Best YouTube Tools in 2026: For Creators, Viewers and Parents
Looking for the best YouTube tools in 2026? Our original 2006 collection was full of video downloaders and mashups like KeepVid, Delutube and TubeSock, nearly all of which have since shut down. YouTube is now the world’s biggest video platform with more than 2.5 billion monthly users, and the YouTube tools worth using today help you grow a channel, edit faster, watch smarter and keep kids safe. Here is the updated collection.
Quick answer: The best YouTube tools are YouTube Studio for analytics, TubeBuddy and vidIQ for keyword research and SEO, Canva for thumbnails, CapCut or Descript for editing, Social Blade for channel stats, and browser extensions like SponsorBlock, Unhook and Enhancer for YouTube for a better viewing experience.
Table of Contents
YouTube tools for creators
- YouTube Studio (external site): YouTube’s own dashboard for uploads, analytics, comments, subtitles and monetization. Its “Inspiration” tab now suggests video ideas based on what your audience watches.
- TubeBuddy (external site): a browser extension for keyword research, tag suggestions, A/B testing thumbnails and bulk editing.
- vidIQ (external site): keyword scores, competitor tracking and daily video ideas, with a useful free plan.
- Canva (external site): ready-made YouTube thumbnail, banner and end screen templates.
- CapCut (external site): free editor with auto captions, templates and easy Shorts editing.
- Descript (external site): edit video by editing the transcript, remove filler words and fix audio with AI.
YouTube stats and research tools
- Social Blade (external site): subscriber and view history for any public channel, plus rankings.
- Google Trends (external site): switch the search type to “YouTube Search” to see which topics are growing on YouTube.
- YouTube search autocomplete: type a topic into YouTube search to see what people actually look for. It is free keyword research.
YouTube tools for viewers
- SponsorBlock (external site): a crowd-sourced extension that skips sponsor segments, intros and reminders to subscribe.
- Unhook (external site): hides recommendations, Shorts and comments so you watch only what you came for.
- Enhancer for YouTube (external site): volume boost, custom speed, cinema mode and auto quality settings.
- Playback speed and shortcuts: press Shift + > to speed up, and use the keys J, K and L to rewind, pause and skip ahead.
Videos buffering? See how to make YouTube videos load faster.
Saving YouTube videos
The old downloader sites from our first list are gone, and downloading videos with third-party tools breaks YouTube’s terms of service. The official way is YouTube Premium, which lets you save videos in the app for offline viewing. Read more about downloading YouTube videos.
YouTube privacy and family tools
- Private and unlisted videos: share a video only with people who have the link. Learn the difference between private vs unlisted YouTube videos.
- Restricted Mode and supervised accounts: filter mature videos for children. See how to block adult content on YouTube.
- YouTube Kids (external site): a separate app with content filtered for younger children.
FAQ
What is the best free YouTube tool for growing a channel?
YouTube Studio is free and has the most accurate data. Add the free plans of vidIQ or TubeBuddy for keyword ideas.
Are YouTube downloader sites legal?
They break YouTube’s terms of service and many are full of ads and malware. Use YouTube Premium for offline viewing.
Which tool makes the best YouTube thumbnails?
Canva is the easiest for beginners, with free YouTube thumbnail templates sized at 1280 x 720 pixels.
Which YouTube tools do you use every day? Suggest new tools in the comments.
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YouTube instant search and an animated GIF maker.
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anyone loves collecting videos can use vidmy.com , it’s an easy way to make a video community for your hobby or for what you love.
it’s a free way to make a video website that allows you , your friends and visitors to share videos under your moderation, just like forums but specialized for videos from youtube and vimeo
Thanks for sharing these youtube tools. I was having a hard time downloading videos from youtube.
I love keepvid, its quick accurate good quality and no need to install ;)
Save Video plugin for Internet Explorer – http://www.savevideoplugin.com (FLV Downloader + FLV Converter + FLV Player)
You forgot
YoutubeBackup.com is a great data and video backup tool that can save you a lot of heartache if you use it regularly and save your data in case Youtube ban or suspend you leaving you without access to videos and collected favorites and friends etc..
Great job! This site will become more poular after the Google purchase of YouTube.
Thanks a lot !
I think a lot of people forget that you need to be proactive when getting more views to your videos. Make it a habit to go out and comment on other blogs. Do leave your youtube video link and you will get your videos out there.
I am surprised Sothink’s Web Video Downloader is not in the list. I think it is really the best video downloader there is because it can handle any site and any video in streaming as well as work on both firefox and Internet explorer:
really this is a nice web thank you thanks admin good post super messege
Why is the YouTube Downloader always “on maintenance” now. How long does maintenance take anyhow? It’s been in this mode night and day for a week ow. Wat’s up?
Here is one that has been around for awhile, well 2007 =) they have a new version “My Video Downloader HD” that supports HD up to 1080p resolution. They also double as a full conversion utility so you can convert just about any video from your computer to almost ANY format including MKV, MP4, WMV, All apple (iPod,iPhone etc) DVD, XVID and more.
also converts YouTube videos to different formats. Useful for creating a backup. Especially since videos are removed from YouTube constantly.
Atube Catcher is one of the best software for downloading high definition quality youtube videos!
can someone reccomend a software that can be used to download a video file that has several parts at once
ade
A good way to convert videos in youtube to many formats is in this sites
http://www.freefileconvert.com
http://www.convertvideotoaudio.com
They are fast and easy to use.
I think the best youtube site of all is viewtubetrain.com and it wasn’t even mentioned.
Very nice tool to turn YouTube video into ringtone https://www.mytinyphone.com/p/make-ringtone/
The best website for downloading YouTube videos for me is iDesktop.tv! It offers so many options and formats and the interface is awesome!
I am surprised Sothink’s Web Video Downloader is not in the list. I think it is really the best video downloader there is because it can handle any site and any video in streaming as well as work on both firefox and Internet explorer:
Great collection!
I made a pretty cool thing you might want to check out. It’s a YouTube Channel Badge Generator.
You just enter in the channel name, select some display options, and generate the code. The javascript code can then be copied and pasted into a site.
The generated badge will always display current statistics.
Wow, so much information here. A thorough list of YouTube video resources.
Thanks for this list. I’ve been searching for about 30 minutes for youtube tools, then I came across your list, wish I had found it 30 mins ago lol. thanks again :)
i love youtube
I use https://vids.eu.com/
Easy usage, mp3, mp4, avi, wmv, 3gp or flv are supported!
helo the owner the gegole craeate web site is very marveles i have not to for you but you is good
Youtube downloader that can download videos in MP4, mp3, 3gp and HighQuality FLV
There is another online Youtube downloader that can download videos in MP4, mp3, 3gp and HighQuality FLV.
Sorry, forget to add link
http://www.clkmg.com/brenkelly/tube-xtractor
P.S. It is very popular in Russia
There is another online Youtube downloader that can download videos in MP4, mp3, 3gp and HighQuality FLV.
I DO NOT HAVE BROAD BAND, BUT CAN I STILL WATCH VIDEO FROM YOU TUBE?
I like Tube Mogul, it lets you upload videos to several different aggregation sites at once and has good insight tools as well.
FAST WAY TO DOWNLOAD
do u like a video on youtube? add HACK before youtube.com in the url bar
enjoy
Have you also seen It’s a site that just requires the Youtube URL and will then give you the low- and high quality download link (flv and mp4, respectively) and also gives you the embed code for almost any video, whether it has embedding enabled or not!
Like your compilation btw, nice and comprehensive list!
Sincerely,
Dominique
forgot about http://www.YouConvertIt.com
it converts and downloads videos
I think you lack the youtube streams.
Nice list. Those are great tools.
I guess you forgot http://www.fluny.com where you can insert a username and it generates a iTunes like gallery. It’s very well done.
Thanks.
We are working on a service that does just that.
Reeplay.it transcodes videos from all the most popular video services into several formats (computer, TV with console, PSP, cellphone, iPod…) and lets you organize them in playlists.
You can then synchronize your playlists with iTunes and your iPod, or access them anytime from your Internet-enabled console, set top box, computer or from your cellphone.
Reeplay.it is at http://www.reeplay.it/signup
Get Thousands of views for your YouTube videos for the cheapest price on the web. Ever wonder why there is some people that get 100000 views on their videos when your videos are better but your still in the 100s. And whats better is that you do not pay straight from the website but actually contact the staff and work things out so security is guaranteed.
Visit FiveHeroes.com
http://www.fiveheroes.com
Amazing tool collection!
To complement your list, there are some cool Widgets at WidgetBox.com
Once again I am impressed, I spend all day on social networking and social media websites. I have not seen have these tools. Keep up the great work!
Hi,good list.
please also add our software – http://www.youtubeclipextractor.com – an add-on to Internet Explorer – youtube downloader and youtube converter in 1 tool
Here I found new blog with YouTube videos, funny clips and weird news from YouTube.com. Please, check https://youtubeclips.wordpress.com/
Hi,
One of the Top / Best YouTube Videos websites that I have found on the internet is at – All hand selected and no crap.
I recommend this youtube download tool,see my name.It intergares the funtion of playing flv videos.
YouTubeRobot.com today announces YouTube Robot 2.0, a tool that enables you to download video from YouTube.com onto your PC, convert it to various formats to watch it when you are on the road on mobile devices like mobile phone, iPod, iPhone, Pocket PC, PSP, or Zune.
YouTube Robot allows you to search for videos using keywords or browse video by category, author, channel, language, tags, etc. When you find something noteworthy, you can preview the video right in YouTube Robot and then download it onto the hard disk drive. The speed, at which you will be downloading, is very high: up to 5 times faster than other software when you download a single file and up to 4 times faster when you download multiple files at a time.
Manual download is not the only option with YouTube Robot. You may as well schedule the download and conversion tasks to be executed automatically, even when you are not around. Downloading is followed by conversion to the format of your choice and uploading videos to a mobile device (if needed). For example, you can plug in iPod, select the video, go to bed, and when you wake up next morning, your iPod will be ready to play new YouTube videos.
Product page: w ww.youtuberobot.com
Direct download link: ww w.youtuberobot.com/download/utuberobot.exe
Company web-site: ww w.youtuberobot.com
The list is regularly updated. :-)
What an Amazing set of Tools,
Are they still all relevant now?
Perhaps you want to add Taggl ). It’s a tag search engine that searches content from YouTube and other tag based sites such as Flickr.
Hi friends,
I am really impressed witht the “Youtube video slide show” script in the above list. But I am not understanding how to implement that in my website?
In the ‘usage’ section of the above script, it is mentioned that just with the use of JS file and some changes to the css file in source code, and a call to the function i can implement. But I am really confused. Where do i keep the JS file and how do I call the function they have given there?
can some one please tell me step-by-step procedure to implement this script? I will be very thankful to you.
YouTube High Def
This is not really a tool per se. but it will help you encode your videos for youtube, especially now that it has higher resolution.
It’s called YouTube High Definition
Please post my website http://www.youtuberipper.com. A website for downloading you tube movies.
Thanks!
Please add my website http://www.youtuberipper.com to your list of download sites.
Thanks!
I just love PHPMelody (www.phpsugar.com)! :) Give it a try and you won’t regret that you did.
Have you thought about adding http://www.YouTubeUnleashed.com to your list of “best of” sites? They are a new player, but I like the site.
Great collection, but a lot of the tools from “Download and Save YouTube Videos” don’t work anymore. You could add my site http://www.youtubeloader.com/ ;) that one still works
great selection of tools but does any one have one that puts a clickable link in video–so that its like a water mark but click through-able
Hi All,
Try http://www.idesktop.tv/index.html
Its a cool site that i found on techcrunch.com where you can search and view youtube videos in a much more user friendly environment.
You can also download videos in a variety of formats, without having to download any dodgy software.
More YouTube tricks to get your videos seen
http://www.VideoMarketingTactics.com
Anyone know of a trick or tool that removes your own ‘video response’ to another Youtube video without having to delete your video??
.
YouTubeRobot.com today announces YouTube Robot 2.0, a tool that enables you to download video from YouTube.com onto your PC, convert it to various formats to watch it when you are on the road on mobile devices like mobile phone, iPod, iPhone, Pocket PC, PSP, or Zune.
Search and try all Youtube video in very good looking interface Youtube VDO
Thanks.
here is another great site I have found to download youtube videos https://www.vidmetro.com/
Here’s another great tool for webmasters:
http://www.phpsugar.com/phpmelody.html
It’s a music video CMS based on Youtube.com. They even gave me a 2000 music videos DB with my purchase. Great value, should be added to this list.
check out https://www.tubemogul.com/ for all your video uploading needs… 9 major video websites in one shot! Also video stats and tracking!!!
– a Windows desktop YouTube downloader and video smoother, removes some of the compression artifacts from downloaded videos.
https://padlet.com/m_derksen1/greatmovies is a website where you van easely find the best youtube movies.
@181: Go to YouTube and look at the top right. When you’re in the uploading process you’ll see a place to enter tags.
hey hi every one.can anyone tell me how can i upload a video in youtube,how can i do the video tags.pls help me!!!
Yet another great list! Thanks a lot. :)
Hey, what about this youtube friend adder tool?
New site that allows you to create 3D animated playlist of youtube videos. download videos, convert to other formats, plus 3D search engine to find millions of videos and webmaster can also get codes to add these tools to their own website.
I always use http://www.tubecodes.com to search and download videos! great design and easy to use :)
Why is the YouTube Downloader always “on maintenance” now. How long does maintenance take anyhow? It’s been in this mode night and day for a week ow. Wat’s up?
Hello,
Please add http://www.funnyyoutubevideo.com to your list.
It’a a great funny videos resource.
Regards
You should probably add ViewTubeTrain.com to your list… it is a way to “earn” more views by simply watching other people’s videos.
you can use for download from youtube and many more …
http://youtubevideos-swicki.eurekster.com is a search engine with tag cloud only devoted to YouTube and a social community. I will include a link to this helpful site. Thanks.
Dear I would like to thank you.
I did not try anything yet but I was certainly looking for how to capture and download youtube videos ..
So I ll say thank you for all those tools … and if I have to report anything I ll come back.
Thanks alot
MBeiruty
Could you add TubeTop100.com to the list? It features an archive of every daily YouTube video top 100.
Here is another site to add to the list :)
You can also download YouTube Video, Google Video, Dailymotion, ifilm, Break, putFile, grouper, MySpace, That Video Site, Grinvi,…all in one page in one click. Check out this site: http://boomvid.com
Enjoy!!!
Boomvid.com
=============================
Best software – easy, and simple
I use ZillaTube ( from http://www.zillatube.com ) very easy to use.
Built-in player for youtube video, mpg,avi,mp4, 3g, mp3, etc Just drop the downloaded files into it, and sit back, and view. Easy. And if you like it, you convert them to good quality videos. Do all these with just one program.
===============================
Funpy.net allows you serach and download youtube videos in the most popular formats, such as AVI, 3GP, MP4 and MP3. Full quality, free and a lot of videos.
This will be the ultimate (All-in-One) MySpace
YouTube Bot. Release date will be late June 2006
You also forgot this site for funniest videos: http://www.besttopvideos.com
Excellent group of tools PC, I’m going to probably put together a collection of my own soon. I’ll do my best to keep it original though.
out of these video downloader firefox extension and online download is the best….it rocks….
Is there a way to upload Youtube videos via an API and then know how many views it got?
Great job, thanks dude i have always love youtube and there’s too much videos that has been deleted and i needed to download! Neat!!
I can’t wait to start using some of the great tools you listed!
BienneSoft Youtube Downloader is free
https://youtubedownload.altervista.org/
I use http://www.savetube.com to save youtube videos.
you can add promote your YouTube videos on http://www.youtubeclips.org for quick search YouTube your clips
Download and save videos directly from YouTube, Google, Bolt, iFilm, MySpace, DailyMotion, Blip.tv and Break.com! Visit Take9.com today!
http://www.ifunpix.com is an application that include a mini browser that you can use to navigate in youtube.com, when you see a video that you like you can click the download button. now you can watch your downloaded videos and copy them to your mobile phone using WAP
I’m looking for a script that I can use on my website that displays and updates the number of video views:, comments:, etc that are appearing on a given YouTube page. (i.e. if I have 1000 views today, on my home-made page it reads 1000. If I have 2000 views tomorrow on YouTube, then my personal web page will also read 2000 views. I pulled the page source and it doesn’t look like using that code will allow the numbers to update on my page too.
Thanks for any help here.
Please add http://ww12.savevideodownload.com/, it can download not only youtube video, but also google video.
Hi Guys I thought maybe you should check out this tool. Leplayer it allows you to play , search, and save Youtube Videos in a great way.
Download Leplayer and see for yourselves
Cheers
Rob
Thanks Wendy for the great article. However, I use this wonderful and simple tool to convert a batch or single FLV file (the youtube video format) to avi/ mpeg and mpeg 2 videos
ifunpix is an application that include a mini browser that you can use to navigate in youtube.com, when you see a video that you like you can click the download button. now you can watch your downloaded videos and copy them to your mobile phone using WAP
Please add this in your list. This tool is very cool.
Link You can add Youtube player on your webpage. This Google gadget will let you search videos and play it on your webpage without going to Youtube’s website. This is a cool gadget uses AJAX and uses the Youtube’s RSS feed. It uses Google’s content handler library to get data from Youtube. A good example of circumventing cross domain problem in AJAX.
Check this article out:
How To Make YouTube Videos Look Great
ifunpix is an application that include a mini browser that you can use to navigate in youtube.com, when you see a video that you like you can click the download button. now you can watch your downloaded videos and copy them to your mobile phone using WAP
Hi.
Please add http://www.YouTubeBestVideos.com to your great list.
Regards
Another tool My Video Downloader
It downloads from YouTube, MySpace and 50+ others, then it converts the file to iPod, PSP, Zune, 3gp, DVD, VCD, DVD and XviD.
Very cool app and easy to use.
I reccomend http://www.snatchvid.com it’s very fast and easy!
Downloads from YouTube, MySpace and many more. Then converts the file to iPod, PSP, DVD, XviD, 3gp, Zune, VCD, SVCD. It does it all! Very easy to use 3 step process! Ohh and did I mention you have full control over the quality settings? That is awesome!
Find and rate all video sharing sites around!
thx u very much for superb YouTube research! My all-times favorite is Youtube Crazy Videos. Thx. QOT rocks!
I use SaveTube to save any youtube videos.
Is there a way/program that can download multiple video’s (for example the 10 newest movies) to my computer? So not an online playlist url’s one by one…
I thought I read an article about a week or so ago on how to save a picture from within a YouTube video as a single picture without having to save the entire video; I can’t seem to locate that article. Is there such a thing or did I misread?
What I’m looking to do is save a single frame as a jpeg file or the like. I don’t want the entire video and don’t want the picture to be anything else except a snapshot (so to speak).
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Great job! This site will become more poular after the Google purchase of YouTube.
Thanks a lot !
Anyone know of a batch uploader for youtube? I have about 200 short home movies I’d like up on my youtube profile and really don’t want to upload them by hand.
Hi,
Can you please tell is there any way to upload videos into youtube from an API ,
or can we upload videos directly from our application using any interface…..
thanks in advance.
I use Savetube to save youtube videos.
Not sure if you noticed https://isexychat.com/, a way to watch youtube videos on your cell phone. Works with all 3G video phones. The guy who runs this is a grad student from UCLA who got a jump on the bigco’s by cobbling together this amazing service before the Telcos could get their act together..
If you want to search and batch download from Youtube.com, try the BrownRecluse script ?youtube_SDL_dd_mm_yyp.zip? on Softbytelabs.com (check the WebFiles tab). The script is free and very powerful. Even creates thumbnail pages .
Sab
check out http://ww38.youtubia.com/ it’s a full youtube clone and allow you search as well as download any youtube vidoes, it’s an all-in-one site…very cool
FLV Online Converter:
YouTube Podcaster:
Hi, is there any tool or trick to increase the views (popularity) of my YouTube uploaded videos?
Handy resource, thanx for putting this together! I’ve been using YouTube more recently and this helps me get even more outta it.
You lack the one: Videobox
;-)
here in http://www.gadwhat.com you will find a zone named gadtube with only the best youtube videos, THE BEST OF THE BEST .. ONLY ! . Check them out :)
I love this site! View over a 100 YouTube thumbs at a time! Then either watch them or download them. Zoom in and out, too! http://video.ayeQ.com is cool…no spyware or ads.
Slideroll has a videomaker that turns Slideroll slideshows into true video you can upload to YouTube. You can create slideshows from photos you upload or from your Flickr photos.
Download videos from Youtube, Google, Metacafe, iFilm, Dailymotion… and other 60+ video sites ! And all embedded objects on a webpage (LeechVideo.com offers all kinds of online Video format,wmv,flv,etc.) ! Directly & quickly!
hi does any one know where can i get the you script because i want to make website same as you tube website for people to upload their video many thanks
Another tool for your list:
Cool freeware for generating photo/video slideshows with lots of customization possibilities. Integrates seamlessly with YouTube.
I have written a C# Wrapper Assembly that encapsulates all the YouTube API functionality into a set of .Net methods and deserializes the result sets into objects for the .Net developer to use.
The Main YouTube DLL is written in C# but the Zip contains ASP.NET Web Application Projects written in C# and VB.NET that demonstrate some of the Functionality. All Source Code is provided.
N.B Projects are in Visual Studio 2005 format.
i downloaded the youtube downloader and instantly my xp computer was infected by spyware. so watch out… some of this stuff is dangerous
Webmunism http://www.webmunism.com – categorizes youtube videos with related flickr photos.
You also should include on the Best YouTube Videos the http://ww25.sacalabasura.com/ a spanish humor site like digg.
Great list ;).
You could add Viral Video Chart to your best of YouTube section…
There is another nice wiki based index of youtube videos:
Videos de youtube, googlevideo, metacafe y more sites of video.
http://www.videoronk.com
You forgot too :)
A blog like “The best of youtube”, but from Spain.
I’ve made a Youtube tool for Windows Desktop
YoutubeCraztVideos:
Check it out
youripper
http://www.remlapsoftware.com/
Thanks Wendy for the great article. However, I use this wonderful and simple tool to convert a batch or single FLV file (the youtube video format) to avi/ mpeg and mpeg 2 videos. The user “Qjimbo” at the Doom 9 forum wrote the application in response to a topic based on converting youtube videos and it works flawlessly and fast. Its much better and faster than any of the paid software out there that I tried out to convert Youtube videos. The tool along with the firefox extension Video Downloader is much easier than the describe method in article you provided. Download the tool at or goto the original post at http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=104183 for more information.
You should include on the Top / Best YouTube Videos the https://neave.tv/ site, it’s really great hehehe realllly
Great list, good job ^^
You forgot http://www.TheBestofYoutube.com
For embedding galleries of YouTube videos in WordPress, try out TubePress:
Videosift.com is another site that allows users to submit and vote on videos. They allow submissions from most of the major video sharing sites, but the majority of the content comes from YouTube.