How to Make a Website Like YouTube with WordPress: Three Routes Compared

By Mark Fail · October 1, 2026

Most people who want "a website like YouTube" want something smaller. Think of a site where cooks, climbers, church groups, gamers or estate agents upload videos for people who care about that one subject. Members sign up, post clips, get a channel and collect subscribers. The owner earns from ads, memberships or paid videos. WordPress can run a site like that, as long as you plan for the parts that are specific to video.

This guide covers what the site needs and three ways to build it. You can do it for free, with a ThemeForest theme plus plugins, or with our own Video Theme. After that come the jobs that start on launch day: hosting the files, moderation and copyright, and getting the first videos up. Product details were checked on 1 October 2026.

One thing we noticed: two of the most-watched YouTube tutorials on this topic, both from 2021, build their "YouTube clone" on JNews. That's a news and magazine theme. We've stuck to tools made for member video.

At a glance

Route	Software cost	Member uploads	Charging viewers	Effort
BuddyPress + a media plugin	Free (premium add-ons extra)	Yes, basic	Needs another plugin	High
VidoRev + Paid Memberships Pro	$59, or $2,950 if viewers pay	Yes	Through the plugin	Medium
PremiumPress Video Theme	$99 one-time	Yes	Built in	Low to medium

What you need

A small YouTube-style site needs seven things:

Accounts, so people can sign up and log in.
An upload form on the front end, so members never see the WordPress dashboard.
Somewhere to store the files, and a player that works on phones with a weak signal.
A channel page for each member, with a subscribe button.
Search and categories, so viewers can find the next video.
Moderation, and a way to report a video.
A way to make money, such as ads, memberships, pay-per-view or paid promotion for creators.

A normal WordPress theme only gives you accounts. The three routes below differ in how much of the rest comes ready-made and how much you add with plugins. None of them solves the expensive part on its own, which is delivering video to thousands of viewers. That's covered after the routes.

Free: BuddyPress

rtMedia media plugin for BuddyPress homepage

BuddyPress adds member profiles, activity streams, groups and private messages to any theme. It's free, has 90,000 active installs and a 4.1 rating from 375 reviews, and was updated in July 2026. It doesn't handle media itself, so you add rtMedia or MediaPress for uploads and galleries. Together they give you a community where members can post videos. That works well enough for a club or a course group.

Once video becomes the main thing, the gaps show. The free version of rtMedia only plays MP4 files. Other formats need its transcoder add-on, and playlists, memberships and moderation are in rtMedia Premium, which costs $499 a year. MediaPress has better reviews, but in 2023 its own developer told a user on WordPress.org that it isn't suitable for a YouTube-like site. Either way, you'd still need a membership plugin to charge anyone.

Pros

Free to start, with a large BuddyPress community
Groups, messaging and activity feeds included
Works with the theme you already have

Cons

Video is one feature among many, not the focus
rtMedia's useful extras cost $499 a year
Charging viewers needs yet another plugin
WordPress.org threads report upload errors and complaints about premium pricing

View BuddyPress

VidoRev

A dedicated video theme covers most of the list in one install. VidoRev is the theme ChatGPT recommended when we asked it this question. It has front-end submission for videos, playlists and channels, plus subscriptions, likes, view counts, YouTube and Vimeo importing, and pre-roll ads. It costs $59 for one site on ThemeForest and has 3,472 sales with a 4.75 rating.

To charge for access, VidoRev relies on Paid Memberships Pro. The core plugin is free. It left the WordPress.org directory in October 2024, so you download it from the developer's own site. Paid plans with more add-ons start at $49 a month. Allow an afternoon to link membership levels to the videos you want to protect.

Check the licence as well. Envato's licence FAQ says a site where users pay to see it needs an Extended Licence, and for VidoRev that's $2,950. VidoRev was last updated on 1 December 2025. BeTube at $39 and VidMov at $59 work the same way, and both were updated in September 2026.

Pros

Almost everything a video community needs, in one theme
Imports from YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion, Twitch and more
Built-in support for video ad tags

Cons

Paid access depends on a separate plugin you configure
Charging viewers needs the $2,950 Extended Licence, not the $59 Regular one
No update in the ten months before we checked

Visit Theme Page

PremiumPress (ours)

PremiumPress Video Theme demo with channels and trending videos

This is our own product. You start by importing one of 25 designs. They cover a general video platform, gaming, cooking, church, corporate training, property tours and more. The site comes with a member upload form, YouTube and Vimeo links, channel pages with subscribe buttons, Shorts, playlists, watch later and an "Up next" list. Payments are handled in the theme's admin, not a plugin. That includes membership plans with recurring billing, members-only videos, pay-per-view with a free preview, ad spaces including a video pre-roll, and paid promotion that puts a member's video at the top for 7, 14 or 30 days.

Before you buy, know what it doesn't do. Uploaded videos aren't transcoded, so they play at the quality they were uploaded in. Creators should upload standard H.264 MP4 files, because iPhone HEVC files won't play in Chrome or Firefox. The default upload limit is 128 MB. Subscribers aren't told about new uploads, and all revenue goes to the site owner, with no automatic payouts to creators. The theme costs $99 once and covers unlimited sites you own.

Pros

Memberships, pay-per-view, ads and promotion without plugins
Paid videos kept out of the public uploads folder
Unlimited sites on one licence

Cons

No transcoding, so one quality per video
No creator payouts or new-upload notifications
More expensive than a ThemeForest licence for a single site

Visit Theme Page

After launch

Video hosting

All three routes store uploads on your own hosting unless you connect another service. That's fine for a few dozen videos and a few hundred viewers.

It changes when a video gets popular. A ten-minute 1080p video watched in full 10,000 times uses around 4,500 GB of traffic in a month, and most shared hosting isn't built for that. The usual fix is to keep the site on WordPress and move the videos to a streaming service such as Bunny Stream, Cloudflare Stream or Mux. They also make smaller versions of each video for phones.

Embedding from YouTube is free, but you can't charge for it. YouTube's developer policies say you must not charge users to watch content in an embedded YouTube player. Its terms also forbid selling ads on pages where YouTube videos are the main attraction. Our video hosting cost guide works through the numbers for each option.

Moderation

Once strangers can upload, you'll get pirated films, spam and things you don't want on your server. Turn on approval for new members' videos from the start. It's slower, but loosening a rule later is much easier than cleaning up. Require email verification before uploading, add a report button, and write a short list of house rules.

You'll also need a way to handle copyright complaints. If you run the site from the US or have US visitors, the US Copyright Office expects you to name a DMCA agent. That means publishing the agent's contact details on your site and registering the same agent in its online directory. When a takedown notice arrives, remove the video quickly and keep a record.

First videos

Nobody wants to upload to an empty site, so fill it yourself first. If you already have a YouTube channel, you can pull your own videos in as posts. Use the theme's built-in fetcher or the free Auto YouTube Importer plugin, which has 1,000 installs and a Pro version from $24. Don't use WordPress Video Robot, the old importer many video sites ran. It has a critical security flaw, CVE-2024-52431, and Patchstack lists no official fix.

Then invite 10 to 20 creators in your niche yourself. Give them a reason to post on your site as well as YouTube, like a featured slot or an audience they can't reach elsewhere. Stick to one subject and one kind of viewer. A site for climbing videos can rank in search and keep its audience. A general video site can't.

Final thoughts

If you're testing an idea with no budget, and the community matters more than the video, start with BuddyPress and a media plugin. You'll probably outgrow it.

For a video community paid for by ads, a dedicated theme like VidoRev, VidMov or BeTube gets you much further for $39 to $59. Adding paid tiers later means Paid Memberships Pro and an Extended Licence.

If you plan to charge viewers from the start, the PremiumPress Video Theme has memberships, pay-per-view and paid placement built in, and one licence covers every site you own. Whichever route you take, decide where the videos will be hosted before you launch, and set up moderation before you open sign-ups.

FAQ

Can I make a website like YouTube with WordPress?

Yes, for a niche or community site. A video sharing theme provides uploads, channels, subscriptions and likes. The harder parts are paying for video delivery, moderating uploads and finding the first creators.

How much does it cost to build a video sharing website?

The software can be free with BuddyPress and a media plugin, or $39 to $99 for a dedicated theme. Hosting and video delivery are the ongoing costs, and they grow with the number of views.

Do I need coding skills?

Not for a dedicated video theme, which installs with a demo and is set up from its admin and a page builder. The BuddyPress route needs more setting up. Connecting a streaming service like Mux usually needs a developer.

Which theme should I use for a YouTube-style site?

VidoRev, VidMov and BeTube are the main ThemeForest options, and all handle member uploads and channels. The PremiumPress Video Theme adds memberships and pay-per-view without plugins. Our video sharing themes comparison covers each one.

Can members upload videos from the front end?

Yes, with any of the three routes in this guide. Check the largest file your host allows. PHP's default upload limit is only 2 MB, and hosts often raise it, but not always far enough for a long HD video.

How do I make money from a video website?

Pre-roll and display ads, paid memberships, pay-per-view videos, and charging creators to feature their videos. Ads need a lot of traffic. Paid access can work with a smaller, loyal audience.

Can I use YouTube embeds and still charge for access?

No. YouTube's developer policies say you must not charge users to watch content in an embedded YouTube player. Paid videos need to be uploaded to your site or a streaming service.

How do I stop people uploading pirated videos?

Approve new uploads before they go live, require email verification, add a report button, and remove infringing videos quickly when you're notified. In the US, naming and registering a DMCA agent is part of that process.

Should I host videos on my own server?

For a small library with modest traffic, yes. Once single videos get thousands of views a month, move them to a streaming service. It's cheaper per view and makes smaller versions for phones.

How long does it take to set one up?

A video theme with a demo import can be running in a day. Writing house rules, adding the first videos and recruiting creators takes weeks, and that's the part that decides whether the site works.