I've been learning web development for about 4-5 months now and feel pretty comfortable with the usual tools. Now, I want to expand my portfolio by creating a streaming website similar to those like YouTube or Netflix. I don't aim to compete with them, but I'm excited about the learning opportunities it presents. My main questions are: How should I start? What basic tools and knowledge do I need for a functional streaming site? Also, how much will it cost if I initially expect around 1000 users?
5 Answers
Check out Cloudflare Stream; their pricing is quite reasonable for what you get. It could be a good starting point to manage your streaming without all the backend hassle.
Just a heads up: streaming sites have unique challenges. Even with a small number of users, you'll face high costs related to storage and network bandwidth. I have around 1000 users and it runs me about €25k in storage and delivery fees annually. Prepare for some financial risks!
Explore platforms like Mux or Wistia to ease your integration process. Mux even has a free tier for up to 10 videos, which is great for testing out your site before scaling.
Streaming is definitely one of the tougher challenges in software engineering. You're dealing with big files and lots of resources just to keep things running smoothly. It's not just about the site, but managing video storage, transcoding, and delivering that content efficiently to users.
It's really manageable if you use the right tools! You might want to look at this [repository](https://github.com/digreatbrian/duck) that offers a framework for streaming. It's pretty user-friendly and helps simplify a lot of the complex parts.
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