5 best tools to download streaming video from any website
Most of today’s internet traffic is spent streaming online video, with YouTube taking up a massive chunk. Over 400 hours of video content is 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, and so on. That’s a lot of data flowing around and if your ISP caps your monthly data allowance, then all this video streaming can be expensive.
The solution is to capture or download online videos to watch offline, allowing you to re-watch videos as many times as you want without wasting data. In this tutorial, TheGhanaTech.com will be showing you the best apps and software for when you want to download videos from websites quickly and painlessly.
5 best tools to download streaming video from any website
- Video DownloadHelper
Available on: 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 browser extensions for downloading streaming videos that you’ll ever install. The downside is that you have to install it on your browser; if you already run numerous extensions, the last thing you need is another one making Chrome even slower. But if you download numerous videos daily, Video DownloadHelper is definitely worth it.
- 4K Video Downloader
Available on: Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Supported sites: YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, Flickr, Dailymotion, and several other sites.
4K Video Downloader is the most straightforward tool to capture video from a website. We recommend it if you want a no-hassle option that requires close to zero effort on your part. It works quickly and doesn’t throttle your download, plus it’s straightforward to get to grips with.
- Freemake Video Downloader
Available on: Windows, Mac
Supported sites: YouTube, Facebook, Liveleak, Veoh, Vimeo, Dailymotion, and dozens of other sites.
Freemake Video Downloader is one of the most popular videos downloading tools for any site. It’s easy to use and relatively flexible as far as quality and format options are concerned. However, the one big downside is that you can only download up to 4K videos. Additionally, unless you subscribe to one of the app’s paid plans, you won’t download anything above 720p.
- JDownloader
Available on: Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Supported sites: Nearly any site with streaming video.
JDownloader is a stream downloader but with a twist. You take the URL of any page that has a video on it, paste it into the app, and it will scan the page for all the videos it can detect. You get to pick which of the detected videos you want to download.
- Youtube-dl
Available on: 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.
