ELI6 Movies is a free streaming site I built — vanilla JS frontend, Node.js/Express backend, MongoDB.

Runs entirely on free tiers (Vercel + Render + Atlas M0). Zero cost to deploy yourself.

Features: episode notifications, smart server failover, watchlist, i18n (EN/IT/RU), mobile-first.

→ Watch now

ELI6 Movies — free streaming site for movies, TV shows and anime.

No ads, no subscription, no sign-up required. Just click and watch.

→ Watch now

ELI6 Movies — free streaming for movies, TV shows and anime. No account required, no subscription, no ads.

Features:

• 10+ embed servers with automatic failover
• Optional account for watchlist + episode email notifications
• Mobile-friendly, multiple themes

→ Watch now

Built ELI6 Movies as a side project to push how far a free-tier stack can go.

Tech:

• Frontend: pure HTML/CSS/vanilla JS on Vercel (free)
• Backend: Node.js/Express on Render (free)
• DB: MongoDB Atlas M0 (free)
• Metadata: TMDB API
• Video: third-party embeds with smart server failover

Interesting bits:

• Multi-server failover via postMessage detection
• Episode email notifier
• Tiered TMDB cache
• i18n (EN/IT/RU)
• Android TV spatial navigation

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Happy to answer questions about the architecture.

ELI6 Movies is a free streaming site for movies, TV shows and anime.

No subscription. No ads. No sign-up required to browse.

Optional account for watchlist, watch history, and episode notifications.

→ Watch now

Just released ELI6 Movies — free streaming site I built from scratch.

• Movies, TV shows, anime
• Zero ads
• No account needed to watch
• Episode notifications (optional)
• 10+ embed servers, smart failover
• Mobile-first

→ Watch now

Been working on this for a few months. ELI6 Movies is a full-stack streaming webapp:

• Frontend: vanilla JS + CSS on Vercel (no framework, no build step)
• Backend: Node.js + Express + MongoDB on Render
• Auth: JWT with per-device session revocation
• Email: password reset + verification via Resend (native fetch, zero new deps)
• Analytics: custom dashboard — page views, geo, devices, live sessions
• No ads, no paywall, no account needed to browse

Full write-up on dev.to: https://dev.to/eli6_4649fc5be59e2aeb2736/i-built-a-free-streaming-site-from-scratch-no-ads-no-framework-no-bs-32o6

Would love feedback — what would you have done differently?