# Vinegar YouTube extension

7 Hacker News commenters recommended Vinegar YouTube extension and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended for restoring native HTML5 video on sites like YouTube and for being worth its small one-time price. Critics report duplicate video copies and playback controls that do nothing.

## Why people recommend it

- Works with YouTube's mobile website (2 comments): "for YouTube I use Vinegar. I don't use the YouTube app, prefer the mobile website." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48191469)) "It restores the native HTML5 element to websites like YouTube" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47078495))

## What people warn about

- Duplicate copies of the video (1 comments): "It has a lot of issues and sometimes it seems like there are two copies of the video" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47080286))
- Playback controls do nothing (1 comments): "the actual controls do nothing (play/pause, rewind/forward)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47079796))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Control Panel for YouTube](https://hackerapproved.com/p/control-panel-for-youtube.md): 9 recommend
- [YouTube No Translation](https://hackerapproved.com/p/youtube-no-translation.md): 9 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Vinegar YouTube extension", https://hackerapproved.com/p/vinegar/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).