Alternatives to Downie
A macOS app that downloads videos from YouTube, Vimeo and over a thousand other websites. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
Downie
A macOS app that downloads videos from YouTube, Vimeo and over a thousand other websites.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as Downie.
4K Video Downloader Plus
A desktop app for saving videos, playlists and channels from YouTube and other video sites.
4K Video Downloader Plus is a freemium app for Windows, macOS and Linux that saves playlists, channels and subtitles, with some features behind a Premium license.
yt-dlp
A command line downloader that saves audio and video from thousands of sites, with precise control over formats.
yt-dlp is free under the Unlicense, supports thousands of sites and runs on every desktop, but works only from the command line.
Parabolic
A desktop interface for yt-dlp with batch and concurrent downloads, subtitles, metadata and a choice of output formats.
Parabolic is a free, MIT-licensed yt-dlp interface for macOS, Windows and Linux with concurrent downloads and audio formats such as 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 and cross-platform, downloading whole playlists and channels up to 8K, and is proprietary like Downie.
Stacher
A desktop GUI for yt-dlp that downloads online video and audio and organizes a library.
Stacher is a freemium yt-dlp GUI for macOS, Windows and Linux that manages yt-dlp and ffmpeg and includes a searchable library.
ClipGrab
A free, open-source desktop app for downloading online videos and converting them to MP4 or MP3.
ClipGrab is free GPLv3 software that downloads and converts in one step, though its macOS version is still a beta.
ytDownloader
Open-source desktop app for downloading video and audio from hundreds of websites.
ytDownloader is a free, open-source Electron app for macOS, Windows and Linux that downloads video or audio from hundreds of sites.
Open Video Downloader
A cross-platform desktop interface for youtube-dl that downloads videos and playlists from many websites.
Open Video Downloader is a free Tauri app that wraps youtube-dl for playlists and single videos on macOS, Windows and Linux, with license terms not stated.
Also worth comparing
These listings name Downie as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
Media Downloader
Download supported online media through a desktop interface.
Downie is a paid, closed-source macOS app supporting more than 1,200 video sites, with no Windows or Linux version.
Video DownloadHelper
Detects and downloads videos from a very large number of sites.
Downie is a paid macOS app supporting more than 1,200 video sites, sold as a one-time purchase with a free trial.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
Permute
A drag-and-drop macOS converter for video, audio, images and PDFs across about 50 formats.
JDownloader
A Java download manager that fetches files and videos from many hosting sites through plugins.
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.
Internet Download Manager
A Windows download manager that splits files into segments to speed up, resume and schedule downloads.
Tartube
Desktop front end for youtube-dl that downloads and organizes videos from channels and playlists.
