YouTube downloader makes it effortless to save videos from YouTube in a format of your choice, so we’ve rounded up the very best in one convenient place.
Watching YouTube videos on your PC is probably one of the favorite things to do for many people as it has many HD videos that deliver wonderful visual experiences.
But how to keep YouTube videos offline remains a problem as YouTube does not provide a straightforward download passage.
YouTube is a massive audio and video treasure house, where you can not only access the latest music on the platform.
But also subscribe to various channels such as politics, cooking, beauty, fashion, news, sports, learning, etc. to watch related videos.
3 Reasons for downloading a YouTube video
1. Slow internet connection
While this might seem counter-instinctive, it’s a great way to get around sluggish internet connections.
Instead of your video stuttering, you can download it in the background while you do other jobs. Also with some YouTube downloaders, you can opt to download an entire playlist for later viewing.
2. Offline viewing
This is where the YouTube downloader works best. As I travel a ton on planes and out of service areas, being able to watch YouTube videos without a relationship is a lifesaver.
Usually, I download my selected YouTube videos I want to watch a few days before I get on the plane.
3. Backing up your own content
Many times I have uploaded a video to YouTube and then deleted the original copy on my computer.
Now I keep backups for all my new videos, but for the older ones, I uploaded I don’t have any copies. By using a YouTube downloader, you can back up the ones you don’t have a copy of.
Is downloading YouTube videos legal?
Although YouTube lets some of its videos for downloading and offline viewing, using third-party apps to download YouTube videos is against their terms.
YouTube Terms of Service explicitly mention that users shouldn’t download content unless a download button or link is shown by YouTube on a particular service.
Moreover, one is not allowed to download or make copies of copyrighted content. If caught doing so, one can theoretically face a trial or a fine.
Although YouTube has never lashed at a user for downloading copyrighted content using a video downloader, the activity regardless is illegitimate.
Online YouTube downloaders vs desktop software
There are multiple youtube downloader sites that you can use to download YouTube videos, but we don’t recommend them due to their disadvantages over desktop software.
First of all, they’re slow due to the limitations of the remote server and your data connection.
Many such youtube downloader sites also feature ads of an NSFW variety, or display thumbnails of recently downloaded videos, which may not be appropriate.
Online video converters generally don’t give you much (if any) choice about the video file either, in terms of quality or expert format.
They only let you download a single video at a time, and you can forget about saving the whole playlist. 3D and 360-degree videos are also out of the question, and very few can handle 4K.
Free YouTube downloaders are constantly changing, but we upgrade this guide frequently so you can be sure that you’re always getting up-to-date advice.
Top 10 Free YouTube Downloader for PC
1. 4K Video Downloader
4K Video Downloader online is the best free Youtube downloader around for quick, fuss-free YouTube downloads.
It’s simple to use, highly customizable, ad-free, and doesn’t include any bundled extra software.
To grab a video (or a whole playlist, provided it’s not longer than 24 videos), simply copy its URL from your web browser, click ‘Paste URL’ and select an output format, quality, and location.
There’s a great choice in this Youtube downloader online in formats – both video and audio – including MP4 and MP3.
You can download captions for individual videos, and there’s support for 3D and 360-degree videos too.
Delving into the properties lets you tweak options like multi-stream downloads (increasing the number of streams will speed up downloads, but increases the risk of YouTube blocking your IP address) and set up a proxy connection.
Buying a key will let you download longer playlists and playlists with captions, and at £7.95 (about US$10, AU$15) for a lifetime license for three PCs, it’s a bargain, but the free edition has everything else you could wish for.
2. WinX YouTube Downloader
Digiarty’s multi-lingual WinX Youtube downloader for PC claims to allow downloads from 300+ sites including adult sites.
Perhaps the biggest selling point of all is the claim that “There is no malware, adware, spyware or virus. 100% clean.” The latest version of this Youtube downloader has a much-improved interface as well.
When you copy a YouTube URL (even for a playlist), click on the WinX software to launch. You start with the “analyzer,” which checks all the options.
This free Youtube downloader tool also tried to default to the 1,920-by-1,080 version in MP4; I picked the 4K version (3,840 by 2,160 pixels) in WebM format, a subset of the MKV format—you can rename a .webm file to a .mkv and it’ll work fine.
There are ads, though, on install, I was asked to upgrade to its $29.90 product for Windows and macOS called VideoProc.
Which does everything that WinX does, for 1,000+ sites, plus offers some editing for high-end 4K/UHD video.
3. YTD Video Downloader
YTD Video Downloader is simply an excellent tool for saving your favorite video clips from YouTube and other video websites.
The Youtube downloader for PC allows you to download HD and HQ videos, from dozens of sites and convert them to other video formats.
The free youtube downloader online program also allows you to convert downloaded videos for iPad, iPod, iPhone, PSP, Cell Phone, Windows Media, and XVid, or play a video that you have previously downloaded or converted.
The YTD Video Downloader for PC interface includes a tabbed format for easy downloading, converting, and playing, and a new Activity tab allows you to keep track of multiple downloads and conversions in real-time.
4. Gihosoft TubeGet
Gihosoft TubeGet is a portable YouTube downloader software aiming to download videos from YouTube and other hot video streaming websites, simple is the best and must be the main developing purpose of the software.
Brief and clean as it may be, The Youtube downloader for mac has almost everything a video downloader needs.
Another amazing feature of this YouTube to mp4 video downloader is that it supports downloading HD & UHD videos from YouTube, such as 720P, 1080P, 2K, 4K & 8K resolutions.
TubeGet has Youtube downloaders both free & pro versions, the free version allows users to download 5 videos per day.
The algorithm of YouTube changes regularly, so Gihosoft TubeGet will upgrade the code accordingly, along with fixing bugs and adding new features.
And now it supports downloading YouTube 1080P videos losslessly and has the ability to download 48/60fps & age-restricted videos.
If it shows “failed” when you are parsing a video, update it to the latest version as soon as possible.
5. Free YouTube Downloader
Free YouTube Downloader is a small but effective application that quickly downloads videos without any hiccups.
While the design is quite plain, and there aren’t many features, this application gives you exactly what you want when you want it.
We used a Free YouTube downloader to grab an array of videos and never once experienced any delays. All downloads, regardless of output format, preserved the quality of the original video.
The Youtube downloader application is very straightforward, especially with its uncomplicated design.
The large URL window and a limited amount of buttons make downloading videos an easy task. It is all contained within one window, reducing confusion tremendously.
Free YouTube Downloader does exactly what it promises, offering an easy way to download videos. If you use YouTube for all your video needs, this is the perfect download.
If you want a tool that will download videos from other sites, you may want to try out other options.
6. Freemake Video Downloader
Freemake Video Downloader is born as a video downloader specialist for Windows users, as it’s an all-in-one tool that consists of many useful functions.
While downloading, you can also limit the downloading speed to the range you can accept.
Moreover, the youtube downloader can transfer videos the YouTube to the cloud once you set Dropbox or Google Drive as your default destination.
Protecting your information from being lost to the greatest extent and making sure that you can watch these videos whatever your platform is, like Windows, Mac, Android & or IOS.
Freemake Video Downloader free version has limits, the download speed is limited to 4 MBps, and there is also a watermark at the beginning and the end of the video.
The logo will go away and the speed will be unlimited if you pay for the premium version. Freemake Video Downloader also develops a one-click download feature, just tap the toggle to set the mode.
The operation is quite self-explanatory, when you paste the video link into the program, choose your ideal video resolution, and the video will soon be downloaded on your Windows computer without any quality loss.
7. YouTubeByClick
YouTubeByClick Youtube downloader captures videos from over 40 sites. Before you even do the first download.
You can use the “dials” on the interface to set up a preferred download format (MP4 video or MP3 audio) and a default download quality as high as 8K, even on the free version.
Downloading a 580MB MKV file in 4K only by this Youtube downloader took 55 seconds—not bad at all.
But that was with the premium version’s unlimited speed. The free edition took a lot longer with the 2MB speed limit.
One thing you can do on YouTubeByClick that’s unique is set it up so any time you copy a URL from YouTube, the program will notice if it’s running in the background.
Enter your account credentials for YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and a couple of other foreign sites to get instant private downloads.
You also need the (premium version $19.99) to download playlists and channels, do conversions, avoid ads and get closed captions.
8. aTube Catcher
Watching YouTube videos is really a relaxation for many people, but taking them offline is another thing.
Although you have many reasons to download YouTube videos offline, especially when you are on the go and out of range of WiFi hotspots.
YouTube won’t make it easy for you to do that cause it will take the ad’s money out of its pocket.
But with the right software, you can easily bypass the restriction and have access to the videos you like, and aTube Catcher is one of the Youtube downloaders.
With its powerful features, one can turn the whole downloading process into a quite breezy thing.
Speaking of aTube Catcher Youtube downloader, it’s a virus-free versatile software that can do a lot of things.
Apart from downloading online videos, it can also convert videos to any other popular format you like.
Besides, there is a built-in screen recorder in it, with which you can breezily record whatever is happening on your screen.
With so many functions integrated into one software, I bet you can’t live without it once you try it.
9. Videoder
Videoder Youtube downloader is a tool for downloading videos from a PC. This application helps you to build your own collection of videos you like.
Apart from YouTube, you can use it to download videos from more than 50 websites. It allows you to download 4K videos.
Videoder is an elegantly designed YouTube downloader for Windows and Android. It can convert YouTube videos to MP3 files, and you can use it to download content from over 1,000 different sites.
It allows the streaming and downloading of videos in all formats available. You can easily choose from any quality you prefer, and can also share the video from within the app.
The app is customizable and comes with an impressive UI. It helps you with a faster downloading speed and also packs different themes, night mode, a built-in video player, etc.
The Android version of Videoder has been downloaded over 40 million times, and it now supports downloading from over 50+ sites.
Best Youtube Downloader app for Android
10. TubeMate
TubeMate is another best android Youtube downloader app to download youtube videos. It has an elegant interface that is easy to use, and you can download videos from multiple video-sharing sites.
It comes with a built-in browser where you can access the sites you want. You can download the video from the preferred site.
TubeMate also offers you the option to choose the quality and file format of the video before downloading it. The downloaded videos are stored in your phone’s memory automatically.
You can opt to download Youtube videos in MP3 format too, but it requires an additional video to the MP3 converter app.
Overall, TubeMate Youtube downloader is an excellent video downloader for Android, but you have to deal with a lot of intrusive advertisements
11. Vidmate
Vidmate is an application designed for android to download YouTube and other videos to your local with no price.
It is a free android Youtube downloader app to download videos from sites like youtube, and Facebook other video-sharing platforms VidMate stands on top of all video download apps for its features and eases to use.
One of the great features of the VidMate android Youtube downloader is it automatically adjusts the video screen by identifying the screen resolution of your device.
Vidmate free Youtube downloader for android is an application that offers many features like media downloads.
This is a brand-new experience that allows you to download various media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Dailymotion, Vine, and more.
12. Snaptube
Snaptube is an application that allows you to stream or download a video in numerous resolutions. You can easily select your own resolution that meets your demand.
Snaptube also acts as a fast Android YouTube downloader, and you can choose the quality of the video before downloading it.
This free youtube downloader online software also supports other websites like Facebook, Whatsapp.com, Instagram, and more.
13. Itubego
Itubego Youtube downloader is a software that helps you to download YouTube videos. It has a built-in YouTube converter to convert video to MP3, MP4, 4K, and HD MP4 videos.
This tool supports multiple audio and video formats. Itubego automatically searches for TV series and movies online for subtitles when you download any video.
14. InsTube
InsTube is another best YouTube Video Downloader for Android. It can also download videos from other popular sites like Instagram, Twitter, Vimeo, etc. The app is a reliable one and delivers a fast downloading speed.
You can choose the quality of Youtube videos before downloading them. You can even share YouTube videos from within the Youtube app to InsTube.
Moreover, InsTube is highly-customizable, you can add bookmarks and also create private space to hide any video if you desire.
15. KeepVid
KeepVid is a cloud-based Youtube downloader application that allows you to download and convert video in MP4, AVI (Audio Video Interleave), iPhone, etc. format.
You can use it to convert videos having any size. KeepVid enables you to drag and drop files or click the add button to add any files. This app supports Firefox and Chrome web browsers.
