40 open-source downloaders and converters
Open Source YouTube Downloaders & Converters
The most popular open-source downloaders and converters for Windows, macOS and Linux on GitHub are yt-dlp, Motrix and Aria2. appsgit lists 40, including free alternatives to 4K Video Downloader and Internet Download Manager, each with its platforms, license and install commands.
Updated Oct 28, 2026
Open Source YouTube Downloaders & Converters
yt-dlp
yt-dlp/yt-dlp
A feature-rich command-line audio/video downloader.
Active · last commit Oct 26, 2026
OfficialDownloaders & convertersWindowsmacOSLinuxMotrix
agalwood/Motrix
A full-featured download manager.
Active · last commit Oct 28, 2026
Downloaders & convertersWindowsmacOSLinuxAria2
aria2/aria2
aria2 is a lightweight multi-protocol & multi-source, cross platform download utility operated in command-line.
Maintained · last commit Jun 25, 2026
Downloaders & convertersWindowsmacOSLinuxSpotify Downloader
spotDL/spotify-downloader
Download your Spotify playlists and songs along with album art and metadata (from YouTube if a match is found).
Active · last commit Oct 26, 2026
Downloaders & convertersWindowsmacOSLinuxGallery Dl
mikf/gallery-dl
Command-line program to download image galleries and collections from several image hosting sites.
Active · last commit Oct 25, 2026
Downloaders & convertersWindowsmacOSLinuxAb Download Manager
amir1376/ab-download-manager
A Download Manager that speeds up your downloads.
Active · last commit Oct 15, 2026
Downloaders & convertersWindowsmacOSLinuxFileConverter
Tichau/FileConverter
File Converter is a very simple tool which allows you to convert and compress files using the context menu in windows explorer.
Maintained · last commit Oct 19, 2026
Downloaders & convertersWindowsFilee
KnifeLemon/Filee
Free, open-source file converter. Convert 255 formats offline by drag & drop — images, PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, HWP/HWPX, video, audio, e-books and archives.
Too new to judge · created Sep 29, 2026
Downloaders & convertersWindowsmacOSLinuxytDownloader
aandrew-me/ytDownloader
Desktop app to download audio/video from hundreds of sites.
Active · last commit Oct 26, 2026
Downloaders & convertersWindowsmacOSLinuxGhost Downloader 3
XiaoYouChR/Ghost-Downloader-3
The only downloader you need. 下载器的集大成者。.
Active · last commit Oct 28, 2026
Downloaders & convertersWindowsmacOSLinuxYouTube Dl Gui
jely2002/youtube-dl-gui
Open Video Downloader - A cross-platform GUI for youtube-dl made in Rust with Tauri and Vue + Typescript.
Active · last commit Aug 1, 2026
Downloaders & convertersWindowsmacOSLinuxMediago
mediago-dev/mediago
Cross-platform video downloader — sniff and grab m3u8/HLS streams, Bilibili, YouTube and more.
Maintained · last commit Oct 28, 2026
Downloaders & convertersWindowsmacOSLinuxBili23 Downloader
ScottSloan/Bili23-Downloader
开源、免费、跨平台的 B 站视频下载工具，支持多线程加速、音视频分离、弹幕元数据获取、自定义命名与分类等功能。Open Source, Free, Cross-Platform Bilibili Video Downloader.
Active · last commit Oct 22, 2026
Downloaders & convertersWindowsmacOSLinuxGifski
sindresorhus/Gifski
Convert videos to high-quality GIFs on your Mac.
Active · last commit Sep 11, 2026
Downloaders & convertersWindowsmacOSLinuxXdm
subhra74/xdm
Fast, reliable download accelerator and video downloader, trusted for 13+ years.
Active · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Downloaders & convertersWindowsmacOSLinuxParabolic
NickvisionApps/Parabolic
Parabolic downloads video and audio from YouTube and hundreds of other sites, built on yt-dlp with a simple desktop interface.
Maintained · last commit Jun 29, 2026
Downloaders & convertersWindowsmacOSLinuxPlexo
anmolkapil/plexo
Speed up downloads by combining multiple network connections in parallel.
Too new to judge · created Sep 15, 2026
Downloaders & convertersWindowsmacOSLinuxFluxDown
zerx-lab/FluxDown
Rust 驱动的多协议下载管理器，支持 HTTP/FTP/BitTorrent 磁力链接及 HLS/DASH 流媒体，智能多线程加速与浏览器无缝集成。精美界面，极致性能，永久免费，零广告。.
Active · last commit Oct 28, 2026
Downloaders & convertersWindowsmacOSLinuxMedia Downloader
mhogomchungu/media-downloader
Media Downloader is a Qt/C++ front end to yt-dlp, youtube-dl, gallery-dl, lux, you-get, svtplay-dl, aria2c, wget and safari books..
Active · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Downloaders & convertersWindowsmacOSLinuxYTSage
oop7/YTSage
Modern YouTube downloader with a clean PySide6 interface.
Active · last commit Oct 25, 2026
Downloaders & convertersWindowsmacOSLinuxSurge
SurgeDM/Surge
Blazing fast TUI download manager built in Go for power users.
Active · last commit Oct 28, 2026
Downloaders & convertersWindowsmacOSLinuxImgbrd Grabber
Bionus/imgbrd-grabber
Very customizable imageboard/booru downloader with powerful filenaming features.
Active · last commit Sep 26, 2026
Downloaders & convertersWindowsmacOSLinuxTartube
axcore/tartube
A GUI front-end for youtube-dl, partly based on youtube-dl-gui and written in Python 3 / Gtk 3.
Active · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Downloaders & convertersWindowsLinuxYoutubePlaylistDownloader
shaked6540/YoutubePlaylistDownloader
A tool to download whole playlists, channels or single videos from youtube and also optionally convert them to almost any format you would like.
Active · last commit Aug 30, 2026
Downloaders & convertersWindowsNet Merge
rohit267/net-merge
Use all your internet connections at once on Windows, macOS, Linux and Android: per-connection load balancing over Wi-Fi, Ethernet, mobile data and phone tethers.
Too new to judge · created Oct 12, 2026
Downloaders & convertersWindowsmacOSLinuxBilibili Video Downloader
lanyeeee/bilibili-video-downloader
哔哩哔哩 bilibili B站 视频 下载器，图形界面 + nfo刮削 + 广告标记 + 字幕下载 + 弹幕下载，轻松将视频加入emby等媒体库.
Active · last commit Aug 2, 2026
Downloaders & convertersWindowsmacOSLinuxFreac
enzo1982/freac
The fre:ac audio converter project.
Maintained · last commit Oct 25, 2026
Downloaders & convertersWindowsmacOSLinuxJmcomic Downloader
lanyeeee/jmcomic-downloader
禁漫天堂 18comic.vip jmcomic 18comic 的多线程下载器，带图形界面 带收藏夹 免费下载收费的漫画，已打包exe 下载速度飞快.
Active · last commit Aug 24, 2026
Downloaders & convertersWindowsmacOSLinuxVariety
varietywalls/variety
Wallpaper downloader and manager for Linux systems.
Active · last commit Oct 20, 2026
Downloaders & convertersLinuxMoondownloader
LeyckerS/moondownloader
Bulk file downloader for datanodes.to and fuckingfast.co — real-Chrome extraction over CDP, pure-HTTP extraction with a Chrome TLS fingerprint, aiohttp streaming, WebView2 GUI and a headless CLI.
Active · last commit Oct 3, 2026
Downloaders & convertersWindowsYouwee
vanloctech/youwee
A beautiful, cross-platform downloader for YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and 1800+ sites (yt-dlp GUI) with AI video summaries and post-processing.
Active · last commit Sep 20, 2026
Downloaders & convertersWindowsmacOSLinuxBrisk
BrisklyDev/brisk
Ultra-fast, modern download manager for desktop.
Active · last commit Sep 18, 2026
Downloaders & convertersWindowsmacOSLinuxYouTube Dl Wpf
database64128/youtube-dl-wpf
WPF GUI for youtube-dl and yt-dlp.
Maintained · last commit Oct 26, 2026
Downloaders & convertersWindowsVibraVid
AstraeLabs/VibraVid
Downloader for Movie, Series, Anime, Album, Song + DASH/HLS/ISM/MP4.
Active · last commit Oct 26, 2026
Downloaders & convertersWindowsmacOSLinuxVideo Downloader
Unrud/video-downloader
Download videos from websites like YouTube and many others (based on yt-dlp).
Maintained · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Downloaders & convertersLinuxDownvid
Downvid/downvid
现代化的开源跨平台视频下载工具 — 一键保存全网无水印高清视频 / A modern, cross-platform open-source video downloader GUI for yt-dlp & FFmpeg.
Too new to judge · created Aug 22, 2026
Downloaders & convertersWindowsmacOSLinuxAzooKey Desktop
azooKey/azooKey-Desktop
azooKey-Desktop is an open-source Japanese input method for macOS, written in Swift and powered by the Zenzai neural kana-kanji converter.
Active · last commit Oct 21, 2026
Downloaders & convertersWindowsmacOSOnce Power
ilgnefz/once_power
All-in-One Desktop Tool for Batch Rename & Organization, Built with Flutter.
Active · last commit Oct 19, 2026
Downloaders & convertersWindowsArrowDL
setvisible/ArrowDL
ArrowDL (Arrow Downloader) is a download manager for Windows, MacOS and Linux.
Maintained · last commit May 4, 2026
Downloaders & convertersWindowsHarbor
thsnkhn/harbor
Beautiful native macOS download manager for direct links, magnets, and torrents.
Active · last commit Oct 20, 2026
Downloaders & convertersmacOS
What are the best open-source downloaders and converters?
By GitHub stars, yt-dlp is the most popular (203,164 stars), followed by Motrix and Aria2. People often use these instead of 4K Video Downloader and Internet Download Manager. Each page lists the platforms, license and last commit.
Which of these run on Windows, Mac and Linux?
37 of the 40 open-source downloaders and converters listed here run on Windows, 31 on macOS and 32 on Linux; on a Mac, the most starred is yt-dlp. 14 can be installed with a package manager such as Flathub, Homebrew, winget or Chocolatey.
Are these open-source downloaders and converters free?
Yes. All 40 use an open-source license (OSI-approved or FSF-free), so you can use, copy and change them for free.
How are these open-source downloaders and converters chosen?
Apps come from desktop awesome lists (Awesome Linux Software, awesome-mac, awesome-windows, awesome-electron and the media and file sections of awesome-cli-apps), more than 70 GitHub topics such as desktop-app, electron-app, tauri-app, gtk, qt, macos-app, pdf-editor, cad and remote-desktop, and a hand-picked list of flagship apps. An app is listed only if it has a license (one GitHub detects, or one appsgit checked by hand), a README and a commit in the last six months, is not archived or a fork, and has 1000+ GitHub stars (topics), 500+ (awesome lists) or 100+ (hand-picked). It must also be an end-user application with a desktop signal: installers in its releases, install instructions for Windows, macOS or Linux, or a Flathub, Homebrew, winget, Chocolatey, Snap or AUR package. Libraries, frameworks, themes, plugins and servers are left out, and source-available apps are labelled as such.