Open-source YouTube alternatives

NewPipe is a lightweight, libre app for Android that acts as a front end to streaming services. It is written in Java and released under the GPL-3.0 license. Rather than embedding each service's official app, it reads content from the services directly and presents video and audio in a single interface. The README marks the app as beta, so users may encounter bugs and are asked to report them with the issue template.

It currently supports YouTube and YouTube Music, PeerTube and all its instances, Bandcamp, SoundCloud and media.ccc.de. The project started with YouTube, and other contributors have added services over the years. Its topics also mention downloading videos and playback in 4K.

The README carries a prominent notice that publishing NewPipe or a fork of it on Google Play breaks Google's terms, and that the NewPipe word mark is a registered trademark with its own policy. The documentation covers screenshots, features, installation and updates, contribution, donations and the license. It suits Android users who want a lightweight client with fewer tracking components.

Invidious is an open-source alternative front end to YouTube. It lets you watch videos without ads, without tracking and without requiring JavaScript, and it does not use the official YouTube APIs. It is written in the Crystal language and released under the AGPL-3.0 license. You can either use a public instance from the community list or host your own by following the installation instructions.

User features include light and dark themes, a customizable homepage, subscriptions independent of a Google account, notifications for subscribed channels, an audio-only mode with background play on mobile, Reddit comment support and many interface languages. Subscriptions can be imported from YouTube, NewPipe and FreeTube, watch history from YouTube and NewPipe, and exports go to NewPipe and FreeTube. There is an embedded video option and a developer API, and the project recommends the Privacy Redirect extension to send YouTube links to an Invidious instance.

FreeTube is a desktop application for watching YouTube with an emphasis on privacy. Instead of loading the regular YouTube website, it uses its own built-in extractor to fetch video data, so Google cannot track the viewer through cookies or JavaScript and no advertisements are shown during playback.

Subscriptions, playlists and watch history are kept on the user's own computer rather than in a Google account, and are never sent out. The Invidious API can optionally be used as another data source. The app is built with Vue on Electron and runs on Windows 10 and later, macOS 12 and later, and Linux.

FreeTube is released under the AGPL-3.0 license, and the project describes itself as being in beta, so some bugs and missing features should be expected. YouTube can still see video requests coming from the viewer's IP address, so the maintainers recommend pairing it with a VPN or Tor for stronger anonymity.

PeerTube is a free, decentralized and federated video platform, developed by Framasoft as an alternative to centralized services such as YouTube, Dailymotion and Vimeo. It is a network of many small, interoperable video hosting providers, called instances, and it is described as community-owned and ad-free.

Users can upload videos and have them streamed anywhere, with descriptions and tags that make them discoverable across the whole federated network, not only one instance. Live streaming, including permanent streams, is supported, and a player can be embedded on other websites. Viewers can follow channels from the Fediverse, such as Mastodon, without an account on the instance hosting the video.

PeerTube uses ActivityPub for federation and peer-to-peer technology in the browser to share bandwidth between viewers. It is written in TypeScript with Angular and released under the AGPL-3.0 license. People can join an existing instance or create their own, so it fits both self-hosters and communities, and demonstration instances are listed.

LibreTube is an open-source Android app that offers an alternative way to watch YouTube. The developers argue that YouTube collects a great deal of personal data, so the app aims to be independent from Google and to send only the minimum data needed to load the video you want to play, without tracking how you use the app.

The feature list covers subscriptions and subscription groups, user playlists and playlist bookmarks, watch and search history, downloads and background playback. Optional user accounts work through Piped. Community integrations include SponsorBlock to skip sponsored segments, Return YouTube Dislike for dislike statistics and DeArrow for alternative titles and thumbnails. The interface follows Material Design 3 styling.

LibreTube is written in Kotlin and licensed under GPL-3.0. Nightly builds are offered for people who want features before the official release, with the warning that they are less stable. The Matrix room is the main support channel, and feature or bug requests are accepted only on GitHub, not on the community platforms.

Piped is an open-source alternative frontend for YouTube designed to be efficient. The project points to YouTube's data collection practices as the problem and offers a way to watch and listen to content without sending your activity to Google. It does not use the official YouTube APIs and makes no connections to Google's servers from the client.

User features include no ads, no tracking, infinite scrolling, light and dark themes, login, feeds and playlists, audio-only playback, 4K support, embedded videos and progressive web app support. It integrates with SponsorBlock, LBRY and Return YouTube Dislike through RYD-Proxy, and it can bypass geo restrictions through a federated network built on Matrix. A public JSON API and multi-region load balancing are among the technical features.

The backend is written in Java and uses NewPipeExtractor, while the frontend is built with Vue. Piped is licensed under AGPL-3.0. A list of public instances is in the documentation, and people who want to run their own instance can use the chat rooms and docs for help, rather than opening issues.

MediaCMS is an open-source content management system for video and other media. It is meant for organizations that want their own platform for viewing and sharing media, and the README says it can be used to put together a small to medium video portal in minutes. A public demo is available.

The stack is Python with Django and Celery on the server and React on the front end, and a REST API is included for integration. Listed features include complete control over your data through self-hosting, support for several publishing workflows such as public, private, unlisted and custom, and role-based access control with RBAC categories. Repository topics also cover audio, video sharing and CMS use cases.

MediaCMS is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and is designed to run on your own server. It suits schools, companies, communities and creators that want an internal or public video library without relying on a third-party video platform, and that are comfortable administering a Django application.

Yattee is a privacy-oriented video player for iOS, tvOS and macOS, written in Swift with a SwiftUI interface. Project topics point to Invidious, Piped and YouTube, so it is typically used as an alternative front end for watching online video without the standard YouTube app. It is licensed under AGPL-3.0.

The player offers a native user interface with customization settings, a player queue and history, custom controls and gestures, support for 4K playback, fullscreen, Picture in Picture and background audio playback, and SponsorBlock with configurable categories to skip. These features aim to give a comfortable viewing experience across iPhone, Apple TV and Mac.

The README announces that Yattee 2 is in development with a refreshed experience. It pairs with a new Yattee Server, a self-hosted backend powered by yt-dlp that is said to support many sites. A TestFlight beta is open for early builds, and a new documentation site hosts guides, a roadmap and a changelog.

ClippedAI is an open-source alternative to OpusClip that turns long-form videos into YouTube Shorts. It uses AI-based transcription and clip detection to find engaging moments, crops them to a 9:16 vertical format, adds animated subtitles and can suggest titles. It is built on the clipsai library and is aimed at content creators and developers who want a video-repurposing tool without a monthly subscription.

Additional features include caching of transcriptions so repeat runs are faster, support for processing several videos in one session, and engagement scoring to choose clips. Processing happens locally, which the README contrasts with cloud-based services, and models are selectable. It works offline apart from automatic title generation. API keys for HuggingFace and Groq are used, and the README describes them as free.

Requirements are Python 3.8 or later, FFmpeg available on the path, at least 8 GB of RAM and, optionally, a GPU for faster processing. The repository lists the license as Other, so check the license file before commercial use.