What I built
ELI6 Movies is a free streaming platform — films, shows, and anime. No sign-up wall, no ads, no subscription. You open it and things play.
I wanted to prove you don't need React, a paid CDN, or $15/month to deliver a decent streaming experience.
Stack
| Layer | Tech |
|---|---|
| Frontend | Vanilla JS + CSS (no framework) |
| Backend | Node.js + Express |
| Database | MongoDB (Mongoose) |
| Hosting | Vercel (frontend) + Render (backend) |
| Metadata | TMDB API |
| Resend |
Things I'm proud of
No framework on the frontend. I went full vanilla — custom routing, component patterns, theme switching, all without a build step. The entire frontend deploys as static files.
JWT with per-device session management. Each login creates a session with a JTI (JWT ID). Users can see and revoke individual sessions from their profile — like Netflix's "sign out of all devices" but per-session.
Custom analytics dashboard. No Google Analytics. I built my own: page views, daily chart, top pages, countries (via ip-api.com with a circuit breaker), device types, browser breakdown, referrers, and live active sessions. All stored in MongoDB.
Password reset + email verification using Resend's HTTP API — no new npm dependencies, just native fetch.
GeoIP circuit breaker. After 5 consecutive failures or a quota hit from ip-api.com, the system backs off for 5 minutes instead of hammering the free tier.
Things that bit me
The router.use(auth, adminOnly) trap. Express's router.use(fn) without a path prefix intercepts all requests entering the router — not just the routes you defined. I had an analytics router with unscoped auth middleware that silently intercepted /api/health, causing Render's health check to receive 401 on every deploy. The service rolled back with update_failed in a loop for days. Fix was one line: router.use('/admin/analytics', auth, adminOnly).
ua-parser-js v2 on Render. The library crashing on import caused a crash loop. Replaced with 15 lines of inline regex.
What's live
- Films, TV shows, anime
- Watchlist (synced to account)
- Resume watching
- Light/dark/system theme
- Mobile-friendly
- Admin analytics panel
Live at: eli6movies.vercel.app
Feedback welcome — roast the code, suggest features, or just tell me what's broken.