cobaltMedia Downloaderscobalt downloads publicly accessible media from a supplied link. Its repository includes a web frontend, an API, and documentation for running and protecting a self-hosted instance.Open sourceSelf-hostedViews · 7 daysTop 5%
Media Downloaders
Tools that download publicly available video and audio for offline use.
6 results in Media Downloaders
Active Pro listings from this category appear first. Your sort applies within Pro and Free results.
cobaltMedia Downloaderscobalt downloads publicly accessible media from a supplied link. Its repository includes a web frontend, an API, and documentation for running and protecting a self-hosted instance.Open sourceSelf-hosted7 views45,860 stars
MornyeMedia Players & StreamingMornye is an LGPL-3.0 music app built with Flutter and Rust for Android and iOS, with desktop builds. It plays local and network libraries, tags files with metadata, cover art and synced lyrics, and adds sources through community extensions.Open sourceSoftwareFreeViews · 7 daysNo views in 7 days
OmniGetMedia DownloadersOmniGet is a GPL-3.0 desktop app for Windows, macOS and Linux that downloads courses, social media, torrents and media from 1,800+ sites through yt-dlp, then converts, transcribes or reads the files locally.Open sourceSoftwareViews · 7 daysTop 3%
Views · 7 daysNo views in 7 days
SwiftDLMedia DownloadersSwiftDL is an MIT-licensed download manager for Windows, macOS and Linux. It splits files across up to 32 connections, saves progress every second, takes over browser downloads through an extension, handles torrents and uses yt-dlp for video sites.Open sourceSoftwareViews · 7 daysTop 2%
videodownload.toolsMedia DownloadersFree video download for Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. Pick a platform, paste a link, and keep the good stuff.CommercialWeb platformFreeViews · 7 daysNo views in 7 days
Shortlists for Media Downloaders
Explore collections with tools relevant to this category, grouped by deployment, source model or workload.
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How to choose media downloaders tools
Media downloaders save publicly accessible video and audio from a supplied link to local files, usually remuxing or converting them into common formats such as MP4 or MP3. They exist as desktop apps, self-hosted web front ends and command-line tools, and most rely on extractor libraries and a transcoding toolkit under the hood. Unlike media players or streaming clients, they focus on producing an offline copy rather than playback.
Who uses these tools
- Educators archiving lecture recordings for offline classes
- Journalists preserving public videos as evidence
- Home lab users running a shared download front end
Capabilities to compare
- Supported sites and extractor update cadence
- Output formats, quality selection and audio extraction
- Playlist and batch download handling
- Web, desktop or command-line interface
- Cookie or login support for gated content
Operating considerations
- Copyright and platform terms on downloaded content
- Extractors break when sites change their pages
- Public self-hosted instances attract abuse
- Disk space for large video archives
- Bundled binaries from unofficial download mirrors
Selection checklist
- Confirm you have the right to download the content and that the platform's terms allow offline copies.
- Check how quickly the project ships extractor fixes, since site changes regularly break downloads.
- Decide between a personal desktop app and a self-hosted web instance shared with your household or team.
- Download installers only from the project's official repository or release page to avoid bundled malware.
What belongs in this category: A tool fits here when its main purpose is fetching media files from web pages or platforms for offline storage, rather than editing media, converting existing local files or playing streams.
Media Downloaders on iThub in figures
iThub lists 6 tools in Media Downloaders. 5 of 6 are open source, 2 of 6 can be self-hosted, 6 of 6 have a free, freemium or open-source pricing model and 2 of 6 offer an API.
- Tools listed
- 6
- Open source
- 5
- Self-hostable
- 2
- Free to start
- 6
- With an API
- 2
- Web app
- 3
- Desktop app
- 3
Recently added: Mornye, SwiftDL, OmniGet, videodownload.tools
Typical use cases
- Saving a public conference talk for viewing on a flight
- Extracting the audio track of a lecture as a podcast file
- Archiving a playlist of training videos for offline access
- Running a private download page for household devices
Trade-offs to model
- Command-line tools offer the most options and fastest fixes, while graphical front ends are friendlier but lag behind site changes.
- A self-hosted web downloader serves several devices from one place, but exposing it publicly invites misuse and bandwidth costs.
Common mistakes
- Opening a self-hosted downloader to the internet without authentication, turning it into a free service for strangers.
- Assuming that publicly viewable media is free to redistribute once you have downloaded a copy.
Browse video editing and conversion tools →Browse media players and streaming tools →See free IT tools →
Decision resources
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