YouTube is a video-sharing website, created in February 2005, and purchased by Google in November 2006. The web service lets billions of people find, watch, and share originally-created videos. It displays a wide variety of user-generated and corporate media video. It also offers a forum for people to communicate with others around the world, and acts as a distribution platform.
A common complaint about YouTube is that to watch the material you need to use a web browser. Fortunately, some funky developers have created applications that allow you to bypass the web-only barrier of YouTube. The software allows users to access YouTube in a different way, creating a TV-like experience.
This article focuses on the finest graphical tools. All of the tools are free and open source software.
Here’s our verdict captured in a legendary LinuxLinks-ratings chart.
| YouTube Tools | |
|---|---|
| SpMp | YouTube music client with a focus on customization |
| FreeTube | Privacy-based YouTube app |
| Media Downloader | Frontend for youtube-dl, gallery-dl, Lux, you-get, svtplay-dl, aria2c, ... |
| pipe-viewer | Lightweight YouTube client without requiring an API key |
| Piped | Uses NewPipe Extractor, a library for extracting |
| AudioTube | Qt-based music streamer |
| ClipGrab | Downloader for YouTube and other sites |
| Minitube | Application for watching YouTube without using Flash |
| youtube-local | Browser-based YouTube client |
| SMTube | Search, play and download YouTube videos |
| MellowPlayer | Multi-platform cloud music integration |
| PlasmaTube | Designed to be integrated with KDE Plasma |
| Video Downloader | Tool which lets you download videos from YouTube and other websites |
This article has been revamped in line with our recent announcement.
 Read our complete collection of recommended free and open source software. Our curated compilation covers all categories of software. The software collection forms part of our series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. There are hundreds of in-depth reviews, open source alternatives to proprietary software from large corporations like Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. There are also fun things to try, hardware, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. |
FreeTube is really hot. I love it.
I agree, I would give it a 9.5 score. It’s a great way of feeding my YouTube habit while maintaining my privacy.
I’m impressed by the thoroughness and quality of your work.