Should you build your own CineSend?
Secure screener and media delivery with DRM, forensic watermarking, geo-blocking, and view limits
The file delivery is not the product. The product is that A24, HBO, and Sundance accept it. A screener page with an expiring link is an afternoon, and it buys you nothing, because the two things CineSend actually sells cannot be written by an agent at any price: forensic watermarking, which is a licensed product from Nagra that survives a camcorder pointed at a monitor and traces the leak back to one named viewer, and studio-grade DRM, which needs license keys Google and Apple issue to companies, not to your VPS. Underneath both sits the part no code touches · a rights holder's legal team signing off on where their unreleased master is allowed to sit. You can build a private video page. You cannot build permission to receive the film.
ENOriginal research content in English. Original prompt preserved in English.
Build me a watermarked private screener site for footage I own: my own film,
a rough cut for producers, a festival submission I control. This is the
deliberately low-stakes floor of CineSend, never a substitute for it when
someone else's unreleased master is involved. Requirements:
- Node + Express + better-sqlite3 on a VPS, media in Cloudflare R2, hls.js for
playback. Server-rendered pages, no frontend framework.
- I invite viewers by name and email. Each gets a single-use /s/<random-id> link tied
to that address, with an expiry date and a max view count I set per invite.
- ffmpeg burns the viewer's name, email, and the date into the picture as a semi
transparent overlay, one encode per viewer, cached in R2 and deleted on expiry. It
is visible and it is meant to be, deterrence is the entire mechanism.
- Every play logs timestamp, IP, user agent, and how far they watched, shown on an
/admin page behind basic auth. I can revoke any link instantly.
- Downloads are off, right click is off, and the manifest URL is signed and short
lived. State plainly in the UI that none of this stops a screen recording.
- SQLite holds invites and the access log, R2 keys and the SMTP credentials come from
.env. No accounts for viewers, no telemetry, no third party analytics.
- Out of scope: DRM, forensic watermarking, and TV apps. Do not claim to implement
any of them and do not build a fake watermark that only sounds forensic.
- README: R2 and signed URL setup, per-viewer encode cost and time, and one blunt
paragraph saying this is deterrence only and must never be used for a title under
someone else's security requirements.The prompt opens pre-filled in your agent. Review it before running.
What would building your own look like?
The honest floor: expiring private screener links with a visible per-viewer burn-in, view limits, and an access log. Deterrence, not security.
What you will need
- ffmpeg
- object storage plus a CDN
- a VPS for the screener pages
- an email sender for invites
- an accurate understanding of what a visible watermark does and does not stop
They pay to be allowed to hold the file. A distributor's security requirements are a contract term, not a preference, and the accepted vendor list is short on purpose. When a screener leaks, forensic watermarking turns a catastrophe into a phone call to one person, and that single capability justifies the whole line item. Nobody is paying 797 dollars a month for a download page.
xNexGuard forensic watermarking that survives re-encoding and a phone pointed at the screen
xWidevine, FairPlay, and PlayReady DRM, which require licensed keys issued to companies
xthe studio and festival trust that makes anyone send you a master in the first place
xAspera acceleration for moving finished masters across continents
xbranded Apple TV, Roku, Fire TV, and smart TV apps for the screening room
xthe audit trail and chain of custody a distribution contract asks for
How much does CineSend cost?
- Monthly billing
- $797/mo$797/mo
- Per year
- $9,564/yr$9,564/yr
- On a Brazilian card, with 3.5% IOF
- R$4,165/moR$49,979/yr
Saved to My list. You will see a notice on this site when the price changes.
You complete the purchase on CineSend’s site. Vibe Radar does not handle payments.
| Plan | Monthly | Annual (per month) | What is included |
|---|---|---|---|
| cinesend files, teams | $797≈ $797 | - | 5 users; 6 TB storage; 150 screener links/month; Aspera sends billed separately. |
| cinesend files, enterprise | custom | - | Unlimited users, storage and screener links; custom security and support. |
| cinesend ott, pro | $1997≈ $1,997 | - | 3 TB storage; 250,000 streaming minutes/month; $0.01/minute overage. |
| cinesend ott, enterprise | custom | - | Unlimited storage; 1,000,000 streaming minutes/month; $0.01/minute overage. |
| cinesend request | custom | - | Free uploads; no file-size limit; 3-month storage; usage billed at $0.50/GB downloaded. |
Free tierno free tier
Billing termsMonthly base fees for Files/OTT; no public annual plan. CineSend Request is usage-only.
Additional costsFiles Teams charges $0.50/GB for Aspera sends; OTT charges $0.01 per streaming minute above the included allowance; CineSend Request charges $0.50/GB downloaded; taxes can be added.
verified 2026-08-12 · source ↗
Is it cheaper to build or buy CineSend?
Adjust the numbers: hours to build, your hourly rate, running costs and the subscription price.
Building pays for itself in 11 months.
Starting hours estimated from the analysis (not realistically solo). Does not price what you give up (support, integrations, security).
Can I rebuild CineSend?
Not really. CineSend’s value is not the code: the moat survives one prompt. See the honest breakdown above.
How much does CineSend cost?
CineSend costs about $797/mo (Files · Teams, checked 10/20/2026), which is $9,564 per year.
What do I lose by replacing CineSend?
Honestly: NexGuard forensic watermarking that survives re-encoding and a phone pointed at the screen; Widevine, FairPlay, and PlayReady DRM, which require licensed keys issued to companies; the studio and festival trust that makes anyone send you a master in the first place; Aspera acceleration for moving finished masters across continents; branded Apple TV, Roku, Fire TV, and smart TV apps for the screening room; the audit trail and chain of custody a distribution contract asks for. If any of those are load-bearing for you, keep paying.
Is there an open-source alternative to CineSend?
Yes: Nextcloud (Self-hosted file sharing with password-protected, expiring share links and access logs. Genuinely solves the delivery half, and stops exactly where the licensed half starts.), Shaka Packager (Open-source packaging with Common Encryption for Widevine and other DRM systems. Shows the wall clearly: you can encrypt the stream, but the license server and the device keys are not yours to issue.). Using prior art is also vibecoding; the prompt is for when you want it exactly your way.