HackerReposA FIELD GUIDE TO OPEN SOURCE
ProSponsor the shelf♧ 0
← Back to top all-time
iv-org
invidious
Crystal2018–2026
iv-org / invidious

invidious

Invidious is an alternative front-end to YouTube

89Distinct people
132Mentions
2Explicit recommenders
26KGitHub stars
REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

What to know before exploring

What it is

Invidious is an alternative front-end to YouTube

GitHub

Where it is used

  • tubehaus — TubeHaus uses Invidious as its YouTube backend and adds its own server next to it. Invidious' companion privateurl points at the TubeHaus server, which passes everything Source

What people are saying

I love invidious but two or three times a month, youtube rolls out an update that breaks it. eg, last week (not yet bypassed): https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/issues/4734

ksherlock used a recommendation phrase. 3 indexed comments match. This is a phrase match, not a verdict.

No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.

Also in these discussions

Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.

This week on Hacker News

Nov 8–Nov 15 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/15/2026, 10:01:16 PM UTC.

No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.

Mentions over time

HN mentions by year132 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2018-04-14 11:21:01 UTC to 2026-09-26 18:00:44 UTC.

01020302018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 1 submissions, 1 comments20182019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 16 mentions; 2 submissions, 14 comments2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 24 mentions; 3 submissions, 21 comments2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 22 mentions; 0 submissions, 22 comments2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 11 mentions; 1 submissions, 10 comments20222023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 27 mentions; 2 submissions, 25 comments2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 19 mentions; 3 submissions, 16 comments2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 8 mentions; 0 submissions, 8 comments2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 3 mentions; 0 submissions, 3 comments. Incomplete calendar period.2026*

* An incomplete calendar period is marked with an outlined bar. Its count is not directly comparable with a full period.

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

View mention counts and date ranges
UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
PeriodStart (UTC)End (exclusive, UTC)MentionsSubmissionsComments
20182018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC211
20192019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC16214
20202020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC24321
20212021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC22022
20222022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC11110
20232023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC27225
20242024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC19316
20252025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC808
2026 (partial)2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC303

From the project README

An excerpt from the repository, fetched Nov 13, 2026.

Read the project’s introduction
Invidious An open source alternative front-end to YouTube Website  •  Instances list  •  FAQ  •  Documentation  •  Contribute  •  Donate Chat with us: Screenshots Player Preferences Subscriptions Features User features Lightweight No ads No tracking No JavaScript required Light/Dark themes Customizable homepage Subscriptions independent from Google Notifications for all subscribed channels Audio-only mode (with background play on mobile) Support for YouTube comments Available in many languages, thanks to our translators Data import/export Import subscriptions from YouTube, NewPipe and FreeTube Import watch history from YouTube and NewPipe Export subscriptions to NewPipe and FreeTube Import/Export Invidious user data Technical features Embedded video support Developer API Does not use official YouTube APIs No Contributor License Agreement (CLA) Quick start Using Invidious: Select a public instance from the list and start watching videos right now! Hosting Invidious: Follow the installation instructions Documentation The full documentation can be accessed online at https://docs.invidious.io/ The documentation's source code is available in this repository: https://github.com/iv-org/documentation Extensions We highly recommend the use of Privacy Redirect, a browser extension that automatically redirects YouTube URLs to any Invidious instance and replaces embedded YouTube videos on other websites with Invidious. The documentation contains a list of browser extensions that we recommended to use along with Invidious. You can read more here: https://docs.invidious.io/applications/ Contribute Code Fork it ( https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/fork ). Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature). Stage your files (git add .). Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some feature'). Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature). Create a new pull request ( https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/compare ). Translations We use Weblate to manage Invidious translations. You can suggest new translations and/or correction here: https://hosted.weblate.org/engage/invidious/. Creating an account is not required, but recommended, especially if you want to contribute regularly. Weblate also allows you to log-in with major SSO providers like GitHub, GitLab, BitBucket, Google, ... Projects using Invidious A list of projects and extensions for or utilizing Invidious can be found in the documentation: https://docs.invidious.io/applications/ Liability We take no responsibility for the use of our tool, or external instances provided by third parties. We strongly recommend you abide by the valid official regulations in your country. Furthermore, we refuse liability for any inappropriate use of Invidious, such as illegal downloading. This tool is provided to you in the spirit of free, open software. You may view the LICENSE in which this software is provided to you here. Limitation of Liability. IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MODIFIES AND/OR CONVEYS THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
Read the full README on GitHub

What Hacker News says

16 sources
I agree. Unfortunately OAuth is impractical for this project, as it requires registering your application with Google. Instead I've done my best to make clear how it works[0][1] and what is stored[2]. As mentioned in a sibling comment Google does not have a good track record with similar projects. AFAIK the only project that provides similar functionality is youtube-dl[3], which works the same way. Important to note is that this functionality is optional; you do not need to log in with Google to store subscriptions or preferences. The main benefit currently is that it will automatically sync subscriptions with YouTube, otherwise I would recommend creating a new account on Invidious and then importing subscriptions from YouTube. 0. https://www.reddit.com/r/SideProject/comments/8wvazc/invidou... 1. https://github.com/omarroth/invidious/blob
Read the rest
In Invidious: an alternative front-end to YouTube
If your concern is privacy, I've developed this project which routes everything through Tor except for the video file: https://github.com/user234683/youtube-local There is also this project which is similar but much better, more polished, and with more features than what I have currently, but I haven't tried it to see if it supports a similar kind of selective proxying: https://github.com/omarroth/invidious Then there's Freetube, which supports proxying but I'm not sure of the details either. It doesn't scrape Youtube itself as far as I know; instead it consults with the main Invidous instance at invidio.us which provides an api: https://github.com/FreeTubeApp/FreeTube
In PiHole-Google: Completely Block Google and Its Services

Showing the 15 most recent of 16 sources. Enable JavaScript to search and browse every indexed mention.

MAKE YOURSELF AT HOME

A few shortcuts

/
Search the collection
?
Open this guide
Esc
Close dialogs and navigation

Your saved repositories and interests stay in this browser.