9 Best Interactive Video Platforms, Tools and Software

Interactive video has become a mainstream part of digital marketing.

It not only generates more traffic than traditional video, but it is also highly entertaining, giving you better ways to improve your conversions.

Tons of businesses are now pursuing interactive video formats, and with the right tool, you can also build an incredible video for your next marketing campaign.

If you’re exploring this option, check out the nine best interactive video platforms to create IV content.

But first, let’s talk about what exactly an interactive video is.

What is an Interactive Video?

Interactive video is a customer engagement technique that helps you improve the user experience. It allows you to add clickable CTAs to your video to catch your audience’s attention and reduce bounce rate.

Let me give you an example. 

Have you come across Nike Air Max Dia interactive video?

It’s an interactive video produced by HYPEBEA and Nike.

HYPEBEA teamed up with Nike and created it to introduce Nike’s new product line. In the video, they used a branching feature that allows viewers to control video narration—something you typically find in “choose your adventure” stories.          

IV offers plenty of similar interactive options to engage your audience. You can add hotspots, display a 360 view, and include forms or quizzes. 

Using such interactive features, you can turn a mediocre video into a highly engaging marketing campaign.

Methodology

Before curating my list, I looked at individual tools’ core capabilities, pricing, and user reviews. My main goal was to see what types of interactive features they offer, what integrations they provide, and whether they offer anything else that could improve the user experience.

Here are my criteria:

• Ease of Use: How easy is it to use the platform?
• Price: Who can afford it.
• Integration: Can it be embedded into other platforms?
• User Reviews: What people say about it.

Let’s explore the best interactive apps available on the market.

Key Takeaways

Interactive Video Platforms At A Glance

1. Mindstamp

Best For: Personalized corporate training and interactive lead generation videos.

MindStamp’s main appeal is its no-code layering. It lets you add as many interactive elements as you want to your existing video.

You can add buttons, hotspots, questions, tools, and tips, plus you can label items and tag product details. Not only that, but you can also attach short clips or draw anything over your video.

It also has a “Require Click to Continue” feature that pauses the video until the viewer clicks the buttons. This is an interesting feature to boost engagement.

What I found notable is its custom variables.

It automatically changes a specific word or sentence to targeted content to offer a personalized experience to your potential customers.

You can use this feature in tons of ways, like displaying actionable sales copy or asking questions to collect data.

Another interesting thing about MindStamp is its insights dashboard. It shows various key metrics to help you see how well your videos are performing and how many are converting.

Overall, MindStamp is super easy to use and can turn any basic shot into a professional interactive video.

You can integrate MindStamp with Zapier to access thousands of apps and build trigger-based workflows. 

MindStamp Key Features

• Hotspots, clickable images, and buttons.
• Drawing tools.
• Questionnaire.
• Branching and conditional logic.
• Lead capture forms.
• Video and voice clips.
• Analytics.
• Personalization.
• Third-party integrations.

Limitations

MindStamp’s major limitation is its pricing tier. The basic plan costs $99 per month and only allows 5 active videos with basic interactive features. Tools like conditional logic are only available on the Pro plan, which costs $499 per month.

It makes MindStamp suitable for enterprises that don’t want the hassle of coding.

Pricing

MindStamp offers five monthly plans starting from $99. You can take a free trial to learn more about it.

Choose If

If you want to create a tailored experience for viewers and have the budget for the advanced features.

Skip If

If you are an independent content creator or a small business owner.

2. Adobe Captivate

Best For: Training videos and educational content.

Adobe Captivate is a product of Adobe Creative Cloud. With this tool, you can add an interactive experience to your videos.

The app offers link embedding, overlays, and bookmarks to transform a linear YouTube video into an interactive one. You can build multiple slides, create a drag-and-drop action, add branching, and so much more.

Adobe Captivate also extends remediation actions that allow viewers to go back and change their original choices.

Adobe Captivate Key Features

• Interactive videos.
• Overlays.
• Knowledge checks, bookmarks.
• Branching.
• Widgets.
• Link embedding
• Drag-and-drop interface.
• LMS publishing.
• Responsive designs.
• Integrations.

Limitations

Adobe Captivate is built specifically for e-learning. You can create marketing videos with it, but most of its tools are geared towards creating learning content.

Pricing

Adobe Creative’s prices start at $39.99 a month. You can take a free trial.

Choose If

If you already have an Adobe subscription. You can easily import layers, artwork, and edited videos directly into your projects.

Skip If

If you are looking for a basic tool to get started.

3. Vimeo

Best For: Businesses that want video creation, editing, interactive tools, and publishing options in one platform.

Vimeo is a video hosting platform with built-in interactive video capabilities.

If you already make videos on Vimeo, it makes sense to use its own tools to create and publish interactive videos.

You can add static as well as movable shoppable hotspots so people can add items to the cart directly from the video. Plus, you can include a pause option to stop the video automatically when viewers click the hotspot.

Vimeo also provides media overlays, quizzes, and polls. You can create your own interactive video templates for reuse.

Vimeo Key Features

• Video hosting platform.
• Video editing and AI tools.
• Interactive elements, including a shopping cart button.
• Branching and video pause.
• Custom hotspots.
• Team collaboration.
• Admin control.
• Analytics.
• Integrations.

Limitations

Vimeo’s main focus is on video editing and hosting. While it does offer good interactive elements, most of them are available with the enterprise plan only.

Pricing

Vimeo prices start at $20 per month. The enterprise plan has custom prices.

Choose If

If you create a lot of videos.

Skip If

If you only need interactive tools and aren’t looking for a video hosting platform.

4. Cinema8

Best For: Interactive video creation and publishing.

Cinema8, like Vimeo, is also a video hosting platform with built-in interactive features. But what makes it different from Vimeo is its target audience.

While Vimeo’s interactive tools are tailored for enterprises, Cinema8 has added them as a core part of its video platform. 

Whether you buy its starter plan or business plan, you’ll get basic clickable buttons, forms, and hotspots regardless. The plus package simply provides more advanced interactive features.

For example, if you choose the business plan, you would be able to turn 360° clips into interactive videos. Or you can also add complex branching and gamification, like rewards and points.

Apart from interactive features, several AI tools are also built into the system to speed up video production. You can automatically generate topics, summaries, and tags to optimize your videos.

Overall, it’s a good platform to consider for both educational and marketing videos. You can embed Cinema8’s videos on your websites, send them via email, share links on social media, or publish them through Cinema8’s own cloud app.

Cinema8 Features

• Basic and advanced interactive features.
• Gamification.
• 360° interactive videos.
• 100+ widgets.
• AI tools.
• Various sharing options.
• Collaboration.
• Hosting platform.
• Analytics.

Limitations

Cinema8 has a learning curve. Adding basic interactive features like a CTA is easy enough because the interface itself isn’t that complicated, but building scenarios might be a bit challenging.

Pricing

Cinema8’s basic plan is free, and premium packages start at $15 per month. You can take a free trial too.

Choose If

If you need 360° interactive videos or gamification features.

Skip If

If you want a simple video editor with interactive features.

5. Kaltura Interactive Video Paths

Best For: Interactive training videos and educational content.

Kaltura’s biggest strength is its branching feature. 

You can connect video clips through hotspots, offering multiple choices to viewers.

It’s a helpful tool for scenario-based educational content, like customer service.

You can embed the Kultra player on different platforms and let people watch your interactive videos on both desktop and mobile phones. 

It can also integrate with your organization’s learning management platform, making it easier to add interactive videos to your existing training courses.

The interface is user-friendly, containing a drag-and-drop editor to pull multiple media from the template column and connect them together. You can preview changes before publishing and easily track your video performance.

Kaltura Key Features

• Embeddable interactive videos.
• Customizable hotspots.
• Drag-and-drop interface.
• Branching video paths.
• Preview.
• Analytical dashboard.
• Analytics.
• Integration.

Limitations

You’ll probably find the initial setup a bit complex, especially if you don’t have a technical background.

Pricing

Kaltura shares pricing on request. Contact them on their official site for details.

Choose If

If you want to create scenario-based training videos.

Skip If

If you want basic hotspots and clickable CTAs.

6. ThingLink

Best For: Creating virtual tours and 360° interactive guides.

ThingLink initially started out as an annotating tool. But since then, it has extended into an interactive video platform that can turn both videos and pictures into clickable content.

You can use ThingLink to create interactive lessons, product tours, and guides. The platform uses tags to add clickable links, text, images, and audio.

ThingLink also has a strong scenario builder for creating different paths. You can combine interactive videos, 360° images, and fun facts to build simulations.

ThingLink Key Features

• Interactive tags.
• Videos, 360° images, and 3D models.
• Scenario builder.
• Branching, questions, polls.
• LMS integration and link embedding.
• Analytics.

Limitations

The low-tier plans are extremely limited. Suppose you choose a creator plan. You can reach only 250 views, which is too low for independent creators. Customization is also limited.

ThingLink is only practical if you are willing to upgrade to higher-tier plans.

Pricing

ThingLink provides various packages for its target market. The starter plan costs $29 per month, and the business plan starts at $500 per month. A free trial is available.

Choose If

If you need a tool for VR videos.

Skip If

If you want a traditional branching feature.

7. H5P

Best For: embedding interactive videos into your website or LMS.

H5P is open-source software that allows you to create and share interactive videos on your site and embed them directly into your LMS.

The tool offers plenty of interactive templates and elements, including quizzes, links, labels, and a table of contents.

The only drawback is its interface. It might take some time to get familiar with it, but the dashboard itself is fairly simple.

Upload your selected content, tag the interactive action you want to display, and embed the content on your site.

You can install the H5P plugin on your site or use its hosted service. The plugin is free, but the hosting service is a paid option.

H5P Key Features

• Interactive labels and drop-down menu table.
• Clickable quizzes.
• Time triggers hotspots.
• Bookmarks.
• Embeddable video.
• LMS integration.
• Multiple authors.
• Mobile-friendly.

Limitations

H5P might be a bit tricky to set up. If you don’t have a tech background or tech support, you’ll probably struggle with it.

Pricing

H5P’s plugin is completely free. The premium subscription starts at $157 per month. It also has a community for tutorials.

Choose If

If you want an affordable option.

Skip If

If you want an intuitive tool.

8. VideoAsk

Best For: B2B lead generation videos.

VideoAsk takes a slightly different approach to customer engagement.

Instead of adding interactive elements to a traditional video, VideoAsk allows you to send recorded video messages and start conversations with prospective clients using clickable CTAs for responses.

You can also use it to build sales workflows. For example, you can add forms to your videos to collect contact information or create an after-sales video to receive recorded testimonials from clients. 

The best thing about VideoAsk is that you can integrate interactive elements in your entire customer journey, from answering questions and collecting contact information to scheduling appointments.

VideoAsk Key Features

• Easy video recording.
• Video, text, and audio CTA options.
• Interactive quizzes and surveys.
• Branching
• Video funnels.
• Email collection forms.
• Team management.
• Live calls.
• Appointment scheduling and payment collection.
• Integrations with third-party apps.

Limitations

VideoAsk is a niche tool. It’s more focused on sales funnels than marketing or general-purpose videos.

Pricing

VideoAsk’s basic plan is free, and premium packages start at $30 per month. 

Choose If

If you rely on direct communication to grow your business.

Skip If

If you want standard interactive elements.

9. Switcher Studio

Best For: Live product demos or paid online events.

Switcher Studio is a live-streaming platform. It gives you interactive monetization tools to sell products and collect donations.

The platform offers two ways you can add a payment option. You can either add a paywall to access video for payment or apply an interactive overlay so viewers can send payment while watching the video.

If you sell any service or work with brands, you can also attach product links and CTA slides to the screen.

Its video streaming options are also versatile. You can stream from your smartphone, connect over nine cameras to show a multiscreen view, and broadcast live to several channels. 

To improve visuals, you can add media content to your videos and fine-tune your display settings in real time to show the best angles.

You can play soundtracks or special effects in the background and turn on comments and polls to engage viewers. You can also embed the Switcher player on your website and upload your videos there. See our review of Switcher Studio. 

Switcher Studio Key Features

• Interactive monetization tools.
• Multistreaming and recording.
• Media library.
• Polls and comments.
• Clickable product slides.
• Embeddable player.
• Compatible with iOS.

Limitations

It’s not designed for pre-recorded videos. Most of its features are geared towards live streaming.

Pricing

Switcher Studio’s prices range between $45 and $79. You can take a free trial.

Choose If

If you sell products live or run webinars.

Skip If

If you want standard hotspot or branching features.

FAQ

• What Is An Interactive Video?

An interactive video lets you click buttons, take quizzes, fill out forms, and add products to the cart directly from the video.

• What Should I Look For In An Interactive Video Platform?

Its interactive features, for starters. What type of built-in elements it has and whether you can add them to your existing video. You should also check the limitations of each subscription plan.

• Can I Add An Interactive Video To My LMS?

Yes. Apart from Video Ask and Switcher Studio, all the listed tools provide LMS integrations. 

• How Much Does Interactive Video Software Cost?

Depends on the platform. Monthly subscriptions can range from $12 to $2500.

Conclusion

Video is one of the most effective ways to engage your audience. 

But interactive videos open up several possibilities that can be difficult to achieve with a linear video.

Explore the above tools, find out which interactive feature will work best for your project, and start running your first interactive video.