Downloader — Online Video & File Download Platform

SaaS Jul 2026 30 views

A production Laravel SaaS that lets users paste a link, pick a format, and download videos or files from YouTube, TikTok, X, and direct URLs.

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Downloader — Online Video & File Download Platform

Technologies Used

PHP Laravel MySQL REST APIs JavaScript HTML5 CSS3 Tailwind CSS Git Vite Blade

Case Study

The Problem

People need a simple way to save videos and files from multiple platforms without installing desktop tools. Running a downloader on cheap shared hosting (Hostinger) is hard: YouTube blocks datacenter IPs, yt-dlp needs Python 3.10+, Deno for JS challenges, FFmpeg for higher qualities, and background jobs need cron — not a long-running worker.

The Solution

Built a Laravel 11 app with a public analyze flow, auth-gated downloads, database queues, and a custom admin area. Bundled yt-dlp, FFmpeg, and Deno in bin/ with setup scripts for Linux. Added cookie upload for YouTube, player-client retries, 360p-first reliability, audio extraction from the same stream as working video, SEO (sitemap, schema, FAQ), and a downloader:doctor command to verify the server stack after deploy.

The Result

Live production app on Hostinger with working YouTube/TikTok/X downloads, free-tier quotas, queued background processing, and a path to paid plans. Handles real hosting constraints (blocked binaries, cookie rotation, cron-based queues) instead of only working locally.

About this project

Downloader is a full-stack web app I built and deployed on a subdomain (downloader.yousiffarra.com). Users analyze links in the browser, choose video or audio quality, and download through a free tiered account with quota tracking, download history, and an admin panel. The backend uses yt-dlp with bundled FFmpeg and Deno so downloads run on shared hosting without relying on system packages.