Building ReelsLab — An AI Video Generation SaaS
I've been building ReelsLab for the past few weeks. The idea is simple: you type a prompt or upload an image, and you get a short AI-generated video back. No complicated setup, no expensive enterprise tier.
The stack is Next.js on the frontend, Cloudflare Workers for the backend, and KIE.AI for the actual video generation. Storage is on R2, the database is D1, and jobs run through Cloudflare Queues. The whole thing sits on Cloudflare's edge, which keeps latency low and costs manageable.
Video generation is async by nature — you submit a request, get a task ID, and wait. So the architecture is built around that. A worker picks up the job, calls the API, polls for completion, downloads the result, and drops it in R2. The user gets notified via Pusher when it's done. Nothing fancy, but it works reliably.
For payments I'm using Stripe with a credits system. You either buy a one-time pack or subscribe monthly. Unused credits roll over into the next month, which I think is fairer than the typical "use it or lose it" approach most tools take.
What's left to build: the Stripe integration is still being wired up, I need to add automatic cleanup for old files in R2, and eventually I want to add a basic in-browser video editor using FFmpeg.wasm so users can trim and splice clips without any server roundtrip.
A few things I'm still figuring out: whether FFmpeg.wasm is good enough for real editing or if I need a server-side approach, and whether the credits rollover mechanic actually drives subscription upgrades or just adds confusion.
If you've built something similar or have opinions on the video editor approach, I'd like to hear it.
