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.
So what is the difference between this and PeerTube?
Hey, thanks for the question. I want to build an experience much more similar to YouTube, with a more similar design and flow.
How is the design and flow of Peertube different from YT, can you give e few examples? For me they are super similar (there’s a video feed, I click on one, I get a page with videos that has comments and related videos).
Do you think you could work towards ActivityPub integration so it would be able to talk to PeerTube instances? IMO diversity is strength but cooperation is a factor in success. Hope this project goes well and is fun 😁
Sure, I’ll add that to the list. Thanks for the feedback :)
It would be a killer feature for us in the fedi. :)
Peertube is awesome, but more alternatives in the space would be welcome.
Thanks for the feedback :)