Open source · Self-hosted · No subscriptions

YOUR

OWN

PLATFORM VIDEO HUB COMMUNITY KINGDOM

A full-featured video platform you actually own. Videos, Shorts, GIFs, Images, Galleries — all running on your server, your way.

Deploy in minutes → See everything it does ↓
5 content types
HLS adaptive streaming
SQLite or MySQL
3 user roles
A/B thumbnail testing
🎬 VIDEOS✦ ⚡ SHORTS✦ 🎞 GIFS✦ 🖼 IMAGES✦ 🗂 GALLERIES✦ 🔒 SELF-HOSTED✦ ⚙️ HLS STREAMING✦ 🧑‍💻 OPEN SOURCE✦ 🎬 VIDEOS✦ ⚡ SHORTS✦ 🎞 GIFS✦ 🖼 IMAGES✦ 🗂 GALLERIES✦ 🔒 SELF-HOSTED✦ ⚙️ HLS STREAMING✦ 🧑‍💻 OPEN SOURCE✦
EVERYTHING
YOUTUBE
CAN DO.
ON YOUR
SERVER.

VideoDash is a batteries-included video platform that runs entirely on your own infrastructure. No third-party dependencies for hosting. No monthly fees. No algorithmic overlords.

Built on Node.js + Express 5, powered by ffmpeg for transcoding, and styled with Tailwind CSS. Runs on a Raspberry Pi or a beefy dedicated server — your call.

5
Content Types
∞
No Storage Limits
3
User Roles
2
Database Engines
FIVE WAYS TO SHARE

Every content format, natively supported

🎬

VIDEOS

The full YouTube experience

FLAGSHIP
🚀 Multi-bitrate HLS adaptive streaming
🖼 A/B thumbnail split testing
🎯 Timeline scrubber previews
⌨️ Keyboard shortcuts
📺 Picture-in-Picture support
📥 Optional download button
🔞 Age-restriction gates
🗓 Scheduled publishing
⚡

SHORTS

Vertical short-form content

📱 9:16 vertical player
⚙️ Same HLS pipeline as videos
🃏 Card style: tall, square, or portrait
🖼 Correct portrait thumbnails from ffmpeg
🎞

GIFS

Animated images, no player

🔁 Looping <img> display
🃏 Card style: square, portrait, or 16:9
🗂 Dedicated /gifs browse listing
🖼

IMAGES

Static photo posts

🔍 Lightbox zoom viewer
📥 Optional download
🗂 Dedicated /images browse listing
🗂

GALLERIES

Multi-image collections

📸 Up to 40 images per gallery
⌨️ Keyboard-navigable lightbox
🖼 Cover thumbnail with counter
THE GOOD STUFF

Everything you'd expect from a proper platform, none of the proprietary lock-in.

🏠

DISCOVERY

How people find your content

🔀 Home rows per content type with "See all" links
✋ Drag-and-drop home section ordering in admin
🔍 Full-text search across all content types
🏷️ Category and tag browsing
📊 Sort by Hot, New, Views, Rating, Length
🔗 Canonical URLs — no duplicate content
💬

ENGAGEMENT

Keep your community alive

🧵 Threaded comments with nested replies
👍 Thumbs up / thumbs down reactions
⚡ Real-time AJAX comment posting
🤖 Spam detection on comments
📄 Load-more pagination
📢

MONETISE

Your platform, your revenue

🖼 Banner ads with CTA button
▶️ VAST pre-roll video ads
🎯 Per-video ad assignment
📈 Ad impression tracking
👤

USER ACCOUNTS

Full membership system

🔐 JWT auth via HTTP-only cookies
📧 Login with email or username
🚦 Rate limiting on auth endpoints
🖼 Avatar upload
📋 User profile pages with history
🛡

MODERATION

Keep things clean

🚩 Report modal on all content types
⚖️ DMCA takedown request system
📋 Admin report queue with status tracking
🔧 ADMIN PANEL
TOTAL
CONTROL

A full-powered admin dashboard — no third-party CMS needed

📊
Dashboard

Stats, charts, recent activity

🎬
Post Management

Publish, unpublish, feature, delete

✏️
Full Post Edit

Title, description, tags, thumbnails, type

🔄
Replace Content

Swap video/image files — old files auto-deleted

📤
Universal Upload

All 5 content types from one form

👥
User Management

3 roles: user, editor, admin

🏷️
Categories & Tags

Full category management with icons

📢
Ad Management

Create, edit, toggle, delete ads

✋
Section Ordering

Drag-and-drop home page layout

⚙️
Site Settings

Name, tagline, card styles, pagination

📋
Audit Log

Full history of admin actions

📈
Analytics

Views, impressions, performance

🔒

SECURITY

Built to be production-safe

✓ CSRF protection on all forms (csrf-csrf)
✓ Helmet CSP security headers
✓ bcrypt password hashing (12 rounds)
✓ Role-based access control middleware
✓ Rate limiting on auth endpoints
✓ Service worker caches GET requests only
⚙️

INFRASTRUCTURE

Zero-friction operations

⚡ Background HLS transcode worker with job queue
🗓 Scheduled video publishing cron
🏆 A/B thumbnail winner selection cron
🗄️ SQLite or MySQL — swap via DB_CLIENT env var
📁 Smart upload path resolution for all file types
🚀 Migrations, dirs & default admin on first npm start
THE STACK

Boring in the best way. Proven tech, no drama.

🟢
Node.js
Runtime
🚂
Express 5
Web framework
🗄️
SQLite / MySQL
via Knex.js
🎞
ffmpeg
Transcoding
📄
EJS
Templating
🎨
Tailwind CSS
Styling
📡
HLS.js
Adaptive streaming
🔑
JWT
Authentication
DEPLOY
IN MINUTES

Three commands and you're live. No cloud accounts, no monthly fees, no data leaving your server.

bash 
# Install deps
npm install

# Configure your environment
cp .env.example .env

# Build CSS & start — everything else is automatic
npm run build:css && npm start
🤖 Default admin: admin / admin · 🌐 Runs on localhost:3000 · 🗄️ SQLite by default
Change default credentials immediately after first login ⚠️
CSRF PROTECTION· SCHEDULED PUBLISHING· A/B THUMBNAIL TESTING· HLS ADAPTIVE STREAMING· THREADED COMMENTS· VAST PRE-ROLL ADS· PICTURE IN PICTURE· BCRYPT PASSWORDS· CSRF PROTECTION· SCHEDULED PUBLISHING· A/B THUMBNAIL TESTING· HLS ADAPTIVE STREAMING· THREADED COMMENTS· VAST PRE-ROLL ADS· PICTURE IN PICTURE· BCRYPT PASSWORDS·