Invidious vs MeTube
| Tagline | Privacy-respecting alternative front-end for YouTube | Web GUI for yt-dlp — download videos from YouTube and hundreds of other sites |
| Category | Media Servers & Streaming | Media Servers & Streaming |
| Replaces | Netflix | Netflix |
| GitHub stars | 24k | 15k |
| Language | Docker | Python |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Self-host difficulty | 3/5 Moderate | 2/5 Easy |
| Deploy options | Docker Docker Compose Manual | Docker Docker Compose |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | 4 days ago | 5 days ago |
| View repo | View repo |
Where each falls short
The honest trade-offs — what you give up with each, versus the proprietary tools they replace.
Invidious
- Relies entirely on YouTube's infrastructure; Google can and does throttle or break the API at any time.
- No support for YouTube Shorts, YouTube Music, or YouTube Premium content.
- Comment loading and search quality degrade as Google tightens API restrictions.
- No upload capability; purely a viewing front-end.
MeTube
- Downloads files locally; does not stream or manage a media library.
- No scheduling or automatic monitoring of channels/playlists for new content.
- No user authentication by default; must be secured behind a reverse proxy.
- Subject to yt-dlp breakage whenever platforms change their APIs.
Bottom line
Choose MeTube if you want the lower-effort setup; choose Invidious for the larger community and ecosystem. Invidious has seen more recent development. Open each guide below for deploy steps and the full feature gap.
MeTube
Web GUI for yt-dlp — download videos from YouTube and hundreds of other sites