Catalyst vs yt-dlp
Catalyst
catalyst.tachyon-studios.comyt-dlp
github.comSide by side
| Figure | Catalyst | yt-dlp |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 1 |
| Spec score · Video Downloaders | 8.4 (#32) | 9.0 (#5) |
| Batch downloads | Yes | Yes |
| Device platforms | Windows,macOS,Linux | Windows,macOS,Linux |
| Formats | Users can choose the container, codec, and resolution, including MP4 (H264), Best Quality, MP3, and M4A. | Its format selection supports choosing and sorting available video and audio formats. |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| License | The maker describes Catalyst as free and open source and links to the MIT license. | The repository is marked Unlicense, while the README explains that some bundled release binaries contain third-party code under other licenses. |
| Output formats | MP4 (H264),Best Quality (AV1/VP9),MP3,M4A | avi,flv,mkv,mov,mp4,webm,aac,aiff,alac,flac,m4a,mka,mp3,ogg,opus,vorbis,wav |
| Purpose | Catalyst is a video downloader that puts yt-dlp behind a graphical interface. | yt-dlp is a feature-rich command-line audio/video downloader with support for thousands of sites. |
| Site support | Catalyst says it supports more than 1,800 sites through yt-dlp. | Supports thousands of sites. |
| Supported sources | YouTube,Vimeo,Twitter/X,TikTok,Instagram,Reddit,Twitch,Bilibili,and 1,800+ sites via yt-dlp | YouTube,Bilibili,Dailymotion,Facebook,Vimeo,TikTok,Twitch,and many other extractors |
Plans
In their own words
Catalyst
Catalyst has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
yt-dlp
yt-dlp is a free command-line tool for downloading audio and video from online sources. It supports thousands of sites, including YouTube, Bilibili, Dailymotion, Facebook, Vimeo, TikTok and Twitch. Downloads can include playlists, subtitles or batches, with output options spanning video formats such as AVI, FLV, MKV, MOV, MP4 and WebM, and audio formats such as AAC, AIFF, FLAC, MP3, Ogg, Opus and WAV. It runs on Linux, macOS and Windows. Standalone macOS executables require macOS 10.15 or later, while Windows binaries support Windows 8 or later; Linux binaries cover several system and processor variants. The project is a fork of youtube-dl based on the inactive youtube-dlc, and its public repository is licensed under the Unlicense. It supports CPython 3.10+ and PyPy 3.11+, while full YouTube support requires yt-dlp-ejs. Stable releases generally follow a mostly monthly schedule, and versions more than 90 days old display an update warning. Release checksums have SHA-512 and SHA-256 signature files with a GPG public key.