The Pros of Cons of Distributing Indie Films Through Filmhub in 2025

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Back in May 2023 we published an article on Why We Use Filmhub which has proven to be one of our most popular pieces. However, over two years later, things have changed. Filmhub has overhauled their website and analytics, they have introduced subscription tiers, and many of the advantages we mentioned in 2023 are no longer accurate in 2025 on the free plan, which is what we still use.

Don’t get us wrong, overall, Filmhub is still a viable distribution option. We have 12 films with them and have been adding titles since 2020. We get payouts every single month, and they still make up a big chunk of our filmmaking income. But this article takes a fresh look at the Pros and Cons of Filmhub in 2025, to help you decide if it’s the right platform for you and your film.

As noted, we don’t pay for the Plus or Pro plan, so this is written from the perspective of the free tier. And while that locks us out of some features Filmhub used to include, I suspect most filmmakers either using Filmhub or considering it are mainly looking at the free plan anyway. So let’s begin.

What is Filmhub?

Filmhub is a tech-driven hybrid distributor, aggregator, and licensing marketplace that connects independent filmmakers with streaming platforms. Filmmakers upload their finished films to the platform, and streaming channels (such as Amazon Prime Video and Tubi, etc.) select the titles they want to license. Filmhub then handles the delivery, licensing agreements, and payment processing on behalf of the filmmaker. Filmhub has become one of the more popular self-distribution platforms for indie filmmakers looking to reach AVOD and niche streaming channels.

Pros

Instant Payments

One of the biggest perks of using Filmhub is how quickly you get paid. As soon as a streaming platform sends revenue to Filmhub, it shows up in your account. There are no delays on Filmhub’s end, and no chasing a dishonest platform or distributor down for money, which is something every indie filmmaker has experienced if they have been doing this for as long as we have.

Once I initiate a withdrawal from Filmhub, the money is usually in my account the next day. No waiting for quarterly reports or long payout cycles.

To be fair, there are trustworthy distributors out there. But even the honest ones tend to operate on a quarterly schedule, which isn’t ideal if you're trying to run a filmmaking business. It’s hard to manage cash flow when income only trickles in four times a year. Filmhub’s automated system makes budgeting a lot more manageable. Just this month alone, we’ve been paid three times.

Transparency and Analytics

Filmhub is refreshingly open and trackable. You upload your film and assets, it goes through quality control, and if approved, Filmhub pitches it to streaming platforms. If a platform licenses it (there are no guarantees), you earn 80% of the revenue – or 82.5% for the first 18 months if you use our referral link.

There are no upfront fees on the free plan, no hidden charges, and no recoupables if you get your deliverables right within three QC attempts. You handle the assets and marketing, and Filmhub takes care of the rest.

Inside the dashboard, you can see when your film passes QC, when it gets licensed, and track revenue in real time. The system is clean and efficient.

There’s also a Performance Insights tab. On the free plan, this is limited to Amazon, but paid plans unlock analytics for platforms like Tubi, Future Today, and YouTube. Still, Amazon is one of our best-performing platforms, so having access to that raw revenue data is invaluable.

Machination saw a spike in earnings

For example, we recently saw a big spike in views for Machination on Amazon in May. We don’t know what triggered it – maybe the algorithm finally caught the film – but because we had that data immediately, we were able to run targeted ads to keep the momentum going.

If we’d gone through a traditional distributor, we wouldn’t have seen that spike until the Q2 report arrived in August or September. We would have said, “Look at that nice revenue spike in May. Too bad it died down again in June.” It would have been too late to capture that momentum. But Filmhub’s instant analytics allow us to monitor, act fast, and adjust our ads accordingly.   

There is Always a New Platform

Filmhub is proactive in adding new channels. They already work with over 100, and that number keeps growing. Sure, many of these channels are niche or small and unlikely to make you much money, but you never know which channel will emerge to be a big player in the indie AVOD space.

Amazon used to be king. These days, Tubi is the indie darling, and many filmmakers earn most of their income there. That’s never been the case for us. We have still seen the most revenue from Amazon. Hoopla also performs well for us. And recently, our titles have gained traction on platforms like Future Today and IndiePix Unlimited, which, over the past couple of months, has been our top earner.

Without Filmhub, I never would have even heard of IndiePix Unlimited, or Future Today, let alone have films on these platforms. That’s an advantage of Filmhub over the traditional distributors we also work with. Filmhub just seems to get access to more platforms and gives your film more opportunities to earn.

It also extends the shelf life of your older work. Just last month, our 2016 short Daughter was licensed to Apple TV – four years after we uploaded it to Filmhub. How many distributors do you know that will pitch a nearly decade-old indie short to Apple TV?

Similarly, last year Filmhub approached us to license our 2018 feature Friends, Foes & Fireworks to ReelShort, a fast-growing mobile app that specializes in ultra-short, vertical drama series. They wanted to take the film and convert it into a series of vertical episodes. We were happy for them to do so. Friends, Foes & Fireworks has always struggled financially for us, but the deal with ReelShort included an upfront payment that matched the total the film had earned across all platforms in the five years since its release.

The new Filmhub dashboard

Ease of Use

Once you get familiar with the layout, Filmhub is easy to use. After that first successful delivery, the process becomes second nature. Uploading new titles is fast, clean, and efficient.

The Dashboard got a full revamp in 2024, and it’s now genuinely intuitive. You can check licensing, performance, and earnings with a single click. For experienced users, it’s a frictionless system that feels less like admin work and more like managing a streamlined storefront.

Filmhub leans heavily on automation, and while that can be frustrating when you’re new and still figuring things out, it becomes a major strength once you’re comfortable with the workflow. You just log in and all the information you need on how your films are performing is at your fingertips.

Cons

You Can’t Control the Release Date

If you’re on the free plan, you can’t schedule a release date. That feature is locked behind the paid tiers or as an expensive ($1999USD) professional service. Once a platform licenses your film, you just have to keep checking that platform to see if it has gone live.

It is a very unpredictable way to release films.

And for me personally, this limitation is the biggest reason why I think twice about uploading brand new films to Filmhub.

Coordinating a marketing push becomes tricky when there’s no clear release timeline. I like to plan a strategic rollout, sometimes working with PR agencies to time interviews, trailer drops, press coverage, and reviews. Without that fixed date to build around, it’s almost impossible to build a campaign that peaks at launch and then keeps the momentum going in those critical first weeks when your film needs the most attention. 

In fact, this is exactly how the best PR agencies we’ve worked with operate. Without a confirmed release date, they won’t take on your film, and many of the reviewers and critics that matter won’t cover it either. By foregoing that for a random Filmhub release, you’re effectively shutting yourself off from those potential marketing perks.

Now some filmmakers will argue it doesn’t matter – just launch your marketing when the film is live and push people to the watch link. If someone sees your trailer or marketing and the film isn’t available to watch immediately, it’s wasted effort. We’re so small compared to the Hollywood machine that by the time your film does go live, most people will have forgotten it even existed.

That approach may work for some. But in my experience, the films we’ve released with a coordinated marketing plan have always had stronger initial results than those where we just dropped the link, ran some “Watch Now” ads and hoped for the best.

No Hand Holding

This is the flip side of "Ease of Use" and it depends on how technically minded you are.

If you're a first-time filmmaker, getting through Filmhub's QC process can be challenging. You need to follow delivery specs closely. The video, artwork, captions (a common failure point), and metadata all have to be correct. You get three attempts. Fail all three, and you’ll need to pay Filmhub to fix it.

There are Help articles,  but they might not be enough guidance for some. And on the free plan, support responses can be slow, which only adds to the frustration when you're trying to get everything right. Filmhub is built for self-starters but that also means you're mostly on your own.

Still Uses Paypal

This one bugs me. As a non-US filmmaker, my only option for withdrawals with Filmhub is PayPal. This, despite the fact that I do have a US bank account through Wise, and several other American distributors we work with have no problem paying us via direct deposit.

The issue with PayPal is that they double dip on fees. First, there’s the standard PayPal fee when Filmhub sends the money to your PayPal account. Then, because I’m based in Europe, I need to convert the USD to euros to transfer the money out, since PayPal won’t let me connect my US bank account. That’s where the second fee hits. PayPal gives you a conversion rate that’s always worse than the actual exchange rate, and they pocket the difference. It’s a hidden fee that chips away at your earnings.

Over time, especially if you're doing multiple transfers a month like we are, this adds up to hundreds if not thousands of dollars in lost revenue. It’s incredibly frustrating.

And it’s hard to understand why, in 2025, Filmhub – a company positioning itself as a forward-thinking, tech-driven solution for filmmakers – still relies on an outdated and opaque platform like PayPal to handle payouts.

Filmhub subscription tiers

Subscriptions

I hate subscriptions. I have too many of them and I don’t need or want yet another one. 

Unfortunately Filmhub introduced subscription plans, Plus and Pro, in 2023. Now, from a business standpoint, I get why they do it. Having predictable, fixed subscription revenue coming in each quarter makes it easier for Filmhub to manage their own operating costs. It gives them more financial stability. 

But it also means we, as filmmakers, are now a customer rather than a partner. Instead of Filmhub being fully motivated to get our films placed and earning to receive their 20% revenue share, the focus seems to have shifted to upselling filmmakers into paid plans. Whether that’s true or not, the messaging is clear: every time I log into Filmhub I’m nudged to upgrade.

And for most filmmakers, the cost simply can’t be justified. Plus is $299 per quarter. Pro is $599. Most films won’t make that kind of money on AVOD, especially with revenue from platforms at all time lows and oversaturation of content at all times highs. 

This means many of the best features of Filmhub like release date control, the ability to block channels and territories, and real-time insights for channels like Apple TV, Future Today, Youtube Movies & TV, etc. are inaccessible to the majority of filmmakers.

And even if you have the money, there are multiple reports on forums that users report no noticeable improvement after upgrading. Keep in mind, the people who had a poor experience are usually the loudest on forums, especially compared to those that had a good experience. But there is one very concerning post from a filmmaker on the Pro Plan who reported spending over $30,000 on marketing and scheduling their release 75 days in advance, only to have their film miss its intended launch date on key platforms like Amazon and Tubi. While Filmhub refunded their fees and offered free months, the filmmaker described the release control feature as unreliable and expressed serious doubts about Filmhub’s claimed relationships with major streamers.

And I have to ask myself: why would I pay Filmhub just to release a film on a specific date, when I could go through a trusted distributor and not pay anything upfront? A good distributor will often assist with marketing too, whereas with Filmhub, you're completely on your own. That said, distributors will take back their marketing costs from your sales, while Filmhub won’t. So you have to decide what matters more – getting help with the release or keeping more of the money.

Conclusion

So, weighing up the pros and cons, does all this make Filmhub more suitable for older and catalogue films, rather than new titles you want to support with a coordinated marketing campaign?

Honestly, it depends.

These days, I make that decision on a case-by-case basis. I no longer automatically send new titles to Filmhub the moment they’re done. I take a step back and ask: What does this film need? What’s the best path for its release?

If I want PR, platform coordination, and a proper launch strategy, I’ll likely go with a distributor, even if that means giving up a slice of the earnings.

But if I’m okay with self-distributing, and I want the film to have a long life online, with the chance to appear on dozens of platforms over time, Filmhub is still a solid option. It’s flexible, low-risk, and often surprisingly effective.

You’ll have to decide what’s right for you. Every film is different, and so is every filmmaker. But if you do choose Filmhub, feel free to use our referral link to earn 82.5% for the first 18 months instead of the standard 80%.

Written by Ivan Malekin