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youtube-dl

Name: youtube-dl
Rating: 4.7 (33 reviews)

455 likes

A platform-independent command-line program for downloading videos from YouTube and 1000+ sites. Supports playlists, subtitles, and multiple formats.

License model

Free • Open Source

Application types

Country of Origin

Spain
EU

Platforms

Mac
Windows
Linux
BSD
Python
TrueOS

youtube-dl alternatives

Discontinued

Last version was in December 2021. An active fork is yt-dlp icon yt-dlp.

★

4.7 / 5 Avg rating (33)

455likes

23comments

251alternatives

3news articles

Features

Suggest and vote on features

Properties

Customizable

Features

YouTube Downloader
Download YouTube Playlist
Command line interface
Video Download
Convert YouTube videos to Mp3
Youtube support
SoundCloud Downloader
Automatic conversion to multiple formats
Ad-free
Automatic subtitles download
Automatic downloading
Support for 4K
Uninstall without uninstaller
Selecting songs
Rewind button
No registration required

youtube-dl News & Activities

Highlights All activities

Recent activities

KonsD, u7741339 and rgnos liked youtube-dl
15 days ago
1winner137 added youtube-dl as alternative to yt-dlite
about 1 month ago
Gaja and Fadikkop liked youtube-dl
about 1 month ago
TheJNXx added youtube-dl as alternative to litube
about 2 months ago
bigsmilescartoons added youtube-dl as alternative to Downr
2 months ago
Marta- added youtube-dl as alternative to Toolsmart YouTube to MP3
2 months ago
alternativeto-dingo898 liked youtube-dl
3 months ago

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Comments and Reviews

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Comment summary: youtube-dl is praised for its versatility and effectiveness, allowing downloads from multiple media sites, including video and audio extraction, with extensive customization options. Users appreciate its simplicity and open-source nature. While command-line interface poses a challenge for some non-technical users, others value its lightweight operation. The program also supports subtitles and handles formats well. Occasional update issues due to changes in video platforms were noted, and a GUI like YouTube-DLG can enhance its accessibility.

Top Positive Comment

hathas

★

Jul 17, 2018

simple but efficient commandline tool. I used it to download complete playlists of videos from Youtube with there original subtitles.

Top Negative Comment

ab1

★

Jun 16, 2022

EditedJun 16, 2022

youtube-dl can be slow with some versions!

I confirm 50 KiB/s speeds with version 2021.12.17 (latest release on GitHub) right now with googlevideo.com. Read these topics for more examples:

https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/pull/30184 https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/30102

Duncan Briggs

CommentJan 15, 2024

youtube-dl is a command-line program –– can anyone recommend a graphical program for downloading videos?

https://ytdl-org.github.io/youtube-dl/

Hasan Yildiz

★

Aug 7, 2022

The fact that it's free and open source is reason enough to use it.

Thomas Bodine

★

Jul 24, 2022

I liked youtube-dl. I used it in 2013-2015, it seemed to stop working. Today (2022) I downloaded it, and it seems to work again,yeah! I use it to cache movies that are slow to download so I can watch them later with out waiting for buffering.

Guest

★

Dec 18, 2021

-1

Because it is simple

Guest

CommentOct 13, 2021

there are lots of features

Show more comments

7 of 23 comments

What is youtube-dl?

youtube-dl is a small command-line program to download videos from YouTube icon YouTube and more than 1000 sites. It requires the Python interpreter and is therefore platform-independent.

It augmentable with front-ends such as Youtube-DLG icon Youtube-DLG. It can be integrated in other programs and so be used to watch online videos in local applications such as MPV icon MPV.

The GitHub repository was shut down in October 2020. It was restored the following November. Meanwhile, youtube-dl was forked to youtube-dlc (a.k.a yt-dlc) during this time. The development of youtube-dlc was soon discontinued. But further youtube-dlc forked to yt-dlp icon yt-dlp.

The development of youtube-dl began in 2006 by rg3. rg3 withdrew in 2011 and the lead developer has changed.