A lot of these projects are untested by the maintainer(s) of this GitHub project so use at your own risk!
Overview of alternative YouTube Clients and Frontends along with SponsorBlock and or Return YouTube Dislike integration
| Abbreviation | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ADB | Adblock/Adblocker |
| ADBW | Adblock whitelisting and or SponsorBlock whitelisting |
| BP | Background Playback |
| PiP | Picture in Picture (sometimes called "Popup Player") |
| SB | SponsorBlock |
| YT | YouTube |
A lot of YT videos contain sponsored segments that are part of the video and thus won't get blocked using ordinary adblockers.
What started to only skip segments containing sponsored content can now even skip other categories like intros and outros or even skip right to the point of a video, the so called 'highlight'(Example video).
Users can vote for video segments will then be automatically skipped.
It is available as addon for all major browsers and is also included in a lot of 3rd party YT clients.
Does the usage of SponsorBlock have an influence on creators' revenue?
According to a video of LinusTechTips published in feb. 2020 it does not.
Some people even made projects that can free downloaded YT videos of such segments such as SponSkrub.
Return YouTube Dislike is an open-source extension that returns the YouTube dislike count.
If you want to sort the table down below you can go with this solution.
| Project | Platforms | Open Source | Free | Based on | ADB | SB | Dislikes | Login | BP | DLs | ADBW |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Browser | All | ✅ | ✅ | --- | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Vanced | Android | ❌ | ✅ | --- | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| LibreTube | Android | ✅ | ✅ | Piped | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| NewPipe | Android | ✅ | ✅ | --- | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| NewPipe x SponsorBlock | Android | ✅ | ✅ | --- | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| SmartTubeNext | AndroidTV | ✅ | ✅ | --- | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| KODI | All | ✅ | ✅ | --- | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| VueTube | Android, iOS | ✅ | ✅ | --- | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
Android:
- Piped https://github.com/TeamPiped/Piped Open source alternative frontend for YouTube
Pure Tuber: https://www.puretuber.com/en or https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=free.tube.premium.advanced.tuberDO NOT USE! Several people have warned about this! Seems to be a commercial version of NewPipe.YouTube Pinkre-theme of Vanced- GoTube: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=premium.gotube.adblock.utube
- SkyTube https://github.com/SkyTubeTeam/SkyTube
- SkyTube Extra https://android.izzysoft.de/repo/apk/free.rm.skytube.extra
- MusicPiped https://github.com/deep-gaurav/MusicPiped
- SongTube https://github.com/SongTube/SongTube-App | iOS + Android
- DVD https://f-droid.org/de/packages/org.yausername.dvd/ an Android front-end for yt-dlp (an extremely powerful downloader with support for hundreds of sites)
- ASTRON https://github.com/astroncc/astron_app (not open source)
- DailyTube https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=free.daily.tube.background
- FloatTube https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.xpp.tubeAssistant
- YouTube Thunder https://www.samapkstore.com/2022/02/youtube-thunder.html
- YouTube Pro https://www.samapkstore.com/2021/04/download-youtube-pro.html
iOS:
- uYou: https://github.com/MiRO92/uYou-for-YouTube
- uYouPlus: https://github.com/qnblackcat/uYouPlus a modded version of the official iOS app (arguably the most feature-complete alternative to Vanced)
- Video Lite: https://apps.apple.com/de/app/video-lite-no-ads/id1598997500
- YubePip: https://apps.apple.com/de/app/yubepip-youtube-pip-player/id1591269922
- iSponsorBlock: https://apps.apple.com/de/app/vinegar-tube-cleaner/id1591303229
- Brave Browser (includes YT adblocker): https://apps.apple.com/de/app/brave-private-internet-browser/id1052879175
- Yattee: https://github.com/yattee/yattee
- YouTube++ (no legit link yet)
Desktop:
- KODI + KODI and TubeCast https://github.com/enen92/script.tubecast
- MyTube https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/mytube/9wzdncrcwf3l#activetab=pivot:overviewtab Browser / alternative front-ends:
- Invidious https://invidious.io/
- Viewtube https://github.com/ViewTube/viewtube-vue | https://viewtube.io/
🔸Work in progress:
Some of the projects in the list are worth adding some extra information which you will find below.
Use a browser of your choice + open source adblocker like U Block Origin + SponsorBlock + addon + Return YouTube Dislike addon.
Other addons worth mentioning: Enhancer for YouTube
Browser on mobile
On mobile, you'll need to install a browser, like IceRaven or KiwiBrowser, then install the addons from their respective adddon store.
Depending on the browser, you'll additionally need to install a user script for background playber. Alternatively, the Brave browser supports background playback OOTB (needs to be enabled first) and a build in ad-blocker, but no extension / add-on support.
Vanced (old website vancedapp.com)
Vanced has been officially shut down but to this moment the app is still working but it might be harder to find and install.
At this moment it's unclear whether or not someone will resume this project but there is a related subreddit in which such information can most likely be found in the future: /r/AfterVanced
Be especially careful not to install fakes or adware.
There is a re-theme of Vanced called 'YouTube Pink'. Be careful with this as well!
As of 2022-03-26 the 'old' Vanced Manager is still working as is contains a mirror as fallback where it gets the Vanced APKs and Vanced MicroG from so all you have to do to get Vanced is to find a source for the Vanced Manager.
Below is a collection of links that may or may not lead to genuine ways to install Vanced:
- https://www.reddit.com/r/AfterVanced/comments/tk1fdr/so_you_want_to_install_andor_reinstall_vanced/
- https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/team-vanced/
- https://vanced.esherloon.com/ (on reddit)
- https://t.me/Unofficial_YouTube_Vanced_Module
- https://github.com/pixincreate/Vanced
- https://github.com/ReVancedTeam
- https://revanced.app/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/revancedapp/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/AfterVanced/comments/tpmzcb/how_to_change_the_channel_url_in_vanced_manager/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/AfterVanced/comments/twzq2s/the_sticky_of_stickies_all_the_important_stuff/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/AfterVanced/
- https://vancedmanager.com/
KODI + YT Addon + SponsorBlock Addon
Alternative: KODI + New YT Addon Tubed (no SponsorBlock support yet)
KODI + YT can be a bit complex to setup and some features like access to the "Watch later" YT playlist can be harder to accomplish.
- Install the mentioned addons and setup YT with your personal YT API keys as explained here.
- The watch later playlist is not accessible by default because YT has changed their API.
If you are frequently using the watch later playlist, get your watch later playlistID as explained here and put it in the corresponding field in the KODI YT addon settings.
It is recommended to store this internal playlistID as it never changes obtaining it from Google can be a bit time consuming. - Extra hint regarding handling of the watch later playlist:
By default KODI will auto-remove all watched items from the watch later playlist.
If you do not like this behavior you can disable it in the YT addon settings. - SponsorBlock settings
If you're using SponsorBlock in KODI, check out the settings by Clicking on options when the YT addon is highlighted -> SponsorBlock
- https://github.com/mendel5/alternative-front-ends
- https://gist.github.com/SkyyySi/1b621c7c20ae7e0865a8ac428156c1cf
- https://www.reddit.com/r/AfterVanced/comments/tigkow/youtube_vanced_alternatives/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/AfterVanced/comments/tiqzon/youtube_music_vanced_alternatives/
- Update main table columns: Maybe remove "Adblock" and "Adblock Whitelisting" column: All YT alternatives either have no ads or block them and nearly none provides Adblock-Whitelisting (only Vanced?)
- Update main table: Test- and add remaining projects
- Link more projects for category "Browser"