What is TubeArchivist used for?

TubeArchivist is a self-hosted tool that downloads, indexes and plays YouTube videos from channels you subscribe to, entirely offline. It is a good fit for archiving favorite YouTube channels offline and building a searchable personal video library.

Is TubeArchivist open source?

Yes. TubeArchivist is open source under the GPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at tubearchivist/tubearchivist and is written mainly in Python.

Is TubeArchivist free?

Yes. TubeArchivist is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

Can I self-host TubeArchivist?

Yes. TubeArchivist can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.

What are some alternatives to TubeArchivist?

Similar open-source tools in the Media & Streaming category include MeTube, HomeTube and Pinchflat. SaaS products in the same category include Channels DVR, Emby and Antatube.

Is TubeArchivist actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to TubeArchivist was on 28 August 2026, and the latest release is v0.5.12, published on 25 August 2026. The project has 8.5k stars on GitHub.

TubeArchivist: open-source media & streaming

About TubeArchivist

TubeArchivist is a self-hosted media server for YouTube content. As a video collection grows it becomes hard to find a particular clip, and this tool addresses that by indexing videos together with their YouTube metadata so you can organize, search and watch them offline through a web interface.

You subscribe to channels, and videos are downloaded with yt-dlp, indexed in Elasticsearch and made searchable. The interface plays videos and keeps track of which ones you have watched. A companion browser extension for Firefox and Chrome, plus plugins for Jellyfin and Plex, extend the workflow, and the project documents its API.

Installation relies on Docker with an example docker-compose file and environment variables for the passwords. The maintainers suggest around 2 GB of free memory for a small test setup and about 4 GB for larger installations. Extra instructions exist for Unraid, Synology and Podman. The project is licensed under GPL-3.0 and accepts donations.

Key features

Subscribe to YouTube channels
Downloads videos with yt-dlp
Searchable index of video metadata
Built-in video playback in the web interface
Tracks watched and unwatched videos
Browser extension, Jellyfin and Plex plugins

Good fit for

→Archiving favorite YouTube channels offline
→Building a searchable personal video library

Built with: Python
Tags: youtube; media-server; archive; self-hosted; yt-dlp; elasticsearch; docker; video-downloader

TubeArchivist: questions and answers

What is TubeArchivist used for?: TubeArchivist is a self-hosted tool that downloads, indexes and plays YouTube videos from channels you subscribe to, entirely offline. It is a good fit for archiving favorite YouTube channels offline and building a searchable personal video library.
Is TubeArchivist open source?: Yes. TubeArchivist is open source under the GPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at tubearchivist/tubearchivist and is written mainly in Python.
Is TubeArchivist free?: Yes. TubeArchivist is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host TubeArchivist?: Yes. TubeArchivist can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.
What are some alternatives to TubeArchivist?: Similar open-source tools in the Media & Streaming category include MeTube, HomeTube and Pinchflat. SaaS products in the same category include Channels DVR, Emby and Antatube.
Is TubeArchivist actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to TubeArchivist was on 28 August 2026, and the latest release is v0.5.12, published on 25 August 2026. The project has 8.5k stars on GitHub.