Your own personal, offline video archive, for people who like to keep their video archiving sweet and simple and not fight with Docker, servers, or a complicated setup to get one.
Logo by @grek.jpg
Free and open source: no subscriptions, no accounts, no server to run.
SlothArchiver is a free desktop app for downloading and organizing videos and audio from YouTube and virtually any other platform yt-dlp supports into a permanent library on your own computer. Install it, point it at a folder, and it does the archiving for you: no subscriptions, no re-uploading to yet another cloud service, no losing access when a video gets taken down or a channel disappears. The name isn't ironic: this app is built around doing as little work as possible, for you and for itself.
| Platform | Link |
|---|---|
| Windows (installer) | Download |
| Windows (portable, no install) | Download |
| macOS (Apple Silicon) | Download |
| macOS (Intel) | Download |
| Linux (AppImage) | Download |
All builds are unsigned, so your OS will show a first-run security warning. See Installing below.
Videos on the internet aren't permanent: creators delete them, channels get taken down, platforms change their terms, and links quietly rot. SlothArchiver exists to give you a real, local copy of the videos and audio that matter to you, organized and easy to find again, playable straight from the app whether or not you're online.
Paste a link, pick a quality, and it's yours: saved, catalogued, and searchable, on your own machine.
Most tools in this space make you work for a real archive. Self-hosted servers give you one, but only if you're willing to run Docker, manage a server, and keep a machine on around the clock. Lightweight desktop downloaders skip all of that setup, but most of them just drop files in a folder and call it done: no real organization, nothing actually archived, just a pile of files you have to manage yourself and the ones that do have some sort of paywall. So I got tired of waiting for the solution and started to develop it myself.
SlothArchiver is built to be the lazy option in the best sense: a normal app you install like any other, with zero server to babysit and zero config to get right. Point it at a folder once, and a real searchable library, playlist tracking, and version history all happen automatically from there, and the app does the tedious bookkeeping so you don't have to, and it's free, in full, with no plan to change that.
| SlothArchiver | Arroxy | TubeArchiver | TubeArchivist / Pinchflat | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free, no paywall | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ (tiered plans) | ✅ |
| Open source | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Runs locally, no Docker or server | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Real searchable library (not just a folder) | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ (history list only) | ✅ |
| Playlist tracking that detects removed videos | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ (one-time fetch) | ✅ |
| Per-video version history | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Library is plain files, no hidden database | ✅ | ✅ | N/A | ❌ (Elasticsearch) |
| Built-in playback in the app | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ (web UI) |
| In-app clipping, MP3 extraction & format tools | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| macOS / Windows / Linux | ✅ | ✅ | Mac/Win only | ✅ (via Docker) |
No other tool in this space currently checks every one of those boxes at once. That's the whole point of SlothArchiver: a simple catalogued library, organized in one place and fully local.
- No paywall ever; Open Source forever: every feature below is free today and will stay free in future updates. No tiers, no locked resolutions, no daily download caps. The code is under a GPL license meaning it will be open and remain open source
- Download video or audio from YouTube and virtually any other site yt-dlp supports (1800+ platforms, including SoundCloud, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Dailymotion, and more) in the quality you choose.
- A real library, not just a downloads folder. Works with YouTube and virtually any other yt-dlp-supported platform — YouTube videos are organized by channel, everything else by platform, and either way it's searchable, filterable, and keeps a history of versions if you ever re-fetch it. Most downloaders stop at "file saved somewhere"; SlothArchiver actually keeps track of what you have.
- Playlist archiving: save an entire playlist at once, and refresh it later to pick up new additions without losing what you already have, with removed videos automatically flagged instead of silently disappearing.
- Bulk downloading. Paste a whole list of links or a playlist and let the app work through them in the background, several at a time.
- Built-in playback: watch or listen to anything in your library right inside the app, no need to hunt for the file afterward.
- Handy media tools. Extract audio as MP3, convert formats, trim clips, and embed metadata/cover art, all without leaving the app.
- Stays current: the app can update its own download engine on demand, so it keeps working as sites change.
A quick look at some of the features that make SlothArchiver more than just a download button.
No more staring at a wall of "Video unavailable" placeholders. Save a playlist once and SlothArchiver remembers exactly what was on it (title, thumbnail, and order), even for videos that later get pulled, so you always know what you're missing, and you can keep the whole thing downloaded locally so you never have to find out at all. The same bulk engine also takes a plain list of links pasted in at once, working through them several at a time in the background with per-item progress, retry, and skip, so one bad link never holds up the rest.
Tired of a video getting edited, re-uploaded, or quietly censored after the fact? Download the original before it changes, and if a newer version comes along later, grab that too. SlothArchiver keeps both side by side instead of overwriting what you already had. This is a level of history most archivers, paid or free, don't track at all.
Thanks to working directly with yt-dlp at a low level instead of a lightweight wrapper, SlothArchiver can pull down videos that trip up other tools, tested successfully on uploads up to 12 hours long.
SlothArchiver supports every quality YouTube (and whatever platform the source video is on) actually offers, up to and including 8K, personally tested at 4320p.
Find anything in your archive in seconds. Search across your whole library, sort by date, channel, title, or quality, and browse by channel or by playlist, whichever fits how you think about your collection.
Your library lives as plain files and folders: nothing hidden in a database you can't get to, and no Elasticsearch or Redis instance to maintain in the background. Want it gone? Delete the folder and it's gone, completely, with nothing left behind.
Extract the audio as an MP3, embed metadata and cover art, cut out just the clip you want at full quality, or convert to any format ffmpeg supports, all straight from the library view, no other software required.
Not just YouTube. SlothArchiver works with virtually any of the 1800+ sites yt-dlp itself supports, including SoundCloud, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Dailymotion, Archive.org and more. Paste a link from any of them and SlothArchiver figures out the platform automatically and gets you a download, no separate tool needed for each site.
SlothArchiver runs everything locally on your computer: there's no server, no account, and nothing about your library ever leaves your machine unless you move it yourself. For a deeper, more technical look at how the app is put together, see docs/ARCHITECTURE.md.
Most tools fall into one of two camps: self-hosted servers (like TubeArchivist or Pinchflat) that need Docker and a machine running around the clock, or desktop downloaders are built to save files but don't keep an actual library, and some of those eventually put real features behind a subscription. SlothArchiver is a normal desktop app with a real searchable library, playlist tracking, and version history, and it's free without any tier to upgrade to. See the Why SlothArchiver? section above for a fuller comparison.
Yes, it's free and open source.
The app uses yt-dlp to download the video and metadata, which acts as a browser under the hood. For the most part, it works the same way a real viewer's browser would: it requests a public page and reads back whatever that page already serves. For a few platforms, yt-dlp also has to mimic a real browser more closely (matching the kind of request a browser sends) to get past automated bot-detection checks. This doesn't unlock anything private or bypass any actual access control, it's just what's needed to be treated the same as a normal visitor rather than getting blocked as a script. Either way, nothing here involves hacking, cracking DRM, or accessing content that wasn't already publicly available to anyone with a browser. YouTube, however, doesn't approve the use of these tools or any means of downloading videos even if they are public.
This software is designed to work with yt-dlp and its functionalities without adding anything other than a layer of user interface and QoL features on top. This app is not designed or tested to be used to violate copyright, bypass DRM, or platform restrictions, and I don't condone the use of this app for that or any illegal purpose.
SlothArchiver is a personal-use, local tool: everything it downloads stays in your own library on your own machine. It doesn't upload, host, re-share, or otherwise distribute anything you download with anyone else. What you do with the files afterward, and whether that complies with a given platform's Terms of Service or the copyright law in your jurisdiction, is your responsibility as the user, not something this app enforces or takes a position on for you.
TL;DR: It's a gray area as far as YouTube is concerned but not illegal. This is a personal, local-only archiving tool; staying within your platform's ToS and your local copyright law is on you.
Downloads and the library both work with virtually any site yt-dlp itself supports (1800+ platforms), including YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, SoundCloud, and Dailymotion, to name a few with dedicated recognition in the app's UI. Playlists are currently YouTube-only (see "Can I download an entire playlist?" below).
Currently we support Mac, Linux, and Windows. This is a solo dev operation and I manually create the executables per system, so I expect there could be OS issues as more people try out the software on their systems. If you experience any issues, let me know by raising an issue and detailing it there.
For library entries: on your first installation you need to set up a library folder in your system. This will be taken as the base path from which all your downloads will be added. After setting this up, I suggest not moving or changing the files unless you know what you're doing, since the app is designed to work with the filesystem and expects it to be consistent.
For downloads: the system will let you pick where to download the file when you click on any of the download buttons. You can also choose to add a base download path that will be set as the default starting path whenever you make future downloads.
No, it works without a YouTube account, however keep in mind you might be locked out of downloading certain videos (i.e. age-restricted ones) when downloading, or you could get locked out by YouTube if it detects you're downloading too many videos.
For most scenarios you won't need to add cookies, it would only be mandatory for scenarios like age restricted videos or members-only content. According to yt-dlp exporting cookies to download at a high rate can result in suspension or bans to your account and they encourage using the feature in moderation or make use of throwaway accounts. From our side at SlothArchiver we try offer the best resilience for download retries and recovery to make the user experience better and you don't need to use Cookies for most scenarios.
For YouTube and Dailymotion, all of the video qualities that yt-dlp supports will be displayed for download, personally tested up to 4320p aka 8k resolution. Of course it depends on the source video.
For YouTube, yes. As of now this is only supported as part of a bulk add feature which saves both the playlist and the video data in your library. For other platforms it's not supported but we're actively developing new features so never say never.
No, I designed the app precisely not to collect or require data anywhere whenever possible. That is also the reason the library management is done via pure filesystem instead of depending on a local database.
yt-dlp and ffmpeg (the low-level tools that handle actual downloading and media processing) are bundled directly inside the installer itself, not fetched over the network afterward. The one thing that does happen on first run is copying yt-dlp into a per-user writable folder, since the app needs to be able to replace it later (see the next question) and the installer's own resources folder generally isn't writable without elevated permissions.
Come back to this page and click on the download button for your platform. It's also worth noting that the "update yt-dlp" feature inside the app doesn't update the archiver app itself, only the low-level download library, and you might need to make sure you have both of them properly updated before using the app.
Hopefully this doesn't happen often, but in these scenarios you can either add your cookie to the app and try again, or wait until your IP stops getting locked by YouTube. You may also use something like a VPN to try to change your IP and try again. Keep in mind YouTube's bot detection is unpredictable, so sometimes just clicking try again is enough; it's all a matter of trying it out and seeing what works.
Raise an issue, but only if you have the proper evidence and description on how to reproduce it for bugs, or a good description of the feature you'd like to see, otherwise I can't work on it. As I mentioned this is a solo project, so keep in mind I can only work on this in my free time.
Check the Roadmap for a running list of what's currently being worked on or explored.
At this moment in time I don't but once I prepare a proper contribution guide and a pipeline and if an actual community forms for this app I might.
SlothArchiver's builds aren't code-signed (that requires a paid yearly certificate this solo project doesn't have), so the first time you open one, your OS will warn you it's from an unidentified/unrecognized developer. This is expected for any unsigned app, not a sign anything's actually wrong. Here's how to get past each OS's warning:
Windows: you'll see "Windows protected your PC" (SmartScreen). Click More info, then Run anyway.
Step 1. Click More info:
Step 2. Click Run anyway:
macOS: you'll see a message that the app "cannot be opened because it is from an unidentified developer," and just double-clicking won't offer a way past it. Instead: right-click (or Control-click) the app → Open → confirm Open in the dialog that appears. You only need to do this once; after that, it opens normally.
Step 1. The Gatekeeper block you'll see on first launch:
If macOS still blocks it, go to System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down to the security section, and click Open Anyway next to the message about SlothArchiver.
Step 2. Find the security section in Privacy & Security:
Step 3. Click Open Anyway:
Linux (AppImage). Make it executable first, then run it directly:
chmod +x SlothArchiver-<version>.AppImage
./SlothArchiver-<version>.AppImage
If it fails to launch at all with a FUSE-related error, your distro likely
needs libfuse2 installed (common on newer distros that dropped FUSE2 by
default, e.g. recent Ubuntu/Fedora releases), so install it via your package
manager and try again.
SlothArchiver is free and will stay that way, no strings attached. If you'd like to support the person building and maintaining it, see DONATION.md for ways to donate (entirely optional, and never required to use any part of the app).