Tech mistake |Watching YouTube videos on your PC is probably one of the favorite things to do for many people as it has many HD videos which deliver wonderful visual experiences. But how to download YouTube videos remains a problem as YouTube does not provide a straightforward download passage. So here in this article, I have picked up the top 11 best YouTube video downloader software for you to save YouTube videos as MP4 on your PC. I bet you will find the one most suitable. If you are ready, let’s talk about them one by one.
Part 1: Top 11 YouTube Video Downloader for PC in 2018
Here is the list of best YouTube video download software for PC.
- 1. Gihosoft TubeGet
- 2. Freemake Video Downloader
- 3. 4K Video Downloader
- 4. YTD Video Downloader
- 5. Kastor All Video Downloader
- 6. Winx YouTube Downloader
- 7. aTube Catcher
- 8. Airy
- 9. ClipGrab
- 10. Clip Converter
- 11. VideoProc
1. Gihosoft TubeGet
Gihosoft TubeGet is a YouTube download software aiming to download videos from YouTube and another hot video streaming websites, simple is the best must be the main developing purpose of the software. Brief and clean as it may be, it has almost everything a video downloader needs. Another amazing feature about this YouTube to mp4 video downloader is that it supports download HD & UHD videos from YouTube, such as 720P, 1080P, 2K, 4K & 8K resolution.
It has both Windows and Mac versions, and it’s also integrated with many practical functions, such as download all the videos on a YouTube playlist. With a featured one-click-download mode, now you can use this app as one of your best YouTube video download tools to save YouTube videos to your Windows XP/7/8/10 & Mac platform or another hard disk device like memory card or USB flash drive with just one click.
The algorithm of YouTube changes regularly, so Gihosoft TubeGet will upgrade the code accordingly, along with fixing bugs and adding new features. And now it supports downloading YouTube 1080P videos losslessly and has the ability to download 48/60fps & age-restricted videos. If it shows “failed” when you are parsing a video, update to the latest version as soon as possible.
Pros:
- Clean interface and intuitive operations, ad-free and has no bundled software.
- Support varieties of video websites, download any content in SD and HD format from YouTube and extract MP3 directly from a YouTube video.
- Download multiple videos simultaneously and limit the bandwidth at the same time.
- Support to download YouTube built-in, auto-generated & auto-translated subtitles.
2. Freemake Video Downloader
Freemake Video Downloader is born to a video downloader specialist for Windows users, as it’s an all-in-one tool that consists of many useful functions. While downloading, you can also limit the downloading speed to the range you can accept. Moreover, it can transfer videos in the YouTube to the cloud once you set Dropbox or Google Drive as your default destination, protecting your information from being lost to the greatest extent and make sure that you can watch these videos whatever your platform is, like Windows, Mac, Android & IOS.
Freemake Video Downloader also develops a one-click download feature, just tap the toggle to set the mode on. The operation is quite self-explanatory, when you paste the video link into the program, choose your ideal video resolution, and the video will soon be downloaded on your Windows computer without any quality loss.
Note: Freemake Video Downloader was not working more. I tried to download a YouTube video, and it didn’t work. I checked out its official website, the software hadn’t been updated since February 28, 2018, really bad news for its big fans.
Pros:
- A brief and good-looking interface meets the basic needs of saving videos from YouTube.
- Provide a one-click downloading mode.
3. 4K Video Downloader
YouTube Downloader for PC In terms of 4K Video Downloader, it’s a quite concise and intuitive application without any superfluous function except downloading videos. To be the best minimalist, 4k Video Downloader has a smart mode, once you set the smart mode done, you can download a video without only one click, that’s the truth, only one click, guess it will save you a lot of time. Another intriguing feature is that the 4K video downloader is multilingual and cross-platform, as it has Windows, Mac & Linux versions, and supports languages like simplified & traditional Chinese, German, French, Spanish, Japanese, and many more.
YouTube now stores video/audio tracks separately for 1080P & higher resolution videos to save costs. 4K Video Downloader solves this problem by downloading both the video & audio track and synthesizing them into one, which lets users have access to download 1080P, 4K & 8K YouTube videos simply without any obstruction. When the content is downloaded in full HD 1080P, you can enjoy the lossless MP4 video on your computer cozily.
Most people will consider the 4K Video Downloader as freeware, but it has paid features actually. The paid version allows users to download a YouTube playlist that contains more than 25 videos at a time, or you can subscribe to a YouTube channel to instantly download the latest when the YouTuber uploads a new video. But to most people, the free version covers most of what you need. Just like Gihosoft TubeGet, you have to install the latest package, or you will have problems downloading videos from YouTube.
Pros:
- The simplest software I have ever seen, makes you concentrate on downloading.
- A smart mode lets users download videos with just one click.
- Support downloading videos in multi-thread.
- Support download YouTube videos as MP4, MKV, MP3, M4A & OGG, etc.
4. YTD Video Downloader
As the pool of YouTube videos is increasing constantly, more and more people want to have their fingers in the pie, so they all have to create more appealing content, which will result in the chance of making a splash becomes more difficult. Although this will make the YouTubers feel the burn, on the other hand, it will be good news for the audiences, as they will enjoy more daring & novel videos. To download these videos on your PC, YTD Video Downloader is another choice.
YouTube Downloader for PC Once you have YTD Video Downloader opened, you will see both the basic version and pro version and a vivid comparison of them. For the free version, the videos can’t be downloaded at the same time, so you have to sit and wait for a video to be finished until you can do the next one. It’s absolutely a waste of time, but you get what you pay for. You should keep in mind that if there’s no 1080P option, it means that the highest resolution of the video is lower, and 1080P quality is unavailable for this video. But when it comes to downloading videos in full 1080P HD on PC, YTD can get its job done pretty well – with no extra clicks or any quality loss.
Pros:
- Free to save any video from many hot web sharing sites
- Nice interface and everyone can learn to use it in a few minutes
5. Kastor All Video Downloader
Kastor All Video Downloader must be the most powerful YouTube video download software for Windows 7/8/10 I’ve ever seen, as it has a built-in search engine. You can search for and download any video you like through the tool without even opening the browser. Apart from this, you can preview the video directly before downloading, and it will impress you with its high speed because it’s no limit.
More than 190 standard websites are available by this software. Besides, Kastor Video Downloader is also compatible with all many adult websites, so it will be a boon for those who want to download and save hot HD videos to MP4 on their own devices. That’s not all, it also has support for plugins, which is totally versatile.
Pros:
- A versatile application with many practical functions combined in it.
- The built-in search engine allows users to search and download directly.
- Preview before download.
6. Winx YouTube Downloader
YouTube has been around for more than a decade, and now it completely dominates the online streaming video market for its billions of contents, from language lessons, product reviews, vlogs, to funny videos & makeup tutorials, etc. Whatever you need, there’s always something on YouTube that can meet your requirements. With nearly five million videos watched on YouTube per day, it’s no surprise that it will attract more and more content makers to join in the video-creating job.
With so many HD & compelling videos on YouTube, one must feel a sense of eagerness in heart to keep online YouTube videos offline for playback. To make this eagerness possible, you can try Winx YouTube Downloader, another YouTube video downloader for Windows platform which I’d like to introduce. WinX claims to allow users to download videos from 300+ online hosting video sites – including adult sites. The software does what it advertises in simple interface & operation: just copy & paste a YouTube link manually, choose the download resolution and it starts to grab the videos offline.
YouTube Downloader for PC Different from Gihosoft TubeGet & 4K Video Downloader, Winx has a dynamic analyzer, which helps the software to update the latest code without installing a new package when YouTube algorithm changes. The disadvantage of Winx is that it doesn’t support multi-stream downloads, and can’t save subtitles at the same time.
Pros:
- Support download HD & UHD videos as MP4 even in the free version
- Compatible with many popular video streaming sites
- Simple operation that doesn’t suck
7. aTube Catcher
Watching YouTube videos is really a relaxation for many people, but taking them offline is another thing. Although you have many reasons to download YouTube videos offline, especially when you are on the go and out of range of WiFi hotspots, YouTube won’t make it easy for you to do that cause it will take the ads money out of its pocket. But with the right software, you can easily bypass the restriction and have access to the videos you like, and aTube Catcher is one of them. With its powerful features, one can turn the whole downloading process into a quite breezy thing.
YouTube Downloader for PC Speaking of aTube Catcher, it’s a versatile software that can do a lot of things. Apart from downloading online videos, it can also convert videos to any other popular format you like. Besides, there is a built-in screen recorder in it, with which you can breezily record whatever is happening on your screen. With so many functions integrated into one software, I bet you can’t live without it once you try it.
Pros:
- Support batch download
- Nice screen recorder feature
8. Airy
Airy is one of the best YouTube video downloaders for Windows XP/7/8/10 when it comes to saving YouTube HD & UHD videos. This software aims to make video downloading become a super easy thing. All you need to do is copying and pasting the link on the address bar, selecting the ideal video resolution and output location, and you will get the video on your device before long. Airy has both Windows and Mac versions, for more YouTube video downloaders for Mac, you can refer to this article: Top 11 YouTube Video Downloaders for Mac that Work.
YouTube Downloader for PC Airy must be a strong advocate of minimalist, as you can tell from its interface. This is an interface without any fluff except the indispensable functions a downloader must-have. The bad news about Airy is that the free version can only allow users to download 2 videos to test if it satisfies their needs. If you like it, then you can pay for it, and it gives you the ability to download multiple videos on batch or download all the videos in a playlist at a time. Anyway, you get what you pay for.
Pros:
- Super simple and intuitive layout
- Not contain any malware, even a faint whiff in the air
- Support save playlist videos
- Resume downloads right from where you left it.
9. ClipGrab
YouTube Downloader for PC Another YouTube downloader I’d like to recommend is ClipGrab. ClipGrab is free software, we repeat, this tool is for free. Although it’s a free meal, you have to be careful when installing this app, because it has adware such as Opera browser, try to avoid this. Except for this adware, ClipGrab is one of the best video downloaders which provides comprehensive YouTube downloading capabilities.
You can directly download YouTube videos with a link copied from YouTube, or you can search for the videos through keywords as it has a built-in browser. And it also has a proxy setting, just input the IP and port, the proxy will be successfully configured. ClipGrab makes it really easy to download not only videos but also extracts audio from a YouTube video and saves it as an MP3 file on your computer.
Pros:
- Allow you to search for YouTube videos from its built-in search bar
- Contain proxy server
- Batch download multiple videos and even resume interrupted downloads
10. Clip Converter
Do you really have to install desktop software on your computer to download YouTube videos? No, an online website would suffice. And Clip Converter is one of them. It’s a web-based application specially built for users to keep videos from online video-sharing sites so you can play them offline. As a web-based site, you can feel free to utilize it no matter if you are a Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, or iOS user.
Clip Converter does exactly what it’s called. It can deal with multiple video resolutions, from 480P, 720P, 1080P to 2K, 4K & 8K, and it doesn’t require any registration. One thing about Clip Converter is very clear- it performs perfectly on the online video sites it focuses on. For more online YouTube video downloaders, you can refer to this article: 7 Best Online YouTube Downloader to Save HD Videos Free.
YouTube Downloader for PC – Clip Converter can’t download videos that contain music, especially those videos which have Vevo label, and it doesn’t support downloading YouTube 60fps videos in resolution above 1080P. When I try to download an 8K video with 60fps, the size is far smaller than the same video downloaded by Gihosoft TubeGet. The flaws do not detract from the jade’s essential beauty, Clip Converter is still one of the best YouTube downloaders for Windows 10/8/7/XP/Vista in my list.
Pros:
- Compatible with all popular browsers
- Support download YouTube videos in a variety of qualities up to 8K
11. VideoProc
The last one I’d like to introduce is VideoProc, without it the list would be incomplete. With the increased competition of the software industry, the all-in-one tool has become a trend. As the name implies, all-in-one software means it combines many features in one app, to make it more powerful, more time-saving, and more competitive. And VideoProc is definitely a perfect example in the all-in-one software group.
YouTube Downloader for PC – VideoProc comes with 4 main features: video editor, DVD conversion & backup, video downloader, screen recorder. The editing features allow users to cut, crop, merge, add subtitles, apply effects and filters, and convert their videos to other formats. The screen recording features give users the ability to capture videos from your computer desktop screen or from the webcam or record both at the same time in picture-in-picture mode, this makes it a must-have tool for gamer/sports lovers, educators and lives enthusiasts.
Here is the point, equipped with a powerful video downloader engine, VideoProc has the capability to batch download movies, music, 60fps videos, playlists, closed captions from YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and many other popular videos hosting sites, and the resolution can up to 1080P/4K/8K without any hassle.
Pros:
- Easy-to-use yet powerful video downloader for many online video sites.
- Support to download private videos, 4K & 8K videos from YouTube.
- Compatible with all Windows OS such as Windows 10/8/7/XP/Vista.
Part 2: How to Download YouTube Videos on Windows 10/8/7/XP/Vista
YouTube Downloader for PC – All these 11 best YouTube video downloaders for PC aforementioned can save videos from YouTube and other online video sites, and I’ve also shown their own unique features, pros, and cons. There is no perfect app in the world, so you have to bear the downsides while you are enjoying their benefits. Now let’s come to the next process: How do they work? Since all these desktop YouTube downloaders for Windows 7, 8, 10, XP & Vista work in the same way, here I will take Gihosoft TubeGet as an example telling you how to download & save YouTube videos on your computer.
3 Easy Steps to Download YouTube Videos on PC
- Copy the URL of the video you want to download, open Gihosoft TubeGet and then click “+Paste URL”.
- Shortly after the YouTube video is identified and loaded, you’ll then be prompted to choose the output format, resolution, and saving directory. You can choose to save these videos to your desktop or SD card in MP4 or other video formats.
- When you’re ready, hit “Download” and start your download journey.
Tips: Gihosoft TubeGet supports resume downloads. When you pause a download, and it will freeze the download task status. Next time when you relaunch the tool, it continues downloading right from where you left it.
The Bottom Line
YouTube Downloader for PC Now that I’ve shown you the top 11 best YouTube video downloaders for Windows in 2018, I’d like to hear from you. What do you think of this list? Or maybe I missed a high-quality tool. Or you’ve just found a perfect solution to save YouTube videos easily. Either way, leave a comment below to let me know.
The article was originally published here.