Youtube alternative supports BTC donations - FreeTube

[dkbit98]

I was really pissed what youtube has turned into lately so I was trying to find alternatives for every day use and watching videos.

Best option I found so far for desktop computers (Linux, Mac, wind0ws) is youtube client called FreeTube.

Interesting thing that FreeTube is totally free, open source community made app, that respects privacy and accepts Bitcoin donations (so far they accepted 0.06738718 BTC)!



What advantages I noticed compared to using Youtube in browser?

- No Ads, and no adblockers.
- It works much faster and it takes less resources, so it's great for low spec devices, raspberry pi, old computers, etc.
- Subscriptions can be made without account, for following channels and new videos, live shows, shorts.
- Open source and Private.
- Bitcoin donations accepted.

FreeTube Githhub page:
https://github.com/FreeTubeApp


If you like FreeTube consider supporting developers with Liberapay or Bitcoin donations:

If you like FreeTube, consider supporting the project by donating to one of the following Cryptocurrency addresses:
BTC: 1Lih7Ho5gnxb1CwPD4o59ss78pwo2T91eS

https://freetubeapp.io/

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[Upgrade00]

- Subscriptions can be made without account, for following channels and new videos, live shows, shorts.

This is the standout feature for me. I forget most of the time that I'm not registered and try to like videos and subscribe but always get a warning message that I have to create and account on Google before doing that, so I can't follow channels that I will like to.

[Odohu]

This is a wonderful innovation that I am really excited about. Lately, YouTube has grown so big that I feel it is saturated and this necessitate the need for alternatives. Freetube offering a decentralise alternative is a welcomed development.  

I'm curious to know if it has the monetization feature of YouTube as well.

[Orpichukwu]

I'm curious to know if it has the monetization feature of YouTube as well.

I don't think such features will be made available; monetizing is always made available for channels that accept promotional offers for projects, and YouTube can use their channel to promote other projects in the form of ads, so anything that doesn't accept ads can't be monetized because there is no place that the platform will be earning from to pay them.
 
This is a free YouTube page that is being sponsored by donations, and they don't run ads, so there is no way they will get monetized. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[Stalker22]

That sounds awesome! It is super annoying when sites get clogged with ads and tracking stuff.  FreeTube sounds like a great choice, especially since they focus on privacy and  open source.

I am definitely gonna check out their GitHub! Thanks, @dkbit98!

[UchihaSarada]

I can visit them with Tor and my experience is smooth enough.

They only accept two cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin (not surprise because it is a biggest and best cryptocurrency), and Monero. By adopting Monero, their team did deeply understood about cryptocurrency ecosystem because Monero is a best altcoin in decentralization.

I tried to find in their Github and website information about tips for FreeTube users in cryptocurrencies. So far they did not have this tipping feature.

[NotATether]

At first when I read the title, I thought it was talking about an alternate service to using YouTube altogether. It turns out actually it's just a different client. Which is great because the stock youtube experience is terrible. It's riddled with ads everywhere, they've even tried to crack down on ad-blockers and 3rd party frontends to make people use the real site.

I think they will try to target this service too with legal letters.

[jrrsparkles]

At first when I read the title, I thought it was talking about an alternate service to using YouTube altogether. It turns out actually it's just a different client. Which is great because the stock youtube experience is terrible. It's riddled with ads everywhere, they've even tried to crack down on ad-blockers and 3rd party frontends to make people use the real site.

I think they will try to target this service too with legal letters.

The title should be like "Watch YouTube videos with no ads",

I installed the app and tried, it's pretty awesome, the only issue I found is the screen overlap with the desktop notification panel which watching in full mode apart from that there is no downside as far as I noticed.

At first, Windows Defender stopped when tried installing so I overridden the warning hopefully there is nothing wrong there.

[examplens]

This is great stuff, YT has become extremely AD boring for free use. However, for bigger popularization, mobile users must be covered. I had a similar application on Android, Puretuber, with no ads and the best thing, was the video played even if the application was not in fullscreen but running in the background.

Has anyone compared the obtained search results between YouTube and Freetube? Are they approximately the same?

[dkbit98]

At first when I read the title, I thought it was talking about an alternate service to using YouTube altogether. It turns out actually it's just a different client. Which is great because the stock youtube experience is terrible. It's riddled with ads everywhere, they've even tried to crack down on ad-blockers and 3rd party frontends to make people use the real site.

Youtube is making some changes and making it harder for adblockers to block ads, so FreeTube is even more interesting to me because of this.
I have been using it daily in last few months and it works very good for me, it works good even for live streams and it can be tweaked with different settings.

This is great stuff, YT has become extremely AD boring for free use. However, for bigger popularization, mobile users must be covered. I had a similar application on Android, Puretuber, with no ads and the best thing, was the video played even if the application was not in fullscreen but running in the background.

There is good open source alternative for smartphones as well, and it's called NewPipe.

Has anyone compared the obtained search results between YouTube and Freetube? Are they approximately the same?

Results are almost identical and in some cases I get better results with Freetube.

[Text]

I feel the same way; I am also frustrated with how YouTube has changed over time. I'm glad to hear that you've found a suitable alternative that meets our needs. FreeTube seems like an excellent choice for those who value privacy and want to support an open-source project. The list of impressive advantages you've mentioned, such as no ads, faster performance, and resource efficiency, clearly demonstrates why it's a compelling alternative to the standard YouTube experience.

I hope there will be a version for Android mobile as well.

I'm going to try it out for myself and see how it works. I'm always searching for new and better ways to use the internet, and I believe it has the potential to be a valuable addition to my workflow.

It's impressive that there's an option to subscribe to channels without an account. I'm currently using and testing this.

Windows x64


Thank you for sharing this valuable information with the community!

[libert19]

Idk why i find comments in this thread spammy.

Edit: other similar stuff: https://github.com/mendel5/alternative-front-ends#youtube

[PrivacyG]

Edit.  I initially thought this was a completely separate platform like Bitchute is and then realized I was wrong.  Privacy focused YouTube front end alternatives are a perfect way of splitting the audience into preferences.  The YouTube app is definitely more user friendly and has minimum bugs but offers zero Privacy.  Alternative front ends can offer a way for viewers like me to watch their favorite content while not sacrificing their beliefs.

I believe it is important to suggest not only to donate to such alternatives but also to donate to your favorite viewers if you can.  After all.  Although annoying, a lot of them earn through Ads on YouTube.  No ads means less revenue for them.



There are finally other platforms rising above what used to be the standard.  YouTube for uploads.  Twitch for streams.  There is a need for change and I hope we are in the middle of one.

However.  Unfortunately the one to rise above them will most likely NOT be an alternative free of ads and focusing on avoiding censorship and current standards.  There are a lot of alternatives and most of them accept Cryptocurrency donations.  But most of these alternatives died due to lack of interest from the people.

Let us face reality.  The bigger portion of the world will continue to use platforms similar to YouTube even if Google drops into a pit.  I want to see the day FreeTube and such alternatives rise above every thing else.  But I doubt I will.

[Forever101]

I'm curious to know if it has the monetization feature of YouTube as well.

I don't think such features will be made available; monetizing is always made available for channels that accept promotional offers for projects, and YouTube can use their channel to promote other projects in the form of ads, so anything that doesn't accept ads can't be monetized because there is no place that the platform will be earning from to pay them.
 
This is a free YouTube page that is being sponsored by donations, and they don't run ads, so there is no way they will get monetized. Correct me if I'm wrong.

You are absolutely right, the idea is great but I do not think it will pull most creators to that platform as they can not benefit from the platform. I do really think, they should adjust their working mechanism to enable subscribing to YouTube with bitcoins. This system of monetization will bring in content creators who will also be paid in bitcoins. This will increase Bitcoin users across the world

[Bitcoin_Arena]

Interesting!

I really hate how YouTube has turned to be. Sometimes I watch trading videos and other forms of tutorial but the Ads are so annoying, I got the solution for PC so far by using uBlock Origin but a stand-alone client that is ad free would be excellent, and I am going to install it

How I wish they created even the Mobile apps too. I used to use Vanced back in the day. It was a very good app until Google threatened the creators. They backed off and abandoned the app. Today it's called Playtube, a shadow of its former self.

[Text]

Has anyone mentioned the Brave browser yet?

I was about to share this Freetube with my community members on a Discord server, but I asked our admin first about how they use YouTube. I asked if they still use it or if they've purchased a subscription. They said they still use it, but not very often. So I followed up with a question about whether they have an alternative for ad-free viewing. And they mentioned the Brave browser, and I tried it, and indeed, there are no ads.

[Die_empty]

This is a wonderful innovation that I am really excited about. Lately, YouTube has grown so big that I feel it is saturated and this necessitate the need for alternatives. Freetube offering a decentralise alternative is a welcomed development.  

I'm curious to know if it has the monetization feature of YouTube as well.

YouTube is just annoying because of its excesses. You will be forced to view advertisements and sometimes without the option of skipping them. As we gain more knowledge about privacy, there is a need to switch to more safer platforms. Thank you, OP for sharing this important information. I am thrilled to see that they are not focused on profit maximization but depend on free giving from their supporters. Accepting Bitcoin donations is also an addition to donors who value privacy. At least I have an alternative to YouTube now.   

[goxcraft]

Stock YouTube is just terrible. Ads keep popping up every two minutes. You cannot play a single video fully without seeing ads. Also, background play is not supported in stock YouTube, which really sucks. What kind of audio video based apps don't support background play? Also, you cannot save YouTube videos to your phone's internal storage.

I don't know about the alternate you mentioned in your post. I have never used it. I used to use YouTube Vanced for quite some time. And after it was shut down, I started using YouTube ReVanced. It's basically the same as stock YouTube, but with extra features. Like no ads, background play, etc.

[SamReomo]

Yes, YouTube is getting so annoyed each day and now they're forcing most of the users to view the ads in order to watch content on their site. Although, I use Ad block myself and mostly view YouTube on browser but these days YouTube is trying to force the users to view advertisements even if they are using browsers. I have never used FreeTube application before but it sounds interesting.

I personally won't use this application since I can browse YouTube easily from my browser but this help can be helpful for many users who really don't want to use YouTube via browser.

[serjent05]

Yes, YouTube is getting so annoyed each day and now they're forcing most of the users to view the ads in order to watch content on their site. Although, I use Ad block myself and mostly view YouTube on browser but these days YouTube is trying to force the users to view advertisements even if they are using browsers. I have never used FreeTube application before but it sounds interesting.

I personally won't use this application since I can browse YouTube easily from my browser but this help can be helpful for many users who really don't want to use YouTube via browser.

I got a frequent notification recently that the ad blocker is against the Youtube ToS thus preventing me from watching videos.  It is a good thing that we have an alternative but sadly I need to install an app in order to watch videos, would be great if they had a browser counterpart.  I hate installing applications when I can access them directly through a browser.  Btw, I still can watch YouTube without ads.  Although I disabled my adblocker, I can still watch YT videos without experiencing any ads butting in.  Probably because of my anti-virus.