this post was submitted on 30 Aug 2023
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Privacy

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I need a more privacy-oriented alternative to Youtube. I have try Odysee, which open-source but it has to do with tokens and that seems to me like crypto, which I don't like. I have heard about Newpipe but this only for Android. Can you recommend me one that is also for the web and optionally open-source?

Sorry for bad english

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 year ago (3 children)

There are two main alternatives, AFAIK:

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

Add SmartTube for Android/Google/Fire TV on there too :D

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Oh thank you for your detailed response. I will try some of those YouTube frontends as soon as I can!

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

https://www.privacyguides.org/en/frontends/#youtube

Peer tube is probably the closest open source freedom loving network, but the content is sparse now.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Also from a creators prespective it is neither that easy to use nor cheap. With all there is certainly problematic and wrong with Youtube, it's a really good service thats hard to beat. Videostreaming demands a lot from servers. I've yet to find a way to host vidoes for Peertube in an affordable way where I don't have to worry about basic stuff. (Any suggestions?)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I don't know what basic stuff you mean, but as a suggestion if I was looking for cheap servers with high storage and unlimited high speed bandwidth, I'd look at seedboxes.

An example on the first hit gives you: 1TB of space, 20Gbit unlimited up and management features for €14.95

https://seedboxes.cc/

I haven't used this company but I have used other seedboxes

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

The search engine is sepiasearch.org

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

piped.kavin.rocks or Freetube on PC, Yattee on iOS, Libretube on Android, SmartTubeNext on TV

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I’m a big fan of Piped / Yattee, but I had a lot of problems recently, because most videos won’t load. Also privacy redirectors that redirect YouTube URLs to Piped don’t work anymore, because the video won’t load. So I had to watch a couple of videos directly on YT recently.

Possible that YT pushed some API changes or such, which makes it difficult for the privacy proxies to work. Don’t know, but IMHO it used to work much better in the past.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

What instances are you using? Because I have little to no issue with my self-hosted one.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I guess I use the default one (piped.kavin.rocks).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

If it's anything like LibReddit, then public instances are slowly breaking due to the hgh API calls. Private ones seem to make a small enough amount that they go under their radar.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Nebula costs ~$15/year. The content is mostly great, mobile app is a disaster.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nebula is great. But it's not really a YouTube alternative.
Random people can't upload videos.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

it's not that easy to find a real Youtube alternative, I tried it recently and got meek results, sharing them from my personal notebook:

  • Odysee – a youtube for righwingers and scammers 😒
  • removedute – a youtube for the far right lost in conspiracy madness 🤮
  • DTube – a youtube that runs on Blockchain? 🙄
  • Vimeo – NEXT!
  • Daylimotion – hm, not bad maybe but idk 🤔
  • peertube – too confusing 😵‍💫
  • means.tv – seems nice, but too expensive 😢
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Invidous is a libre frontend for YouTube. Find a trusted public instance or start up your own.

Odysee

The moderation on Odysee is horrible, generally should avoid.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Quite a few creators have quit Odysee due to the lack of moderation, most recent i'm aware of is TLE/The Linux Experiment.

Apparently the comment sections there are heinous now, personally the last time I visited was several years ago after Louis Rossmann mentioned he was dual uploading there

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I believe that Odysee and LBRY (the blockchain-based back end technology Odysee sprung from and draws on) are separate companies with different people running them.

You don't have to touch crypto or use any crypto features to use Odysee, so I'd still suggest it as a platform in the toolbelt in addition to a lot of the other great recommendations you've already gotten here in other replies.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

A real alternative of YouTube sadly don't exist, you can only stay private, using some front-ends (Piped, CloudTube, Invidious, etc.), a desktop-client, like FreeTube, or search and watch the YouTube video sandboxed in the search results of Andisearch. (Andi is an AI Search Assistant and one of the most privacy protecting search engine, anonymous, no account needed, no logs, no ads, no tracking, no SEO crap)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

You can always use a privacy Frontend like Yattee, freetube or piped/invidious

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I haven't checked it out in about 5 years, but PeerTube instances could be worth checking out.

It's actually surprising no-one else said it, since it's open source and federated (just like Lemmy is)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes, PeerTube is a really good option to upload Videos, but none of te alternative sites is a alternative of YT respect content, you don't find the among of music and free movies, apart of an inbuild editor, in any of the other Platforms, at least not in the moment.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If your criteria requires the amount if music, movies and content that comes with being the most rich and popular video host in the world, then I don't think there is a competitor. You'll need at least two different tools to get the content of YouTube, or the ability to host videos outside of YouTube. If it's free music and movies you want, I sincerely recommend just torrenting it or finding reputable download sources.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

It's the first you mencioned. For free content there are enough alternatives, but there is the cuestion if you find also content which fits your tastes or needs. As you say, real alternatives to YT don't exist (yet), but there are also the aforementioned methods to avoid the garbage from Google and its advertisers that is on the page and in the YT videos itself.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago