Welcome to MoarTube Node, the server-side software for hosting your own videos and live streams! This cross-platform, terminal-based Node.js Express application is managed by the MoarTube Client. Whether you want to share your node’s videos with MoarTube or run your node privately, MoarTube gives you the freedom to do it your way.
TL;DR: Watch the Quickstart Video
Welcome to the MoarTube Node setup guide! Follow these simple steps to get your MoarTube Node up and running. Don’t worry—MoarTube is designed to be so easy to set up and use, you’ll be done in minutes.
When you’re ready, make sure to check out the MoarTube Client if you haven’t already.
- Cross-platform compatibility: Windows, macOS, and Linux
- Capable of running on a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W
- Run your node Privately or publicize your videos and streams on MoarTube
- MoarTube Client performs video and stream processing on your local machine
- MoarTube Node handles storage and distribution of your content
- Host your node:
- In the cloud
- On your home WiFi
- Video on Demand (VoD) and HLS Live Streaming
- Supported formats:
- HLS (H.264, AAC)
- MP4 (H.264, AAC)
- WEBM (VP9, Opus)
- OGV (VP8, Opus)
- Transcoding capabilities:
- Convert MP4/WEBM videos to HLS/MP4/WEBM/OGV
- Transcode RTMP streams (e.g., from OBS) into HLS live streams
- Video resolutions: 2160p, 1440p, 1080p, 720p, 480p, 360p, 240p
- Video player modes:
- Streamer Mode
- Theater Mode
- Fullscreen Mode
- Anonymous Comments & Live Stream Chat:
- Foster engagement while maintaining user privacy
- Processing
- CPU and GPU support
- Nvidia, AMD
- Windows Only
- Storage
- Local database storage using SQLite
- Decentralize your node with a remote Postgres database
- File system to store your videos and live streams locally on your node
- S3-compatible provider to store your videos and live streams in the cloud
- Amazon Web Services (AWS), DigitalOcean Spaces, Minio, etc...
- path-style and vhost-style URL compatibility
- Distribution
- Leverage Cloudflare's CDN for global content distribution
- Admin Panel
- Managing videos and live streams
- Reports Section:
- Track and moderate comments and videos
- Comment Monitoring Overview:
- Includes moderation tools
- Monetization via cryptocurrency:
- Accept ETH and BNB via MetaMask
- Provide wallet addresses to your viewers for donations
- Promote your node by providing links to:
- Social media platforms
- Websites
- External platforms
- Cloudflare CDN:
- Cloudflare's global network facilitates mass data propagation for audiences of any size, anywhere.
- Data is transmitted throughout Cloudflare's global network within milliseconds of beng requested.
- Available to a free-tier Cloudflare account.
- Cloudflare Turnstile:
- Next-generation bot detection and human verification without intrusive captchas.
- Available to a free-tier Cloudflare account.
- Postgres
- Remote database storage for video and live stream metadata and information.
- Host your database anywhere.
- S3 Providers
- Remote storage for video and live stream content.
- Seemingly unlimited storage size and can meet high demand.
- cheap and affordable
- Compatible with any S3 provider that conforms to the AWS S3 specification.
- Dual Box Compatibility:
- Broadcast an OBS RTMP stream to a dedicated processing system running the MoarTube Client.
- Can broadcast to a dedicated processing system over LAN or WAN.
- No plugins like NDI required.
- GPU Acceleration:
- Supports Nvidia and AMD GPUs for accelerated encoding/decoding (Windows only).
MoarTube empowers you to take control of your media hosting with privacy, decentralization, and features designed to rival major platforms while remaining lightweight, accessible, and cost-effective, all from a single node.
MoarTube is designed to be lightweight and accessible, making it the most resource-efficient self-hosted video and live streaming solution available today.
- Node.js is the only requirement to run a MoarTube Node, and it's supported on all major operating systems.
- MoarTube Node efficiently operates on even the most resource-constrained systems.
- Runs comfortably on a VPS with 1GB RAM and 1 vCPU.
- Can run on a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W.
- Compatible with Node.js v20 and later.
- MoarTube Node's footprint is remarkably small because most computationally heavy tasks, like encoding and memory-intensive operations, are performed on your local machine by the MoarTube Client.
- Your node's responsibilities are storage and distribution, keeping its resource demands low so that it can run on just about anything.
- MoarTube Node is multi-threaded, utilizing the full potential of its system's CPU to ensure optimal operation.
- Designate external providers such as Postgres and S3 to store and distribute your content for greater scalability.
- Your node becomes completely disposable. Content and metadata are stored externally (e.g., S3, Postgres), allowing you to re-deploy your node at any time without data loss. Just tell your new node where its data is and you're back online.
- Cloudflare eliminates much of the strain on your storage distribution by leveraging the world’s largest CDN, giving your node the same global delivery reach as major platforms.
Whether on a cloud VPS, personal computer, or compact device like a Raspberry Pi, MoarTube gives you full control. MoarTube’s efficiency and flexibility make it the ideal solution for hosting media anywhere, on virtually any hardware, for audiences of any size.
Observe the corresponding prerequisite for your installation method.
If you're using Docker, make sure that it is installed on your machine.
If you're using npm to install the software, make sure that Node.js and npm are installed on your machine.
You can clone the repo, but make sure that Node.js and npm are installed on your machine.
A script to automate your entire setup. Installs Node.js using Snap, clones the git repo using git, installs dependencies using npm, and sets the node to autostart on system boot using systemctl
Choose any of the following installation methods.
MoarTube Node is available on DockerHub and can be easily set up using Docker Desktop or via the command line for a more manual approach.
Using Docker Desktop
You can manage MoarTube Node using Docker Desktop by searching for moartube/moartube-node on DockerHub within the Docker Desktop interface.
To set up MoarTube Node manually using Docker, execute the following command in your terminal. This command pulls the latest MoarTube Node image, creates a container named moartube-node-1, assigns it port 8181, and configures it to auto-restart unless manually stopped.
docker run --platform linux/amd64 -d --restart unless-stopped -p 8181:80 --name moartube-node-1 moartube/moartube-node:latestdocker run --platform linux/arm64 -d --restart unless-stopped -p 8181:80 --name moartube-node-1 moartube/moartube-node:latestnote: the Docker container uses /data for its volume container path.
You can install MoarTube Node globally:
npm i @moartube/moartube-node -gAnd run from the command-line globally:
moartube-nodeYou can install MoarTube Node locally:
npm i @moartube/moartube-nodeAnd run from the command-line locally:
node node_modules/@moartube/moartube-node/moartube-node.jsgit clone https://github.com/MoarTube/MoarTube-NodeOpen a terminal in the cloned directory and run:
npm installnode moartube-node.jsbash <(wget -O - https://www.moartube.com/bash/install/node)The default login credentials for your node are below. Be sure to change these upon logging in.
By default, MoarTube Node listens on port 80.
username: admin
password: admin
At this point, you should probably look into creating a free Cloudflare account so that you can give your node CDN capabilities. With its global network, Cloudflare will distribute most of your node's videos and live streams.
If you haven't already, it's time to get the MoarTube Client.
Ubuntu Linux comes pre-installed with the Snap package manager. It's the easiest way to install Node.js.
Run the command:
sudo snap install node --classic --channel=21This guide will configure your node to autostart on system boot.
Stop the Moartube Node software if it is running
Run the command:
sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/moartube-node.serviceBelow is an example of a moartube-node systemd service unit file
Make any necessary changes and paste it into the nano text editor
[Unit]
Description=MoarTube Node
After=network.target
[Service]
Type=simple
User=root
ExecStart=/snap/bin/node /home/Moartube-Node/moartube-node.js
Restart=always
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Reload all services.
sudo systemctl daemon-reloadMake the moartube-node service autostart on system boot.
sudo systemctl enable moartube-nodeStart the moartube-node service.
sudo systemctl start moartube-nodeView the status of the moartube-node service
sudo systemctl status moartube-nodeStop the moartube-node service.
sudo systemctl stop moartube-nodeRestart the moartube-node service.
sudo systemctl restart moartube-node