head to head · open source
tubearchivist vs tubesync
tubearchivist has 8,561 GitHub stars, 433 forks, 25 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. tubesync has 2,808 stars, 174 forks, 58 open issues and last shipped yesterday. tubearchivist leads on adoption by 205% (8,561 vs 2,808 stars). tubearchivist is written in Python under GPL-3.0; tubesync is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. tubearchivist has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, tubesync 6%. tubesync was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (media-server, youtube, youtube-dl), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| tubearchivist | tubesync | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.6K | ★ 2.8K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-10-25 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 433 | ⑂ 174 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick tubearchivist if
- You weight community size — 8.6K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick tubesync if
- You want the tubesync feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and tubesync fits your workflow better
About tubearchivist
more screenshots and video Table of contents Docs with FAQ, and API documentation Core functionality Resources Installing Getting Started Known limitations Port Collisions Common Errors Roadmap Donate Core functionality Once your YouTube video collection grows, it becomes hard to search and find a specific video. That's where Tube Archivist comes in: By indexing your video collection with metadata from YouTube, you can organize, search and enjoy your archived YouTube videos without hassle offline through a convenient web interface. This includes: Subscribe to your favorite YouTube channels Download Videos using…
read the full tubearchivist overview →
About tubesync
TubeSync TubeSync is a PVR (personal video recorder) for YouTube. Or, like Sonarr but for YouTube (with a built in download client). It is designed to synchronize channels and playlists from YouTube to local directories and update your media server once media is downloaded. If you want to watch YouTube videos in particular quality or settings from your local media server, then TubeSync is for you. Internally, TubeSync is a web interface wrapper on yt dlp and ffmpeg with a task scheduler. There are several other web interfaces to YouTube and yt dlp all with varying features and implementations. TubeSync's largest…
read the full tubesync overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is tubearchivist or tubesync more popular?
tubearchivist has 8,561 GitHub stars and tubesync has 2,808. tubearchivist has the larger community by that measure.
Are tubearchivist and tubesync free?
Both are open source. tubearchivist is licensed under GPL-3.0 and tubesync under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between tubearchivist and tubesync?
tubearchivist is written in Python and tubesync in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, tubearchivist or tubesync?
Choose tubearchivist if you want the larger community (8,561 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose tubesync if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.