The best free YouTube downloader apps let you download and play videos offline hassle-free.
This means you can watch your favorite YouTube videos or ones you've saved to watch later even when you have no internet access. If you only want the audio, check out our guide to the best free YouTube to MP3 converters and video download apps.
The best free YouTube downloader apps make the process simple and quick, and we've reviewed a bunch to find you our top recommendations.
Right now, the 4K Video Downloader is our favorite free YouTube downloader app, as it's simple to use and fast, making it a good YouTube downloader without a watermark. But you'll find loads of options below as we give our independent assessment of the tops apps you should try.
As part of our review process, we explore the user interface, filetype support, import and export speeds, and, of course, ensure all featured YouTube downloader apps are completely free to use.
The best free YouTube downloader app of 2024 in full:
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Best free YouTube downloader app overall
4K Video Downloader is overall the best free YouTube downloader for quick, fuss-free YouTube downloads. It's simple to use, highly customizable, and doesn't bundle in extra software.
To grab a video (or a whole playlist, provided it's not longer than 24 videos), simply copy its URL from your web browser, click 'Paste URL,' and select an output format, quality, and location.
There's a great choice of formats – both video and audio – including MP4 and MP3. You can download captions for individual videos, and there's even support for 3D and 360-degree videos.
Delving into the properties lets you tweak options like multi-stream downloads (increasing the number of streams speeds up downloads but increases the risk of YouTube blocking your IP address) and set up a proxy connection.
You need to shell out some cash to use this tool's premium features, though, which include unlimited videos, large playlist downloads, private video downloads, and no ads. The free version is still a powerful and functional option, however - provided you don't mind a few ads.
Read our full 4K Video Downloader review.
Best free YouTube download app for special effects
At first glance, Any Video Converter Free is one of the best free YouTube downloaders out there. The only drawback is that this free version only lets you download a single video at a time. But if you're looking for a free solution, you may decide you're happy to put up with that.
There are lots of video formats to choose from, and there's even a basic video editor built into this YouTube downloader, which you can use to crop downloaded videos, add simple effects such as color adjustment, and add overlay text.
The whole process is quick and easy. Any Video Converter's interface may not be to everyone's liking, but that's nitpicking; this is a great free YouTube download in all other respects. Watch out for the bundled ByteFence and Yahoo software during installation, and you're good to go.
Read our full Any Video Converter Free review
Best free YouTube downloader app for beginners
Free YouTube Download does exactly what it says on the tin. This free YouTube downloader app is simple to use and tightly focused - doing away with distractions to get the job done well. Paste in a URL from YouTube, and you can download the video in just a couple of clicks – or no clicks at all if you enable the Auto Download option.
You can download several videos at once if you need to, and you can convert them to different formats on the fly. The formats available to you will depend on the quality of the original video, but AVI, MP4, iPhone/iPod, and MKV should be available in most cases. It's also possible to convert to audio-only MP3 if you don’t need the footage.
There's only one real drawback, but it's a biggie – you can only use Free YouTube Download to grab clips that are less than three minutes long. That rules out quite a lot, including music videos and podcasts - which is a real shame.
Read our full Free YouTube Download review
Best free YouTube downloader app for experienced users
Although the name suggests that this is just a YouTube downloader, aTube Catcher can actually save videos from most of the big video hosting sites.
First, however, a word of warning: sneaky adware abounds during the installation. When you're offered the first app, make sure to hit Cancel, and for the second one click Decline – then you'll be free to enjoy aTube Catcher without any unwanted surprises.
Downloaded videos can be converted automatically to a number of popular formats, so you can tailor them for their intended use, or whatever device you intend to watch them on. If you're looking to download a large number of videos, you can download them all at once, maxing out your bandwidth – something not available in all of the best free YouTube downloaders on this list.
This free YouTube downloader offers plenty of added extras too, such as the ability to record any on-screen video, video merging, and disc burning.
Read our full aTube Catcher review
Best free YouTube downloader app: Frequently asked questions
Is it legal to downloaded YouTube videos?
Before you use a free YouTube downloader, bear in mind that using third-party apps to download videos is against YouTube's terms of service, which say you can only stream videos directly from its servers. Since YouTube is owned by Google, this could potentially lead to your linked Google account being suspended - you've been warned.
Downloading videos is also potentially a copyright infringement unless you own the video yourself, have permission from the copyright holder, or it's in the public domain.
What's the difference between Online and YouTube download apps?
There are many sites that you can use to download YouTube videos, but we don't recommend them due to their disadvantages over desktop software. First of all, they're slower due to the limitations of the remote server and your data connection. Many such sites also feature ads of an.... unsavory variety, or display thumbnails of recently downloaded videos, which may not be appropriate.
Online video converters typically don't give you much (if any) choice about the video file either, in terms of quality or expert format. They only allow you to download a single video at a time, and you can forget about saving whole playlists. 3D and 360-degree videos are also out of the question, and very few can handle 4K.
How we test the best free YouTube downloader apps
Our team has reviewed a range of essential content tools, including the best video editing software and the best video editing apps. Whether we're downloading video files or cutting them together, we conduct the same precise, independent testing process.
We test the best free YouTube downloader apps by see how reliable the service is, both in terms of availability, download quality, and also ease of use. We also look to see if there are any other useful options and tools to make the download and any conversion of the files more accessible.
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