🔥 PairUp

Connect. Chat. Discover.

A production-grade real-time stranger video chat platform built with WebRTC and Socket.IO

Live Demo • Report Bug • Request Feature

✨ Features

🎥 Real-Time Video & Audio

Crystal-clear WebRTC peer-to-peer streaming with automatic quality adjustment

💬 Live Text Chat

Instant messaging alongside video with typing indicators and message history

🔀 Smart Matchmaking

Intelligent stranger pairing system with instant connections

⏭ Skip & Reconnect

Don't like your match? Skip instantly and connect with someone new

🔐 Secure & Private

End-to-end encrypted connections with WSS and SSL/TLS

📱 Fully Responsive

Seamless experience across desktop, tablet, and mobile devices

🎯 Why PairUp?

Unlike other video chat platforms, PairUp is:

✅ Open Source - Transparent, auditable, and community-driven
✅ Self-Hostable - Complete control over your data and infrastructure
✅ Production Ready - Battle-tested with proper NAT traversal using TURN servers
✅ Optimized - Low latency P2P connections with minimal server relay
✅ Modern Stack - Built with cutting-edge technologies (React, TypeScript, Bun)

🛠 Tech Stack

Frontend

React 18+ with TypeScript
Tailwind CSS for styling
Framer Motion for animations
Socket.IO Client for signaling
WebRTC APIs for media streaming

Backend

Bun runtime for blazing speed
Socket.IO for WebSocket signaling
TypeScript for type safety
Custom matchmaking logic
Room-based connection handling

Infrastructure

Google Cloud VM (Compute Engine)
Coturn TURN server for NAT traversal
NGINX reverse proxy
Let's Encrypt SSL certificates
PM2 for process management

🏗 System Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                        Client Browser                           │
│              (React App + WebRTC Media Handler)                 │
└────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────────┘
                         │
                         │ HTTPS + WSS (Secure WebSocket)
                         │
                         ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                     NGINX Reverse Proxy                         │
│            SSL Termination + WebSocket Upgrade                  │
└────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────────┘
                         │
                         │ HTTP + WebSocket (Internal)
                         │
                         ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                   Socket.IO Signaling Server                    │
│                        (Bun Runtime)                            │
│  • Matchmaking Logic     • Room Management                      │
│  • WebRTC Signaling      • Message Relay                        │
└────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────────┘
                         │
                         │ WebRTC Signaling (Offer/Answer/ICE)
                         │
                         ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    TURN/STUN Servers                            │
│               (NAT Traversal & Relay)                           │
└────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────────┘
                         │
                         ▼
             ┌──────────────────────┐
             │   Peer-to-Peer       │
             │   Media Stream       │
             │  (Video + Audio)     │
             └──────────────────────┘

🔄 Connection Flow

Client connects to signaling server via WSS
Server matches two waiting clients and creates a room
WebRTC negotiation happens (SDP offer/answer exchange)
ICE candidates are exchanged for NAT traversal
P2P connection established (with TURN relay as fallback)
Media streams flow directly between peers
Chat messages relayed through signaling server

🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

Bun >= 1.0.0 (Install Bun)
Node.js >= 18.0.0 (for frontend tooling)
Google Cloud Account (for production deployment)
Domain name (optional, for SSL)

📦 Installation

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/prudh-vi/pairup-server.git
cd pairup-server

2. Backend Setup

# Install dependencies
bun install

# Create environment file
cp .env.example .env

# Edit .env with your configuration
nano .env

# Start development server
bun run dev

# Production mode
bun run start

Environment Variables (.env):

PORT=8000
NODE_ENV=development
ALLOWED_ORIGINS=http://localhost:5173,https://yourdomain.com

3. Frontend Setup

cd frontend

# Install dependencies
bun install

# Start development server
bun run dev

# Build for production
bun run build

Frontend Configuration:

Update src/config.ts:

export const SOCKET_URL = 
  process.env.NODE_ENV === 'production' 
    ? 'wss://api.yourdomain.com'
    : 'ws://localhost:8000';

🌐 Production Deployment

Backend Deployment (Google Cloud)

1. Create VM Instance

# Create e2-small instance (recommended for 500-1000 users)
gcloud compute instances create pairup-server \
  --machine-type=e2-small \
  --zone=us-central1-a \
  --image-family=debian-12 \
  --image-project=debian-cloud \
  --boot-disk-size=20GB \
  --tags=http-server,https-server

2. Configure Firewall

# Allow HTTP, HTTPS, and WebSocket
gcloud compute firewall-rules create allow-pairup \
  --allow=tcp:80,tcp:443,tcp:8000 \
  --source-ranges=0.0.0.0/0 \
  --target-tags=http-server,https-server

3. Setup TURN Server

# SSH into VM
gcloud compute ssh pairup-server --zone=us-central1-a

# Run TURN setup script (from repository)
chmod +x scripts/setup-turn.sh
./scripts/setup-turn.sh

# Note down your TURN credentials!

4. Deploy Backend

# Install Bun
curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash

# Clone and setup
git clone https://github.com/prudh-vi/pairup-server.git
cd pairup-server
bun install

# Install PM2
npm install -g pm2

# Start with PM2
pm2 start src/index.ts --name pairup --interpreter bun
pm2 save
pm2 startup

5. Configure NGINX

sudo apt install nginx certbot python3-certbot-nginx

# Copy NGINX config
sudo cp scripts/nginx.conf /etc/nginx/sites-available/pairup
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/pairup /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl reload nginx

# Get SSL certificate
sudo certbot --nginx -d api.yourdomain.com

Frontend Deployment (Vercel)

# Install Vercel CLI
npm i -g vercel

# Deploy
cd frontend
vercel --prod

Or use the Vercel GitHub Integration for automatic deployments.

📊 Monitoring & Maintenance

View Logs

# PM2 logs
pm2 logs pairup

# NGINX logs
sudo tail -f /var/log/nginx/access.log
sudo tail -f /var/log/nginx/error.log

# TURN server logs
sudo tail -f /var/log/turnserver.log

Monitor Resources

# Server resources
pm2 monit

# Active connections
sudo netstat -an | grep 3478 | wc -l

# Bandwidth usage
sudo iftop

Restart Services

# Restart backend
pm2 restart pairup

# Restart NGINX
sudo systemctl restart nginx

# Restart TURN server
sudo systemctl restart coturn

🔧 Configuration

WebRTC Configuration

Update frontend/src/config/webrtc.ts:

export const rtcConfig: RTCConfiguration = {
  iceServers: [
    { urls: 'stun:stun.l.google.com:19302' },
    {
      urls: 'turn:YOUR_SERVER_IP:3478',
      username: 'YOUR_TURN_USERNAME',
      credential: 'YOUR_TURN_PASSWORD'
    },
  ],
  iceCandidatePoolSize: 10,
};

Matchmaking Settings

Edit backend/src/matchmaking.ts:

const QUEUE_TIMEOUT = 30000; // 30 seconds
const MAX_RETRIES = 3;

📈 Scaling Guide

Handling More Users

Users	VM Type	TURN Servers	Monthly Cost
100-500	e2-small	1× e2-small	~$20
500-2,500	e2-medium	2× e2-small	~$60
2,500-5,000	e2-standard-2	3× e2-medium	~$200
5,000-10,000	e2-standard-4	5× e2-standard-2	~$500

Optimization Tips

Enable P2P First - Campus WiFi users connect directly (saves 60% bandwidth)
Lower Video Quality - Use 480p instead of 720p during peak hours
Set Time Limits - 10-minute max calls prevent bandwidth abuse
Geographic Distribution - Deploy TURN servers in multiple regions
Redis Adapter - Scale Socket.IO horizontally across multiple servers

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are what make the open-source community amazing! Any contributions you make are greatly appreciated.

Fork the Project
Create your Feature Branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature)
Commit your Changes (git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature')
Push to the Branch (git push origin feature/AmazingFeature)
Open a Pull Request

See CONTRIBUTING.md for detailed guidelines.

🐛 Known Issues

Occasional connection drops on mobile Safari (investigating)
TURN relay not working on some corporate networks (firewall issue)
Memory leak on long-running sessions (fix in progress)

See the open issues for a full list.

🗺 Roadmap

📄 License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.

👨‍💻 Author

Prudhvi

GitHub: @prudh-vi
LinkedIn: LinkedIn
Email: prudhvirajkb3@gmail.com

🙏 Acknowledgments

WebRTC - For making P2P communication possible
Socket.IO - For reliable WebSocket connections
Coturn - For TURN/STUN server
Tailwind CSS - For beautiful UI
Bun - For blazing fast runtime

💖 Support

If you found this project helpful, please give it a ⭐️!

⬆ back to top

Made with ❤️ by Prudhvi

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 23 Commits
frontend		frontend
src		src
.gitignore		.gitignore
CONTRIBUTING.md		CONTRIBUTING.md
README.md		README.md
bun.lock		bun.lock
index.ts		index.ts
package.json		package.json
tsconfig.json		tsconfig.json

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