I watched clients get extorted. So I built the alternative.
After 20+ years building websites, I've seen the same playbook too many times: start cheap, trap customers, then squeeze. Here's why Viewphoric exists.
How the Extortion Works
Step 1: The Hook
Video platforms advertise competitive pricing. You upload your content, build your site around their embed codes, train your team on their dashboard. Everything works great.
Step 2: The Trap
Your video library grows. Your audience grows. You're successful - which means you're now sufficiently captured. Migrating hundreds of videos would take weeks. Your embed codes are everywhere. Your URLs are indexed by Google. You're stuck.
Step 3: The Squeeze
Then comes the price increase. Not because you did anything wrong, but because they know you can't leave. Egress fees skyrocket. Bandwidth limits tighten. Your $50/month bill becomes $500, then $1,100. Pay up or lose access to your own content.
This isn't a bug. It's the business model.
They're not evil people. They're just optimizing for revenue. But as a developer watching clients get squeezed year after year, I couldn't keep building on platforms I didn't trust.
The Breaking Point
I've been building websites since 2003. Over those 20+ years, I've worked with dozens of clients - course creators, SaaS companies, educational platforms. And I've watched the same nightmare play out over and over.
One client ran an online course platform. Started at $45/month with their video host. Built their entire business around it. Two years later? $1,100/month. Same content, same bandwidth - just more successful. The provider knew they were trapped.
Another client got hit with a surprise $3,200 bill for "excess egress" when their marketing video went viral. They weren't celebrating their success - they were panicking about the bill.
Every time, the math was brutal: weeks of developer time to migrate, thousands in costs, broken embed codes, lost SEO. Cheaper to just pay the ransom.
After the third or fourth time explaining to a client why they were stuck, I realized I couldn't keep building on platforms I didn't trust. So I built one I could.
Viewphoric charges for storage. Egress is free. Your files are yours. No tricks, no traps, no bullshit.
— Will Koia, Founder
The Alternative
Viewphoric is built on three principles that make lock-in impossible:
Free Egress, Always
No bandwidth charges. No egress fees. Ever. Your content gets viewed? That's success, not a billing event. We charge for storage because storage costs money. We don't charge for bandwidth because that's where the trap is set.
Your Files, Your Access
Direct R2 access to your video library. Download everything in minutes, not weeks. We're not holding your content hostage - it's stored on Cloudflare R2 with S3-compatible APIs. You can migrate out anytime without asking permission.
Transparent Pricing
Storage costs are public and predictable. No hidden fees, no surprise bills, no "contact sales for enterprise pricing." You know exactly what you'll pay before you upload a single video.
I can't stop other platforms from using lock-in tactics.
But I can build one that doesn't. That's Viewphoric.
"Build platforms you can trust. Don't build on ones you can't."