How Video Planner is Made

How Video Planner is built, why it's free for everyone, what paid plans pay for, open-source credits, and how to report bugs or security issues.

How Video Planner is made

Video Planner is built and run by Eddie Bingham at EB IT Support Ltd, an IT support and web development company in Boston, Lincolnshire. It started as a tool for planning my own videos and streams as EddiesLife247, and grew into a platform for creators, their editors and the brands they work with.

Why it's here for everyone

I could have kept Video Planner to myself. It started as my own planning tool for EddiesLife247, and for a long time that's all it was: a way to stop losing video ideas in notes apps, keep scripts in one place, and remember which music was actually safe to use.

But I kept seeing other creators struggling with exactly the same things. Ideas scattered everywhere, editors chasing files, streams planned on the back of an envelope, and copyright strikes from music nobody had checked. Building it just for me felt like a waste when it could help a lot more people.

So I opened it up. The free plan is there so anyone can start planning properly, whether you're on your first video or your thousandth. The paid plans exist only to cover what it costs to run and keep improving it.

If Video Planner helps you, the best thanks is to tell another creator about it, and to tell me what would make it better. Every suggestion gets read.

How it's built

Video Planner is a custom web app written in PHP with a MariaDB database. It doesn't use an off-the-shelf website builder or a big framework, so every part of it was made for this site.

Encryption at rest: your scripts, notes, messages, names and email addresses are encrypted before they're saved. Even someone with a copy of the database can't read them.
Built-in security: a firewall, spam and sign-in protection, passkeys, and an audit log of any staff access to accounts.
Live editing together: you and your team can type in the same script or doc at the same time, using code written for Video Planner rather than a third-party service.
Only a few outside parts: the look and icons come from Bootstrap and Bootstrap Icons, and drag-and-drop from SortableJS. All three are free and open-source; see the licence section below.

Built with AI, by a person. I design, direct, review and test Video Planner myself, and I use AI coding tools (Claude, by Anthropic) to help write the code. Every feature is checked against an automated test suite of over two thousand checks before it goes live. The decisions, and the responsibility, are mine.

Is the source code available?

Not at the moment. Video Planner is a hosted service: you use it here, and the code stays on our servers. That's normal for online services, and it's part of how we keep it secure and pay for it.

Your data is yours. You can ask for a copy of your data at any time. See our Privacy policy.
No secrets rely on hidden code. Your security comes from encryption, keys and passwords that are never shared, not from keeping the code private.
Curious how something works? Just ask. I'm happy to explain the approach, and I may publish some general-purpose parts as open source in future.

Why some plans cost money

There's a free plan, and the paid plans are what keep Video Planner running, improving and independent. We don't sell your data and we don't show adverts. What your subscription pays for:

Hosting: the servers that run the site and database every day, all day, with the security and updates that come with them.
Data storage and backups: keeping your plans, scripts, thumbnail mock-ups and team files safe, encrypted and backed up.
Google and YouTube: channel syncing, insights and trending topics use Google's YouTube API, and Google Drive is used if you connect it. Google limits how much each app can use. Keeping access, raising those limits and passing Google's required security reviews all take ongoing time and cost.
Domain names and security certificates: videoplanner.co.uk and the certificates that keep every connection encrypted.
Email: sign-in links, password resets, team invites and notifications.
Payments: card payments go through Stripe, which charges a fee on each payment.
Development and support: new features, fixes, security updates, AI tools, and answering your questions.

Paid plans also mean the platform doesn't depend on advertising, so you're the customer, not the product.

Thank you

Video Planner wouldn't exist without a lot of people:

Everyone who uses it: every creator, editor, moderator and brand who plans with Video Planner, and especially those who tell us what's missing or what's broken.
Early testers and the EddiesLife247 community: for trying features before they were ready and being honest about them.
Paying members: your plan keeps the lights on and the site free of adverts.
The open-source community: the Bootstrap, Bootstrap Icons and SortableJS teams, and the many people behind PHP and MariaDB, who share their work for everyone to build on.

Licence

Video Planner - its code, design, text and branding - is © EB IT Support Ltd. All rights reserved. You may use the service under our Terms, but you may not copy, resell, or reproduce the platform or its code.

Your content stays yours. Your scripts, plans, notes and files belong to you. We only store and process them to run the service for you, as described in our Privacy policy.

Building your own

Could someone build their own planning platform? Of course. With today's AI tools, almost anyone can build something like Video Planner, and that's a good thing. Ideas and features, like a video board, a script editor or a music library, aren't owned by anyone, and I'd be glad to see more tools that help creators.

What is protected is this platform as it's actually made: its code, page designs, wording, guides and branding. In the UK, copyright applies automatically when a work is created - there's no register to sign up to. So copying Video Planner like for like, or reusing its code, text or look, isn't allowed without permission. Build your own, by all means; just make it yours.

Open-source components

Video Planner includes these open-source components, each used under its own licence:

YouTube and Google Drive are trademarks of Google LLC, Twitch is a trademark of Twitch Interactive, Inc., Dropbox is a trademark of Dropbox, Inc., Discord is a trademark of Discord Inc., and Stripe is a trademark of Stripe, Inc. Video Planner isn't endorsed by or affiliated with any of them.

Security & bug credits

Found a bug or a security problem? Thank you! Please report it privately through the contact page rather than posting it in public. Tell us what you found, where, and how to see it happen. Screenshots help.

If you're testing for security issues, please:

Only use your own accounts and test data. Never access, change or delete anyone else's.
Don't run attacks that slow the site down or spam other users or our team, such as floods, mass sign-ups or automated scanning at volume.
Stop as soon as you've shown a problem exists, and don't keep or share any data you came across.
Give us a reasonable time to fix it before telling anyone else.

In return, we'll:

Reply to let you know we've received your report, and keep you updated.
Fix confirmed issues as quickly as we can.
Not take action against anyone who reports in good faith and follows these guidelines.
Credit you below, with your permission and the name or handle you choose.

We don't currently offer paid bug bounties, but we're genuinely grateful for every report.

Hall of thanks

People who've helped make Video Planner better and safer:

Your name could be here. Report a bug or security issue to be credited.

Report a problem