PeerTube

Decentralized Application

Federated, decentralized video hosting platform. Each PeerTube instance hosts videos and federates with other instances via ActivityPub, allowing viewers and creators to follow channels and interact across instance boundaries. Distinctively, PeerTube uses HLS over WebRTC peer-to-peer streaming (formerly WebTorrent) to share viewer bandwidth load — popular videos are seeded by viewers themselves, dramatically reducing infrastructure costs for instance operators. Includes live streaming, video chapters, password-protected videos, and inter-instance video caching

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Details

License AGPL-3.0 (github.com/Chocobozzz/PeerTube)
Dev Status 🟢 Active
Dev Status Detail Released — production; 1,906 active instances and 815,032 registered users hosting 1,563,274 videos as of Oct 2025
Owner Framasoft (sponsoring non-profit); originally created by Chocobozzz (developer hired by Framasoft in 2017)
Country France
Start Year 2017
Stack TypeScript / Node.js (backend); Angular (frontend); HLS.js + WebRTC (peer-to-peer streaming); PostgreSQL
Funding Framasoft donations; initial development funded by 2018 crowdfunding; v3.0 (live streaming) funded by Jan 2021 fundraising; pilot deployment by EU Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) 2022-2024
Last Investigated Jul 1, 2026

Use Case Domains

Co-Creation & Knowledge

Decentralized Application Attributes

Origins Chocobozzz (independent developer); Framasoft sponsorship from 2017; 2018 KissKissBankBank crowdfunding raised €53,100 (vs €20,000 target)
Database PostgreSQL
Query Language REST API + ActivityPub server-to-server
Data Formats ActivityStreams 2.0 / ActivityPub; HLS video segments; RSS feeds
Collaborative Live Editing No (single-creator video upload model)
Rich Text Editing Yes (video descriptions, channel pages)
Mobile Support Official Android and iOS apps; responsive web
Web Support Yes (primary interface)
Native Apps Android (F-Droid, Google Play); iOS (App Store, narrow instance list)
Terms Open source AGPL-3.0; federation policy set per-instance
Funds Unknown — 2018 KissKissBankBank crowdfunding raised €53,100 against €20,000 goal; 2021 v3 crowdfunding amount; Framasoft general budget allocation specific to PeerTube not separately published
Based On ActivityPub; ActivityStreams 2.0; WebTorrent / WebRTC P2P; HLS
Use Case Category Video hosting; live streaming; alternative to YouTube / Vimeo / Dailymotion
User Interface Type Web app (Angular SPA); native mobile apps
Offline Capabilities Native apps support some offline viewing; web is online-first
Collaboration Features Video comments (federated); channel subscriptions; playlists; live chat in live streams
Data Portability Account portability across instances is limited; videos hosted by their origin instance
Integration Ecosystem Fediverse — Mastodon, Pleroma, Mobilizon, PixelFed via ActivityPub; videos discoverable from Mastodon timelines; RSS feeds for non-Fediverse follows
Web2 Data Export Channel sync from YouTube/Vimeo/external sources; standard video file downloads; RSS for channels
Prosocial Coherence Strong — community-owned, ad-free, no algorithmic recommendation manipulation, no dark patterns; nonprofit stewardship; explicit GAFAM-alternative positioning; donation-supported and rejecting ad-revenue-based business models
Economic Flows Optional creator support button (configurable to point at donation/funding sources); no built-in monetization or ads; instance-level decisions about pricing/donations
Governance & Decision Making Per-instance governance — each instance sets its own rules, moderation policies, federation choices; Framasoft governs framatube.org and project-direction decisions; admin tools for user management, moderation, and abuse review
Media / Publishing Native — this is the core use case (video upload, publishing, hosting, livestreaming)
Knowledge Management Channel and playlist organization; not a primary KM tool
Sensemaking N/A — video hosting platform; not a sensemaking tool
Project Management N/A — video hosting platform; not a project management tool
Communication Model Federated server-to-server (ActivityPub) for metadata; HLS+WebRTC P2P for video payload distribution
Network Resilience Federation + viewer-side P2P caching; instance-to-instance video caching (redundancy network)
Discovery Mechanism Instance browsing; SepiaSearch federation search; Fediverse follow relationships; RSS
Max Participants Per-instance scaled by hardware; viewer-side P2P scales popular videos to thousands of concurrent viewers
Data Sovereignty Instance-based — creators choose instance based on policy alignment; instance operators control hosting decisions