations, these alternatives offer compelling reasons to consider them for your next media project.
VideoJS
VideoJS is an excellent MediaElement.js alternative, an HTML5 Video Player built with Javascript and CSS, offering a fallback to a Flash video player for browsers that don't support HTML5 video. It's Free and Open Source, available for Web and Self-Hosted platforms, and boasts features like CDN support, extensive Customization, Embeddable capabilities, a Lightweight footprint, and Skinnable themes.
Plyr
Plyr stands out as a lightweight, accessible, and customizable media player that supports modern browsers, making it a strong MediaElement.js alternative. It's Free, Open Source, and available for Web, Self-Hosted, and JavaScript environments, primarily focusing on Embeddable media playback.
JW Player
The JW Player is a widely recognized embeddable media player for web sites, supporting numerous commonly-used audio and video formats, including playback of any format the Adobe Flash supports. As a Commercial solution available for Windows and Web, it offers a robust alternative to MediaElement.js for professional use cases.
Accessible HTML5 Video Player
For those prioritizing accessibility, the Accessible HTML5 Video Player is a lightweight MediaElement.js alternative which includes support for captions and screen reader accessibility. It's Free, Open Source, and available for Web, Self-Hosted, and JavaScript platforms, focusing on Embeddable video solutions.
afterglow
afterglow is a super easy to integrate, fully responsive HTML5 video player with support for lightboxing and YouTube, presenting itself as a great MediaElement.js alternative. It's Free, Open Source, and available for Web, Self-Hosted, and JavaScript environments, offering Embeddable functionality.
FV Player
FV Player is WordPress's most reliable, easy to use and feature-rich video player. This Freemium solution, available on multiple platforms including Mac, Windows, Linux, Web, and Self-Hosted WordPress, offers responsive design, playlists, ads, stats, and integration with Vimeo, YouTube, S3, Cloudfront, and CDN. Its features like Sync with Amazon Drive, Automatic Looping, Lightweight design, Playlists management, Support for subtitles, Support for Amazon S3, and Transcript Search make it a comprehensive MediaElement.js alternative.
Videogular
Videogular is an HTML5 video player specifically designed for AngularJS, acting as a wrapper over the HTML5 video tag, offering immense flexibility. It's Free, Open Source, and available for Linux, Web, Self-Hosted, JavaScript, and AngularJS environments, providing Embeddable video capabilities as a powerful MediaElement.js alternative for Angular projects.
Kaltura Player
The Kaltura Player leads the industry in flexibility, ease of customization, plug-in offerings, and loading speed, with every feature supported for both HTML5 and older technologies. As a Freemium and Open Source option available for Web and Self-Hosted setups, it provides a comprehensive MediaElement.js alternative for large-scale video platforms.
Flowplayer
Flowplayer is an Open Source (GPL 3) video player for the web, designed for site owners, developers, and hobbyists to embed video streams into web pages. As a Commercial solution available for Web, and offering Embeddable features, it's a strong MediaElement.js alternative for those seeking a robust, open-source-backed commercial option.
Each of these MediaElement.js alternative options brings unique strengths to the table, from lightweight and accessible designs to robust commercial solutions with extensive feature sets. Evaluating your specific project requirements, budget, and desired level of customization will help you determine the best fit for your video playback needs.