Compare
Vidra and PeerTube, compared.
Vidra is a clean-room implementation — not a fork, not PeerTube-API-compatible. Here is where the two differ, where PeerTube is ahead, and what moving an instance across involves.
The short answer
PeerTube is the mature choice: years in production, a plugin system, a large ecosystem of instances, and in-player peer-to-peer that shares playback bandwidth between viewers. Vidra has none of those — it is at v0.5.0, it has no plugin system, and P2P is on the roadmap, not in the release.
What Vidra offers instead is the operator's path: one command installs it, vidra doctor runs 26 checks and names the failure, and deploy, rollback, backup and restore are scripted, with published sizing that carries prices. It also speaks ATProto: viewers can sign in with Bluesky or any PDS, and public videos can cross-post to Bluesky — PeerTube federates over ActivityPub only. Vidra also ships direct messages — including an end-to-end encrypted mode with disappearing timers — where PeerTube has no user-to-user messaging at all.
If you run PeerTube happily, keep running it. If operations are the pain, or your audience lives on Bluesky, Vidra was built for exactly that — and a one-way importer moves an existing instance across.
Side by side
The differences that decide it.
| PeerTube | Vidra | |
|---|---|---|
| Lineage | The established ActivityPub video platform; current stable v8.2.4 (August 2026). | A clean-room implementation, v0.5.0 — not a fork, and not PeerTube-API-compatible. |
| Federation | ActivityPub (as of PeerTube 8.2, August 2026). | ActivityPub federation, enabled per instance; once on, every channel federates by default and can opt out. |
| Bluesky | No ATProto support as of v8.2.4. | Viewers sign in with Bluesky or any ATProto PDS; opt-in cross-posting of public videos. Outbound only — no inbound path. |
| Direct messages | None as of v8.2.4 (August 2026) — the closest surface is the moderation thread on an abuse report. | One-to-one messages, with an opt-in end-to-end encrypted mode — encryption runs on the device, the server stores only ciphertext — and disappearing timers, 30 seconds to 90 days, on encrypted conversations. |
| In-player P2P | Built in: playback shares bandwidth between viewers over WebRTC, and a viewer can turn it off. | None in v0.5.0. On the roadmap — do not size your bandwidth around it. |
| Uploads and storage | Uploads and transcodes work on local disk; with remote storage configured, files move to S3 after processing. | Object-storage-native: upload chunks stream straight to the storage backend and never touch the server's local disk. A server dying mid-upload loses nothing. |
| Operations | Judge it from PeerTube's own admin documentation. | One command in; vidra doctor runs 26 checks and names the failure; deploy, rollback, backup and restore are scripted. |
| Growing past one box | Remote runners can take transcoding off the main server; judge the rest from PeerTube's own admin documentation. | The same image splits into api and worker roles. Replicas hold leases and elect leaders — soak-tested at two replicas, 406 of 406 deliveries, zero duplicates — and a CDN with purge is wired in. Multi-CDN steering, studio DRM and multi-region are the published roadmap, not the release. |
| What it costs to run | Depends on your instance — check your own numbers. | Two published profiles with prices — about $63/mo (4 vCPU, 8 GB) and about $168/mo (8 vCPU, 16 GB) — and a calculator that shows its arithmetic. |
| Moving an instance | Home ground — nothing to move. | A one-way importer reads a PeerTube database and media store read-only and maps users, channels, videos, comments, playlists and follows. Nothing exports back. |
| Licence | AGPL v3. | AGPL v3 — the same licence. No difference to invent here. |
Lineage
- PeerTube
- The established ActivityPub video platform; current stable v8.2.4 (August 2026).
- Vidra
- A clean-room implementation, v0.5.0 — not a fork, and not PeerTube-API-compatible.
Federation
- PeerTube
- ActivityPub (as of PeerTube 8.2, August 2026).
- Vidra
- ActivityPub federation, enabled per instance; once on, every channel federates by default and can opt out.
Bluesky
- PeerTube
- No ATProto support as of v8.2.4.
- Vidra
- Viewers sign in with Bluesky or any ATProto PDS; opt-in cross-posting of public videos. Outbound only — no inbound path.
Direct messages
- PeerTube
- None as of v8.2.4 (August 2026) — the closest surface is the moderation thread on an abuse report.
- Vidra
- One-to-one messages, with an opt-in end-to-end encrypted mode — encryption runs on the device, the server stores only ciphertext — and disappearing timers, 30 seconds to 90 days, on encrypted conversations.
In-player P2P
- PeerTube
- Built in: playback shares bandwidth between viewers over WebRTC, and a viewer can turn it off.
- Vidra
- None in v0.5.0. On the roadmap — do not size your bandwidth around it.
Uploads and storage
- PeerTube
- Uploads and transcodes work on local disk; with remote storage configured, files move to S3 after processing.
- Vidra
- Object-storage-native: upload chunks stream straight to the storage backend and never touch the server's local disk. A server dying mid-upload loses nothing.
Operations
- PeerTube
- Judge it from PeerTube's own admin documentation.
- Vidra
- One command in; vidra doctor runs 26 checks and names the failure; deploy, rollback, backup and restore are scripted.
Growing past one box
- PeerTube
- Remote runners can take transcoding off the main server; judge the rest from PeerTube's own admin documentation.
- Vidra
- The same image splits into api and worker roles. Replicas hold leases and elect leaders — soak-tested at two replicas, 406 of 406 deliveries, zero duplicates — and a CDN with purge is wired in. Multi-CDN steering, studio DRM and multi-region are the published roadmap, not the release.
What it costs to run
- PeerTube
- Depends on your instance — check your own numbers.
- Vidra
- Two published profiles with prices — about $63/mo (4 vCPU, 8 GB) and about $168/mo (8 vCPU, 16 GB) — and a calculator that shows its arithmetic.
Moving an instance
- PeerTube
- Home ground — nothing to move.
- Vidra
- A one-way importer reads a PeerTube database and media store read-only and maps users, channels, videos, comments, playlists and follows. Nothing exports back.
Licence
- PeerTube
- AGPL v3.
- Vidra
- AGPL v3 — the same licence. No difference to invent here.
PeerTube column checked against PeerTube's own documentation, v8.2.4, August 2026.
Migrating
One way, read-only at the source.
- Stand up the Vidra instance first, on the sizing your catalogue needs — the importer needs somewhere to land.
- Point the importer at your PeerTube database and media store. It reads the source read-only; the run is idempotent and resumable, and --dry-run shows the plan first.
- It maps users, channels, videos, thumbnails, chapters, comments, ratings, playlists and follows — original publication dates and view counts included.
- Cut over when it is done. The importer is one-way: nothing writes back to PeerTube, so your source instance stays untouched until you retire it.