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FreeTube is an open source desktop YouTube player built with privacy in mind. Use YouTube without advertisements and prevent Google from tracking you with their cookies and JavaScript. Available for Windows, Mac & Linux thanks to Electron.
Screenshots • How does it work? • Features • Download Links • Contributing • Localization • Contact • Donate • License
Website • Blog • Documentation • FAQ • Discussions
Please note that FreeTube is currently in Beta. While it should work well for most users, there are still bugs and missing features that need to be addressed. If you have an idea or if you found a bug, please submit a GitHub issue so that we can track it. Please search the existing issues before submitting to prevent duplicates!
Screenshots
How does it work?
FreeTube uses a built in extractor to grab and serve data / videos. The Invidious API can also optionally be used. FreeTube does not use any official APIs to obtain data. While YouTube can still see your video requests, it can no longer track you using cookies or JavaScript. Your subscriptions and history are stored locally on your computer and never sent out. Using a VPN or Tor is highly recommended to hide your IP while using FreeTube.
Features
- Watch videos without ads
- Use YouTube without Google tracking you using cookies and JavaScript
- Two extractor APIs to choose from (Built in or Invidious)
- Subscribe to channels without an account
- Connect to an externally setup proxy such as Tor
- View and search your local subscriptions, history, and saved videos
- Organize your subscriptions into "Profiles" to create a more focused feed
- Export & import subscriptions
- Youtube Trending
- Youtube Chapters
- Most popular videos page based on the set Invidious instance
- SponsorBlock
- Open videos from your browser directly into FreeTube (with extension)
- Watch videos using an external player
- Full Theme support
- Make a screenshot of a video
- Multiple windows
- Mini Player (Picture-in-Picture)
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Option to show only family friendly content
- Show/hide functionality or elements within the app using the distraction free settings
- View channel community posts
- View most age restricted videos
Browser Extension
FreeTube is supported by the Privacy Redirect and LibRedirect extensions, which will allow you to open YouTube links into FreeTube. You must enable the option within the advanced settings of the extension for it to work.
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Download Privacy Redirect for Firefox or Google Chrome.
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Download LibRedirect for Firefox or Google Chrome.
If you have issues with the extension working with FreeTube, please create an issue in this repository instead of the extension repository. This extension does not work on Linux portable builds!
Download Links
Official Downloads
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Flatpak on Flathub: Download and Source Code
Automated Builds (Nightly / Weekly)
Builds are automatically created from changes to our development branch via GitHub Actions.
The first build with a green check mark is the latest build. You will need to have a GitHub account to download these builds.
Unofficial Downloads
These builds are maintained by the community. While they should be safe, download at your own risk. There may be issues with using these versus the official builds. Any issues specific with these builds should be sent to their respective maintainer. Make sure u always try an official download before reporting your issue to us!
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Arch User Repository (AUR): Download
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Chocolatey: Download
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FreeTubeCordova (FreeTube port for Android and PWA): Download and Source Code
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makedeb Package Repository (MPR): Download
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Nix Packages: Download
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PortableApps (Windows Only): Download and Source Code
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Scoop (Windows Only): Usage
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Snap: Download and Source Code
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Windows Package Manager (winget): Usage
Contributing
If you like to get your hands dirty and want to contribute, we would love to have your help. Send a pull request and someone will review your code. Please follow the Contribution Guidelines before sending your pull request.
Thank you very much to the People and Projects that make FreeTube possible!
Localization
We are actively looking for translations! We use Weblate to make it easy for translators to get involved. Click on the badge above to learn how to get involved.
For the Linux Flatpak, the desktop entry comment string can be translated at our Flatpak repository.
Contact
If you ever have any questions, feel free to ask it on our Discussions page. Alternatively, you can email us at FreeTubeApp@protonmail.com or you can join our Matrix Community. Don't forget to check out the rules before joining.
Donate
If you enjoy using FreeTube, you're welcome to leave a donation using the following methods.
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Bitcoin Address:
1Lih7Ho5gnxb1CwPD4o59ss78pwo2T91eS -
Monero Address:
48WyAPdjwc6VokeXACxSZCFeKEXBiYPV6GjfvBsfg4CrUJ95LLCQSfpM9pvNKy5GE5H4hNaw99P8RZyzmaU9kb1pD7kzhCB
While your donations are much appreciated, only donate if you really want to. Donations are used for keeping the website up and running and eventual code signing costs. If you are using the Invidious API then we recommend that you donate to the instance that you use. You can also donate to the Invidious team or the Local API developer.
License
FreeTube is Free Software: You can use, study share and improve it at your will. Specifically you can redistribute and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.