Despite YouTube being an online platform, the best way to enjoy it is offline. Downloaded clips won't suffer from lag, buffering and other glitches inherent to streaming websites. If you want an optimal YouTube downloading experience, choose only the best apps. To help you with that, we've collected some amazing free YouTube downloader solutions.
YTD Video Downloader & Converter is a free software to download YouTube videos which also supports a number of other popular streaming sites. It offers various file formats like MP3, MP4, WMV, FLV, MOV, 3GP, and AVI. As the name suggests, the app also allows you to convert files.
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Price: Free. To enable Enable YTD Premium Features a user should choose monthly or yearly payment method. If paying monthly a Lite Plan will cost $6.99/per month, if yearly - $2.99/per moth. There are also Pro and Ultimate plans which are more expensive. Discounts available.
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If you’re looking for a YouTube downloader free of charge, ClipGrab is a good option. It’s completely free, sustained by donations, and licensed under GPL. The app is generally described as lightweight and user friendly. It gives access to video content from websites such as YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, and Dailymotion. You can also download audio as MP3, while ClipGrab even lets you add ID3 tags to the video’s metadata. Please, note however, that in some cases it’s been flagged as malware by security software.
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Price: free.
We dare say that Airy is the best free YouTube downloader for Mac. Despite some recent YouTube updates, the Airy team constantly makes sure the app is up-to-date and up to standard. With its wide array of features, the Airy free YouTube downloader will fulfill all your downloading desires. At the same time, the app is sleek and intuitive, without looking overcrowded. Regardless of whether you’re downloading an individual video, or grabbing a playlist or entire channel, it’s still super easy to use. The same goes for free YouTube video download or audio download, in both HD or low resolution. You can even initiate downloads directly from your browser.
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Price: It costs just $19.95 for a lifetime license, or $39.95 for a family pack of 3 PC’s.
When it comes to the best youtube video downloader for Android, free of charge, as well as for macOS and Windows, iTubeGo YouTube Downloader is one of the obvious choices. It’s a simple and reliable app, with all the essential features you’d expect from a YouTube free download software.
Apart from YouTube, it works with Dailymotion, Vimeo, Facebook, and Instagram, among others. You can also save YouTube subtitles in SRT and download several videos simultaneously. With its various video quality options available, iTubeGo allows you to choose from 480p, 720, 1080p, 2K, 4K, 8K, etc. depending on the case.
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Price: Basic version: Free. The Premium version costs as follows: For Mac, it’s $19.95 per month, $49.95 per year, or $79.95 for a lifetime license per computer. For Windows, it’s $19.95/month, $49.95/year, and $89.95 for a lifetime license. However, these prices are subject to significant discounts. Family plans are also available (2-5 computers).
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VideoHunter is a free video downloader from YouTube, but also from 1,000 additional sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SoundCloud, etc. The full capabilities include qualities of 8K, 4K, 2K, 1080p, 720p, 480p, 360p, etc. for video and 320kbps, 160kbps, 128kbps, etc. for audio.
If you’re planning on giving it a try, note that the initial 15-day trial period is limited to 1 device, 6 downloads per day, and 480p quality. The software lets you convert YouTube video to MP3 and download subtitles in SRT. VideoHunter is available for both Windows and Mac.
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Price: Free 15-day trial available for all. Free version for an unlimited period of time is available for registered users. The full version comes at $9.95/month for 1 device and $29.95/year for 2 devices for Windows and Mac.
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ByClick is a straightforward software, available as a free Youtube downloader for Windows 10 and all other Windows versions. It will let you download videos in HD, MP3, MP4, AVI, etc. Its interface offers quite a few options to select from, but actually looks quite fresh and fun. With the pro version, as you browse videos online, By Click’s auto-detect option displays a notification, prompting you to download available videos with one click. Please, note that this is a free YouTube downloader for PC only.
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Price: By Click Downloader is available for free. The premium plan costs $3.99 per year or $10 for unlimited access. Upgrading to 2 PC’s costs $6. Prices are subject to discounts.
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Apowersoft Video Download Capture allows you to grab video content from various websites and streamed by various protocols such as HTTP, FTP, RTMP. In fact, with this free YouTube downloader software you can save videos in formats such as MP4, FLV, 3GP, MP3, etc., or convert them later. The interface is quite well-organized and clean. And when it comes to automatic video detection, it’s probably one of the best free YouTube downloaders for the task. With its internal and external detection options, it will automatically detect and download videos you come across.
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Price: This software costs $29.90 per month, $59.90 for an annual subscription, or $129.90 for a lifetime license. Currently discounted.
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If you’re wondering what is the best free YouTube downloader available without any installations, Y2Mate is one of the contestants. It’s an online service which allows you to convert and download video from YouTube, as well as Facebook, Dailymotion, etc. in HD. It supports video formats such as MP4, FLV, M4V, 3GP, WMV, WEBM, MOV, MP3, etc.
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Price: free.
Another online free video downloader YouTube fans can use is SaveFrom. It’s quite straightforward, just copy-paste the video URL. Apart from YouTube, it works with Dailymotion, Facebook, TikTok, and many others. Unfortunately, it offers very limited options for video with audio (The options for video without sound depend on the quality of the original video). Also, in some instances it prompts you to install a browser extension or downloader app.
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Price: free.
This Keepvid website provides an online YouTube video downloader free of charge. It works with YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram, among others. You can use it to save videos in MP4 and MP3. But beware: almost wherever you click on the site, you will get an irritating full-sized pop-up window which redirects to an ad.
Note that what’s known as the official KeepVid website no longer offers a download option, but only a Converter, Editor, Compressor, and Audio Converter.
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Price: free.
You can find a number of websites that offer free downloading videos from YouTube, but while they seem easily accessible, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Online downloaders have many drawbacks compared to desktop software. For example, download speeds are slower due to remote servers and your data connection limitations. Also, a lot of these sites show embarrassing ads or even thumbnails of your recently downloaded videos, which might be a problem for some users.
Not to mention that online video converters don't typically offer a lot of possibilities when it comes to output formats and video quality. For most, 4K is not an option, and neither are 3D and 360-degree videos. Another discouraging aspect is the lack of multiple downloads - you can only work with a single video at a time.