A YouTube Video Downloader for Mac: What Is It in 2019?

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If you want to download a video from YouTube to your Mac, it’s not a problem. Use a YouTube video downloader that will find and deliver the best available version of the video to your computer. If you are not sure what item to choose: a YouTube video downloader online or a YouTube video downloader app, which one is the best, what are pros and cons, etc., read our article.

Contents:

  1. YouTube Video Downloaders As Stand-Alone Applications
  2. Browser Extensions As Downloaders from YouTube
  3. Online Services As YouTube Video Downloaders
  4. YouTube Premium As an Alternative to YouTube Video Downloaders

YouTube Video Downloaders As Stand-Alone Applications


Stand-alone or 3rd-party applications give you more control over the downloading process than web tools. You don’t just paste a link to a YouTube video and press Download, but you have access to many other options and features that online downloaders don’t have. Check these tried and tested apps that showed the best performance and results:

Airy

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Airy


Requirements: OS X 10.9++. 20.09MB free space. Version 3.10.242. (25th Sep, 2019). 4.9 Rank based on 811+ users, Reviews(885)
Category: UtilitiesApplication
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Airy was recognized the best YouTube video downloader for Mac due to its powerful features and seamless work. If you want to enjoy your favorite movies and music clips when there is no Internet connection, don’t hesitate and get Airy on your Mac.

Video downloader youtube

Main features:

  • Compact interface without irritating pop-up items
  • Support of popular video and audio formats that most media players can read
  • Downloading 4K and 8K videos
  • Saving videos of big sizes
  • Unicode support that allows to get video files with Cyrillic, Chinese, Japanese and other non-English symbols
  • Bulk video downloads by multiple links from text files
  • Saving YouTube playlists and channels
  • Downloading YouTube videos with subtitles
  • Integration with web browsers for the quick file adding
  • Downloading 60fps YouTube videos
  • Audio extraction out of YouTube content

Here are a few simple steps allowing you to get any YouTube files to your computer:

  1. Download Airy app and install it on your Mac.
  2. Launch it.
  3. Paste the link to a video you’d like to save.
  4. Choose the format and resolution of the video ready for download.
  5. Click the Download button. The downloaded video will get to the default folder Airy/Downloads. You can change it in Preferences.

Pros:

  • Clear interface. User interface is not overloaded with any information that you don’t need.
  • Simplicity of usage. You easily add files to the download list. You can pause and resume downloads from the point it stopped.
  • High speed. Video files are very quickly and easily downloaded to the hard drive. The only thing that can slow down the download process is your Internet connection.
  • 4K and 8K formats. Airy can save HD and even Ultra HD videos known as 4K and 8K formats. Many downloaders can’t get them due to the high resolutions that these formats have.
  • No ads. All Eltima products are free of adware, spyware and malware. This rule has no exceptions.
  • Multi-stream downloads. The app can download both separate videos and multiple files at once. You can save full collections of videos with minimum efforts.

Cons:

  • YouTube only. Airy downloads only the YouTube content. You can’t use it for Dailymotion, Vevo or any other sites.
  • Trial and full versions. Airy has trial and full versions. You can download 2 videos for free in the trial version. To unpack all Airy features you need to activate its full version.

Any Video Converter

Youtube online video downloader

Any Video Converter is a free conversion tool that easily transcodes video files into a big number of formats. It allows you to extract MP3 files out of videos and convert audio tracks between formats. You can save videos from Youtube, Facebook, Vimeo, Dailymotion, and more than other 100 sites. You can also edit videos by trimming, cropping, rotating, and joining them. There are options allowing you to add subtitles, special effects, watermarks or audio tracks. You can work with video codecs, dimension, channel, frame rate, bit rate, sample rate, video/audio quality and other parameters.

Pros:

  • Payment free. You can use Any Video Converter absolutely for free.
  • Multi language interface. The app is supported in many languages.
  • Ads free. No ads policy is provided for this video downloader from YouTube.

Cons:

  • Paid version. Any Video Converter gives you more features and possibilities if you purchase its Pro version.
  • Limits of the free version. If you use a free version of the app, the number of downloads is limited for you.

YTD Video Downloader

Download video from youtube

With YTD Video Downloader you can download videos from 50+ sites and convert most video formats into MP3, MP4, WMV, FLV, MOV, 3GP, AVI, etc. The app was developed for iPad, iPhone, iPod, Samsung Galaxy, HTC, Kindle Fire, Blackberry and many other devices. YTD Video Downloader has an embedded video player, so you can use it right after the download is finished.

Pros:

  • All-in-one solution: a free video downloader, video converter and video player. Such combination of features makes you forget about using additional software.
  • Easy and fast in use. You will get the required content without efforts or pains.
  • 50+ sites to download from. There are big collections of music and videos from different websites.

Cons:

  • No updates since 2017. The app is out-of-date.
  • Pro version for more advanced features. You need to activate Pro version to have a possibility to use a full app potential.

Winx YouTube Downloader

How to download video from youtube

This video downloader app saves videos not just from YouTube, but from Vevo, Facebook, DailyMotion, Vimeo, Yahoo and 600+ video hosting sites. It is reliable and safe, without any adware and any need in plugins or other software. With Winx YouTube Downloader you can download playlists and channels from popular video channels, 4K/8K UHD videos, 3D videos and standard videos in different formats. The app automatically detects videos and shows resolution, format with corresponding size. Choose your desired output and click Download, you can have the full video on your PC in a few seconds.

Pros:

  • Free software. Winx YouTube Downloader doesn’t require any payments from you.
  • Content from 600+ websites. You can get practically any video from the net.

Cons:

  • Feature limitations. The app offers you basic functionality. You won’t find scores of features there or advanced level of their characteristics.
  • Format limitations. Winx YouTube Downloader can’t save many types of videos.

Browser Extensions As Downloaders from YouTube

The extensions to such popular web browsers as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera and others can be excellent video downloaders from YouTube. After you save and add an extension to your browser, there will be the Download button on the page with the video. Press the button every time you want to get a file to your computer. The download process will start automatically or you will need to convert your video into one of the suggested formats and then hit Download. We’ve selected the best add-ons for YouTube and Firefox browsers:

YouTube Video Downloader

Download youtube video hd

This add-on is a YouTube video downloader for Chrome browser that is easily downloaded and installed. It allows you to save YouTube videos in such formats as MP4, FLV, WEBM, and 3GP with different resolutions: 2160P (4K), 1440P (2K), 1080P (HD), 720P (HD), 480P, 360P, and 144P. You also have a possibility to download audio streams, dash and embedded videos, in other words, videos from YouTube players. The extension is good at making screenshots out of playing videos and extracting audio from YouTube video files.

Pros:

  • Easy-to-use. The Download button is placed below YouTube videos playing at the moment. To start downloading just click the button.
  • Advanced options. You can customize the extension to your needs by using its options.

Cons:

  • 20 min. conversion. To convert YouTube videos into MP3 files you have just 20 minutes. You can change this in the extension settings.

Mozilla Flash Video Downloader

Download from youtube video

Mozilla Flash Video Downloader can help you save streaming videos, 4K and Full HD YouTube videos, MP3, and more. Besides YouTube, you can download media files from Google Video, DailyMotion, Metacafe, and others. You can also select one of the following formats: HD, MP4, Low WebM, etc.

Pros:

  • No ads. The extension can filter out ad clips.
  • Variety of supported sites. The list of websites that Mozilla Flash Video Downloader can save the content from is quite good.

Cons:

  • Limitation of formats. The choice of formats is not very big for you: MP4, WebM, HD, Low WebM, Low MP4 and some others depending on the video.

Firefox Video DownloadHelper

Firefox video downloadhelper

Video DownloadHelper freely extracts videos and images from web resources and saves them to your Mac. When it detects a video available for downloading, its icon highlights on the toolbar. The drop-down menu allows you to choose a proper item and save it by a click.

With Video DownloadHelper you can get video content from such resources as DailyMotion, Facebook, Periscope, Vimeo, Twitch, Liveleak, Vine, UStream, Fox, Bloomberg, RAI, France 2-3, Break, Metacafe and many others.

Pros:

  • Support of streaming. This add-on supports several types of streaming, such as HTTP, MP2T, F4F, and others. If a non-supported streaming technology is used, Video DownloadHelper can capture from the screen and make a video file out of it.
  • Aggregation. The extension allows you to join separate audio and video files into a single file.

Cons:

  • Basic functionality. If you want advanced features and more possibilities, Video DownloadHelper may be not enough for you.

Online Services As YouTube Video Downloaders

Online services are not as powerful as stand-alone apps but still they have their advantages. You don’t have to install any software on your computer and be concerned about updates, payments, crashes and fixes. You just open a website, paste a link to a video, select the video quality ands press Download. But the problem is that the quality of your downloads totally depends on the Internet connection. Some of such services are suspicious and may infect your computer. In our list of online services we’ve gathered only reputable and reliable solutions, so your security and safety are guaranteed:

YouTubNow

Youtubnow video downloader

With this web service you can get any YouTube video in any format and resolution that YouTube supports. Just open the site, paste a link to the video you need, select the video quality and click Download. YouTubNow can get you even age-restricted videos without the need to register or log in to the YouTube account. It’s compatible with all existing browsers, operating systems and devices. You can change the URL on the page with the YouTube video. After that you will be redirected to the YouTubNow video download page.

Pros:

  • High speed downloads. Downloading videos with YouTubNow is a matter of seconds.
  • No payments. This online service is totally free. You don’t have to pay for extra features or advanced options.
  • No ads. YouTubNow filters out all ads. It concerns the video playback and the website design.
  • No need in extra browser extensions and plugins.

Cons:

  • Only YouTube-oriented. YouTubNow saves video content only from YouTube.

Clip Converter

Clip converter com

With Clip Converter you can record, convert and download media files to common formats. It supports such video resources as YouTube (HD, 720p, 1080p, 4K), Vimeo, Facebook Video and others. The converter allows you to enjoy your favorite YouTube videos offline on PC, TV or any other device. You can use it on your PC, TV or any other device. Clip Converter has plugins for Chrome, Safari and Firefox. You can save YouTube videos without visiting the Clip Converter site.

Pros:

  • Simplicity. Clip Converter is very easy to use.
  • Browser plugins. You don’t need to open the website each time you want to save a video. Just install a plugin to your web browser for easy downloading.

Cons:

  • Limitation of formats. Clip Converter allows you to download media files in the following formats: MP3, M4A, AAC for audio and MP4, 3GP, AVI, MOV, MKV for video.
  • Error message when saving videos that contain music. The error can be caused by licensing issues.

Online Video Converter

Website video downloader online

This online service offers you to download YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Vimeo, Dailymotion, and other content in 7 video and 7 audio formats. You are not required to register and log in. Online Video Converter is supported by all modern browsers and devices.

Pros:

  • High speed conversions. You will get your downloads very quickly in a high quality.
  • A wide range of supported sites. Online Video Converter can grab media files from all popular video resources.

Cons:

  • Limits for the video length. With this service you can’t get long videos on your computer.

YouTube Premium As an Alternative to YouTube Video Downloaders

What is youtube premium

YouTube Premium is a comparatively new service provided by YouTube to give you more freedom and more possibilities in video and audio usage. It’s a paid subscription that allows you to watch videos offline without ads on YouTube, YouTube Music and YouTube Gaming services.

Pros:

  • Video without ads. You can enjoy your favorite videos without ad breaks.
  • Offline mode. With YouTube Premium it’s very easy to save videos to your device and watch them whenever you like.
  • Background playback. You can play out videos even when you are working with other applications.
  • YouTube Music. You can listen to your favorite songs without videos.
  • Google Play Music. With the YouTube Red subscription you can use the Google Play Music service absolutely for free in countries where it is available.
  • YouTube Originals. YouTube Red Originals is a collection of movies and TV shows made specifically for YouTube Premium subscribers.

Cons:

  • Paid service. YouTube Premium is available 1 month free and $11.99 per month at the end of the trial period.

Airy

Requirements: OS X 10.7+ , 20.09MB size
Version 3.10.242 (25th Sep, 2019) Release notes
Category: UtilitiesApplication
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