TubeGrab is a powerful, fast, and completely free application that allows you to download any YouTube video or audio instantly. Designed with simplicity in mind, it features a native, YouTube-like interface where you can search, watch, play, and download content seamlessly.
| Platform | Type | Link / Action |
|---|---|---|
| 🌐 Live Web App | Firebase Hosting |  |
| 📱 Android App | Native APK |  |
| 💻 Windows App | Desktop Bundle |  |
- 🌐 Firebase Website: Instant access in any browser. If the backend is on standby, simply tap "Connect & Initialize Engine" to activate the cloud engine.
- 📱 Android APK: Native YouTube-style mobile UI with background downloading straight to your phone's
Download/folder. - 💻 Windows Desktop: Launch via
npm run desktopfor an instant native window with zero server dependencies.
TubeGrab/
├── server/ # 🐧 Linux Cloud Backend (Render Dockerfile, render.yaml, yt-dlp & FFmpeg)
├── android/ # 📱 Android Native App (AndroidManifest.xml, MainActivity.java, Gradle)
├── desktop/ # 🪟 Windows Desktop App (main.js)
├── public/ # 🌐 Frontend Web UI (Firebase Hosting ready)
├── firebase.json # ⚡ Firebase Hosting configuration
└── server.js # 🚀 Express API engine with CORS & universal OS support
- 🎬 All Qualities Supported: Download videos in any available resolution (144p to 4K) with exact quality matching or extract crystal-clear high-quality audio (MP3 320/192/128 kbps, M4A, OPUS).
- ⚡ Built-in Video Player & RAM Streaming: Watch and stream YouTube videos directly within the TubeGrab interface before downloading with zero-copy unthrottled streaming and in-memory caching.
- 🔒 No Login Required: 100% free to use with zero registration, no sign-ups, and no hidden steps.
- ✨ Clean & Intuitive PiP UI: Picture-in-Picture quality selection popup over playing video, and Chrome-style floating flyout downloads manager with full history control.
- 🔄 Always Up-to-Date: Continuously updated format extraction and automatic fallback engine ensuring smooth downloading.
If you are looking for a hassle-free YouTube downloader, TubeGrab is the perfect solution. You don't need to copy-paste URLs from different apps. Simply search for your favorite video directly on TubeGrab, play it using the built-in player, select your preferred video or audio quality, and download it instantly to your device.
- Runtime & Server: Node.js & Express
- Frontend: Vanilla JavaScript (ES6+), HTML5 Semantic markup & CSS3 Glassmorphism
- Media Processing: yt-dlp & FFmpeg
- YouTube Extraction: YouTubei.js
- Node.js (v18 or higher)
- (Zero manual media setup:
yt-dlpandFFmpegare automatically downloaded and auto-updated on-the-fly for your operating system and architecture on first launch!)
-
Clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/narwalindustries/TubeGrab.git cd TubeGrab -
Install dependencies:
npm install
-
Launch as Desktop App (Native Window):
npm run desktop
-
Or Run as Web Server:
npm start
Navigate to
http://localhost:3000in your browser.
docker build -t tubegrab .
docker run -p 3000:3000 tubegrabTubeGrab uses a .env file for configuration with empty template values ready to fill in:
# Open .env and set your values:
notepad .env| Variable | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
PORT |
Server listening port | 3000 (Local) / 10000 (Render) |
API_SECRET_KEY |
Secret auth token to prevent unauthorized access to backend | Disabled if blank |
BACKEND_URL |
Render / Cloud backend URL for Firebase Web & Android | https://tubegrab.onrender.com |
YTDLP_PATH |
Path to yt-dlp binary | yt-dlp |
FFMPEG_PATH |
Path to FFmpeg executable or directory | ffmpeg |
YT_COOKIES |
Optional path to cookies.txt (Bypasses YouTube bot checks) | cookies.txt (if present) |
MAX_JOBS |
Maximum concurrent background downloads | 3 |
To hide your private Render backend URL and secret API key in production, encrypt them into binary bitstreams:
npm run encrypt [BACKEND_URL] [API_SECRET_KEY]This generates public/config.js containing only raw bitstreams (0101...), keeping your live server URL and credentials safe from being scrapped in plain text.
Developed and maintained by Narwal Software Solutions. All rights reserved.