Tubular
Hacker ApprovedRanked 8 of 9 YouTube clients by recommenders
Free NewPipe fork for Android that adds built-in SponsorBlock and ad blocking to YouTube playback. Critics say it sometimes breaks when YouTube changes and fixes come slowly.
Free NewPipe fork for Android that adds built-in SponsorBlock and ad blocking to YouTube playback. Critics say it sometimes breaks when YouTube changes and fixes come slowly.
13 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 11
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 85%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 11 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 5.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 7 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
Built-in SponsorBlock
“a NewPipe fork that has built-in SponsorBlock and ReturnYouTubeDislike features”
Comment from 31 Jan 2026 in “YouTube blocks background video playback on Brave and other Browsers” “I mostly use a fork called Tubular that has sponsored block”
Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “NewPipe: YouTube client without vertical videos and algorithmic feed” “I use Tubular because of sponsorblock.”
Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “NewPipe: YouTube client without vertical videos and algorithmic feed” Built-in ad blocking
“I use freetube for Linux and Tubular for android, so no ads at all.”
Comment from 8 Dec 2025 in “How I block all online ads” “because it has built-in ad block, and it can skip silence”
Comment from 14 May 2026 in “At Least We Know the Washington Post Isn't Buying Views” “Tubular app does, and it blocks ads”
Comment from 5 May 2026 in “Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Playback breaks, slow fixes
“Tubular is great. Though they sometimes take a while to fix playback issues”
Comment from 31 Jan 2026 in “YouTube blocks background video playback on Brave and other Browsers” “I just accepted that in exchange for it working some of the time.”
Comment from 29 Sep 2026 in “PipePipe: NewPipe hard fork implementing SponsorBlock” “Tubular reliably broke every single month when YouTube changes something”
Comment from 26 Sep 2026 in “PipePipe: NewPipe hard fork implementing SponsorBlock”
Other YouTube clients people recommend
The four most recommended other YouTube clients, 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.
See all 9 YouTube clients, rankedWhat people said
12 of the 15 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I just accepted that in exchange for it working some of the time.”
“Tubular reliably broke every single month when YouTube changes something”
“because it has built-in ad block, and it can skip silence”
“Tubular app does, and it blocks ads”
“the move to Tubular was easy”
“newpipe or tubular for youtube”
“I use Tubular because of sponsorblock.”
“I just switched from Tubular to PipePipe.”
“I mostly use a fork called Tubular that has sponsored block”
“Tubular is great. Though they sometimes take a while to fix playback issues”
“a NewPipe fork that has built-in SponsorBlock and ReturnYouTubeDislike features”
“I use freetube for Linux and Tubular for android, so no ads at all.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.