Google's royalty-free web format vs the universal standard — which video format should you embed on your website?
WebM
Lossy (VP8, VP9, AV1)
MP4
Lossy (H.264, H.265)
WebM
Small to Medium
MP4
Small to Medium
WebM
Good to Excellent
MP4
Good to Excellent
WebM
Yes
MP4
Yes
WebM
Limited
MP4
Yes
BetterWebM
Royalty-free, open-source
BetterMP4
Patent licensing required
WebM
Open-source web projects
MP4
Universal web distribution
For maximum compatibility, MP4 is the clear winner — it works on iOS, Safari, Android, and all browsers. WebM's advantage is being royalty-free and open. The best practice is to provide both: serve WebM to modern non-Apple browsers and MP4 as the universal fallback using the HTML5 video element's source tags.
Common questions about WebM and MP4
WebM uses royalty-free codecs (VP8, VP9, AV1) which carry no patent licensing fees. For companies building large-scale video platforms, this reduces legal and financial complexity. WebM with AV1 also delivers excellent compression efficiency.
Safari on iOS still does not natively support WebM. While some iOS browsers with their own rendering engines may support it, you cannot rely on WebM for iOS users without an MP4 fallback.
VP9 and H.265 are comparable in efficiency and both significantly better than H.264. WebM with AV1 can outperform both. However, H.264 MP4 remains the most practical choice for universal delivery.
Use the HTML5 video element with multiple source tags. Browsers will pick the first format they support. List WebM first for modern browsers, MP4 as the fallback.
Yes. Our free online converter can convert MP4 to WebM in your browser. This is useful when you need a royalty-free WebM version of existing MP4 video content for web projects.
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