How I built a fully automated anime streaming platform with 2,733 episodes on $0 infrastructure

The Challenge I wanted to prove that a complete streaming platform could be built with zero monetary investment . No AWS credits. No paid hosting. Just free tiers, automation, and a lot of JavaScript. The result: 161+ anime titles, 2,733 episodes, 15 languages, and a full admin panel – all running on $0/month infrastructure. The Stack Layer Technology Frontend Next.js 14, React, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS Backend API Cloudflare Workers (serverless) Database Cloudflare D1 (SQLite) + Supabase (PostgreSQL) Cache Cloudflare KV (< 50ms response time) Auth Supabase Auth Notifications Firebase FCM Video Player HLS.js with custom CORS-proxy bypass Hosting Vercel (frontend) + Cloudflare Workers (API) Infrastructure cost: $0/month. Yes, really. The Hard Parts 1. HLS Streaming with CORS Bypass Video streams (M3U8 playlists) from third-party sources often block cross-origin requests. I built a custom proxy route that: Fetches the M3U8 playlist Rewrites all segment URLs to go through the proxy Streams back the modified playlist to the client Handles CORS headers properly The proxy handles both .m3u8 playlists and binary segments ( .ts , .m4s ) while preserving Range headers for partial content. Code snippet – proxy playlist rewriting: javascript const rewritten = text .split(/\r?\n/) .map(line => { const trimmed = line.trim(); if (!trimmed || trimmed.startsWith('#') || trimmed.includes('/api/proxy')) { return line; } try { const resolved = new URL(trimmed, baseUrl).toString(); return `/api/proxy?url=${encodeURIComponent(resolved)}`; } catch { return line; } }) .join('\n');