A Frame.io alternative for final delivery

Review vs. delivery

Why you need a Frame.io alternative at delivery, not at review

Marco and Leah started out together in Kansas City: he shoots, she edits. Their main client is an advertising agency, and the agency’s end client is a chain of barbecue restaurants in Missouri and Kansas. Review happened in Frame.io, and it went well: the agency’s art director paused on a frame, wrote “logo half a second later,” Leah uploaded version seven, and the comment was resolved.

The problems started after the word “approved.” The finals—a 30-second spot, a 15-second cutdown, vertical versions, and a loop for the dining-room screens—had to go to the chain’s marketing director, who forwarded the link to the restaurant managers. The managers landed in a workspace built for editors: a comment panel, a list of versions, a Download button with a choice between the original and a proxy. One picked the proxy, and a blurry picture went up on the dining-room screens. The email with the link, as Frame.io’s help page honestly states, “will be sent by Frame.io directly”—meaning from the service, not from the studio that spent six months on the campaign.

This isn’t a flaw in Frame.io. It’s a tool for people who edit. The end client needs a different page, and a Frame.io alternative covers that last step.

There’s a second reason to keep review and delivery apart. In 2005, psychologist Gloria Mark and her colleagues at the University of California, Irvine, shadowed 24 employees—managers, analysts, and developers—and recorded how they switched between tasks. More than half of their working spheres (57%) were interrupted, and people stayed in one sphere for about 11 minutes on average before switching. In 2008, Mark and her colleagues tested the cost: in an experiment with 48 participants, people who were interrupted worked faster with no loss of quality, but they paid for it with more stress, frustration, and time pressure. Every email that asks “Where’s the final?” or “Why won’t it download?” is one more interruption for Leah.

With a Frame.io alternative like VodSpot, the final goes out once. Approved videos go to the delivery page: a cover, a message to the client, all versions in order, and the exact originals with their original file names. There’s no proxy—the Download button delivers the exact file you exported. The restaurant manager clicks Play in 4K or downloads the master, and there’s nothing else to choose. We walk through the whole process, from export to handoff, in our guide to the video delivery workflow for freelancers.

Review is a conversation. Delivery is a premiere.

Your name on the final

A final delivery that looks like part of your service

Frame.io lets you brand your shares: icon, header image, description, colors. That works well for review. But the page is still a Frame.io page, the invitation comes from Frame.io, and the pricing page doesn’t mention a custom domain at all.

A Frame.io alternative does the opposite at the delivery stage: only the studio is visible. In VodSpot, the delivery page carries your logo, colors, and font, one of five layouts—from a simple list to a full-screen “premiere”—and a cover built from your best shot. On Pro and Studio, the page opens on your own domain, for example films.yourstudio.com, and the “Powered by VodSpot” line can come off. You send the link yourself, from your own email: VodSpot drafts the message with notes on the password and expiry date. If viewer email sign-in is on, the access code reaches the client under the sender name from your branding.

For the restaurant chain, Marco and Leah built a single page for the whole campaign: videos in order, an expiry date at the end of the season, and downloads of the originals turned on. The marketing director forwarded the link to the managers, and Leah got an email when the page was first opened and another for every download. She no longer has to guess whether the finals got through. We ran the numbers in our article on the ROI of branded delivery.

Large originals aren’t a problem either: Studio takes files up to 100 GB, uploads them in parts, and picks up automatically after a dropped connection. For other ways to move a big master, see our guide on how to send large video files.

Clients don’t remember your edit timeline. They remember opening the finale.

How to switch from Frame.io

To switch to a Frame.io alternative, you only need to move your finals. Review can stay where it is.

1. Leave active reviews in Frame.io. Projects the agency is still commenting on don’t need to move.
2. Download your finals. In Frame.io, open the “⋯” menu next to a video → Download → choose the original, not the proxy. To grab a whole folder, choose Download in the folder’s menu; the “Download All Assets” button at the top of the project page downloads the files in the folder you’re in.
3. Start your VodSpot trial. 7 days, 5 GB, no card required—enough to build one page and show it to the team. To move the archive, pick Studio with its 10 seats.
4. Set up your brand once. Logo, colors, font, and email sender name; on Pro and Studio, your own domain.
5. Create a project for the client and upload the originals. VodSpot stores the exact file and streams it in up to 4K.
6. Create a delivery page. Cover, message, layout, password or viewer email sign-in, expiry date, and downloads for each video. Publish and send the link from your own email.
7. Invite the team and recount your Frame.io seats. In VodSpot, everyone gets a role. In Frame.io, keep only the people who actually review.