Billions of video files are uploaded every minute on YouTube, and this is not even the most astounding statistic of this platform. YouTube app has been the primary destination of every media entertainment enthusiast for uploading and watching high quality video content.
With that being said, everyone has wondered about how to Download YouTube Videos on a computer or smartphone once in a while. As long as you use the right tools, downloading even YouTube premium Videos is an effortless and straightforward process. Once you have your YouTube video downloaded on your device, you are free to watch the downloaded videos without using an internet connection anytime, anywhere.
This helps in keeping yourself entertained even if you are outside your house in buses, trains, planes or on any trip where you don’t have access to the internet. Downloading YouTube videos is also helpful when you are on your mobile plan with a limited data cap.
This is where the main question arises: ”If it’s legal to Download YouTube Videos” and what are their consequences. So before we get to know the methods to Download YouTube Videos, first we will understand if downloading YouTube Videos is legal or illegal.
Is It Legal To Download YouTube Videos?
Under the YouTube Terms & Conditions on the copyright front, if the videos are being downloaded offline for your own personal use, you are fine. Things become more black and white under Google’sGoogle’s Terms & Conditions. It says, ”You are not permitted to download, access, transmit, reproduce, display, distribute, modify, broadcast, alter, license, sell or use any service or content of YouTub unless it’s authorized by the service provider.
YouTube takes money from the video content creators and Google for watching unofficial channel videos offline. This is how people make money from YouTube because it runs ads. So obviously, stealing or Downloading YouTube Videos is illegal. However, if you still want to share the videos with your family and friends, you can simply embed the video URL and share it on social networks.
To Download YouTube Videos, one of the most straightforward processes is by subscribing to the premium version of YouTube, where you can download online videos in the offline viewing. There are other freeways that allow you to listen to or watch videos with the official application.
With that said, we have prepared our top picks for the ways to Download YouTube Videos. This guide will help you to explain the various methods to do this and give you few other options on Android, Windows or Apple products like iPhone, iPad and Mac.
How To Download YouTube Videos?
As you already know that YouTube is the most popular video streaming and uploading application and the number choice of many content creators; it is not a surprise that everyone wants to save their favourite videos for later use. You can access these videos on any device.
So here are the various ways to Download YouTube Videos through the web services:
4K Video Downloader
This is a self-explanatory word. As the name suggests, a 4K Video Downloader can download any video without any hassle. It is a 100% working tool to Download YouTube Videos from the internet. It is the most powerful, fast performing and easy to use software on our list.
4K Video Downloader software has two versions – Free & Premium versions. The free version lets you download any videos for free; thus, it’s useful to any user. The premium version has some added features like no ads, unlimited downloads, priority support and channel subscription.
There is a reason why we have ranked this software at the top as it really stands out from the crowd. It is not like other YouTube video downloading services online that promise you free video downloads but then tricks you for the marketing stunt and gets your attention for getting internet traffic. 4K Video Downloader is a different type of comprehensive desktop application to get the Download YouTube Videos job done.
This is the greatest software in the range of any YouTube video downloader program in the list. It is a multi-platform video downloader, and not just downloads open youtube videos but also downloads from Instagram, TikTok, Like, Metacafe, Dailymotion, Flickr, and much more. It helps you to download playlists, channels and subtitles. It also has a special feature that you get only in the premium version that automatically downloads new videos of the subscribed YouTube channel. Moreover, it is compatible with windows, linux and ios.
Unique Features
- Smart mode feature, pre-applied default settings for downloads
- Automatic video downloads of the subscribed YouTube channel
- Geo-restricted bypassing with in-app proxy setup
- 3-D video downloading and 360° VR videos
- 4K quality videos and sometimes even 8K
- Annotations and Subtitles extractions with videos. Over 50 different language selections
- Downloading private YouTube content
- Downloading full YouTube channel playlists in one click
- Download any embedded videos from all websites
- Download age-restricted YouTube content liked videos, watch later and much more
Installation/User Guide:
- Go to 4K Video Downloader official website
- You will notice a green button that says ”Get Your License”. It will automatically detect the operating system running on your device and install the right setup file. Wait until the MSI file is downloaded.
- Navigate to the downloaded file folder and double click the setup file. You will be prompted to a welcome screen or setup wizard. Click Next and follow the installation guide. Let the program install automatically.
- Open your browser and select the video you want to download. Copy the video URL from the address bar. Go back to the 4K Video Download application and click “Paste Link” on the top left corner. Now copy-paste the video URL
- You will be given a choice of video quality options for the original video. If that video is available in 4Kor 8K, you will get the download link for them too. You will also be given options for downloading the entire video or just rip the audio.
- Finally, choose the destination folder where you want to save youtube videos with the browse button.
TubeMate
If you have an android smartphone, then this is the must-have application to Download free YouTube Videos, and the reasons are very simple: It has all the features you could ever ask for downloading best YouTube videos and is very easy to use.
Although TubeMate is not available on the Google Play Store, you can download the apk file from its official website or any other third party website from google searches. However, to install third-party applications on android phones, you have to turn the ”Install applications from other places” on.
You need to be very cautious about this process as you could end up getting harmful viruses in your device from unsafe downloading of apk files from untrusted websites. For this, go to the settings and then the security of your android smartphone. Scroll down until you see ”Unknown Sources’’ and turn it on. Now your phone is free to install applications from third-party websites.
Installation/User Guide:
- After downloading the TubeMate apk file from the website, you will receive a warning message saying ”This apk file might contain harmful viruses”, click OK and proceed further. Click the install button and then ”Open.”
- TubeMate has similar looks to the official YouTube application, but the background is black. Go to the search bar and type your favourite video and start playing it.
- You will see a list of available formats for the video. You will see downloading formats for both audio and video.
- Select the desired video format and click the ”Download” button.
- It also has a feature where you can add videos to watch later or queue later for download.
VLC Media Player
We have mentioned VLC Media Player in the third spot because it is the most popular and fantastic tool used by every Windows user to play videos of any format that has ever been created.
However, it’s not just limited to playing videos or listening to music. You would be surprised to know that you can also Download YouTube Videos with a few steps that we would like to share with you. But first, let us warn you that if you run into problems while downloading YouTube videos from this method, then you might have to re-install VLC Media Player again and then clear the cached data.
Installation/User Guide
- Select any YouTube video and copy the video URL.
- Run the VLC Media Player Application, go to the Media menu and then select Open Network Stream (Shortcut key Ctrl + N) and then paste the copied video URL.
- Click the Play button. While the video is playing, go to Tools and then Codec Information.
- You would see a box named ”Source”, now copy the URL present in the box.
- Go back to the browser and paste the URL you just copied (it is a temporary web address, so make sure you use that before it expires) in the address box and then play the video.
- A download option will appear. It has been found that this method downloads 1080p videos only, even if the original YouTube video is available in 4K or higher.
WinX YouTube Downloader
This is free software available in both Windows and MacOS. WinX YouTube Downloader has been developed by Digiarty, which claims video downloading from over 300 websites with the help of user-generated content (including the adult websites).
The biggest marketing scheme and selling point of this software is ”zero adware, malware, spyware or trojan viruses”. They claim it to be 100% clean with a user-friendly interface and attractive design. However, it has been found that they do advertise their WinX YouTube Downloader premium services while installing.
Installation/User Guide:
- Search the video that you want to download on YouTube and then copy the video URL from the address bar.
- Run the WinX YouTube Downloader application, go to the empty bar below ”Paste URL & Analyze” and paste the copied URL. Click Analyze
- After clicking the Analyze button, the analyzer will find all the video quality options available from 1080p to 2160p along with the MP4, WebM, MKV formats. You can even change the extension of these video formats.MKV and.WEBM and everything will work fine.
- You can set WebM to its highest resolution by default in the settings options. You can set multiple videos for backup before hitting the download button.
5KPlayer
Just like WinX YouTube Downloader, 5KPlayer is also free software to Download YouTube Videos available in Windows and MacOS. But there is a catch!
5KPlayer is a lot different from WinX YouTube Downloader in many aspects. It is more than just a video downloader. It is the integration of many other robust downloading features too. The 5KPlayer developer team promises zero adware, viruses or any other annoying plug-in requirements, which is considered a good start.
However, the installation procedure does prompt you to a registration window where you have to create an account with your name and email address to get access to 300+ sites and full downloading functionality. 4K resolution video downloading is still available without registration.
Another interesting feature about 5KPlayer is that it supports DLNA server playback, which means that you can watch the grabbed videos on any device that you want that has DLNA feature too. It also supports the AirPlay feature for quick playing videos on any supported device.
5K Player is also video converter and you can pick any video from the library and quickly convert youtube videos to audio formats like MP3, or video format like MP4 or even AAC formats (AAC is an iOS supported format). However, we faced some issues with the playback of high-resolution 4K videos and random buffering here and there. But all these drawbacks don’t degrade the quality of service 5KPlayer software provides if we compare price to features and extra premium abilities.
Installation/User Guide:
- Copy the URL of the video you want to download from the YouTube address bar
- Go to the analyze section and paste the video URL; it will show a few download options.
- Go to the gear icon, click on it and then click the ”Show All” button and scroll down further to see more video resolutions and format options like 4K and WebM.
- You can grab the entire playlists, but adjustments must be made in the download settings to one video at a time before doing that.
ByClickDownloader
This might come to a surprise that a subscription-based YouTube video downloading software is ranked below the free services despite the premium features it provides. The reason is pretty straightforward: It is available only for Windows operating systems and asks for a subscription cost of $19.99 after the end of your free trial period.
It was initially launched with the name ”YouTubeByClick”. It is a very easy-to-use software as all it requires is you to copy the desired YouTube video URL, and the program system automatically detects it and asks for your download permission.
Installation/User Guide:
- Copy the YouTube video URL from the address bar of your web browser for instance chrome or firefox.
- Go back to the windows screen and run the ByClickDownloader application.
- Go to ”dials” in the program interface and set up your preferred video format for downloads. It could be MP3 (audio) or MP4 video) and the default downloading quality to 4K or 8K. It is also possible in the free version.
- In case you want to download the entire playlist of the subscribed YouTube channel, you will have to buy the premium subscription. Then you would be allowed to convert audio/video formats, get closed captions and avoid annoying ads.
Is It Safe To Use Third-Party Websites To Download YouTube Videos?
In case you are wondering if it’s possible to not download or install any software application and still Download YouTube Videos for free, yes, there is a way. The video downloading websites are developed just to get the downloading job done for you.
All the third-party helper websites do the same thing: copy-paste the video URL, parse it and then provide you with all the downloading choices available for that original video clip and then a basic link that says ”Download”.
They work on pretty much any operating system, including mobile devices too. You won’t require any .apk file format or .exe file downloading and installing on your android smartphone or PC. However, we would still recommend you to get a 4K Video Downloader on your system that offers better downloading speeds and reliability. Third-party helper websites often use dirty clickbait schemes and make you install malicious softwares containing viruses that could harm your computer.
The real problem is that you cannot trust them every time. The Internet is full of hundreds and thousands of these websites like y2mate, keepvid and avi. However, sometimes the websites are too obvious that someone with modicum coding ability and hacking knowledge has set up this website to get free internet traffic.
These websites are run by suspicious internet scammers and hackers who can track all your internet activities without you noticing in the background. So it’s better to choose a video downloading software that is reliable and preferred by millions of people than downloading YouTube videos from third party websites and getting your private information compromised.
