# Alternatives to yt-dlp yt-dlp is an open-source command-line tool for downloading video and audio from YouTube and over a thousand other sites, with format selection, playlist handling, and post-processing via ffmpeg. It is used by developers, sysadmins, and power users who script or automate downloads rather than click through a GUI. It distinguishes itself in this category as the CLI-native, actively maintained successor to youtube-dl, with faster releases and more site support. yt-dlp ranks #5 of 11 in Download managers, with an Alt Score of 75. It is licensed under Unlicense, free from Free and available on Windows, macOS and Linux. 7 of 9 checklist rows are verified against a public source. Source: https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/yt-dlp/ Category: Download managers ## Where yt-dlp stands out - **CLI** — 3 of 7 apps with a verified answer have this ## Overview - **Who it's for**: yt-dlp is for people who want to save audio or video from websites to their own machine from the command line, rather than through a browser-based downloader or GUI app. It targets users comfortable with a terminal, including those scripting or embedding downloads into other Python programs. - **What you get**: A free, public-domain command-line tool that downloads from thousands of supported sites, with options for concurrent/segmented fragment downloads, resuming interrupted downloads, rate-limiting bandwidth, extracting authentication cookies from installed browsers, format selection/sorting, subtitle and metadata handling, and SponsorBlock integration. It ships as standalone binaries for Windows, macOS, and Linux, or installable via pip. - **How it works**: yt-dlp is invoked as a shell command (or imported as a Python library) against one or more URLs; it extracts available media formats from the target site and downloads the selected format directly, optionally using ffmpeg to merge separate video/audio streams and perform post-processing such as format conversion or thumbnail embedding. It can also be run programmatically via its Python API for use inside other applications. ## Profile - **License**: Unlicense (verified 2026-07-30) - **Pricing model**: Free (verified 2026-07-30) - **Starts at**: Free (verified 2026-07-30) - **Platforms**: Windows, macOS, Linux - **Status**: active (verified 2026-07-30) ## Ranked alternatives | # | App | Alt Score | Licence | Platforms | |---|-----|-----------|---------|-----------| | 1 | [Download Master](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/download-master.md) | 80 | Proprietary | Windows | | 2 | [Internet Download Manager](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/internet-download-manager.md) | 80 | Proprietary | Windows | | 3 | [Xtreme Download Manager (XDM)](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/xtreme-download-manager.md) | 80 | GPL-2.0 | Windows, macOS, Linux | | 4 | [Free Download Manager](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/free-download-manager.md) | 75 | Proprietary | Windows, macOS, Android, Linux | | 5 | [aria2](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/aria2.md) | 70 | GPL-2.0 | ? | | 6 | [Folx](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/folx.md) | 70 | Proprietary | macOS | | 7 | [JDownloader](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/jdownloader.md) | 70 | GPL | Windows, macOS, Linux | | 8 | [Motrix](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/motrix.md) | 70 | MIT | Windows, macOS, Linux | | 9 | [Persepolis Download Manager](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/persepolis.md) | 70 | GPL-3.0 | Windows, macOS, Linux | | 10 | [4K Video Downloader](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/4k-video-downloader.md) | 40 | Proprietary | Windows, macOS, Linux | Alt Score = Verified coverage (90%) + Visibility (10%). See https://altcatalog.com/how-alt-score-works/ ## Feature comparison Legend: Yes / No / Partial / ? (not verified). | Download managers checklist | yt-dlp | Download Master | Internet Download Manager | Xtreme Download Manager (XDM) | Free Download Manager | aria2 | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | Pricing model | Free | Donationware | One-time | Free | Free | Free | | Starts at | Free | $9.95 | €21.50 | Free | Free | Free | | License | Unlicense | Proprietary | Proprietary | GPL-2.0 | Proprietary | GPL-2.0 | | Platforms | Windows, macOS, Linux | Windows | Windows | Windows, macOS, Linux | Windows, macOS, Android, Linux | ? | | Segmented downloading | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Browser integration | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | | Video grabbing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | No | | Scheduler | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | | Resume support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Open source | Yes | No | No | Yes | ? | Yes | | No bundled adware | ? | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | | Speed limits | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | CLI | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ## Sources Sources for yt-dlp. Each alternative is sourced on its own page. - **License**: Unlicense — (verified 2026-07-30) - Quote: “This is free and unencumbered software released into the public domain.” - **Starts at**: Free — (verified 2026-07-30) - Quote: “Anyone is free to copy, modify, publish, use, compile, sell, or distribute this software... for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial.” - **Status**: active — (verified 2026-07-30) - Note: GitHub repo page (title fetched) also shows ongoing commit-activity badge; monthly stable release cadence plus nightly builds confirm active development. - Quote: “stable is the default channel, which offers releases published on a (mostly) monthly schedule.” - **Pricing model**: Free — (verified 2026-07-30) - Note: No pricing/tiers exist anywhere in the README or repo; it is a free, public-domain CLI tool with no paid version. - Quote: “yt-dlp is a feature-rich command-line audio/video downloader with support for thousands of sites.” - **Platforms**: Windows, macOS, Linux — (verified 2026-07-30) - Note: Release Files table lists official standalone binaries for these three OSes plus pip/PyPI install; no iOS/Android/Web build is offered. - Quote: “yt-dlp.exe|Windows (Win8+) standalone x64 binary (recommended for Windows) ... yt-dlp_macos|Universal MacOS (10.15+) standalone executable (recommended for MacOS) ... yt-dlp_linux|Linux (glibc 2.17+) ” - **Segmented downloading**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-30) - Quote: “Multi-threaded fragment downloads: Download multiple fragments of m3u8/mpd videos in parallel. Use --concurrent-fragments (-N) option to set the number of threads used” - **Browser integration**: Partial — (verified 2026-07-30) - Note: yt-dlp can pull authentication cookies from installed browsers, but the README documents no companion browser extension or one-click capture; integration is limited to cookie import. - Quote: “Cookies from browser: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]” - **Video grabbing**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-30) - Quote: “yt-dlp is a feature-rich command-line audio/video downloader with support for thousands of sites.” - **Resume support**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-30) - Quote: “-c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments (default)” - **Open source**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-30) - Quote: “This is free and unencumbered software released into the public domain.” - **Speed limits**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-30) - Quote: “-r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second, e.g. 50K or 4.2M” - **CLI**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-30) - Quote: “yt-dlp is a feature-rich command-line audio/video downloader with support for thousands of sites.” --- Ranked by verified data, never by who paid. https://altcatalog.com/trust/