Show HN: Horizon – Private alternative to Imgur

Looks great, and clearly a lot of time and thought invested. Not news to you, I'm sure, but these sites typically only last for a while. Because nobody has really hit on a way to subsidize a reasonable free plan enough to pay for the bandwidth it collectively consumes, and to implement enough spam protection. Especially once it hits a certain adoption curve. So they either die or find a way to push ads, like imgur did. This is so nice though, I'm really rooting for it to find a way.

I have always wondered how "hosting" sites deal with malicious actors, like sharing of copywritten stuff (like movies), xxx stuff or worse (cp).

Is there content moderation at the backend of Horizon?

The marketing says that this is an Alternative to Imgur, but the product doesn't feel like an alternative to Imgur, it feels like an alternative to OneDrive. It shares more features with Gyazo, the other product you compare it to, but I don't see it being a solid upsell.

Is marketed to Imgur users as a better alternative for broadly sharing memes on the Internet, and if so why is privacy and encryption important? Couldn't privacy be a limiting factor, since Imgur is first and foremost a social network? Wouldn't the limited space of the free plan be a dealbreaker for someone happily using Imgur in an unlimited capacity for free?

Is it marketed to business users that actually prioritize privacy, and if so, aren't you worried that comparing it to a Social Network like Imgur would betray the privacy angle? Where are the enterprise options that allow me to onboard people with SSO/MFA and protect sensitive files from people outside of the organization? There are too many security holes in this product to trust it for business use, especially copying the full URL to every shared object to the clipboard where it can be accessed with anyone with the URL...

If someone actually wanted to use this service to store and share large files, you only offer 100GB for $5/month, and limit file sizes to 10GB. For $2/month you can get 100GB on Google Drive with roughly the same capabilities, and for $10 you can get 2TB on Google Drive or MEGA, with the latter being encrypted by default. $10 from Office 365 gets you 6TB of cloud storage with sharing capabilities. The pricing for Horizon storage is outrageous by comparison to every competitor's offerings.

Furthermore, you have to read through the pricing page to discover that encryption at-rest isn't default, and you have to turn it on for files you want encrypted, and it doesn't even tell you what kind of encryption or how the recipient decrypts it. Alternatives like MEGA still have you beat in that regard.

Incredible timing, I was just looking for somewhere to store and share my video game clips. This looks more appealing (cheaper) than Streamable.

I love that there is a Linux Appimage but does it also work with just a browser?

Why don't you have cloudflare caching enabled on the images?

How is it private if you can't self host?

(I'm hoping I missed something :)

Maybe stupid question but can video files uploaded be played in the browser? I’m always frustrated when I want to share a game clip with friends and it seems like the options are YouTube which is overkill and a few services like streamable that are too expensive for just casual sharing

Congrats on the launch! But, something that stops me from using a number of services is the sale of fixed size plans where I'll typically either under utilize them (e.g. do I have 100 GB of screenshots to upload) or I'll over utilize and might not have an upgrade path immediately available for more storage.

I tend to toss my photos in backblaze or S3 for this reason -- UX is severely lacking but I pay for what I use. I'm curious how you landed on the subscriptions you chose + whether you'd consider usage based plans?

Unlimited Bandwidth*

Keep on sharing with peace of mind that your files will always be accessible for those who need them.

What about sharing them in a forum post which may become viral or may be targeted by a ddos attack?

So... it's an S3 bucket with a CDN?

"Full-stack engineer" is usually a job title or career, I find it weird to introduce oneself as a "17-year-old full-stack engineer". Is it just me?

You certainly have the skills but can one be an amateur professional?

Should add the names of your competitors under the logos. I'm sure they're very famous, I'm assuming Imgur and something else - but I don't recognize either of the logos.

It was surprisingly easy to configure ShareX to work with Horizon! Handles deletion and putting the URL of the uploaded file in the clipboard and all.

Hopefully you guys could collaborate to become a default file/image destination uploader that actually handles logging in and logging out of an account.

https://i.horizon.pics/35dwiVGxz8 <-- Uploaded via ShareX.

```

// Uploader import string

  {
    "Version": "16.1.0",
    "Name": "horizon.pics",
    "DestinationType": "ImageUploader",
    "RequestMethod": "POST",
    "RequestURL": "https://api.horizon.pics/upload",
    "Headers": {
      "Cookie": "token=YOUR_SESSION_HERE"
    },
    "Body": "MultipartFormData",
    "FileFormName": "file",
    "URL": "{json:.data.fileLink}",
    "DeletionURL": "{json:.data.deleteLink}",
    "ErrorMessage": "{json:.message}"
  }

Congrats, it looks great, love that you have Linux app support.

Question, have you done the business analysis to know how long you can afford to run the system when giving away 500MB? Even your paid model seems really inexpensive. Do you have enough margin to immediately not go broke?

I am not trying to throw shade, I am just curious because it almost seems too good to be true since you aren’t running any ads and your price is free and/or cheap

Unlike Imgur, Horizon has absolutely no ads, doesn't sell your data, has built-in security and privacy controls, and is fully focused on your file sharing needs. No social media or other bloat.

This is exactly how imgur started. It was a reddit user, providing a service for fellow redditors. I am not being snarky. As others have said, media hosting can never really be free.

Image hosting is not a viable business.

Source: every image host that has ever existed (note the past tense)

Just a quick note. That you have pricing up front is such a big thing. Places like Imgur and photobucket before it were out to be exploited merely for their free bandwidth.

There is a clear means of funding this and that instills confidence.

One other note, I also am a lot more likely to jump onto a service if there is an easy escape plan. While you don't want to loose customers, having an easy out allows people to exit on amicable terms.

Unlike Imgur, Horizon has absolutely no ads, doesn't sell your data, has built-in security and privacy controls, and is fully focused on your file sharing needs. No social media or other bloat.

Why and how is your service's financial future secured? I took a quick glance, and your free tier is perfectly adequate for most people.

Horizon allows you to quickly upload and store all types of files, from images and video, to PDFs and other documents.

Can I easily upload something from any of my computers (desktop, laptop, phone, tablet) in basically one or two easy steps?

One of the reasons I don't use imgur anymore and instead use Discord (yes, Discord) for my image hosting needs is because I could not upload anything to imgur from my phone or tablet. Yes, an image hosting service that won't let me upload from the most prevalent computing devices of our time.

I don't care if imgur is spamming me with ads or torturing me with a terrible UI, an image hosting service that won't let me upload is literally useless to me.

On Discord I can upload anything by just clickdragging or copypastaing into the client. Dead simple, dead easy, dead quick, dead done. And it's not even an image or file hosting service, it's a bloody instant messaging and voicecomms service.

The desktop app is completely free to use! It's powered by Tauri using TypeScript, SvelteKit, Sass, and Rust.

Don't care about any of that jargonsoup, is it lightweight and fast with a UI that respects humans? Also, why is there no Windows client?

Very clean and easy to use.

90% of my coworkers with “decades of experience” and “senior” in their titles would not even be able to build something like this in their full time. Let alone part or spare time.

If for whatever reason, you don’t find traction, and/or get bored of running it, I’d be interested in acquiring it into a nonprofit entity and running it in some sort of public good fashion. But put your heart into it first. Looks great, really well done.

Privacy and security are important considerations for file hosting services, and Horizon seems to be addressing these well with its built-in controls and encryption features. The desktop app integration is a nice touch that could make the service more convenient to use.

Just wanted to applaud you — I'm over twice your age and would not be able to create something like this.

Can I ask when you started programming/building things? Was it a natural interest or did you receive encouragement from someone in your life?

Wishing Horizon all the best, excited to use it!

Are there any plans for Windows App support? There are more Windows 10 and 11 users than all iOS, iPadOS, and MacOS users combined

So if I upload a pic and send a link to that pic to my friend does my friend also have to sign in ?

Hey, dude, your site is pretty sick. Great job. Optional email! A minor gripe: the blue on green for your “Sign in with google” is kind of hard to read on my iPhone. Black or white perhaps might be better?

How do you make the economics work? Cloudflare in front? R2 for storage?

Holy balls and a desktop app in Tauri?! Dude you are a skilled 17 yo. You’ve been doing it for 3 years? Haha the kids are going to be all right. Good shit, mate.

Screenshot:

https://i.horizon.pics/jtlZYhVxzb

This looks pretty cool, does it work with ShareX? Where you can directly screenshot and upload the images from your desktop?

Do you do all the design/UI/UX yourself?

Out of curiosity, why did you name the paid plan Everest?

It looks so awesome! Is it related to Ente?

This is very well done, congrats on the launch and I am extremely impressed by your decisions (to keep this as simple as possible, to avoid scanning, and to provide apps). I am equally, if not more, impressed by your replies to comments here and criticism. Keep up the good work!

Where do you host it? I see that nsfw is allowed, what vps does allow it?

This is quote nice.

One of the things I've always liked about imgur is the ability to paste images from the clipboard as well as drag and drop onto the page.

Great work!

2 questions:

1) Do you support RAW images?

2) Do you have larger paid plans?

Congratulations and best of luck. I've a feature request - custom domains. As the images can be shared, I'd with to share with https://mydomain.foo.bar/nice.jpg

The attention to detail on the landing page is amazing. The Apple-style feature boxes, the animations, the subtle blur effect for content at the bottom, the button shadows... I love it. You've got an amazing career ahead of you.

Hosting user generated content is one of the quick ways to run into awful content.

You have to take the necessary precautions, both legal and technological, to prevent awful content from becoming problematic.

Also according to your own terms of service you cannot access the website yourself, that is odd.

Impressive stuff - especially for a 17-year-old working in their spare time! Best of luck, not that it looks like you'll need it!

Wow, super impressive. I wouldn't even have dreamed of making something like this at 17.

i mean, there's already puush, pixeldrain and tens of other tiny chibisafe/pomf/uguu/jirafeau instances that play well with sharex instead of bothering with their own app, but having another mirror can't hurt.

Extremely impressive. Very nice work.

Is there some kind of API support? Could not find anything about ability to use API instead of clients.

congrats on the launch! this is very cool.

Great work, and portfolio looks great too. Most professional devs can’t get a product out, so you’re on the way.

A cool demonstration of your skills but not a viable business unfortunately.

Others have said this, but t bears repeating: When you reach the size where you can actually make good money your site will be hosting plenty of malware and other illegal content.

Very cool! Congrats on the launch!

This looks really great. Impressive work, especially for your age.

I think the bottom half of your landing page is much stronger than the top half. Why talk about encryption before explaining what the actual features are? "Sharing" is pretty vague and describes many apps. It might be better to lead with the actual features or usecases. Note that you went with a different pitch in this HN post: "it's a file hosting service [...] like imgur". That indicates your hero message needs some work.

You also have essentially two calls to action. "Get started" and "Download for mac". One call to action is better. Your sign up form also looks a bit busy and only has the text "create your horizon account" which conveys no useful information when instead you could explain why people should sign up and point out that it's free forever, which your users wouldn't know if they clicked through to "get started" right from the landing page.

At the bottom of the landing page you have a "sign up" in the paid plan but it links to the same sign up form. Why make people choose between paid and free when it later turns out the choice isn't real? That's a wasted opportunity. You should have only sign up button in the pricing plans section if there is only one sign up page. Alternatively, ask for credit card details if people show interest in the paid plan.

If you make $40/yr for a pro user then you'll need 25,000 pro users for each million in revenue. This is the kind of business where you're gonna have 200 free users for every paid user so about 5 million free accounts for each million in revenue. If 20% of site visitors sign up and 30% of those continue to use your service you need drive 75 million visitors to your landing page to get 1 million in ARR. Not impossible, but pretty difficult. imgur got large because reddit didn't want to do images themselves. Nowadays imaging hosting has become a lot easier because of AWS and Cloudflare, so you'll have to work a lot harder at getting traction.

Monetization and abuse has been mentioned a bunch as things to consider as you gain more users, but I'll add a couple more I think are relevant, at least once the service is big enough.

Your payment processor. Payment processors might get triggered by the fact that adult content is pretty much explicitly allowed. They might also just generally deem you "high risk" and kick you out. I think this is one of the biggest risks you run. For example Stripe, according to their legal docs, prohibit "Cyberlockers, regardless of whether they host adult content", whatever that means, but it sounds a lot like file sharing in general is a prohibited business.

Ever-tightening think-of-the-children laws. You may not want to implement expensive and privacy invasive scanning (note that even local scanning may be privacy invasive[1]), but you might be forced or face a fine. You could always do like Google and budget it in as an expense, love that "fines" line in their reports. This may also be relevant to the previous one, since payment processors might deem you higher risk if you have no scanning.

Getting blacklisted for hosting malware. Specifically the support for non-media files. You could end up being blocked by browsers, search engines and whatnot. See for example Google Safe Browsing.

[1] https://rys.io/en/173.html