How to start your own Video Site Guide

Last updated: 9 June 2022

We're working in video sites business for 12+ years and will reveal some recipes how to power successfull video site and optimize startup budget.

1. Get good domain name

We recommend PorkBun or InternetBS or NameCheap for domain registration. Their registration/renewal prices are good and they provide free Whois Protection.

Optional: Set Up CloudFlare proxying

To hide your main server IP from hackers/DMCA and improve site perfomance you can use free CloudFlare reverse proxy / DNS service.
Tip: enable proxy for main site only, don't proxy fileservers.
Tip: add all your fileservers IPs to whitelist so CF won't blacklist them occasionally.

2. Get server

We recommend to start with low/medium price servers to save your starting budget till your site have big traffic. Later you will be able to get more powerful fileservers for your site when you really need them.
There are 2 types of servers: Main script with DB (usually one server per site) and File servers (can be multiple servers). You can use same single server to host both Main + File logic but it's good idea to separate them for best perfomance.

Main server should have fast CPU to handle high DB/scripts load and at least 16GB RAM. Disk size is not much important there, at least 50GB. Good idea to put 2 disks into RAID1 for data safety.

File server recommendations:
CPU: use Xeon or AMD CPUs, more cores - the better. Encoding processes parallels very good.
RAM: 16GB+
Network: 1Gbps Unmetered connection. 100TB monthly traffic plan is also good option for a start.
Disk: better use big separate HDDs, RAIDs have bad random-read perfomance so not recommended.
OS: CentOS 8, CentOS Stream, AlmaLinux. No cPanel/whm panels to avoid problems.

Check out latest Dedicated Servers deals on WebHostingTalk forum.

3. Get Video Site engine

Order the XVideoSharing script with required mods to start your site.
SibSoft team will provide free professional installation & configure script for you.

If you have any questions feel free to contact us, we will help to choose the right stuff.