Alternatives to ClipGrab
A free, open-source desktop app for downloading online videos and converting them to MP4 or MP3. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
ClipGrab
A free, open-source desktop app for downloading online videos and converting them to MP4 or MP3.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as ClipGrab.
yt-dlp
A command line downloader that saves audio and video from thousands of sites, with precise control over formats.
yt-dlp supports thousands of sites with fine-grained format selection and frequent fixes, but it is command line only and needs FFmpeg for merging streams.
4K Video Downloader Plus
A desktop app for saving videos, playlists and channels from YouTube and other video sites.
4K Video Downloader Plus is closed-source freemium software that downloads whole playlists and channels up to 8K, with some features needing a paid Premium license.
Parabolic
A desktop interface for yt-dlp with batch and concurrent downloads, subtitles, metadata and a choice of output formats.
Parabolic is an MIT-licensed yt-dlp front end for Windows, macOS and Linux with concurrent downloads, subtitles and several audio formats including FLAC and Opus.
MediaHuman YouTube Downloader
A desktop app that downloads videos, playlists and whole channels from YouTube and other sites.
MediaHuman YouTube Downloader is free but proprietary, adding whole playlist and channel downloads with 4K and 8K support on macOS, Windows and Ubuntu.
ytDownloader
Open-source desktop app for downloading video and audio from hundreds of websites.
ytDownloader is an open-source Electron app for Windows, macOS and Linux with Flatpak and Snap builds, heavier than a command-line tool but simple to use.
Stacher
A desktop GUI for yt-dlp that downloads online video and audio and organizes a library.
Stacher is a freemium yt-dlp desktop GUI that can install and manage yt-dlp and ffmpeg and includes a searchable download library.
Open Video Downloader
A cross-platform desktop interface for youtube-dl that downloads videos and playlists from many websites.
Open Video Downloader is a lightweight Tauri interface for youtube-dl that handles playlists as well as single videos, though its license terms are not stated.
youtube-dl-gui
A cross-platform graphical front end for yt-dlp and youtube-dl with a download queue.
youtube-dl-gui is an open-source front end for yt-dlp and youtube-dl on Windows, macOS and Linux with a download queue, though parts of its interface are dated.
Also worth comparing
These listings name ClipGrab as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
Lux
A fast command-line video downloader written in Go.
ClipGrab is a GPL-3.0 desktop app that downloads and converts to MP4 or MP3 in one step, though its macOS version is still a beta.
You-Get
An open-source command-line tool that downloads videos, audio and images from web pages.
ClipGrab is an open-source GPL-3.0 desktop app that downloads and converts videos to MP4 or MP3 through a graphical interface instead of a terminal.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
JDownloader
A Java download manager that fetches files and videos from many hosting sites through plugins.
Tartube
Desktop front end for youtube-dl that downloads and organizes videos from channels and playlists.
MeTube
A self-hosted web interface for yt-dlp that downloads video and audio from YouTube and other sites.
Pinchflat
A self-hosted app that downloads YouTube channels and playlists into your media server library.
Xtreme Download Manager
An open-source download accelerator that splits files into parts and saves videos from streaming sites.
FFmpeg
The command that converts, cuts, streams and inspects essentially any audio or video file in existence.
