YouTube is the largest video platform out there; with such a vast library of content, it doesn’t really have to fear any competitors. After all, millions of videos attract hundreds of millions of viewers. This is not an exaggeration: YouTube has more than a hundred million daily visitors.
This is why YouTube doesn’t allow its users to download videos; it would much rather prefer you visited the website each time you want to watch a video. This way, you’ll see more ads and other sponsored content. However, this is not very convenient. For one, it means you can’t watch any videos while offline. If you’re on a metered connection, you’ll be spending data each time you watch a video, even if you saw it before. There’s also plenty of music on YouTube, which you might want to add to your local collection.
There are several programs that can solve these problems, including some very capable ones. But what if you want something simpler? What if you want to download YouTube videos in Safari, without installing anything else? That, too, is possible. Read the article below for a list of YouTube downloader websites. You can visit these websites using Safari, on any other browser for that matter.
Savefrom
Savefrom, also known as Savefrom.net, is a website for downloading videos from YouTube, but also from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Soundcloud, and many other websites. For the purposes of this article, however, it literally doesn’t matter how many platforms it can download from; we only care about YouTube. No, we placed it on top of the list because there is a neat shortcut you can use.
While you can go to their website and download any video from there, there is an easier way. Simply open the video that you want to download on YouTube and click on the address bar. Then, replace “www.” with “ss” and press Enter.
Example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHMYFlh9DeE -> https://ssyoutube.com/watch?v=sHMYFlh9DeE
This will open Savefrom page for your video right away, allowing you to download it. This is great for infrequent users, because you don’t even need to memorize the website’s name or add a bookmark. Just remember this shortcut: “ss” stands for “save”. One-time users don’t benefit from this much, but this feature still put it on the top of this list.
Y2Mate
Y2Mate is another great YouTube downloader website. In some ways it is even better than Savefrom. You can download videos in more resolutions, and it also provides the ability to download audio only, a feature missing from Savefrom. To use it, open the tab with your video in it and click on the address bar. This time, you will need to replace “youtube” in the link with “youtubepi”. Don’t forget to press Enter afterwards, of course.
Example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHMYFlh9DeE -> https://www.youtubepi.com/watch?v=sHMYFlh9DeE
This shortcut is a little less intuitive than Savefrom’s, but it’s worth remembering if you need the features Y2Mate provides. Of course, you can also simply visit its website and download videos this way.
SnapSave
SnapSave is a somewhat inferior option. Still, it is worth listing as an alternative, in case the former two websites are not available for you or if you’ve ran into some restrictions using them. Don’t think it’s terribly bad, though; all it’s really missing is the shortcut feature. Although very convenient, it is not necessary, and it can even be argued that it’s better than Savefrom because it offers more resolutions.
This means that to use SnapSave, you need to go to its website and paste the link there as instructed, then press Download. Then, select the resolution (you can also choose to download .mp3 or .ogg for a sound-only option) and click Download again.
YTB.rip
YTB.rip is easily the worst of the four websites we’ve listed. Do not use it unless you cannot access any of the websites above. It is only listed here as a last-resort option. It still does the job, but it doesn’t offer many resolutions and doesn’t have a shortcut feature either. It does let you download audio, but not in .mp3, so you might have to convert it later.
Here’s the link to its website. Even though it is very limited, it’s still an option.
Conclusion
The websites listed above provide an easy way to download YouTube videos in Safari. However, these websites are rather simple; they work well when all you want is to download a single video, but cannot do much beyond that.
For example, you cannot use these websites to download videos in bulk (e.g. downloading an entire playlist or a channel). Well, you can, but it’d be a repetitive chore. If you want to do that, read our article about downloading YouTube playlists on Mac. It lists several easier methods that will save you some time.
You should also note that this guide is focused on downloading video. Although most websites that we’ve listed are suitable for downloading music, we also have an article focused on downloading audio specifically. You should read it if you want an audio‑centric perspective.
