Free Youtube Downloader For Mac 2018

We use YouTube not only to entertain ourselves but to learn, to progress and even inform ourselves of the global events. YouTube has become the only “Go-To” place for streaming audio & video for free, in HD (if available), to watch full-length movies in thousands of different languages, and even to watch LIVE News coverage! I am a full-time #Blogger, #WebDesigner #SEO and #WordPress expert living in #Jaipur and I love to learn new things, right now trying my hands on #VideoEditing.

Who doesn’t like watching countless number of their favourite videos online on YouTube? Hands down the most popular video sharing website on the internet, YouTube is home to millions of videos spanning across hordes of genres. While there are a lot of entertainment related videos on YouTube, you can also watch tutorials, product unboxing and loads of educational videos. However, if you want to save these videos for future reference, you will need a good YouTube video downloader. Now, there are many free YouTube downloaders lingering on the internet – while some are genuine, some come with a heap of adware. So, how would you know which one’s suitable for you? By going through our list of the best free YouTube downloaders, of course!

What is a YouTube downloader?

YouTube downloader is an app performing the digital transfer of video and audio files from YouTube website to a device for further decoding and playback, such as a computer or a tablet. YouTube doesn’t offer a native option to download videos from it, but there are online services and applications offering such possibility.

How to choose the best free YouTube downloaders for Windows 7 & upwards or Mac?

There are many factors to consider before you choose the right YouTube downloader such as – its ability to convert videos into MP3 or other audio formats with higher bitrate. You might also want to convert YouTube videos into different extensions compatible with your device. Or, you may prefer HD YouTube videos in 4K resolution. Remember, there are plenty of instances when you will be forced to go offline – such as when travelling. Luckily, with the right software, you can download as many videos that you like and watch them offline!

1. WinX YouTube Downloader

WinX YouTube Downloader top in our list. It doesn’t simply enable you to download videos from YouTube, it also works flawlessly with more than 600+ sites such as SoundCloud, Facebook, Dailymotion, Metacafe, Vimeo, Instagram, and many others.
The new WinX YouTube Downloader comes with Multi-thread and Multicast technology that provides batch downloading playlist support. The new version of WinX has a totally new interface which allows users to capture YouTube Live Videos with ease.
Regardless of whether you are endeavoring to download the live stream recordings, 4K movies, music or any other videos. You can save them in various video format including MP4, MP3, FLV or WebM, in a resolution of your choice for free.
All you need to do is just log in to your account and start downloading all of your favorite videos and watch them offline.Download the latest version of WinX YouTube Downloader, it is 100% free, clean and safe.

2. Free Youtube Downloader

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This compact application is renowned for downloading YouTube videos quickly bereft of any glitches. Don’t be fooled by its simple layout and lack of certain advanced features, Free YouTube downloader enables you to download YouTube content in a gamut of audio and video formats such as MP3, MP4, AVI, and AAC. In fact, the uncluttered UI design and limited options act as a boon to make downloading videos simple and easy for everyone.

Not to mention, Free YouTube downloader also comes with a troubleshooting wizard that navigates users with detailed information, photos and a well-informed discussion forum wherein you can put your queries. Moreover, this amazing downloader maintains the original quality of the video and ensures the downloads are fast.

3. 4K Video Downloader

Perhaps one of the best free YouTube downloaders for people seeking a 4K Video, this awesome application is a surefire no-brainer if you want quick, no-frills attached YouTube downloads. 4K Video Downloader is completely ad-free, highly customizable, very simple and doesn’t come bundled with any unwanted add-ons.

All you need to do is to select a video, or even a whole playlist(not more than 24 videos), copy the URL on your web browser, then right click and paste the URL on 4K Video Downloader’s dashboard. Finally you can select a suitable output format, location, or quality. Speaking of formats, you could either choose between video, or audio such as MP4 and MP3. Further, you would be enthralled to know that one can even download 360-degree VR videos, 3D videos and captions for individual videos!

Wait, there’s even more madness going on here – a quick look into the properties reveals options to tweak multi-stream downloads by increasing the number of streams. However, be forewarned that may speed up the downloads, but it also increases the risk of YouTube blocking your IP address!

4. aTube Catcher

Even though aTube Catcher is bestowed with great YouTube downloading credentials, it can also actually save videos from most of the big tube and video hosting sites on the internet. And, yes it automatically converts the downloaded videos to a number of popular formats, which can all be tailored before the download starts.

Moreover, if you want to download a ton of videos all at once by maxing out your bandwidth, aTube Catcher is your go-to tool. This feature is what separates it from the rest on our list of best free YouTube downloaders for Windows 7 upwards and Mac.

There’s a barrage of extras offered by this free YouTube downloader such as disc burning, video merging and the ability to record any on-screen videos. In spite of being a solid YouTube downloader, aTube Catcher is marred by some shortcomings such as sneaky adware that pops up during the installation. Pro Tip: make sure to hit cancel as soon as you are offered the first app, and then click Decline for the second one.

5. Freemake Video Downloader

Another popular software that made the cut, Freemake Video downloader cum converter has been around for a while. It not only lets you rip videos off YouTube, but also comes in handy for websites such as Facebook, Dailymotion, Vimeo, and Hulu apart from thousands of similar websites! With its special one click mode, users can download videos with just a single click, and thus save their precious time!

Freemake Video downloader is a stark contrast to other video downloaders that require a lot of input settings such as choosing video/audio quality, extracting or converting action, choosing destination folder, etc. But the real novelty factor that injects Freemake onto our list of the best free youtube downloaders is its very simple and easy interface backed by fast download speeds.

With a compelling set of tools, you can convert videos in a wide variety of formats such as WMV, MP4, AVI, DVD, MP3 and 3GP keeping the original quality of the video/audio intact. Oh wait, you can also create slideshows with music, and upload the finished slideshows directly to YouTube.

6. YouTube Music Downloader

True to its name, YouTube Music downloader does what it does the best i.e. it allows you to capture the soundtrack or music from a YouTube Video seamlessly. You can download and save videos as well. In fact, YouTube Music downloader lets you share content with your pals, schedule files for playing later and more!

How do you download music videos quickly? Just click on the drop down menu, select your preferred audio output quality and viola! If you only want to download videos unrelated to music, the process is simple. Paste the video URL, click on the dropdown menu and save to destination folder.

YouTube Music downloader is accompanied by an uncluttered and well-arranged interface that’s easy to use. Moreover, you can even use the saturation and hue slide bars to change the colour tone of the user interface.

7. YTD Video Downloader Apple mac safari updates.

Perhaps one of the most popular entities on our list of the best free Youtube downloaders, YTD Video Downloader is a decent gamble if you want to save videos from YouTube on your hard drive in a variety of formats. The downloaded videos can be viewed on diverse devices in their particular formats viz. Aspect ratio ranging from PSP, iPad, iPod, XVid, Windows Media, etc. YTD is also pretty fast when it comes to downloading and converting videos on your Windows PC or Mac.

Moreover, you can even pause/resume your video downloads any time in its smooth and intuitive interface. However, YTD tends to falter a bit whilst downloading longer videos with big file size(s). But, that is understandable since you are getting great download speeds for FREE!

8. ClipGrab (Mac & Windows)

ClipGrab differs from other aforementioned YouTube downloaders in the sense that it not just allows you to paste in video URLs for downloading stuff, but it also boasts a nifty clipboard monitor. This feature helps auto-detect the URL as soon as you copy it from the address bar of your browser and pastes the URL automatically on ClipGrab’s interface. Cool, isn’t it? Moreover, there is a YouTube search tool that scouts for videos you wish to download from within ClipGrab’s interface instead of a web browser.

Also, you can convert the downloaded video in multiple output formats with your preferred quality rate. However, ClipGrab’s installer tries to foist unnecessary adware on you. So, you might have to dodge Yahoo adware and ByteFence installer for a hassle-free installation.

9. AnyVideoConverter

Just as the name suggests, AnyVideoConverter is a beast of Youtube downloader that can rip videos in any format on your hard drive. The real novelty factor that slides it onto our list of the best free YouTube downloaders is that it comprises of an in-built basic video editor that can crop videos, fine tune colours, add effects, add overlay text, etc.

Video Downloader For Mac Free

With a simple and sleek UI, and lots of video output formats, everyone will be good to go with this free video converter. However, there is one limitation that hampers its glowing pros. That is, AnyVideoConverter cannot download multiple videos at the same time. It is only restricted to one single video at a time.

10. ISkysoft Free Video Downloader (Mac and Windows)

Available on Windows and Mac, iSkysoft Free Video Downloader is capable of downloading audio and video from not only YouTube, but over 1000 websites! iSkysoft is loaded with a number of features with the most prominent one being its ability to download multiple YouTube playlists one by one or in batches. Moreover, you can download videos and extract audio in original format or convert them to over 153 formats!

11. Free YouTube Download (Windows and Mac)

And rounding off our list of the best free YouTube downloader for PC and Mac is, Free YouTube Download. No prizes for guessing what it does. With a simple yet elegant interface, Free YouTube download does away with distractions and sticks to the job. Just paste in a YouTube URL, download the video in a couple clicks, and you are done – no frills attached, no needless fiddling around. You can even enable the auto download option if you prefer zero clicks.

Moreover, you can download many videos at once and convert them to various formats such as MP4, AVI, MP3, MKV, iPhone/iPadon the go maintaining the original quality. There’s big drawback though – you will only be able to use Free YouTube Download for videos less than three minutes long. That’s a real shame because it rules out most music videos off your radar.

And…that’s a wrap! Did you like our list of the best free youtube downloaders? Did we miss out on some entries? Let us know in the comments.

SEE ALSO: 10 Best free QR Code Generators

SEE ALSO: How To Download Youtube Videos In 4K [Ultra HD] Utilizing TubeMate

Free YouTube downloaders will let you save videos from the world's biggest video hosting site, ready to watch offline later whenever you want.

These free tools will enable you to download and save videos from YouTube – and often other video sharing sites too – in a format of your choice. You can usually choose to save the whole clip or just the audio, which is a great choice for music videos and video podcasts. It's easy; it doesn't require owning one of the best laptops, either.

YouTube downloaders can also come in handy in other circumstances. If you have a slow internet connection, you'll find that streaming videos can be a pain. With the right downloader, however, you can set the videos you are interested in to download overnight so they are ready and waiting for you to enjoy in the morning, stutter-free and buffer-free.

Free YouTube downloaders are always changing, but we upgrade this guide frequently so you can be sure that you're always getting up to date advice. If you're specifically interested in saving music from YouTube, you might want to check out our guide to the best YouTube to MP3 software as well.

  • How to download YouTube videos for free

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. Downloading videos is also a potential copyright infringement unless you own the video yourself, have permission from the copyright holder, or it's in the public domain.

1. 4K Video Downloader

Fast, free and flexible – the most versatile YouTube downloader

Downloads playlists
Mac

4K Video Downloader is the best free tool around for quick, fuss-free YouTube downloads. It's simple to use, highly customizable, ad-free, and doesn't include any bundled 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 support for 3D and 360-degree videos too.

Delving into the properties lets you tweak options like multi-stream downloads (increasing the number of streams will speed up downloads, but increases the risk YouTube blocking your IP address) and set up a proxy connection.

Buying a key will let you download longer playlists and playlists with captions, and at £7.95 (about US$10, AU$15) for a lifetime license for three PCs, it's a bargain, but the free edition has everything else you could wish for.

2. WinX YouTube Downloader

Clear, powerful and well designed – a very close runner-up

Best Free Youtube Downloader For Mac 2018

Can download 4K video
No 360-degree video support

Best Youtube Downloader For Mac

Running a very close second, WinX YouTube Downloader can download videos from all the most popular sites, including Facebook, Vimeo and DailyMotion. It's very easy to use. Just paste in a URL, select an output format and quality setting, and it will be added to the current batch.

Once you've added all the videos you want to download, simply click the 'Download' button and they'll all be processed at once, and saved to the destination folder of your choice.

WinX YouTube Downloader can download 4K video when available, and only loses out to 4K Video Downloader because it's unable to download 3D and 360-degree videos. If this isn't a problem for you, this free YouTube downloader comes highly recommended.

3. Any Video Converter Free

Free Youtube Downloader For Mac Os X

Download and convert videos, and add special effects

Built-in video editor
Bundled extra software

On the face of it, Any Video Converter Free is one of the best YouTube downloaders out there. The only drawback is that the free version of this brilliant program limits you to downloading a single video at a time, but if you're looking for a free solution, this is something you may decide you're happy to put up with.

There are lots of video formats to choose from, and there's even a basic video editor built into this YouTube downloader. This can be used to crop a video you download, add simple effects such as colour 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 really nitpicking; this is a fantastic free YouTube downloader all other respects. Watch out for the bundled ByteFence and Yahoo software during installation, and you're good to go.

4. Free YouTube Download

Auto download option
Three-minute time limit

There are no prizes for guessing what Free YouTube Download does. This is a very simple, tightly focused free YouTube downloader that does 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 to several different formats on the fly. Just which formats are 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 as well.

Mac

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 most music videos for a start, and is a real shame.

5. aTube Catcher

Download, convert and merge videos as they're playing

Converts to popular formats

Free Youtube Downloader For Mac 2018

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 free YouTube downloaders.

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.

  • Check out our guide to the best video editors