The current owner of best free YouTube downloader is 4K Video Downloader. This free program disgraces many paid tools by being ad-free, allowing you to record videos in the format of your choice and not place watermarks on downloaded clips. It will even let you extract audio from a video or download an entire playlist. However, sometimes you don't need a lot of capacity. If you're looking for the best free YouTube downloader that meets the most basic requirements, like just quickly recording a video, there are other, lighter options. The best free YouTube downloaders make it easy to save YouTube videos in the format of your choice, so we've put the best of them in one convenient place. And don't worry, as these YouTube downloaders are constantly evolving, we update this guide regularly so you always get up-to-date advice. If you're particularly interested in recording music from YouTube, our guide to the best free YouTube to MP3 converters might be better for you. We've also rounded up the best free YouTube video converters if you want to play videos offline on another device, like a phone or tablet, as well as the best free video editors to cut and trim your recorded videos. For more detailed instructions, check out our full guide: How to Download YouTube Videos for Free.
YouTube downloaders online vs. Desktop software
There are many sites you can use to download youtube videos, but we don't recommend them due to their disadvantages compared to desktop software. First, they are slower due to the limitations of the remote server and your data connection. Many of these sites also display ads for a variety of NSFW, or display thumbnails of recently downloaded videos, which may not be appropriate. Online video converters usually don't give you (if any) many options regarding the video file, in terms of quality or expert format. They only allow you to download one video at a time, and you can forget about saving entire playlists. 3D and 360-degree videos are also out of the question, and very few can handle 4K.Is it legal to download YouTube videos?
Before using a free YouTube downloader, be aware that using third-party applications to download videos is against YouTube's terms of use, which state that you cannot stream videos directly from its servers. Downloading videos is also a potential copyright infringement, unless you own the video, have permission from the copyright holder, or are in the public domain.
1. 4K video downloader
Fast, free and flexible - the most versatile YouTube downloaderOperating system: Windows, macOS, Linux
Great variety of formats. Playlist downloads Supports 3D and 360-degree videos No additional software provided 4K Video Downloader is the best free YouTube downloader for fast and smooth YouTube downloads. It is easy to use, highly customizable, ad-free, and does not include any additional software provided. To retrieve a video (or an entire playlist, as long as it doesn't exceed 24 videos), simply copy its URL from your web browser, click 'Paste URL', and select an output format, quality, and location. There is a wide variety of formats, video and audio, including MP4 and MP3. You can download subtitles for individual videos, and there's support for 3D and 360-degree videos, too. Diving into the properties lets you tweak options like multi-stream downloads (increasing the number of streams will speed up downloads, but increases the risk of YouTube blocking your IP address) and setting up a proxy connection. Buying a key will let you download longer playlists and subtitled playlists, and at £7.95 for a three-PC lifetime license it's a great deal, but the free edition has everything you could want.2.WinX YouTube Downloader
Clear, powerful and well-designed - a very close finalistOperating system: Windows, macOS
Supports 30+ video sites Can download 4K video Downloads multiple videos at once No 360 video support Coming a very close second, WinX YouTube Downloader can download videos from all the most popular sites including Facebook, Vimeo and DailyMotion. It is very easy to use. Just paste in a URL, select an output format and quality settings, and it's added to the current batch. Once you have added all the videos you want to download, just click the "Download" button and they will all be processed at the same time and saved to the destination folder of your choice. WinX YouTube Downloader can download 4K videos when available and only lose 4K Video Downloader as it cannot download 3D and 360 degree videos. If that is not a problem for you, this free YouTube downloader is highly recommended.3.Any Video Converter Free
Download and convert videos and add special effectsOperating system: Windows, macOS
Excellent format support Integrated video editor No batch download Additional software provided At first glance, Any Video Converter Free is one of the best free downloaders on YouTube. The only downside is that this free version limits you to downloading just one video at a time, but if you're looking for a free solution, it's something you may decide you're happy to put up with. There are many video formats to choose from, and even a basic video editor built into this YouTube downloader. This can be used to trim a video you download, add simple effects like adjusting colors, and adding overlay text. The whole process is quick and easy. The interface of any video converter may not appeal to everyone, but it's actually a tough choice; It is a fantastic free YouTube downloader in all other respects. Be careful with the ByteFence and Yahoo software provided during installation, and you'll be good to go.4. Free download from YouTube
Record videos without clicking a single buttonOperating system: Windows, macOS
Auto download option Batch download You can turn off PC when done Three minutes delay There is no price to guess what free download on YouTube does. It is a very simple and very specific free YouTube downloader that removes distractions to get the job done. Paste a YouTube URL and you can download the video with a few clicks, or no clicks if you enable the auto-download option. You can download multiple videos at once if you need to, and you can convert them to several different formats on the fly. The available formats depend on the quality of the original video, but AVI, MP4, iPhone/iPod, and MKV should be available in most cases. It is also possible to convert to MP3 format only if you don't need the footage as well. There's only one real downside, but it's a big deal: You can only use YouTube's free download to recover clips that are less than three minutes long. That excludes most music videos, and that's a shame.