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Self-host YouTube (creator)
Video hosting + publishing ·
Category: video, audio & courses
YouTube is the dominant hosted video publishing platform — uploads, transcoding, recommendations, comments, monetization. The self-hostable replacements all let you publish videos under your own brand and infrastructure; what they don't replace is YouTube's discovery / recommendation reach. Use these to own your archive and your direct subscribers; treat YouTube itself as a distribution surface alongside.
YouTube (creator) pricing anchor: Free to publish; YouTube takes 45% of ad revenue and 30% of memberships.
- GitHub
- ★ 14.7k · last commit 3d ago · 661 open issues
- License
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AGPL-3.0 - Setup time
- 1h docker-compose (PeerTube + Postgres + Redis + transcoder)
- Monthly cost
- $15-50/mo depending on transcoding load; bandwidth is the real cost line and PeerTube uses WebTorrent peer-assist to cut it.
Migration sketch. Use the official PeerTube docker-compose from joinpeertube.org. After install, run the `peertube-import-videos` CLI: `node dist/server/tools/peertube-import-videos.js -u 'https://my.peertube' -U user -t 'https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC...'` — it pulls every public video on the channel via yt-dlp and re-uploads with metadata. PeerTube federates over ActivityPub, so other instances and Mastodon users can follow your channel directly.
Good fit forCreators with a video archive they want to own end-to-end and who value federation/Fediverse reach.
Weak atDiscovery — there's no global recommendation engine; growth comes from cross-posting and embedded players, not YouTube-style suggested videos.
- GitHub
- ★ 11.2k · last commit today · 188 open issues
- License
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MIT - Setup time
- 10min single-binary or docker run
- Monthly cost
- $10-20/mo VPS; bandwidth dominates if you stream regularly.
Migration sketch. Owncast is live-streaming-shaped, not VOD-shaped, but covers the 'go live + chat + my own brand' slice of YouTube Live. Run `docker run -p 8080:8080 -p 1935:1935 -v $HOME/owncast-data:/app/data owncast/owncast`. Point OBS at `rtmp://your-host:1935/live` with the stream key from the admin panel. Past streams archive automatically as VOD entries.
Good fit forLive streamers who want their own URL, no platform algorithm, and full chat/moderation control.
Weak atNot a VOD platform — for a back-catalogue archive, pair with PeerTube.
- GitHub
- ★ 4.90k · last commit 2d ago · 153 open issues
- License
-
AGPL-3.0 - Setup time
- 30min docker-compose (Django + Postgres + Redis + Celery)
- Monthly cost
- $15/mo VPS; storage and bandwidth scale with library.
Migration sketch. Deploy via the official compose at github.com/mediacms-io/mediacms. Bulk-import via the `manage.py import_videos` command after staging .mp4 files in the import folder. MediaCMS produces a YouTube-shaped UI (channel page, subscriptions, comments, playlists) without federation overhead — simpler than PeerTube if you don't care about ActivityPub.
Good fit forBrands and orgs that want a YouTube-shaped portal under their domain without the Fediverse moving parts.
Weak atSmaller community than PeerTube; transcoding pipeline needs careful storage planning.
In a terminal? npx os-alt youtube prints this table —
how the CLI works →