After 15 years of using Vimeo Pro, I’ve decided it’s time to call it quits. It’s not an easy decision – Vimeo used to be the place for indie filmmakers, a community where you felt seen and supported.

Vimeo still has some advantages, but the negatives have grown so overwhelming that they now outweigh the positives. Add in a recent price increase from $288AUD to $360AUD – a whopping 25% jump – and it’s the final straw for me. So, here are all the reasons why I’m done with Vimeo …

Sometimes I wonder if indie filmmaking is worth the hassle. Every Monday I do accounting, updating spreadsheets, tracking the business expenses and sales. Almost every week there are columns marked in bold and red — money still owed. Sometimes these owed columns don’t change for months. Sometimes years.

As I write this, I have been emailing IndieFlix since October 2023, chasing payments owed since 2021. These payments are pennies, under $100, but since their policy is to payout every quarter if earnings are above a $1 threshold, I think it is fair to expect the license agreement we signed to be honoured.

IndieFlix is a funny one. We have two films with them, Friends, Foes & Fireworks and Daughter, going back to the start of 2019. In the beginning they reported and paid on time every quarter and our films would earn a small amount on their platform, barely over three figures. But then one year into the deal a funny pattern would begin to emerge: every quarter like clockwork they would still send the reports but always forget the follow-up part… actually paying the money owed.