18 KiB
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
- Imgur
- Spotify
- Discord
- Medium
- Google Search
- Google Translate
- Apple AirPlay
- Other services
- Redirection
- Related projects
- 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
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Piped: An alternative privacy-friendly YouTube frontend which is efficient by design
- Example instance: https://piped.kavin.rocks
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FreeTube: Open source YouTube desktop player for privacy on Windows, Mac and Linux
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CloudTube: A front-end for Invidious
- Example instance: https://tube.cadence.moe
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Invuedious: An alternative frontend for invidious built with vue.js
- Official instance: https://bocchilorenzo.github.io/invuedious/
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Youtube-viewer: Lightweight YouTube client for Linux
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Straw-viewer: A lightweight YouTube client for Linux, using the API of Invidious
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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)
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NewPipe: A libre lightweight streaming front-end for Android
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Youtube-dl: Command-line program to download videos from YouTube.com and other video sites
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Youtube-dl-gui: A cross-platform GUI for youtube-dl made in Electron and node.js
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ytdl-gui: A simple-to-use, cross-platform graphical interface for youtube-dl.
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Alltube: Web GUI for youtube-dl
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Vividl: Modern Windows GUI for youtube-dl
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Tartube: A GUI front-end for youtube-dl, partly based on youtube-dl-gui and written in Python 3 / Gtk 3
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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.
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Plumber: Local and remote video trimmer, can trim parts of video without downloading whole video, utilizes youtube-dl, allows conversion to GIFs
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ViewTube: An alternative front-end for YouTube, written in Vue.js, uses Plyr video player; supports SponsorBlock, multiple Invidious instances support, chapters
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youtube-local: Browser-based client for watching Youtube anonymously and with greater page performance
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yt-local: Browser-based client for watching Youtube anonymously without forcing javascript (Fork of youtube-local)
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SkyTube: An open-source YouTube app for Android
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yt-dlp: A youtube-dl fork with additional features and fixes
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Yotter: Youtube and Twitter with privacy
- Yotter instances
- Official instance: yotter.xyz
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uYouPlus: uYouPlus (uYou+) is an alternative YouTube app for Apple's iOS and iPadOS.
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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".
-
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
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Shitter: Android, alternative front-end for Twitter, built with Java
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Harpy: Android, alternative front-end for Twitter, built with Flutter/Dart
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Twidere X: Android, alternative front-end for Twitter, built mostly with Kotlin, in early stage
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Tweeterr: A tool to use Twitter from the command line on the fly
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Tweet-app: Desktop Twitter client only for tweeting. Timeline never shows up
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Tweepy: Twitter for Python
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Fritter: A free, open-source Twitter client for Android and iOS
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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
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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 .
-
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
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Libreddit: Alternative front-end for Reddit. Themed around Reddit redesign
- Official instance: libredd.it
- Public instances: https://github.com/spikecodes/libreddit#instances
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Xeddit: A Xamarin.Forms app for Reddit
- Official instance: xeddit.com
- Example: /r/Privacy on Reddit and Xeddit
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RedditClient: Alternative front-end for Reddit, built with Angular
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Updoot: Android, alternative front-end for Reddit
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Eddrit: Alternative front-end for Reddit, inspired by Nitter, built with Python & Starlette
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Top of Reddit: Top Reddit posts every day
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Snew: Open-source client for Reddit forked from the Reddit source code
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Stealth: Account-free, privacy-oriented, and feature-rich Reddit client
- Available on F-Droid
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Infinity: Reddit client for Android
- Available on F-Droid
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Dawn: Open-source Reddit app
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Slide: Open source, ad free Reddit browser for Android
- Available on F-Droid
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junipf-reddit-frontend: A reddit front-end written in React
- Official instance: https://jpf-reddit.netlify.app
Imgur
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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
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rimgu: rimgu is a self-hosted alternative frontend/ proxy for Imgur
Spotify
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psst: Fast and multi-platform Spotify client with native GUI
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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
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Whoogle Search: A self-hosted, ad-free, privacy-respecting metasearch engine for Google
- Public instances: https://github.com/benbusby/whoogle-search#public-instances
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Searx: Privacy-respecting meta-search engine
Google Translate
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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
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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
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SimplyTranslate Mobile: Unofficial Android client of SimplyTranslate.
- Available on F-Droid
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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
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DeepL Android: Unofficial Android client for DeepL
- Available on F-Droid
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Fb-messenger-cli: Use Facebook Messenger from command line
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SlimSocial: Android, alternative front-end for Facebook, built with Java
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Frost: An extensive and functional third party app for Facebook (Android app)
Apple AirPlay
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RPiPlay: An open-source AirPlay mirroring server for the Raspberry Pi. Supports iOS 9 and up.
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air-pi-play: Turn a Raspberry Pi into an Airplay server using RPiPlay to enable screen mirroring on tvs, monitors and projectors.
Other services
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MediathekViewWeb: Video content of German public-service television broadcasters (e.g. ARD, ZDF)
- Official instance: mediathekviewweb.de
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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
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HN-search: Algolia Hacker News search
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HNTopLinks: Top Links on Hacker News
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Hackerweb: A simply readable Hacker News web app
- About Hackerweb: https://hackerwebapp.com
- Official instance: https://hackerweb.app
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Hckrnws: A custom front-end for a better reading experience of HackerNews
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vaultwarden: Password manager. Unofficial Bitwarden compatible server written in Rust, formerly known as bitwarden_rs
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snapdrop: Similar to Apple's Airdrop but in your browser. A Progressive Web App for local file sharing
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hedgedoc: Collaborative markdown editor. A platform to write and share markdown
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etherpad-lite: Collaborative rich text editor. A modern really-real-time collaborative document editor
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gitea: Lightweight git server. Git with a cup of tea, painless self-hosted git service
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ArchiveBox: Open source self-hosted web archiving. Takes URLs/browser history/bookmarks/Pocket/Pinboard/etc., saves HTML, JS, PDFs, media, and more
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Wikiless: A free open source alternative Wikipedia front-end focused on privacy
Redirection
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Privacy Redirect: A simple web extension that redirects Twitter, YouTube, Instagram & Google Maps requests to privacy friendly alternatives
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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.
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UntrackMe: 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. (Android app)
Related projects
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uBlock Origin: An efficient blocker for Chromium and Firefox. Fast and lean
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StreetComplete: Easy to use OpenStreetMap editor for Android
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Matrix.org's Synapse: End-to-end-encrypted messaging. Matrix reference homeserver. See also matrix.org.
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Pluja's Awesome Privacy: A curated list of services and alternatives that respect your privacy because privacy matters.
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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.
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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.