How I built a browser-based video editor with FFmpeg.wasm (no backend, no server costs)
<p>I got tired of opening CapCut every time I needed to quickly join 2-3 clips. Too many menus, too many features I'll never use. So I built my own.<br> <strong><a href="https://www.2minclip.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">2minclip.com</a></strong> — a free online video editor that runs entirely in the browser. No install, no signup, no watermark.<br> Here's how I built it and what I learned.</p> <h2> The core idea </h2> <p>The concept is simple: ilovepdf but for video. You open the browser, upload your clips, edit, export. That's it. No account, no server processing, no storage costs.<br> The key technical decision was using <strong>FFmpeg.wasm</strong> — a WebAssembly port of FFmpeg that runs entirely in the browser. This means:</p> <ul> <li>Zero server costs (users process video on their
I got tired of opening CapCut every time I needed to quickly join 2-3 clips. Too many menus, too many features I'll never use. So I built my own. 2minclip.com — a free online video editor that runs entirely in the browser. No install, no signup, no watermark. Here's how I built it and what I learned.
The core idea
The concept is simple: ilovepdf but for video. You open the browser, upload your clips, edit, export. That's it. No account, no server processing, no storage costs. The key technical decision was using FFmpeg.wasm — a WebAssembly port of FFmpeg that runs entirely in the browser. This means:
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Zero server costs (users process video on their own device)
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Complete privacy (videos never leave the user's device)
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No backend to maintain
Tech stack
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React + Vite — fast dev experience, easy deployment
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FFmpeg.wasm — video processing in the browser
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Tailwind CSS — styling
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dnd-kit — drag and drop for the timeline
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i18next — ES/EN internationalization
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Vercel — deployment (free tier covers everything) Total infrastructure cost: ~12€/year for the domain. That's it.
The biggest challenge: audio streams
The hardest bug I ran into was this FFmpeg error: Stream specifier ':a' matches no streams It happened when a clip had no audio track. FFmpeg was trying to extract [0:a] from a silent video and failing. The fix was to detect whether each clip has audio before building the filtergraph, and generate silence (aevalsrc=0) for clips without audio.
What it does
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Upload multiple clips at once (MP4, MOV, WebM)
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Choose canvas: 9:16 / 16:9 / 1:1
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Trim with playhead + split button
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Reorder by dragging
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Adjust speed (0.5x, 1x, 2x)
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Flip and rotate clips
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Add audio tracks with volume control and fade out
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Add text with fonts and colors
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Overlay images and videos
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Export to MP4 H.264 — no watermark, no limits
Lessons learned
FFmpeg.wasm is powerful but slow on mobile. For clips under 60 seconds it works fine. For longer videos on low-end devices it can struggle. The canvas-first approach is better UX. Choosing the output format before editing eliminates confusion and produces predictable results. SEO matters from day one. Since this is a tool people search for when they need it, organic search is the main acquisition channel.
Try it
2minclip.com — free, no account, works on mobile and desktop. Would love feedback — especially if you've worked with FFmpeg.wasm and have tips on improving export performance on mobile.
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