VideoToLink

Download videos from YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter/X, Instagram, and 1000+ sites.

Project Structure

videotolink/
├── frontend/          React + Vite frontend (deploy to Netlify)
├── backend/           Python FastAPI backend (deploy to Render)
└── netlify.toml       Netlify build config

Local Development

1. Backend

cd backend

# Create a virtual environment
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate        # Windows: venv\Scripts\activate

# Install dependencies (requires Python 3.10+)
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Start the server
uvicorn main:app --reload --port 8000

Requires: ffmpeg installed and on your PATH.

• Windows: winget install Gyan.FFmpeg or download from https://ffmpeg.org/download.html
• macOS: brew install ffmpeg
• Linux: sudo apt install ffmpeg

The backend runs at http://localhost:8000

2. Frontend

cd frontend

# Copy env file and set API URL
cp .env.example .env
# .env already points to http://localhost:8000 — no changes needed for local dev

npm install
npm run dev

The frontend runs at http://localhost:5173

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Deployment

Step 1 — Deploy the Backend on Render (free)

1. Push this repo to GitHub.
2. Go to https://render.com → New Web Service.
3. Connect your GitHub repo.
4. Set these values:
   • Root directory: backend
   • Runtime: Python 3
   • Build command: pip install -r requirements.txt
   • Start command: uvicorn main:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port $PORT
5. Add environment variable:
   • ALLOWED_ORIGINS → https://videotolink.netlify.app (or your Netlify URL)
6. Click Deploy. Copy the URL (e.g. https://videotolink-api.onrender.com).

Render's free tier includes FFmpeg. If it's missing on a custom plan, add a build step: apt-get install -y ffmpeg && pip install -r requirements.txt

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Step 2 — Deploy the Frontend on Netlify

1. Go to https://netlify.com → Add new site → Import an existing project.
2. Connect your GitHub repo.
3. Netlify auto-detects the netlify.toml — no extra config needed.
4. Add environment variable:
   • VITE_API_URL → your Render backend URL (e.g. https://videotolink-api.onrender.com)
5. Click Deploy site.
6. (Optional) Claim a custom subdomain: Site settings → Domain management → Edit site name → type videotolink.

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API Reference

Method	Path	Description
GET	/health	Health check
POST	/api/info	Fetch video title, thumbnail, duration
POST	/api/download/start	Start download job, returns job_id
GET	/api/download/status/{job_id}	Poll download progress
GET	/api/download/file/{job_id}	Download the finished file

Request body for /api/info and /api/download/start

{ "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=..." }