Introduction
Facebook is the most popular social media platform; as such, it should come as no surprise that it hosts a vast library of user-uploaded videos. Normally, these videos cannot be watched outside of Facebook, as the platform provides no way to download them. But many people find this limitation awfully inconvenient. For example, people with unreliable, slow, or data-capped internet might prefer to have their favorite videos available locally. Obviously, Facebook doesn’t want their users to save videos and would never implement this feature. But from a technical perspective, as long as you can watch a video, you can save it, too. As a result, many unofficial video downloaders for Facebook have been created; they simply cannot block them. In this article, we will determine the best Facebook video downloader for Mac.
What is the best Facebook video downloader for Mac?
Video downloader programs
Generally speaking, using a dedicated downloader program is better than using a website. The websites usually have restrictive download limits to make sure you’re not causing strain on their servers. But when you run a program on your own computer, you face no such limitation. And if you’re downloading videos often, you’ll be able to take advantage of advanced features these programs possess.
SnapDownloader
SnapDownloader is one of the best Facebook video downloader programs currently available. It can download videos in any resolution, download audio only, and also schedule these downloads. So if you want to download many videos, you can do it overnight, without impacting your internet speed. It is also capable of grabbing videos from other websites, including YouTube, Reddit, and Vimeo.
SnapDownloader is a paid application, but it features a free trial. The free version doesn’t have any feature restrictions, but will stop working after 48 hours. This is more than enough time to download many YouTube videos, especially if you prepare beforehand. And if you plan to do it regularly, purchasing a full version may be a worthwhile investment.
Other programs
There are other programs for downloading Facebook videos as well, though they’re generally not as good as SnapDownloader. ClipGrab, for example, is a very simple program that lacks bulk downloading features; although it is free, there’s little reason to use it. Youtube-DL, on the other hand, is a very powerful application that can do everything SnapDownloader does and more. However, it is also extremely difficult to use.
Video downloader websites
While downloader programs are better for frequent users, websites are better for infrequent ones. If you simply want to download one video, you might prefer to use a website instead of installing a whole new program.
FDownload
FDownload is one of the best best Facebook video downloader websites. Though not as powerful as most downloader programs, it has more features compared to other websites. For one, it can download high-resolution videos (720p and above); most websites will either limit you to 360p or force you to install their extension to access higher resolutions. It can also convert Facebook videos to MP3 and download private videos that you have access to.
One disadvantage of FDownload is that it doesn’t have a browser extension, so you have to visit the site each time you want to download something. However, it also means that this website doesn’t try to push the extension down your throat by restricting what features you can access without installing it.
Savefrom
Savefrom is a versatile downloader site that supports many video platforms, including Facebook and YouTube.
It provides two ways to download videos from Facebook: via the website itself, or via its browser extension. Though the extension is advertised in a rather obnoxious manner, it is useful if you want to be able to download videos from Facebook on Mac without visiting a separate downloader website.
The biggest flaw of this website is its inability to convert videos to MP3. If you want the audio but not the video, you will have to download the video anyway and convert it afterwards with some other program; this is obviously inefficient. So if you want to download songs or lectures, you should use SnapDownloader or FDownload instead. Savefrom also doesn’t allow you to download high-resolution videos unless you install its extension.
Though Savefrom website is simply worse than FDownload, it can still be considered the best Facebook video downloader for Mac – in the browser extension category.
Other video downloader websites
There are many other video downloader websites that support Facebook, for example FDown and Getfvid. There’s little reason to use them, as they’re generally worse than the aforementioned sites, but it never hurts to know that there are alternatives available.
Conclusion
The best program website for downloading Facebook videos is SnapDownloader, while the best website is FDownload. You may also use a browser extension, like Savefrom.net Helper. There’s many other websites and programs that perform the same task, but most people have no reason to use them.
You may also want to learn about YouTube video downloaders. We also have an article talking about the best YouTube adblocker on Mac.