Peertube - federated alternative to Youtube
Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2025 10:33 am
Over on Peter's "Time to build a railway..." thread, Lonsdaler asked about the platform I used for posting my videos, Peertube.
Peertube is an alternative to Youtube. But how do you sign up (and why is it so complicated)?
The first thing to understand is that the appeal of it is that it lets you avoid Google harvesting your data, or locking you in to their platform and bombarding you with adverts. And the key reason for this is that Peertube is open source software, and in fact there are several Peertube sites to choose from, so you actually have a choice. You can move to another one if you don't like the way one Peertube site is run.
Despite this, you can still 'subscribe' to videos from someone on a different Peertube platform. This is because each one is part of a 'federated' network. In fact you can subscribe to Peertube videos from all sorts of federated sites, such as 'Mastodon' (sort of like Twitter) or 'Pixelfed' (sort of like Instagram) or 'Friendica' (sort of like Facebook). My Garden Railway blog is now also federated. There's even a (very new) federated alternative to Thingiverse where I share some of my 3D prints.
Anyway, that leaves the key question of how do you sign up to Peertube? The first step is to choose the Peertube site you want to be on. If you're sharing garden railway videos, I'd say the answer is a Peertube site called Makertube. This is the one I'd sign up to if I was signing up now. Although it is free, there is a cost to those running the site for hosting you, so you have to 'request' an account (rather than it being a free for all sign-up). The costs are met by donations, a bit like this site, so they appreciate it if you bung them a few bob now and then.
So that's it really. Go over to Makertube, request an account and in the box where they say 'why do you want an account' tell them you want to share videos of modelling garden railways. I'm sure they'll be keen to have you!
And then don't forget to follow my channel @moelrhos@peertube.tv or my account @simonwood@peertube.tv!
Peertube is an alternative to Youtube. But how do you sign up (and why is it so complicated)?
The first thing to understand is that the appeal of it is that it lets you avoid Google harvesting your data, or locking you in to their platform and bombarding you with adverts. And the key reason for this is that Peertube is open source software, and in fact there are several Peertube sites to choose from, so you actually have a choice. You can move to another one if you don't like the way one Peertube site is run.
Despite this, you can still 'subscribe' to videos from someone on a different Peertube platform. This is because each one is part of a 'federated' network. In fact you can subscribe to Peertube videos from all sorts of federated sites, such as 'Mastodon' (sort of like Twitter) or 'Pixelfed' (sort of like Instagram) or 'Friendica' (sort of like Facebook). My Garden Railway blog is now also federated. There's even a (very new) federated alternative to Thingiverse where I share some of my 3D prints.
Anyway, that leaves the key question of how do you sign up to Peertube? The first step is to choose the Peertube site you want to be on. If you're sharing garden railway videos, I'd say the answer is a Peertube site called Makertube. This is the one I'd sign up to if I was signing up now. Although it is free, there is a cost to those running the site for hosting you, so you have to 'request' an account (rather than it being a free for all sign-up). The costs are met by donations, a bit like this site, so they appreciate it if you bung them a few bob now and then.
So that's it really. Go over to Makertube, request an account and in the box where they say 'why do you want an account' tell them you want to share videos of modelling garden railways. I'm sure they'll be keen to have you!
And then don't forget to follow my channel @moelrhos@peertube.tv or my account @simonwood@peertube.tv!
