With Google making YouTube pretty frustrating to use lately, I’ve been looking into alternatives that respect privacy and still give a decent user experience.
Right now, I’m torn between LibreTube and NewPipe. I know both are solid options, but I’m wondering:
Which one is actually better for privacy?
Which one feels nicer to use day-to-day?
And do either of them offer video recommendations based on watch history, without needing a Google account?
If you’ve tried either (or both), I’d love to hear what you think. I’m just looking for something that lets me watch content without feeling like I’m constantly being tracked or pushed to pay up.
Thanks in advance!
both are not working properly anymore
I use PipePipe and it works great for me
https://f-droid.org/packages/InfinityLoop1309.NewPipeEnhanced/
PipePipe is my go-to as well.
Tubular is a newpipe fork with sponsorblock integrated. Also available on fdroid.
I’ve only used Newpipe, and I’m quite happy with it. Saved me so many commercials, tracking, and probably rage baiting recommendations as well. TBH I just turn off recommendations and comments, I’m only there to watch the videos.
Haven’t switched from YouTube, but I’ve blocked recommendations (and auto-muted ads) with a browser extension for I think a few years now. I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily made my life better, but it has made my engagement with YouTube better.
I’ve been deleting my subscriptions one by one, if the channels don’t consistently post stuff I find valuable with the hopes of eventually removing YouTube from my life entirely.
I’d suggest to use Tubular instead. It’s basically NewPipe with SponsorBlock and with Return YT dislikes.
Both Tubular and Libretube support SponsorBlock, in that regard both are cool. I would use Libretube first, and if no piped site works then use Tubular, but Libretube itself allow for using local connection or it could be set to only work that way as NewPipe/Tubular do, so perhaps there wouldn’t be a need for two apps.
The advantage to start with Libretube is a bit extra privacy by using a 3rd party piped site, so what youtube sees are requests from that site. But piped sites are more identifiable and therefore vulnerable to be rate limited or totally blocked. Though lately youtube has managed to block everything pretty close in time, Freetube, Pipeline, HarmonyMusic (a bit more resilient but also gets blocked), NewTube, Tubular, LibreTube, whatever.
Google is shortening the periods on which any of these frontends can be used to access youtube. Sadly, as Google offers some profit depending on the visits (more adds) then people seems not to be interested on leaving youtube, :(
uSo it doesn’t seem to be a frontend which is less prompt to functionality disruptions. Some times it takes less time and some times it takes long, but usually most if not all frontends get affected. In that regard I don’t see much difference, so that’s why I recommended Libretube first and then Tubular as an alternative. Given there’s not frontend supported by Google, in the end it’s almost a matter of taste, with any Piped solution offering a bit extra privacy if used with 3rd party piped sites, and if that site is blocked or rate limited, another one can be chosen, or even it can try on the run to connect locally, or you can actually stop using a 3rd party site at all and only connect locally. BTW, freetube can be set to use an invidio site as well, but there are way less invidio sites up and running that there are piped sites. One can self host, but then the requests to youtube will be yours any ways, though you get local subscription and nice stuff on all frontends.
I like to have an alternative though in case at least for a little while one mechanism works but the other doesn’t.
BTW, if interested on music, HarmonyMusic is a bit different frontend that can run on several platforms, gnu+linux, android and so on, and sometimes it keeps working while the other frontends don’t.
BTW, if interested on music, HarmonyMusic
Thank you for the recommendation, but I use OuterTune atm.
In my opinion non of them is the perfect YouTube client but the most dependable one’s are NewPipe (I use PipPipe fork) and Grayjay. Unfortunately LibreTube and materialious never worked for me when I use a VPN
Both of them periodically stop working for me, so when it does I switch to the other for a bit. In my opinion, LibreTube looks better, as it uses Material 3 design.
Libretube is the most private one, if you use it through the Piped proxy. However many public Piped instances are actively being blocked by Google at the moment and the workarounds that worked for me make LibreTube the same as using NewPipe, so I switched to the latter since I also use a VPN and I’m not too concerned about Google seeing my IP and I also use it only for music on mobile and watch stuff from desktop, from another VPN server, just to spread out my activity.
I wonder if there is a Piped instance that still works
Definitely, they can’t block everyone’s IP, but the ones you can find easily are the most used and get blocked (for now). A local instance will surely work, but then again, if you are the only user it’s not different from using NewPipe.
oh okay
I personally use new pipe, but I have also been very seriously attempting to find peer tube channels as replacements. I haven’t fully succeeded yet, but I do have a few.
If you plan on using a VPN >> Newpipe
If not >> Libretube
You can also use Libretube with a VPN but you’ll have to disable Invidious backends otherwise It’ll be too slow
Newpipe also supports Peertube…
