I’m building OpenWatch, an open-source self-hosted video platform as an alternative to YouTube. It’s designed for content creators who want to back up their content on their own infrastructure (in case of strikes) or for anyone who wants a personal video hosting solution.
The project is in early stages, but I’ve built out some core features:
- Home feed
- Video player with adaptive streaming
- Playlists
- Interactions (likes, comments, subscriptions)
- Creator Studio (dashboard, content management, channel customization)
Tech stack:
- Next.js 16
- Tailwind CSS v4
- Drizzle ORM (PostgreSQL)
- FFmpeg
- HLS.js
- Zustand
- Docker
GitHub: https://github.com/openwatch-app/openwatch
Feedback would be helpful, especially around self-hosting considerations and features you’d find useful.
put ActivityPub in it :)
But seriously, a PeerTube compatible software with a different approach than PeerTube could be good for the federated video ecosystem.
Thanks for the feedback :)
While many in fedi will say the above, a simple federated search model could increase adoption. I.E. don’t bother going crazy with it, just add a discovery platform where you can search “your own” or “the network”.
I’m already working on this, thank you very much for the feedback
For sure, an ActivityPub video platform that is not TikTok like (i.e Loops) would be amazing.