BunnyStream Review: Affordable Video Hosting with DRM

What Is BunnyStream and Why Does It Matter?

BunnyStream is a video hosting and streaming product from Bunny CDN, the company already well known for its affordable content delivery network. What makes BunnyStream immediately interesting is the pricing model — there's no separate monthly fee for the streaming service itself. It's bundled into your existing Bunny CDN bandwidth costs, which start as low as $10 per year.

For anyone who's been paying $20+ per month for video hosting through platforms like Vimeo or Wistia, that's a dramatic difference. BunnyStream also ships with DRM protection (called Media Cage), watermarking, and global CDN distribution out of the box. If you're an online course creator looking for a way to securely host and deliver video content without blowing your budget, this is worth a serious look.

Creating a Video Library

Getting started with BunnyStream begins with creating a video library, which functions like a channel or project container. You give it a name and then choose the geographic locations where you want your videos served from. The idea is straightforward — Bunny matches viewers to the nearest server location for the fastest possible playback.

By default, three locations are enabled: two in the US and one in Asia (Singapore), plus a primary storage location in Falkenstein, Germany, which can't be turned off. You can add additional regions like Oceania (covering Australia and surrounding areas) for roughly three cents per gigabyte of storage. So if you upload a one-gigabyte video, you're looking at about 11 cents per month in storage across all locations. The key takeaway: keep your videos optimized before uploading and your storage costs stay remarkably low.

Managing Videos and Collections

Inside your video library, BunnyStream offers a collections feature that works like playlists. If you're running an online course with multiple modules, you can organize videos into collections by topic or course section — a small but practical organizational feature that keeps things tidy as your library grows.

Uploading is simple drag-and-drop. Small files upload almost instantly, and the platform begins encoding right away. You'll see a processing status while Bunny converts your video into the various resolution formats you've configured. The interface is clean and functional, though there can be occasional loading delays when first opening a library.

Encoding Options and Resolution Settings

The encoding settings in BunnyStream give you solid control over how your videos are processed and stored. One standout feature: Bunny keeps your original uploaded files by default. Some competing platforms discard the originals after encoding, which means you'd need to maintain local backups if you ever want to migrate. That's not a problem here.

You can enable or disable specific output resolutions ranging from very low quality all the way up to high-resolution formats. For screen recording content or tutorials where viewers need to see interface details clearly, you'll want to keep the higher resolutions enabled. There's also an MP4 fallback option for devices that don't support HLS streaming, though enabling it does increase encoding time and storage slightly.

The watermark feature deserves a special mention. You upload your logo and then position it on a visual preview using a draggable circle. You can resize it and place it exactly where you want — a level of control that many competing platforms don't offer. Most just give you a corner selection and call it done.

Player Styling and Customization

BunnyStream's embedded player is clean and customizable. You can change the accent color to match your brand using a hex code, which updates the progress bar and control highlights. There's also the option to inject custom CSS if you need more granular styling control.

The player controls themselves are configurable — you can toggle play/pause buttons, skip forward/backward buttons (10-second increments), duration display, fullscreen capability, and the progress bar. The player is responsive by default and includes quality selection so viewers can manually switch between the resolution options you've enabled. Embedding on a website is as simple as copying an iframe code and pasting it into an HTML block.

Video Playback in the Real World

Testing the embedded player on a WordPress site shows solid results. The video loads quickly, the watermark appears as configured, and the quality selector lets viewers choose their preferred resolution. Right-clicking the video doesn't expose a download option, which is a good baseline level of protection.

On mobile, the player works well on both desktop browsers and iOS Safari. Playback is smooth, fullscreen works without issues, and the resolution stays high as expected. The responsive design adapts cleanly to different screen sizes without any extra configuration needed.

DRM Security and Content Protection

Security is where things get nuanced. BunnyStream offers a basic DRM option called Media Cage, which encrypts your video content. However, enabling it disables both the MP4 fallback and early play features. More importantly, the encrypted streams don't play on iOS — which is a significant limitation given how many online course buyers use iPhones and iPads.

The workaround is to enable DRM alongside the MP4 fallback option in the encoding settings. This way, iOS devices fall back to the MP4 version (typically at a lower resolution like 720p) while desktop browsers get the fully encrypted stream. It's not a perfect solution, but it balances security with device compatibility.

Even without DRM enabled, BunnyStream blocks direct URL access to video files. Testing with Chrome's developer tools and a dedicated video downloader (PullTube) confirmed that the files can't be downloaded through normal means. The "block direct URL file access" setting in the security panel is enough to prevent casual downloading, which is sufficient protection for most use cases.

Pricing, Storage, and Bandwidth

BunnyStream's pricing is its biggest differentiator. There's no monthly subscription — you pay for bandwidth as you use it, and it carries over for up to a year. The minimum buy-in is just $10, which can last a surprisingly long time for smaller sites. By default, video delivery uses the high-volume tier, which is purpose-built for large media files and costs half as much as the standard CDN tier.

Storage costs depend on how many geo-replication zones you've enabled. One important caveat: once you turn on a replication zone, you can't remove it. If you decide later that you don't want to pay for Oceania distribution, you'd need to create an entirely new library, re-upload everything, and update all your embed links. So get your zone selections right from the start — you can always add more later, but you can't take them away.

Pre-Roll Ads with VAST Integration

BunnyStream includes support for VAST ad networks, allowing you to embed pre-roll advertisements directly into your video player. This is primarily useful if you're running a media site with significant traffic — most VAST networks require hundreds of thousands of monthly views to be worth setting up.

For the majority of course creators and small publishers, this feature won't be relevant. But it's a nice option to have available if your video content eventually scales to the point where ad monetization makes sense.

Final Verdict: Is BunnyStream Worth It?

BunnyStream is an impressive addition to Bunny CDN's product lineup. The combination of global CDN delivery, customizable player, watermarking, and basic DRM protection — all without a separate monthly fee — makes it one of the most affordable video hosting options available. For online course creators and content publishers who don't need enterprise-grade DRM, it hits a sweet spot between cost and capability.

The iOS limitation with full DRM is worth noting, but the MP4 fallback workaround keeps things functional. And the fact that direct URL downloading is blocked even without DRM enabled means your content has a reasonable level of protection out of the box. If you're currently paying a premium for video hosting and don't need advanced analytics or marketing integrations, BunnyStream is well worth testing out.

Watch the Full Video

Prefer watching to reading? Check out the full video on YouTube for a complete walkthrough with live demos and commentary.