You may have already heard that YouTube-dl was temporarily shut down by GitHub in response to a request.
It is safe to assume that this tool is not illegal, considering that it has been restored and made fully accessible.
It’s a useful command-line tool that allows you to download videos from YouTube, and other websites. Although it isn’t difficult to use youtube-dl, I know that not everyone likes using commands for such tasks.
There are several applications that offer a GUI frontend to youtube-dl.
Prerequisites to use youtube-dl GUI apps
To be able download/choose a different format, you will need youtube-dl and FFmpeg on your system before you can try the options below.
To learn more and set it up, you can refer to our complete guide for using ffmpeg.
You can use the following commands to install YouTube-dl:
sudo curl -L https://yt-dl.org/downloads/latest/youtube-dl -o /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
Youtube-dl GUI Apps
Many Linux download managers allow you to download videos from YouTube or other sites. The youtube-dl GUI app might offer additional options, such as extracting audio or downloading videos in a specific resolution.
Please note that this list is not in any particular order. You can choose the one that suits you best.
1. AllTube Download
Key Features:
- Web GUI
- Open-Source
- Self-host option
AllTube is an open-source web GUI that you can access by visiting https://alltubedownload.net/
You don’t need to install youtubedl or Ffmpeg if you use this. You can simply paste the URL to the video to access the user interface. Next, you will be able to select the file format that you wish to download. It can also be deployed on your server.
This tool is not able to extract the MP3 files of videos. It only works with videos. It is available on their GitHub page.
2. youtube.dl GUI
Key Features:
- Cross-platform
- Displays estimated download size
- Download audio and video
An easy cross-platform GUI app using electron and node.js. It allows you to download audio and video, as well as the ability to choose from a variety of file formats.
You can also download individual parts of a playlist or channel, if desired. This is especially useful if you’re downloading video files of high quality.
It is also available for Windows, MacOS and Linux. You will also find an AppImage file for Linux in the GitHub releases.
3. Videomass
Key Features:
- Cross-platform
- Convert audio/video format
- Multiple URLs supported
- Suitable for users who want to use FFmpeg.
Videomass is a great option if you need to download audio or video from YouTube, and then convert them to your preferred format.
You will need to have both youtube-dl (or ffmpeg) installed on your computer in order for this to work. Multiple URLs can be added to your download folder and the output directory can also be set as desired.
There are also advanced settings that allow you to disable YouTube-DL, change your file preferences and many other useful options.
It provides a PPA for Ubuntu users as well as an AppImage file for all other Linux distributions. It has GitHu and a page.
Additional Mention: Haruna Video Player
Key Features:
- You Tube videos can be viewed on YouTube.
Haruna video player was originally developed as a front-end to MPV. You can stream/watch YouTube videos via youtube-dl, even though YouTube videos cannot be downloaded.
Learn more about the video player by visiting our original article .
Wrapping up
Although you might find more YouTube-dl GUIs on GitHub or other platforms, many of them don’t work well and end up with multiple errors or haven’t been actively developed anymore.
Tartube may be an option you might consider, but it might not work as well as you expected. It worked on Ubuntu MATE 20.04 (fresh installation) and Pop!_OS. It fails every time I attempt to download anything, regardless of what I do (even with youtube.dl and ffmpeg).
