The latest articles on DEV Community by ptqwerty (@ptqwerty_cc8588b726b20cae). https://dev.to/ptqwerty_cc8588b726b20cae https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F4129356%2F26fd7261-1473-4c6c-a1dd-4d622daad3e9.png https://dev.to/ptqwerty_cc8588b726b20cae en ptqwerty Thu, 17 Sep 2026 10:33:23 +0000 https://dev.to/ptqwerty_cc8588b726b20cae/i-built-url2vid-a-free-tool-to-download-videoaudio-from-10-platforms-using-a-url-4870 https://dev.to/ptqwerty_cc8588b726b20cae/i-built-url2vid-a-free-tool-to-download-videoaudio-from-10-platforms-using-a-url-4870 <h2> What I built </h2> <p>URL2Vid is a free web app that takes a video URL from platforms like YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter/X, Facebook, Reddit, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Snapchat, and Threads — and lets you download it as MP4 (video), muted MP4, or MP3 (audio only). No account, no app install, no watermarks.</p> <p>Try it: <a href="https://url2vid.codedeck.me" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://url2vid.codedeck.me</a><br> Source: [<a href="https://github.com/PurushottamBarai/URL2Vid" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://github.com/PurushottamBarai/URL2Vid</a>]</p> <p><a href="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2F9ju10se3ykq09b4x3847.png" class="article-body-image-wrapper"><img src="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2F9ju10se3ykq09b4x3847.png" alt=" " width="800" height="550"></a><br> <a href="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fkpnqvgkdmcmffrw7my4m.png" class="article-body-image-wrapper"><img src="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fkpnqvgkdmcmffrw7my4m.png" alt=" " width="799" height="397"></a></p> <p><a href="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fuo8lbwm9uavtsipzs61q.png" class="article-body-image-wrapper"><img src="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fuo8lbwm9uavtsipzs61q.png" alt=" " width="800" height="473"></a></p> <h2> Why I built it </h2> <p>Most "free video downloader" sites online are ad-riddled, redirect you through 5 pages, or bundle sketchy extensions. I wanted something clean that just does the one job — paste a link, get your file.</p> <h2> Tech stack </h2> <ul> <li> <strong>Frontend:</strong> React + Vite + Tailwind CSS</li> <li> <strong>Backend:</strong> Node.js + Express</li> <li> <strong>Extraction:</strong> yt-dlp under the hood, with ffmpeg for audio/format conversion</li> <li> <strong>Deployment:</strong> Render (frontend + backend as a single service)</li> </ul> <h2> The hardest part: platform quirks </h2> <p>Every platform has different URL formats, and getting reliable extraction across all of them was the real challenge:</p> <ul> <li> <strong>YouTube</strong>: watch links, Shorts, and youtu.be short-links all need to resolve the same way</li> <li> <strong>Reddit</strong>: share-links (<code>/s/...</code>) don't resolve directly — they need to be followed to their canonical <code>/comments/...</code> form before extraction works</li> <li> <strong>Pinterest</strong>: <code>pin.it</code> short-links and full pin URLs both needed handling</li> </ul> <p>I ended up writing a full test suite that runs a real request against every platform + URL-pattern variant (watch vs shorts vs short-link, etc.) so I could catch regressions across all of them at once instead of testing platforms one at a time.</p> <h2> What's next </h2> <ul> <li>Better SEO/discoverability (still very early days for this project)</li> <li>Possibly batch downloads</li> </ul> <h2> Feedback welcome </h2> <p>This is a personal/learning project — if you try it and hit an issue with a specific platform or URL format, I'd genuinely appreciate a bug report or a comment here. Always looking to make the extraction more robust.</p> webdev socialmedia downloder javascript