TubeArchivist
Ranked 3 of 4 video downloaders by recommenders
Self-hosted app that archives and organizes YouTube videos on your own server, with a browser interface. One critic found it too heavy for light needs.
Self-hosted app that archives and organizes YouTube videos on your own server, with a browser interface. One critic found it too heavy for light needs.
7 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 7
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Automates downloading and organizing videos
“I use TubeArchivist (basically a fancy wrapper for yt-dlp) to pull them onto the server first”
Comment from 13 Dec 2025 in “Sick of smart TVs? Here are your best options” “or tubearchivist to keep me up to date and organize the videos”
Comment from 2 May 2026 in “The feed doesn't know you, and YouTube refuses to let you browse” “tube archivist is a really great tool to automate that”
Comment from 8 Aug 2026 in “Microsoft Edge is about to lock out older ad blockers, just like Chrome did” Works with yt-dlp and Jellyfin
“I use TubeArchivist (basically a fancy wrapper for yt-dlp) to pull them onto the server first”
Comment from 13 Dec 2025 in “Sick of smart TVs? Here are your best options” “if you want to get fancy use tubearchivist with the Jellyfin plug-in”
Comment from 15 Mar 2026 in “Grandparents are glued to their phones, families are worried [video]”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Too heavy for limited needs
“I’ve had mixed luck with it and it’s a bit too heavy for my fairly limited needs”
Comment from 6 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: YouTube search barely works, I made a search form with advanced filters”
Other video downloaders people recommend
The three most recommended other video downloaders, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| yt-dlp | 153 | 25 | 86% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Seal video downloader for Android | 12 | 9 | 57% | 5 | — | — |
| TubeArchivistThis page | 7 | 0 | 100% | 6 | — | — |
| OpenBrief | 5 | 0 | 100% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
7 of the 9 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“tube archivist is a really great tool to automate that”
“or tubearchivist to keep me up to date and organize the videos”
“I’ve had mixed luck with it and it’s a bit too heavy for my fairly limited needs”
“if you want to get fancy use tubearchivist with the Jellyfin plug-in”
“I use TubeArchivist (basically a fancy wrapper for yt-dlp) to pull them onto the server first”
“Selfhosting youtube is the only actually useful thing in my "homelab"”
“Not to mention having to ssh and copy paste URLs around, instead of visiting a page in my browser.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.