Opportunities › Download manager with broad filehoster and video site support › Proposed app
Clearhaul
Open-source download manager for file hosters and video sites, with no bundled junk
- Score
- 17
- confidence 41
- Evidence
- 3
- items on the page
- Rivals
- 3
- named in sources
- First version
- 45 d
- estimate
- Type
- Desktop and mobile
- PWA: on computers and phones alike
- Market since
- 2009
- Mature market · AI estimate
ScreensConcept
Desktop and mobile: Configuration and recipe verification happen at a desk, but monitoring and controlling downloads from any browser means mobile access for checking job status on the go. Sample screens on a computer and a phone, in the proposed brand. Their numbers are sample data.
Add links
Ready to queue12 links
About this appAI proposal
Clearhaul is a download manager you control from a web app on your phone or desktop. A small open-source worker runs on your own machine or server and does the downloading. You paste links from file hosters and video sites, and the worker fetches them and reports back.
It is for people who rely on download managers for obscure hosters and streaming sites, and who are tired of choosing between reach and safety. Developers and automation users can also queue jobs through an API.
The difference is trust. Every release is built in public from source, signed, and published with a checksum. The installer has no offers, no bundled software and no variation by IP address. Site support lives in small readable recipes that anyone can inspect and fix.
- Tagline
- Downloads that work, from software you can read.
- Voice
- PlainCandidTechnical
- Why this name
- Clear says the build is transparent and clean. Haul is the heavy lifting of fetching files from many places.
In the first version
Members say which features they would use. It tells PWAS what people want; it changes no score.
Clean, signed builds
Builds from public source, with signatures and checksums shown in the app. One installer for everyone, with nothing extra added.
No member yet
Site recipes you can read
Each hoster or video site is a small, open recipe. See what it does before it runs, and send a fix when a site changes.
No member yet
Remote control from any browser
Add links, watch progress and pause jobs from the installable web app while the worker runs at home or on a server.
No member yet
Captcha and wait-time handling
Handles countdowns and queues, and passes challenges to you for a quick solve when a hoster asks for a human.
No member yet
Brand identityAI proposal
Check the name against trademark registers before using it.
Palette
#1F5F5BDeep Teal · primary#F6F4EEPaper · surface#1E2A2BInk · text#E07A2FSignal Orange · accent#3B6EA5Slate Blue · data
Typography
Aa
Clearhaul
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 0123456789
Downloads that work, from software you can read.
PricingAI proposal
The material gives no competitor prices. These tiers are a starting point to test: the software stays free, and paid tiers cover the hosted remote control and automation.
Open
Free
- Open-source worker, self-hosted
- Signed builds and checksums
- Community recipes
- One remote device
Remote
$5 a month
- Unlimited remote devices
- Recipe health board and alerts
- Push notifications
- Encrypted settings sync
Automation
$15 a month
- API tokens and webhooks
- Multiple workers
- Priority recipe fixes
- Job history for 12 months
What it could be worthEstimate
What a software business making this much sells for today, from real deals. Pick a monthly revenue.
If it makes
Worth about
$194,000
Sale range $132,000 to $263,000
$120,000 a year in revenue
From 87 software businesses listed and sold on Empire Flippers in the last year, revenue vetted by the broker: they sell for about 19× their monthly revenue, most between 13× and 26×.
Measured on profit, the middle deal is 32× monthly net profit: about 2.7 years of profit.
An estimate, not an offer or financial advice. A real price depends on profit, growth, churn, how much of the work is the owner's, and the buyer.
How it would growAI proposal
How the product would reach new customers through its own use, and how the first ones would be found. A plan to test, not a result.
- Built-in loop
- No loop in the product. Clearhaul reaches customers through open-source channels, forum posts about clean installers and recipe contributions. The product has no built-in sharing step.
- Do they become customers?
- Open-source users can become paying customers if they want remote control or automation. To test: how many self-hosting users upgrade to Remote within 60 days of install.
- First customers
- Self-hosting developers and homelab users who already run a download tool and want a clean, scriptable replacement for obscure hosters.
- Where to reach them
- Hacker News and Reddit: Post a Show HN with the signed-build story and a public recipe list, and answer security questions openly.
- GitHub: Publish the worker and recipes, and label good first issues for contributors to add hosters.
- Self-hosting communities: Offer a one-command container setup in homelab forums and Discord groups.
- First milestone
- Fifty active self-hosted workers and ten paying Remote subscribers within 90 days.
Why people already pay for this
- AI inferenceJDownloader bundles adware and malware in its official installer, with packages that differ by IP address and install without user consent
- Public claimJDownloader is used despite adware and malware because it works with more obscure file hosters and streaming sites than alternatives
- Public claimJDownloader's website security failures made it inevitable that someone would compromise it to spread malware
Tech stack
Every proposal builds on the same PWA base, installable from the browser on any phone or computer. Dashed boxes are what this app adds.
- AppNext.js and TypeScript
- PWAManifest and service worker
- UITailwind CSS
- Data and authSupabase Postgres
- PaymentsStripe
- EmailResend
- HostingVercel
- This app · Download workerOpen-source worker (container and desktop binary)A browser app cannot fetch from arbitrary hosters, so a worker on the user's machine does the downloading.
- This app · Release signingReproducible CI builds with signing and checksumsTrust is the main promise, so every release must be verifiable.
RisksAI inference
- TechnicalMatching the breadth of JDownloader means many recipes that break whenever a hoster changes. Keeping them working needs steady maintenance and active contributors.
- RegulatoryTools that bypass hoster limits or download from streaming sites can raise copyright and terms-of-service complaints, which may affect hosting, payments or store listings.
- CommercialUsers expect download managers to be free. It is unproven that enough will pay for remote control or automation when the worker itself is open source.
- PlatformA PWA can only control a worker, not download by itself. Setting up a worker adds friction that non-technical users may not accept.
- TechnicalHosters change anti-bot defences often, and captcha handling may stay partly manual, so compatibility could lag behind existing tools.
Everything marked AI proposal or AI inference was written by a model from the evidence on the opportunity page. The proposed name must be checked against trademark registers before it is used.