Invidious
A lightweight, open-source alternative front-end to YouTube that respects your privacy: no ads, no tracking, and no JavaScript required.
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A privacy-respecting, lightweight YouTube front-end with zero ads and tracking.
Core Features
- No ads, no tracking, no JavaScript required
- Light/Dark themes, customizable homepage
- Subscribe to channels without Google account
- Audio-only mode with background play on mobile
- Reddit comments integration, multilingual
What It Can't Do
- •Some public instances may be unstable due to load; features like trending/live may break due to YouTube anti-scraping. Use legally, avoid illegal downloading. Compared to NewPipe (Android app), Invidious works in any browser without installation; compared to Piped, Invidious has a larger community and more instances.
Use Cases
- Users seeking an ad-free, tracker-free YouTube experience
- Those needing a lightweight video player on low-end devices
- Privacy-conscious individuals wanting to avoid Google tracking
- Self-hosting enthusiasts requiring a full-controlled proxy
Detailed Introduction
Invidious is a free and open-source front-end for YouTube that focuses on privacy and minimalism. It strips away ads, tracking scripts, and unnecessary bloat, delivering a clean, fast video-watching experience with no JavaScript required. Users can subscribe to channels without a Google account, import/export subscriptions and watch history, enable audio-only mode (with background play on mobile), and choose between light/dark themes. It also supports Reddit comments integration and offers a developer API. Invidious does not use official YouTube APIs, making it resistant to certain forms of surveillance. The project is maintained by a community of volunteers and is available in many languages. You can either use one of the public instances hosted by the community or self-host your own instance for full control.
Troubleshooting & FAQ (1)
TroubleshootingWhy does Crystal's garbage collector perform poorly when handling large memory heaps?
The default compilation of the Bohem GC (bdwgc) on many Linux distributions lacks the flag --enable-large-config, which optimizes it for heaps larger than 100 MB. Recompile bdwgc with --enable-large-config to improve performance. Alternatively, use a Crystal build that already includes this flag.
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Getting Started
Download installer
Click the button above to download the installer for your system
Install the software
Double-click the downloaded installer and follow the prompts
Go to https://instances.invidious.io and pick a public instance
Click the instance link to start watching ad-free videos in your browser
For self-hosting, follow the installation docs at https://docs.invidious.io/installation/
- Go to https://instances.invidious.io and pick a public instance
- Click the instance link to start watching ad-free videos in your browser
- For self-hosting, follow the installation docs at https://docs.invidious.io/installation/
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Open Source Transparency
View GitHub SourceUninstall Info
For public instances, no uninstall needed. For self-hosted, delete the installation directory and database.
No Extra Dependencies
Ready to use after download. No additional runtime required.
Having issues? Check the FAQ below
1 FAQ
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