Your own streaming service
How to create your own streaming platform.
Build it, or launch one without developers.
A streaming platform looks like a website with a video player. Underneath it is eight separate systems: storage, encoding or delivery, a player, accounts, payments, entitlements, apps and analytics. This guide lists each part, what building it involves, and when it is smarter to use a finished platform instead.
Video hosting for filmmakers · 5 GB free · Paid plans from USD 9/month
By uncompressed.io · Updated October 2026
Short answer
How do you create your own streaming platform?
You either assemble it with developers from separate parts (video delivery, a player, accounts, payments, access rules and TV apps) or launch on a hosted streaming platform that already joins them. For an independent creator the hosted route is faster and cheaper; uncompressed.io provides every part with 0% commission and runs under your own name and domain.
- Developer route: eight systems to build and maintain
- Hosted route: upload, set prices, connect payments
- 0% commission on uncompressed.io, paid into your own account
- Branded apps for Apple TV, iPhone, Fire TV, Samsung and LG
- Starter free with 5 GB; paid plans from USD 9 a month
The developer route
The eight parts of a streaming platform
and what each one involves
Each of these is a product in its own right. A developer can rent some as services, but someone still has to join them, test them on every device and keep them working.
Effort column is a rough guide for a small experienced team building a first dependable version, not a quote. Maintenance continues after launch on every part.
Build or buy
The decision
for an independent creator
Build if
The platform is the business: you need live events, social features or your own recommendation engine, you have a budget for a permanent team, and owning the code is worth months before the first sale.
Buy if
The films are the business. You want to sell and stream them this month, alone, and spend your time making the next one instead of fixing a payment edge case at midnight.
The cost that surprises builders is not the first version. It is the second year: app store policy changes, new TV models, card rules, expiring certificates and the support email that arrives when a rental will not play on a hotel television. A hosted platform spreads that work across every creator who uses it.
The cost that surprises buyers is the percentage. Some hosted platforms take a share of every sale or a fee per subscriber; Vimeo OTT, for example, lists USD 1 per subscriber a month and 10% plus USD 0.50 per purchase or rental. Read the fee page first, then the feature list.
Without developers
Launch in an afternoon
the no-code route
Upload
Upload your films as exported. Vimeo users import the whole library: sign in once, Import all.
Connect payments
Connect your own payment account. Every charge is made there, and uncompressed.io never holds the money.
Price and package
Purchases, rentals, downloads, bundles, series, and monthly or yearly memberships with free trials.
Brand and publish
Your own domain for the shop, then branded TV and phone apps under your own developer accounts.
Who this is not for
Every part, already built
Read from the live price list. Verified 2026-10.
| Commission on sales | 0 percent, at any volume. Buyers pay into your own payment account; your card processor's fee applies. |
|---|---|
| What you can sell | Purchases (stream forever), downloads, rentals with a viewing window, memberships with monthly or yearly tiers, bundles and series. |
| Member tools | Free trials per tier, coupon codes, gift memberships, refunds and free access from your earnings page. |
| Your storefront | A shop under your name at yourname.uncompressed.io/on-demand, or on your own domain. Buyers need no account. |
| Picture quality | Films stream as you exported them: no re-encode of video or audio, with an optional lighter copy for slow connections. |
| Viewing hours included | Lite 1,000, Pro 5,000, Max 15,000, Studio 25,000 hours a month, then USD 29 per extra 20,000-hour block. Playback never pauses. |
| Plans | Starter free (5 GB, one film at a time); Lite USD 9, Pro USD 39, Max USD 99, Studio USD 219 a month; yearly is one month free. |
| Leak Shield (optional) | Every buyer gets their own invisibly marked copy; the open web and torrent indexes are searched; a confirmed leak names and blocks the buyer and sends the takedown. USD 99 a month or USD 1,188 a year, any paid plan. |
| Inclusion window | The streaming platform is included with every paid plan for members who switch it on before 31 December 2026, and stays included for them afterwards; after that date new activations add USD 39 a month. |
Plans and add-ons: pricing. The whole cluster starts at the creator platform guide.
Questions
Frequently asked
How do I create my own streaming platform?
Either assemble it from parts (video storage and delivery, a player, user accounts, payments, access rules and TV apps) with a developer, or use a hosted streaming platform that already joins those parts and put your films and brand on it. Creators without a development budget almost always do the second.
Can I build a streaming platform without coding?
Yes. A hosted platform such as uncompressed.io gives you the shop, player, payments, memberships and branded apps; you upload films, set prices and connect your own payment account. No code is involved.
How long does it take to build a streaming platform from scratch?
A small developer team usually needs several months for a dependable first version across web and TV, and the work never ends: app store updates, payment rules and device changes need maintenance. A hosted platform is ready the day you sign up.
Is it cheaper to build or buy a streaming platform?
For an independent creator, buying is almost always cheaper: one developer for a few months costs more than years of a hosted plan. Building pays off only when you need features no platform offers, at a scale that justifies a permanent team.
Do I own my audience on a hosted platform?
On uncompressed.io, yes in the ways that matter: every charge is made on your own payment account, the shop can run on your own domain, and the TV apps are published under your own developer accounts.
When should I build my own instead?
When the product itself is the business: a platform with live events, social features or a recommendation engine you want to own. Then a team and a roadmap are part of the plan, not a cost to avoid.
Skip the build. Launch this week.
Every part on this page comes ready with any paid plan (Lite USD 9, Pro USD 39, Max USD 99, Studio USD 219 a month), with 0% commission on what you sell.
Sources
- 1.Apple Developer Program (read 12 October 2026)
- 2.Vimeo OTT pricing breakdown, Vimeo help center (read 12 October 2026)