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Best desktop video downloaders

A desktop app does the parsing, downloading and merging on your own machine, so your speed is capped by your connection rather than somebody else's server, and high resolutions reliably come out with sound. The trade is that you have to install it and keep it updated.

Data checked September 2026
We don't sell placement

3Desktop app
3Does bulk
34K and up
1Totally free

Let's get the terms straight

Desktop has three structural advantages:

over web tools: Local merging
. Above 1080p the audio and video tracks are separate, and a desktop app muxes them into one file locally, with no server transcode cost in the way. That's the prerequisite for reliably getting a 4K file with sound. A home IP
. Requests come from your own network, so they don't draw the extra scrutiny platforms aim at datacenter IPs. Success rates on the big platforms are noticeably better. A bulk queue

. Playlists, channels, several jobs at once, retry on failure — all of that needs a long-running process, and only a desktop app has one. How to choose: free and broad coverage Stacher; , go free and broad coverage 4K Video Downloader Plus; auto-follow a channel scripting yt-dlp.

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Best desktop video downloaders (September 2026)
Rank	Downloader Name	Supported sites	What it grabs	How to use	Price	Score	Details
1	4K Video Downloader Plus	YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo and 20+ in all	Video + audio + subs	Desktop app	Freemium	9.1/10	Details
2	Stacher	Whatever yt-dlp supports, 1,800+	Video + audio + subs	Desktop app	Free	9.0/10	Details
3	CR TubeGet	Claims 2,000+ (mainstream is what we verified)	Video + audio	Desktop app (Windows)	Freemium	7.3/10	Details

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Scores are weighted five ways: platform coverage 30%, feature completeness 25%, reliability 20%, ease of use 15%, price 10%. The platforms column lists what we confirmed ourselves, not what the vendor claims. Details in How we test. Spotted something broken? Report a fix.

About this ranking

Free Stacher or paid 4K VDP, which one?

One line: if you grab from lots of different sites, take Stacher. If you pull a lot from the same channel, take 4K VDP.

Stacher covers 1,800+ and costs nothing, but it has no automatic channel subscriptions and no burned-in subs. 4K VDP only covers 20+, but its subscription feature keeps following a channel on its own, which Stacher can't do. More in the head-to-head.

Why can a desktop app do 4K when web tools can't?

Because above 1080p the video and audio tracks are stored separately, and getting one HD file with sound means merging the two streams.

A desktop app merges on your machine, on your CPU, so there's no ceiling. A web service would have to do it server-side for every request, which costs too much, so they hand you a pre-muxed low-res version or a silent HD video track instead.

What about macOS and Linux?

Stacher and 4K Video Downloader Plus both ship macOS and Linux builds. yt-dlp runs on all three.

CR TubeGet is Windows only.

Will installing one bundle junk software?

The official installers for the apps in this list don't bundle anything, but two things to watch: only download from the official site, since third-party download portals repackage installers with extras stuffed in, and uncheck every pre-ticked add-on in the setup wizard.

The more old-school apps, CR TubeGet for one, are likelier to show a promo checkbox, so read each screen on the way through.

Best desktop video downloaders

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