I built a streaming app with 7,000+ downloads at ₹0/month — here's the exact architecture

Wed, 03 Jun 2026 20:39:43 +0000

I'm Wasey, a solo developer from Varanasi, India. I built DramaHub —
a fully live OTT streaming app on Google Play Store. 7,000+ downloads,
1,000+ daily active users, sub-1% crash rate, ₹0/month infrastructure.

Here's the exact architecture that makes it possible.

The Problem

I had zero budget for servers. A typical OTT backend needs:

A backend server (₹3,000–15,000/month)
A database (₹1,500+/month)
A CDN (₹500+/month)

I had ₹0. So I had to think differently.

GitHub as the Database

All drama content, episode metadata, and app config live as JSON files
in a public GitHub repository. Free. Unlimited. Versioned automatically.

Every drama looks like this in JSON:

{
"id": "drama_001",
"title": "Drama Title",
"thumbnail": "https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/...",
"episodes": [

{
  "ep": 1,
  "title": "Episode 1",
  "source": "youtube_id_here"
}

]
}

The app fetches this JSON on launch, caches it locally, and serves
content instantly on subsequent opens.

Cloudflare Workers as the CDN Proxy

Hitting GitHub raw URLs directly has rate limits. So I built a
Cloudflare Worker that sits in front of GitHub:

Caches all JSON responses at the edge globally
Handles unlimited traffic
Auto-invalidates when content version changes
Cost: ₹0

Architecture: Flutter app → Cloudflare Worker → GitHub raw JSON

The Dual Player System

DramaHub runs two video players:

Primary — YouTube WebView player
Most content is sourced from YouTube. The app uses a WebView-based
player with custom controls and a URL whitelist for security.

Secondary — Custom video player with Cloudflare R2
For self-hosted content, I use a custom player backed by
Cloudflare R2 storage.

Both players are switchable instantly from the admin panel via
remote JSON config. No APK update needed — ever.

The Admin Panel

This is the most important part of the architecture.

The admin panel is a Flutter Web app that communicates directly
with the GitHub REST API using Base64 encoding and SHA-based
conflict detection. From the admin panel I can:

Add/edit/delete dramas and episodes
Toggle ads per screen with cooldown timers
Switch between YouTube and custom player instantly
Change CDN URLs without any release
Force update all users
Control app config globally

Everything is remote. Everything is instant. No app store review cycle.

The Crash That Taught Me Everything

One day the app went completely down. Every user got a crash on launch.

The reason: my Cloudflare Worker wasn't caching properly. Every request
was hitting GitHub directly and I burned through the API rate limit
in minutes.

I fixed the Worker caching. Then I built a full backup system:

Direct GitHub raw URL as fallback
Backup Worker as secondary fallback
Switchable from admin panel in under 60 seconds

No APK release needed. I built that entire system in one night.

Firebase Integration

Even with zero backend cost, I use Firebase for:

Anonymous Auth
FCM push notifications with deep links
Crashlytics for real-time crash monitoring
Analytics with 7 custom tracked events
Atomic view counter increments via Firestore REST API

Results After 18 Months

7,000+ downloads
1,000+ daily active users
Sub-1% crash rate
₹0/month infrastructure cost
Live on Google Play Store

Key Lesson

Build your admin panel first. Remote config is not a feature —
it's survival. The ability to change anything without a new release
has saved me dozens of times.

GitHub as a database works at production scale if you architect
the caching layer correctly.

GitHub: github.com/waseyjamal/dramahub
Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dramahub.drama_hub
Twitter: @waseybuilds

Happy to answer any questions about the architecture.

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