Micro.blog offers an indie alternative to YouTube with its ‘Studio’ video hosting plan
The core of Micro.blog’s mission is to make it easy for people to own their presence on the web. At first, it was a simple blog host that also incorporated a Twitter-like social timeline that put short (title-less) and long (titled) posts on equal footing. In the years since its 2017 launch, Manton Reece — Micro.blog’s founder — has added a plethora of features that expand upon that mission. Here’s a list off the top of my head: All of this is hosted on your own website, (optionally, but strongly encouraged) at your own domain name. I’ve never seen anything else like it. There are plans ranging from $1/month to $15/month that include subsets of these features, depending on how much a blogging “ power user” you are. Reece’s next 1 big foray with Micro.blog: video hosting, which launched yesterday . Micro.blog Studio adds longer video hosting for your blog, with uploads up to 20 minutes. You can read some of the technical bits here . It can automatically copy videos to PeerTube and Bluesky too. That’s a quaint description for what promises to be a significant challenge. 2 Because if hosting videos were easy, YouTube wouldn’t be the only 3 game in town. And that’s exactly why Reece has pursued it . It’s not good for the open web for so much of its video content to live centralized at one host. John Gruber lamented this following Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension: The big problem is YouTube. With YouTube, Google has a centralized chokehold on video. We need a way that’s as easy and scalable to host video content, independently, as it is for written content. I don’t know what the answer to that is, technically, but we ought to start working on it with urgency. Just like Micro.blog encourages people to own their text, reading lists, podcasts, photos, and social network interactions at their own domain, that ethos now extends to videos too. One of the great things about Micro.blog is how it enables the Publish to Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere ( POSSE ) framework. That’s manifested in features like its automatic crossposting to Bluesky, Flickr, LinkedIn, Mastodon, Medium, Nostr, Pixelfed, Threads, and Tumblr. And manual crossposting elsewhere. This allows the “ source of truth” to be at your own website that you control, but you won’t miss out on conversations and audiences in other places. With expanded video hosting, Reece has added PeerTube as another automatic crossposting destination, and hopes to also enable YouTube if and when Google approves his application. It’s not about only posting to your website, but instead centralizing your website as the first and primary place you post and then getting your text, images, audio, and now video out to other networks from there. As you can probably tell, I’m pretty excited about Micro.blog taking on the challenge of being that ’ indie-focused, YouTube alternative” that Reece envisioned . I haven’t upgraded my plan yet, but only because I mainly post shorter videos (covered by my current ‘ Premium’ plan), but I’m very glad it now exists as an option. There’s never been a better time to own your spot on the web. If you haven’t checked out Micro.blog before, I think it’s a compelling place to look. Update 2025-11-11: I was in a hurry when I posted this earlier, and it slipped my mind to include some wants and wishes that I have for Micro.blog’s video hosting capabilities. It’s a short list, due to both Reece’s solid offering from the outset, and my lack of imagination. 😆 Scale time limits across the tiers. I really think video hosting would be a stronger offering if it were available more consistently across Micro.blog’s tiers. For example, 1-minute videos at $5/month, 5-minute videos at $10/month, 10-minute videos at $15/month, and 20-minute videos at $20/month. All with the same capabilities, but limited by length. This was something that I know Reece considered, but ultimately decided against in the name of simplicity. He didn’t want to muck up the existing plans, and (rightly) considers them a tremendous value with their current features. He obviously hopes that people will upgrade to the higher-priced Studio plan specifically for the new video stuff. But I think tying some video features (multiple resolutions and fast playback on your blog) to the 20-minute time limit and $20 plan creates more confusion, a feature gap, and missed opportunity. Take me for example. I think I could reasonably say that I’m a Micro.blog power user. But even I’m not sure if I’m correct in saying that those unique features are limited to the Studio plan. I know everyone gets video uploads up to 1 minute in length. (Maybe not everyone, though. Does Micro.one users at $1/month get the “ new” video features? I’m not sure. Historically, most of the videos I post are around 90 seconds in length. I’m far more likely to shave 30 seconds off my videos to fit a 1-minute time limit than I am to double my monthly cost to show those extra 30 seconds. There’s too big a gap between 1-minute videos and 20-minute videos to make it seem worthwhile. In my mind, I’d be “ wasting” the extra $10/month ($120/year) by not posting 20-minute videos. But I’d be more likely to pay a little extra money for a little extra time. And then if I started hitting that new limit, I’d feel incentivized and validated graduating up to the next tier. I worry that Reece will see more infrastructure cost with a bunch of 1-minute videos being uploaded and served, but won’t see an accompanying bump in revenue, since we’re all getting the 1-minute videos for “ free, and I don’t see a significant portion of Micro.blog users needing the 20-minutes. Said one more way, I think giving people a little headroom to grow into hosting their videos on Micro.blog will make them more likely to upgrade over time. Once that habit has solidified, and users are comfortable with it, paying $5 more for the next jump in time limit isn’t a big ask. But jumping right into the Studio plan for $10-$15 extra is kind of off-putting. The gap between 1 minute and 20 is just too big. Support 4K resolution. A pie-in-the-sky request, I know. 4K videos are huge. But I can nearly always see the difference, and choose higher quality playback every time. I’d love for my videos to appear at full-quality if they’re uploaded that way. To be clear, Micro.blog has had the ability to host videos — or nearly any other kind of file upload — and show them on your blog for years. But it’s been limited by file size, not an optimized part of the offering. The Studio tier makes it a first-rate feature, with smooth playback, automatic conversion to multiple resolutions, and ups the limit to a healthy 20 minutes no matter the file size. And the old file size-limited video uploads should still work for folks who rely on that workflow. 👌 ↩︎ Here’s a little more on the what and the why from Reece. ↩︎ Sure, Vimeo exists, but it’s expensive and limited, and it’s future is uncertain . Plus, you’re still posting to a domain. And, of course, many people post videos to Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X, and other social networks. But I’d argue that videos there serve the algorithm first and users second. Micro.blog’s Studio tier flips that. It’s meant to serve the user first, and there is no algorithm at all. ↩︎ HeyDingus is a blog by Jarrod Blundy about technology, the great outdoors, and other musings. If you like what you see — the blog posts , shortcuts , wallpapers , scripts , or anything — please consider leaving a tip , checking out my store , or just sharing my work. Your support is much appreciated! I’m always happy to hear from you on social , or by good ol' email . Hosting podcasts Bookmarking/archiving webpages Fediverse compatibility with native replies to Mastodon and novel reply gathering from Bluesky Crossposting to other social networks Photo blogging Custom domain name registration Private notes Book/Movie/TV Show blogging Reading tracking Automatic newsletters Open APIs to manage your content To be clear, Micro.blog has had the ability to host videos — or nearly any other kind of file upload — and show them on your blog for years. But it’s been limited by file size, not an optimized part of the offering. The Studio tier makes it a first-rate feature, with smooth playback, automatic conversion to multiple resolutions, and ups the limit to a healthy 20 minutes no matter the file size. And the old file size-limited video uploads should still work for folks who rely on that workflow. 👌 ↩︎ Here’s a little more on the what and the why from Reece. ↩︎ Sure, Vimeo exists, but it’s expensive and limited, and it’s future is uncertain . Plus, you’re still posting to a domain. And, of course, many people post videos to Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X, and other social networks. But I’d argue that videos there serve the algorithm first and users second. Micro.blog’s Studio tier flips that. It’s meant to serve the user first, and there is no algorithm at all. ↩︎
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