Overall I like Nebula and I definitely like the idea of it. It offers some respite from advertising madness of YouTube. What i would like to see is the ability to create playlists and the ability to create a more personalized feed for myself.
this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2025
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Nebula isn't really an alternative to YT, but it is a complementary service.
I like it. I watch a ton of channels from YouTube on science or tech or media that are on nebula so it works well for me. It reduces my YouTube usage significantly which I’m happy about. Plus it’s ad free and channels usually cut out the sponsored segments which is huge. The service is not perfect but the apps have improved a lot over time. I’m glad it supports the creators I watch but even without that it’s been good. I just wish Chanel discovery was better but otherwise I’m a fan.
I've been using it for a year or two now, and here are my notes on it.
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There are a lot of pretty good creators on there (real engineering, hacksmith, berm peak, and real life lore, for example.) .
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Though Nebula has a lot of good creators, the vast majority of youtubers are not on it, so you will really only be switching for the ones that are.
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It has pretty much every feature (user-facing, anyway) that youtube does except for likes/dislikes, comments, and live streaming.
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It is paid with no free-with-ads option, but it is cheap (currently $36 a year) and provides a comparable experience.
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It handles podcasts well, but there aren't that many good ones (imo) and a lot of them seem discontinued.
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It has really good discoverability, but it does not match content to the user (i.e., no personalized home page).
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It's homepage is made up of various categories like a normal streaming service, including continue watching.
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It is not a pay-creator-directly kind of service. you pay nebula and they give 50% of the subscription fees to creators based on view count. It is more like a streaming service version of youtube, in a good way.
Overall, I really like it. It does a lot of stuff right and I feel that my money was well-spent. I would like for there to be more of the people I watch on it (Dankpods, for example). Nebula's pay scheme seems like a fair deal to me given the type of platform it is.
On the note of no personalized homepage - I would highlight that there's a section of the app called "My Library" which just has all of the video by creators you've followed in time ordered series.
I do think the discoverability of Nebula does suffer for infrequently creating folks. I normally watch LegalEagle after seeing a new video from him pop up on YouTube, as an example.
I don't know about an alternative per se, as youtube's whole thing is user generated content, which means alternative-wise PeerTube and it's ilk are more fitting, though far lacking in the depth, breadth, and wealth of content found on the former. Nebula is almost the opposite of that, being a more curated catalogue of content in exchange for being a paid service. Note, I myself don't have Nebula yet, but I do use something similar (Dropout.tv) Ultimately I think they're just fundamentally different use cases, and fit more like an alternative to streaming services than youtube including the faults that come with not having a massive multinational company backing them for years, as does PeerTube.
also streaming services tend not to have comments, which can halt discussion, though that can be remedied with forums, like how youtube creators used to post their stuff to subreddits
May not be the best or easiest way to find content but PeerTube maybe an alternative to YouTube.
As others have said… YouTube (like Discord, GitHub, etc.) has “the numbers”. Everything else is fighting an uphill battle… even if it’s a better alternative.
I have been using Nebula for years and it has replaced most of my use of YouTube. Whether it is worth it for you or not depends on what you watch. You can see what content is on Nebula without subscribing to get an idea of what is there.
The biggest problem I have with Nebula is that it is advertised as a “creator owned” company, but that is not actually the case. Here is a blogpost that goes into more detail about that. That being said, from what I am aware of, Nebula still pays creators more than YouTube per view. I just wish they were more transparent about their business.
That being said, from what I am aware of, Nebula still pays creators more than YouTube per view.
I think it's really important that we stop talking in terms of payment on a per-view basis - Nebula does not pay on a per-view basis. Nebula uses the same model as music streaming companies, i.e. a pro rata stream share model. This means that creators get paid based on how large of a percentage of the total streaming time was on their content. No additional money is generated for each view, it's conceptually still a fraction of what you pay monthly. The more content you view on the platform, the less each view conceptually pays.
This is exactly the information I was looking for.
It seemed like the key points from the medium post were:
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Nebula creators don't actually own any of the company, but are promised a portion if the company is ever sold.
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They are likely funded by venture capitalists, and are masquerading as a form of co-op
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The sales pitch to subscribers is disingenuous because content creators are claiming to have 50% ownership, when they actually have 0%
I think you summed it up well. According to that post, they are a better option than YouTube, are friendlier to content creators, but are in serious lack of transparency
Came to say the same. It’s probably a step in the right direction, but for me at the moment, as much as it might be a slap in the face to all the creators who’ve infested their time into it, I’m inclined to say “not good enough” and learn to organise better if you want proper independence.
AFAICT, just providing some actual share ownership and decision making mechanisms would have made the difference.
A lot of YouTubers actually upload their videos to Odyssey as well, which is free. Might be worth checking it out. Although I'm not a huge fan of the company cosplaying Odysee as a decentralized blockchain YouTube alternative when everything is clearly stored on their servers. Cannot really stor videos on a blockchain
Every time I read "block chain" in relation to anything on the Web, 99.9% of the time is complete garbage used to try and make as much money as possible. Your description of their "service" reinforces my opinion.
Almost everything on Odysee is pretty extreme right-wing content. I used to sync to there, but now I sync to makertube instead.
Content 10/10
App (android) 6/10 clunky and crashes sometimes
I've had a subscription with them for several years. I'm a big fan. There's nothing particularly sketchy I've seen. If anything, it's the opposite of the typical grifters. They sign on a lot of left voices and trans creators. You won't find conservative grifters on there. Creators have to be invited to join Nebula, and they don't let the trash past the door.
I tried it for a year but I don't watch very much of the type of content on there so I ended up canceling it. It's a decent app. Definitely missing a lot of the QOL of something as long in development as YouTube, but it wasn't bad.
I don't think their goal is to be a YouTube alternative for what its worth. They seem to cater it towards very specific types of videos (mostly educational and news content creators).
I try to throw Nebula a month of subscription every so often, since they do feel like a step in the right direction.
But the one that really replaced YouTube, for me, was DropOut.Tv.
And yeah, I guess that means silliness is more impottant than science videos, for me.
I'm still looking for a non-monopoly service for handyman stuff, if anyone has suggestions.
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That's not really what I'm looking for myself -- I'd like a no-log, no-profile YouTube, myself, and that's not their business model -- but that may not be the case for other people, depending upon what they'd want in a YouTube alternative.
It's not a total alternative but I have had nebula for years and it's a great platform.
Nebula is one I've been interested in too, I always see creators I like advertising that they're on there as well. If anyone knows how it compares to Curiosity Stream or other services I'd be interested to know (hope this isn't too off topic, OP).
isn't it always bundled with Curiosity Stream?
I actually got an email from Nebula about how that's been discontinued
Hello,
As of January 1, 2024, access to Nebula is no longer provided by Curiosity Stream. We will continue to provide complimentary Nebula access for the remainder of your current subscription period, but future renewals of your Curiosity Stream subscription will not include access to Nebula. We're sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.
If you would like to continue accessing Nebula and supporting your favorite creators, you can switch to a direct Nebula subscription here for a discounted rate of $30 per year.
And I believe before like, 2021 it wasn't available as a bundle but that could be incorrect
There used to be a bundle with both, but that ended over a year ago.
If it is that’s news to me, I thought they were two different services.
used to watch Issac Arthur religiously, guess the bundle has just been seared into my brain and they're not doing it any more.