Most of today’s Internet traffic is spent on streaming videos online, with YouTube taking up a large part. More than 400 hours of video content are uploaded to YouTube every minute, and the platform has a greater reach in the 18-49 demographic than cable TV.
And then you have to consider other video streaming sites like Vimeo, Dailymotion, Twitch, etc. That’s a lot of data flowing through, and if your ISP caps your monthly data allowance, then all this streaming video can get expensive.
The solution is to capture or download online videos for offline viewing, allowing you to rewatch videos as many times as you like without wasting data.
Here are some of the best tools to capture and download videos for offline viewing.
Available in: Chrome, Firefox and Edge.
Supported sites: YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Vimeo, Dailymotion, Lynda, Twitter, Udemy, and hundreds of other sites.
Video DownloadHelper is easily one of the most useful streaming video downloader browser extensions you will ever install. The downside (sort of) is that you have to install it in your browser; if you already run numerous extensions, the last thing you need is another one that makes Chrome even slower. But if you download numerous videos daily, Video DownloadHelper is definitely worth your time.
The extension adds a button next to the address bar of your browser. Whenever you find a video online, just click the button to download any video on the current page. Use the popup box to decide where to save it on your computer. Just keep in mind that the Chrome version of the extension cannot download YouTube videos. If that’s what you want, use the Firefox version.
Available in: Windows, Mac and Linux.
Supported sites: YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, Flickr, Dailymotion and various other sites.
4K Video Downloader is the easiest tool to grab videos from a website. We recommend it if you want a hassle-free option that requires almost zero effort on your part. It works quickly and doesn’t speed up the download, plus it’s easy to use.
Just copy the URL of an online video and paste it into 4K Video Downloader. You can paste links to YouTube playlists or YouTube channels to download all available videos. In fact, you can even subscribe to YouTube channels and automatically download new videos as they become available. You can also download the annotations and subtitles on YouTube videos.
Video downloads are available in 8K, 4K, 1080p, or 720p (as long as the source video was uploaded at that resolution, of course). Furthermore, you can also download videos in MP4, MKV, and FLV formats. Or, you can download just the audio part in MP3 or M4A formats.
Available in: Windows Mac
Supported sites: YouTube, Facebook, Liveleak, Veoh, Vimeo, Dailymotion, and dozens of other sites.
Freemake Video Downloader is one of the most popular video downloader tools for any site. It is easy to use and relatively flexible in terms of quality and format options. However, the big drawback is that you can only download videos up to 4K. Also, unless you subscribe to one of the app’s paid plans, you won’t download anything above 720p.
Despite these shortcomings, the videos can be downloaded in various formats, including AVI, FLV, MKV, MP4, and WMV. If you just want the audio part, the videos can also be downloaded in MP3 format. The actual process only requires the URL of the video, just copy and paste it.
Available in: Windows, Mac and Linux.
Supported sites: Just about any site with streaming video.
JDownloader is a stream downloader but with a twist. Take the URL of any page that has a video, paste it into the app, and it will scan the page for all the videos it can detect. You can choose which of the detected videos you want to download.
The good thing about JDownloader is that you don’t need the direct URL of a specific video. For example, take a MakeUseOf article with five embedded videos, and all of them will be available for download. No need to fumble around for the direct URL of the video. This makes it easy to capture multiple videos at once.
Note, however, that the installer comes with a bundle, which is where other programs you don’t need are sent to you. When you run the installer, you will come across a page offering to install “Bing Search” or something else. On this page, the buttons will change to Decline and Accept. Be sure to click Decline because this will prevent packages from being installed on your system.
Available in: Windows, Mac and Linux.
Supported sites: YouTube, Facebook, Crunchyroll, Metacafe, Vimeo, Dailymotion and thousands of other sites.
youtube-dl is a tool for advanced users who are comfortable using the command line. If you prefer graphical interfaces, save yourself the headache and just use one of the ones listed above.
But if you’re okay with command line utilities, then youtube-dl offers the most flexibility of any video download tool. However, it’s complicated enough to have a non-trivial learning curve, so be prepared to read the documentation, or else you’ll be lost.
you could also try youtube-dl-gui, which is an unofficial front-end user interface that is available for Windows and Linux. Despite its steep learning curve, youtube-dl can download streaming videos from select platforms like Crunchyroll.
Features include various video quality and selection parameters, playlist processing, download speed limit, batch video download, automatic file naming, ad inclusion and subtitle download (for sites like YouTube) .
The following formats are supported: 3GP, AAC, FLV, M4A, MP3, MP4, OGG, WAV, and WEBM.
The ultimate resource for capturing videos online
If you find a video that is not compatible with any of the above tools, the last resort is to play the video in full screen mode and record your screen while it is playing.
It’s not a perfect solution, but it usually works when nothing else does. Keep in mind, however, that some sites and apps (particularly streaming TV services) won’t allow a screen recorder to capture the footage. When you play the video again, you will be met with a blank screen.
If you can get the direct URL of an online video, you can also use VLC to play and record online videos as a kind of streaming video recorder.