youtube-dl is the most popular command-line tools for downloading content from YouTube.com. It’s also one of the most “starred” projects on GitHub and it’s the backbone of over a thousand other projects and YouTube downloaders out there.
This includes youtubedl-gui, a straightforward, no-muss, no-fuss GUI app. The app is free, open-source, and works on a plethora of Linux distributions including Arch Linux, Manjaro, Debian, Ubuntu, as well as others (thanks to its Flatpak installer).
What to expect from youtubedl-gui
While some apps that rely on the popular youtube-dl engine have stylish and modern looking GUIs, youtubedl-gui is all about simplicity. The GUI is as simple as they get and all the controls are neatly organized in a compact main window with two tabs: Audio and Video.
There’s no HiDPI display support, yet the app should look quite nice on GNOME, GTK, KDE, as well as Qt-based desktops.
What about features?
In terms of features, youtubedl-gui actually fares pretty well. You can download audio files from YouTube in various formats such as MP3, AAC, OPUS, WAV, and OGG. You’re also provided with four quality options: Best, Good, Medium, and Low.
The video download options are also quite decent with four preferred formats such as MP4, FLV, 3GP, and WEBM, and a couple of quality/resolution options: 4K, 1440p, 1080p, 720p, and 480p.
It’s also quite nice that you can download playlists, and choose the default download location for your files.
Conclusion
If stylish interfaces are not particularly your thing, and you want the fastest possible way of downloading content from YouTube (as well as other video sharing websites/platforms) that doesn’t involve the command-line, then youtubedl-gui is one of the best, if not the best option out there.
