Draft:Pixeldrain

Pixeldrain is a file sharing service developed in 2015 by Fornaxian Technologies (headquartered in The Netherlands). Pixeldrain allows anyone to upload to their servers, for free, without signup. It supports uploading through RClone, FTPS, and the standard web uploader, and certain file types can be viewed online as previews. Pixeldrain can be used and viewed on any device, create files and documents in the cloud (for premium users only), on any device, and upload from any device.

Pixeldrain

CEO	Wim Brand
Revenue	$31,110/month
URL	https://pixeldrain.com/#
Advertising	None
Launched	June 7th, 2015
Written in	Go, Svelte, JavaScript

Pixeldrain offers 20GB storage space for the free subscription with a 5GB fast bandwidth limit, Pro has unlimited storage, and 4TB fast bandwidth limit, and more can be found here. All paid options have a file upload size limit of 100GB, while the free option has a file upload size limit of 20GB. All paid options also include discord benefits, such as custom roles.

History

Pixeldrain was created as part of the Sia ecosystem, which is known for its decentralized storage marketplace. The service was founded by Wim Brand, who was inspired by the potential of Sia's network to provide a competitive and secure cloud storage solution.

Features

• File Sharing: Users can upload any file and receive a shareable link instantly.
• Previews: Supports previews for images, videos, audio, PDFs, and more.
• Speed: Designed to be as fast as possible to minimize waiting times during downloads.
• Accounts: While not required, accounts enable access to files and albums across devices and allow users to rename and delete uploaded files.

Privacy and Policy

Pixeldrain values user privacy, operating without advertisements or third-party tracking scripts. It also does not require an email address for account registration.

Financial Model

The service operates on a freemium model, offering both free and paid subscription plans. The Pro plan provides additional benefits and features, and users are encouraged to support the service through these subscriptions to help maintain and improve Pixeldrain.

Technology

Initially built using Java, Pixeldrain transitioned to Go for its simplicity, a move inspired by Sia's development team. It became the first significant website to leverage Sia's network for file sharing, serving tens of thousands of users weekly. Pixeldrain then moved to it's own domain, pixeldrain.com. The server hosting company Pixeldrain uses is FDC Servers, and the backend storage company that Pixeldrain uses is Hetzner, a German web hosting company. These were both chosen by the owner because of them being good quality, and cheap, which is what the owner wanted Pixeldrain to be. Pixeldrain is also open-source, and also hosted on Github, and has almost all of the website assets, and backends on it. The servers use multiple different softwares, and frameworks to be as fast as possible, such as Nginx, and Ubuntu Server Edition.

Challenges

Running a file sharing website on Sia's network presented early challenges, requiring constant monitoring and adjustments due to the rapidly evolving technology. Pixeldrain had to implement caching strategies to mitigate latency issues and ensure a smooth user experience. The server hosting provider, FDC, required a lot of work and remote maintenance to maintain. Later on, Pixeldrain was starting to grow in popularity, and was then flooded with inappropriate content uploaded by users. He then implemented a report button on the file site, which allowed users to report, and flag inappropriate content. The reported content would be manually, or automatically removed if it violated Pixeldrain's TOS. It was then later discovered that Pixeldrain's main domain name was being blocked in certain areas, by ISPs, and the owner was unaware of why the ISPs had done this.

Impact

Pixeldrain has grown significantly since its inception, with May 2019 being its busiest month, serving over 130,000 unique visitors. It continues to be a popular choice for users looking for a fast and user-friendly file sharing service.