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PeerTube
$18.00 / month
Free trial: 7 days
Sign-up fee: $1.00
Run your own YouTube — federated with the Fediverse, no algorithmic feed, no advertiser pressure, your videos on your subdomain.
A managed instance of PeerTube on ElfHosted — the federated video-hosting platform. Upload videos like you would to YouTube; viewers find them via your instance, the Fediverse (Mastodon, Pixelfed, other PeerTube instances follow your channel), or direct links. Built by Framasoft (a French non-profit), AGPL-3.0, no algorithmic feed, no recommendations engine optimised against you.
The video host that doesn’t want to maximise your watch time. Upload, share, federate, move on.
What is PeerTube?
PeerTube is a federated, decentralised, peer-to-peer video-hosting platform — the Fediverse’s answer to YouTube. Built by Framasoft, the French non-profit behind a long string of digital-rights tooling, it lets you run a video host that’s structurally not a surveillance platform.
Three things make PeerTube different from “YouTube but self-hosted”:
- Federation via ActivityPub. Your PeerTube channel is followable from Mastodon, Pixelfed, or any other ActivityPub-speaking instance. Subscribers get notifications in their existing Fediverse client; you don’t need YouTube’s network effect to be discoverable.
- P2P streaming via WebRTC. When multiple viewers watch the same video, PeerTube can have them swarm-share the stream — your server bandwidth load drops, viewer experience stays smooth. Falls back to direct HLS when P2P isn’t available.
- No algorithmic feed. The “recommended” sidebar is chronological-or-channel-based, not engagement-optimised. You won’t accidentally end up watching something the platform decided is “engaging” — you watch what you came for and leave.
Features
- 📺 Federation via ActivityPub — Mastodon / Pixelfed / Friendica / other PeerTube instances can follow your channels and get new-video notifications natively.
- 🔄 P2P streaming via WebRTC — concurrent viewers swarm-share the video, reducing your server’s egress.
- 🎬 Full transcoding pipeline — uploads transcoded to multiple resolutions (1080p / 720p / 480p / 360p / 240p) for adaptive playback.
- 🔍 Search across the federation — find videos on other PeerTube instances from your own; your instance can be search-indexed by the wider Fediverse.
- 📜 Captions & subtitles — multi-language caption support, auto-generated transcripts via Whisper integration.
- 👥 Multi-user & channel-based — host multiple creators on one instance, each with their own channels.
- 🚪 Account moderation — admin tools for instance-level moderation, federation controls (block specific instances), comment moderation.
- 📥 Video import — import from YouTube / Vimeo / direct URL — useful for channel migration.
- 🔓 FOSS & AGPL-3.0 — no premium tier, no advertiser-facing tooling.
PeerTube vs Other Video-Hosting Options
- vs. YouTube — different jobs, really. YouTube has the audience and the algorithmic discovery. PeerTube has zero algorithmic pressure, no demonetisation risk, no ContentID strikes. Most successful PeerTube creators cross-post to YouTube for reach and use PeerTube as the primary canonical home.
- vs. self-hosted Plex/Jellyfin video — those are private libraries (Plex/Jellyfin). PeerTube is public-by-default, federated, designed to be discovered. If your goal is “share videos publicly with subscribers”, PeerTube. If your goal is “watch my own DVD rips on the TV”, run Plex or Jellyfin.
- vs. Vimeo / Wistia — Vimeo is “YouTube but classier”; Wistia is “video for marketing”. Both are commercial services with pricing tiers. PeerTube has neither — but also doesn’t have their polish.
- vs. running your own MP4-on-S3 + index page — works for one creator, breaks at scale. PeerTube handles transcoding, multi-resolution delivery, P2P fanout, federation, comments, channels — all the YouTube-shape features without the YouTube-scale cost.
Why Run PeerTube on ElfHosted?
PeerTube is genuinely heavyweight to self-host — Postgres, Redis, FFmpeg transcoding workers, federation queue management. ElfHosted handles the hosting side:
- Pre-configured Postgres + Redis + transcoding pipeline — no Docker Compose, no FFmpeg version drama.
- HTTPS on your own ElfHosted subdomain — required for federation (other Fediverse instances won’t talk to HTTP).
- Updates handled across versions; PeerTube ships releases regularly.
- Single subscription: $18/month (heavier resource tier reflects transcoding + bandwidth).
Technical Specifications
- 🛠️ Software: PeerTube (FOSS, AGPL-3.0)
- 🌐 Federation: ActivityPub (Mastodon, Pixelfed, other PeerTube instances, any compatible Fediverse client)
- 🎥 Video formats in: MP4, WebM, MOV, AVI, MKV (almost anything FFmpeg accepts)
- 📺 Video formats out: HLS (adaptive), WebTorrent (P2P), MP4 download
- 📜 Captions: WebVTT upload, auto-transcription via Whisper integration
- 📥 Import: YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion, direct video URL
- 📱 Mobile: third-party apps (Tubelab, NewPipe via PeerTube extension, plus the responsive web UI)
- 🔑 Subscription: $18/month — PeerTube itself is fully free
- 🌐 Access: HTTPS on your own ElfHosted subdomain (required for federation)
- 🔄 Updates: handled by ElfHosted
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I run PeerTube without self-hosting it?
Add it to your ElfHosted subscription — this product is a managed PeerTube instance with HTTPS, Postgres, Redis, and FFmpeg transcoding.
Can I import my YouTube channel?
Yes — PeerTube has YouTube/Vimeo/direct-URL import. Bulk-imports of an entire channel work; it pulls each video, transcodes, and reuses the original metadata. Tool of choice for cross-posting or channel migration.
Does federation actually work?
Yes — your channel is followable from Mastodon, Pixelfed, Friendica, and other PeerTube instances. New uploads notify followers in their existing Fediverse client. The “build an audience without YouTube’s algorithm” path goes through Fediverse cross-posting.
How does P2P streaming work?
When multiple viewers watch the same video simultaneously, their browsers WebRTC-share the stream — your server bandwidth load drops, viewer experience stays smooth. Falls back to direct HLS for single viewers or unsupported clients. Transparent to viewers.
Can I do live streaming?
Not on ElfHosted. PeerTube supports RTMP live streaming, but your instance has no RTMP ingest port, so it’s for uploaded videos.
How is this different from running my own MP4-on-CDN setup?
PeerTube handles transcoding (multiple resolutions for adaptive playback), federation (Fediverse discoverability), comments and channels, and account management — all the YouTube-shape features. Building all that yourself is months of work. PeerTube is a single managed product.
Is PeerTube only for “alternative” content?
No. PeerTube is general-purpose video hosting — used by educators, conference organisers, researchers, podcast video tracks, indie creators, journalism outlets, and yes also “alternative” creators. The platform is structurally neutral; the federation network is the audience.
PeerTube is the federated, P2P, ActivityPub-native video host for creators who want a YouTube-shape platform without the YouTube-shape pressures. Transcoding, federation with Mastodon and the wider Fediverse, no algorithmic feed. Hosted on ElfHosted with HTTPS and transcoding for $18/month.
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Run your own YouTube — federated with the Fediverse, no algorithmic feed, no advertiser pressure, your videos on your subdomain.
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