alternative-front-ends

Overview of alternative open source front-ends for popular internet platforms (e.g. YouTube, Twitter, etc.)

Call to Action

• Do you know any other free/open-source projects that are not included in the overview yet? (front ends, alternatives to websites, apps, etc.)
• Just create an issue and let me know. I'm always looking for new free/open-source projects to add.

Contents

• YouTube
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Reddit
• Imgur
• Spotify
• Discord
• Medium
• Google Search
• Facebook
• Apple AirPlay
• Google Translate
• Other
• Redirection
• Related
• About this repository

Overview

YouTube

• Invidious: Invidious is an alternative front-end to YouTube

  • Home page: https://invidious.io
  • Public Invidious Instances (Docs): https://docs.invidious.io/Invidious-Instances.md
  • Invidious instances (Github): https://github.com/iv-org/documentation/blob/master/Invidious-Instances.md
  • Invidious instances API: https://api.invidious.io
  • Installation guide for self-hosting: https://docs.invidious.io/Installation.md

• Piped: An alternative privacy-friendly YouTube frontend which is efficient by design

  • Example instance: https://piped.kavin.rocks

• FreeTube: Open source YouTube desktop player for privacy on Windows, Mac and Linux

• CloudTube: A front-end for Invidious

  • Example instance: https://tube.cadence.moe

• Invuedious: An alternative frontend for invidious built with vue.js

  • Official instance: https://bocchilorenzo.github.io/invuedious/

• Youtube-viewer: Lightweight YouTube client for Linux

• Straw-viewer: A lightweight YouTube client for Linux, using the API of Invidious

• Invidious-viewer: Python application to watch YouTube videos through the Invidious API, in the terminal (requires MPV player and libmpv.so, provided by Linux distro)

• NewPipe: A libre lightweight streaming front-end for Android

• Youtube-dl: Command-line program to download videos from YouTube.com and other video sites

• Youtube-dl-gui: A cross-platform GUI for youtube-dl made in Electron and node.js

• ytdl-gui: A simple-to-use, cross-platform graphical interface for youtube-dl.

• Alltube: Web GUI for youtube-dl

• Vividl: Modern Windows GUI for youtube-dl

• Tartube: A GUI front-end for youtube-dl, partly based on youtube-dl-gui and written in Python 3 / Gtk 3

• ytmdl: A simple app to get songs from YouTube in mp3 format with artist name, album name etc from sources like iTunes, LastFM, Deezer, Gaana etc.

• Plumber: Local and remote video trimmer, can trim parts of video without downloading whole video, utilizes youtube-dl, allows conversion to GIFs

• ViewTube: An alternative front-end for YouTube, written in Vue.js, uses Plyr video player; supports SponsorBlock, multiple Invidious instances support, chapters

• youtube-local: Browser-based client for watching Youtube anonymously and with greater page performance

• yt-local: Browser-based client for watching Youtube anonymously without forcing javascript (Fork of youtube-local)

• SkyTube: An open-source YouTube app for Android

• yt-dlp: A youtube-dl fork with additional features and fixes

• Yotter: Youtube and Twitter with privacy

  • Yotter instances
  • Official instance: yotter.xyz

• uYouPlus: uYouPlus (uYou+) is an alternative YouTube app for Apple's iOS and iPadOS.

• SmartTubeNext: SmartTubeNext is an advanced YouTube app for Android TVs and TV boxes, free and open source. It is not a live TV client and does not support "YouTube TV".

Twitter

• Nitter: Alternative Twitter front-end

  • Official instance: nitter.net
  • Public instances: https://github.com/zedeus/nitter/wiki/Instances
  • Example: Troy Hunt on Twitter and Nitter

• Shitter: Android, alternative front-end for Twitter, built with Java

• Harpy: Android, alternative front-end for Twitter, built with Flutter/Dart

• Twidere X: Android, alternative front-end for Twitter, built mostly with Kotlin, in early stage

• Tweeterr: A tool to use Twitter from the command line on the fly

• Tweet-app: Desktop Twitter client only for tweeting. Timeline never shows up

• Tweepy: Twitter for Python

• Fritter: A free, open-source Twitter client for Android and iOS

Instagram

• Bibliogram: Bibliogram is an alternative front-end for Instagram

  • Official instance: https://bibliogram.art
  • Public instances: https://git.sr.ht/~cadence/bibliogram-docs/tree/master/docs/Instances.md
  • Example: Troy Hunt on Instagram and Bibliogram
  • Originally hosted on Github

• Barinsta: Open-source alternative Instagram client for Android

  • On July 26, 2021, Austin Huang (maintainer of Barinsta) received a cease & desist letter from Perkins Coie LLP, a law firm representing Facebook. As a result, Barinsta is no longer maintained or distributed. More information can be found at https://github.com/mendel5/alternative-front-ends/issues/28 and https://austinhuang.me/barinsta .

Reddit

• Teddit: Alternative Reddit front-end focused on privacy

  • Official instance: teddit.net
  • Public instances: https://github.com/teddit-net/teddit#instances
  • Github mirror repository
  • Example: /r/Privacy on Reddit and Teddit

• Libreddit: Alternative front-end for Reddit. Themed around Reddit redesign

  • Official instance: libredd.it
  • Public instances: https://github.com/spikecodes/libreddit#instances

• Xeddit: A Xamarin.Forms app for Reddit

  • Official instance: xeddit.com
  • Example: /r/Privacy on Reddit and Xeddit

• RedditClient: Alternative front-end for Reddit, built with Angular

• Updoot: Android, alternative front-end for Reddit

• Eddrit: Alternative front-end for Reddit, inspired by Nitter, built with Python & Starlette

• Top of Reddit: Top Reddit posts every day

• Snew: Open-source client for Reddit forked from the Reddit source code

• Stealth: Account-free, privacy-oriented, and feature-rich Reddit client

  • Available on F-Droid

• Infinity: Reddit client for Android

  • Available on F-Droid

• Dawn: Open-source Reddit app

  • Available on F-Droid
  • Forked from Dank

• Slide: Open source, ad free Reddit browser for Android

  • Available on F-Droid

• junipf-reddit-frontend: A reddit front-end written in React

  • Official instance: https://jpf-reddit.netlify.app

Imgur

• Imgin: Minimal Imgur front end

  • Official instance: https://imgin.voidnet.tech
  • Example album on Imgur.com: https://imgur.com/a/GD6p5Fi
  • Same album on Imgin: https://imgin.voidnet.tech/a/GD6p5Fi

• rimgu: rimgu is a self-hosted alternative frontend/ proxy for Imgur

Spotify

• psst: Fast and multi-platform Spotify client with native GUI

• Spotiqueue: Minimalistic queue-oriented macOS-native client for Spotify, with Guile Scheme scriptability

Discord

• gtkcord3: A lightweight Discord client written in Golang which uses GTK3 for the user interface

Medium

• Scribe: Alternative front-end to Medium.com
  • Official website: https://scribe.rip

Google Search

• Whoogle Search: A self-hosted, ad-free, privacy-respecting metasearch engine for Google

  • Public instances: https://github.com/benbusby/whoogle-search#public-instances

• Searx: Privacy-respecting meta-search engine

  • Searx instances

Google Translate

• Lingva Translate: Alternative front-end for Google Translate, serving as a Free and Open Source translator with over a hundred languages available.

  • Official instance: lingva.ml
  • Public instances: https://github.com/TheDavidDelta/lingva-translate#instances

• SimplyTranslate: Provide fast and private translations to the user without wasting much overhead for extensive styling or JavaScript. Supports Google Translate, DeepL, ICIBA and LibreTranslate.

  • Official instance: simplytranslate.org
  • Home page and public instances: https://simple-web.org/projects/simplytranslate.html

• SimplyTranslate Mobile: Unofficial Android client of SimplyTranslate.

  • Available on F-Droid

• InstaLate: Distraction-free translation for Android, to be used directly from within any app. Supports Beolingus, DeepL, Dict.cc, GNU CIDE, Heinzelnisse, LibreTranslate, Linguee, WikDict and Wiktionary.

  • Available on F-Droid

• DeepL Android: Unofficial Android client of DeepL.

  • Available on F-Droid

Facebook

• Fb-messenger-cli: Use Facebook Messenger from command line

• SlimSocial: Android, alternative front-end for Facebook, built with Java

• Frost: An extensive and functional third party app for Facebook (Android app)

Apple AirPlay

• RPiPlay: An open-source AirPlay mirroring server for the Raspberry Pi. Supports iOS 9 and up.

• air-pi-play: Turn a Raspberry Pi into an Airplay server using RPiPlay to enable screen mirroring on tvs, monitors and projectors.

Other

• MediathekViewWeb: Video content of German public-service television broadcasters (e.g. ARD, ZDF)

  • Official instance: mediathekviewweb.de

• PrivateBin: Zero knowledge encrypted paste-bin. A minimalist, open source online pastebin where the server has zero knowledge of pasted data. Data is encrypted/decrypted in the browser using 256 bits AES

• HN-search: Algolia Hacker News search

  • Example: Highest rated submissions of the past 24 hours

• HNTopLinks: Top Links on Hacker News

• Hackerweb: A simply readable Hacker News web app

  • About Hackerweb: https://hackerwebapp.com
  • Official instance: https://hackerweb.app

• vaultwarden: Password manager. Unofficial Bitwarden compatible server written in Rust, formerly known as bitwarden_rs

• snapdrop: Similar to Apple's Airdrop but in your browser. A Progressive Web App for local file sharing

• hedgedoc: Collaborative markdown editor. A platform to write and share markdown

• etherpad-lite: Collaborative rich text editor. A modern really-real-time collaborative document editor

• gitea: Lightweight git server. Git with a cup of tea, painless self-hosted git service

• ArchiveBox: Open source self-hosted web archiving. Takes URLs/browser history/bookmarks/Pocket/Pinboard/etc., saves HTML, JS, PDFs, media, and more

• Wikiless: A free open source alternative Wikipedia front-end focused on privacy

Redirection

• Privacy Redirect: A simple web extension that redirects Twitter, YouTube, Instagram & Google Maps requests to privacy friendly alternatives

  • Firefox Add-On: Privacy Redirect
  • Chrome Extension: Privacy Redirect

• Farside: Farside provides links that automatically redirect to working instances of privacy-oriented alternative frontends, such as Nitter, Libreddit, etc. This allows for users to have more reliable access to the available public instances for a particular service, while also helping to distribute traffic more evenly across all instances and avoid performance bottlenecks and rate-limiting.

• UntrackMe: Android, UntrackMe transforms Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Reddit and Medium and Wikipedia links to links of open source, privacy friendly front-ends. Converts Google Maps links to OpenStreetMap links. Removes tracking parameters from any url. Then delegates the action to other apps that are capable of handling them.

Related

• uBlock Origin: An efficient blocker for Chromium and Firefox. Fast and lean

  • Firefox Add-On: uBlock Origin
  • Chrome Extension: uBlock Origin

• StreetComplete: Easy to use OpenStreetMap editor for Android

• Matrix.org's Synapse: End-to-end-encrypted messaging. Matrix reference homeserver. See also matrix.org.

• Pluja's Awesome Privacy: A curated list of services and alternatives that respect your privacy because privacy matters.

• Outline.com: Outline is a free service for reading and annotating news articles.

  • Note: The source code of Outline.com is not available under a free/open-source license.

• Youtube Vanced: Youtube replacement app for the Android platform: YouTube Vanced is the stock Android YouTube app, but better. It includes adblocking, true amoled dark mode and a lot more. Use the Vanced Manager to install YouTube Vanced with ease.

  • Official website with install instructions: https://vancedapp.com
  • Note: The source code of Youtube Vanced is not available under a free/open-source license.
  • For an explanation about the origin of Youtube Vanced see here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Vanced/comments/o3xm9m/if_youtube_vanced_isnt_open_source_and_doesnt/h2ec7wf/

About this repository

This overview originally included three projects: Invidious, Bibliogram and Nitter. Therefore it was named alternative front-ends. As more projects have been added to the repository, the listed projects partially left the scope of alternative front-ends.

For example, youtube-dl is not a front-end, but can be generally described as an open source project that interacts with the internet platform Youtube.

Therefore the name alternative front-ends does not capture the full scope of the listed projects anymore. Maybe this repository will be renamed in the future to better reflect the larger scope. A possible name might be open-source-alternatives or something similar.