The latest articles on Forem by Holland Sun (@holland_chirs_81f037a70a9). https://forem.com/holland_chirs_81f037a70a9 https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F3778619%2F690474ce-b85c-47ff-8f8a-c84cba981aa9.png https://forem.com/holland_chirs_81f037a70a9 en Holland Sun Sat, 21 Feb 2026 01:32:38 +0000 https://forem.com/holland_chirs_81f037a70a9/how-i-built-freecropper-and-got-200-users-in-7-days-18g8 https://forem.com/holland_chirs_81f037a70a9/how-i-built-freecropper-and-got-200-users-in-7-days-18g8 <p>I am a content creator.</p> <p>Last month I uploaded a video to TikTok. Used a "free" online cropper tool. Left a watermark. Looked like spam.</p> <p>Comment section roasted me. Algorithm buried my content. Got flagged for spam. Deleted the post. Started over.</p> <p>But I kept using those tools. Because what else was I going to do?</p> <p>Upload my footage to random servers?<br> Pay $12/month just to remove a watermark?<br> Manually crop the same video four times — because TikTok wants 9:16, Instagram feed prefers 4:5, YouTube works best in 16:9, and square still performs better in some placements?<br> I was done.</p> <h2> What happened next </h2> <p>I spent two weeks building freecropper.com</p> <p>Runs in your browser<br> Videos never leave your machine<br> No account<br> No watermark<br> Handles 2GB files<br> The face detection part took the longest. Used Google's MediaPipe. When you crop from 16:9 to 9:16, it finds where the face is and keeps it centered.</p> <p><a href="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fh53hsf0x03lwbw3cyyir.png" class="article-body-image-wrapper"><img src="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fh53hsf0x03lwbw3cyyir.png" alt=" " width="800" height="418"></a></p> <p><a href="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fyk55x6a9xm1avxlczawl.png" class="article-body-image-wrapper"><img src="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fyk55x6a9xm1avxlczawl.png" alt=" " width="800" height="419"></a></p> <h2> Why browser? </h2> <p>Servers cost money. I'd have to charge you or run ads or sell your data.</p> <p>Browser version costs me nothing. So I can give it away.</p> <p>Faster too. No upload. No download. Process locally. Save.</p> <h2> What you get </h2> <p>No watermark<br> No signup<br> 2GB files<br> One upload, all sizes (TikTok, Reels, Shorts, LinkedIn, Twitter)<br> Still has some Safari codec bugs<br> Working on them. If something breaks, tell me. Or don't. I'll probably find out when my own videos fail.</p> <h2> Try it free: freecropper.com </h2> <p><a href="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fjx2ilwscyby8mgj4b6v7.png" class="article-body-image-wrapper"><img src="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fjx2ilwscyby8mgj4b6v7.png" alt=" " width="800" height="431"></a></p> <p><a href="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fp5fa0ibnuz4dc888b1vy.png" class="article-body-image-wrapper"><img src="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fp5fa0ibnuz4dc888b1vy.png" alt=" " width="800" height="475"></a></p> <p>Source code: github.com/Hollandchirs/freecropper</p> tutorial vibecoding videocropper opensource