TLDR:

My Recommendations:

Modern Feel: PinchFlat
Minimalist: ChannelTube
Single Downloads: TubeTube

I did a quick evaluation of some of the most popular YouTube downloaders, here’s the rundown:

Scheduled Downloaders Comparison Table

Feature	PinchFlat	TubeArchivist	TubeSync	ChannelTube	YoutubeDL-Material	ytdl-sub-gui
Simple/Nice UI	✅	❌	❌	✅	❌	❌
Lightweight and Quick	✅	❌	❌	✅	✅	❌
Self-contained Image	✅	❌	✅	✅	✅	✅
Easy Setup	✅	❌	✅	✅	✅	❌
Auto-Delete Old Files	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌	✅
Filter Text	✅	❌	✅	✅	❌	✅
Built-in Player	✅	✅	❌	❌	✅	❌
Audio Only Option	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Single Download	❌	✅	❌	❌	✅	✅
Highly Customizable	✅	✅	✅	❌	❌	✅
Defer Download	❌	❌	✅	✅	❌	✅

Overview

PinchFlat: Great UI and flexible.
TubeArchivist: Bloated but comprehensive.
TubeSync: The UI is basic and has issues with reliability.
ChannelTube: Easy to set up but less flexible.
YoutubeDL-Material: Great if you like Material Design, but not a self-contained image.
ytdl-sub-gui: Complicated setup.

…

Once-off Downloader Comparison Table

Tool	GitHub Stars	Pulls	Size	Nice Mobile Experience	Nice Desktop Experience	Fast Performance	Easy to Select Storage Location	Flexible Usage
yt-dlp-web-ui	800+	100k+	238.51 MB	❌	❌	✅	❌	✅
meTube	6k+	5M+	292.14 MB	✅	✅	❌	✅	✅
YouTubeDL-Material	2.6k+	80k+	1.2 GB	✅	✅	✅	❌	✅
TubeTube	90+	6k+	271.61 MB	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌
JDownloader	700+	50M+	304.08 MB	❌	❌	✅	✅	✅

Overview of Each Tool

yt-dlp-web-ui
- Pros: Offers a variety of options for downloading.
- Cons: The UI can be a bit clunky; somewhat involved setup to configure folders.
meTube
- Pros: User-friendly interface, ability to easily manage audio and video storage locations, and create custom folders directly from the UI.
- Cons: The mobile UI can be a little cluttered; only supports single downloads at a time.
YouTubeDL-Material
- Pros: Built-in media player and subscription options.
- Cons: Requires an external database; slightly cluttered UI.
TubeTube
- Pros: Simple interfaces for both mobile and desktop; can support parallel downloads.
- Cons: Folder and format settings must be done via YAML before running (no setup options available in the UI). Less flexible.
JDownloader
- Pros: Over 50 million downloads, reliable for bulk downloading.
- Cons: Limited testing due to UI challenges.

Conclusion

There may be some errors (apologies) in my observations, but this was my experience without delving too far into it, so take it with a pinch of salt. Time for docker system prune!

A big thank you to all the developers behind these projects! Be sure to star and support them!

A Somewhat-Comprehensive Review of Popular YouTube Downloaders