What do you mean it's defunct?
I use old.reddit.com all the time.
If old.reddit.com goes, I'm done with reddit.
I might try out some kind of alternative front end from https://github.com/mendel5/alternative-front-ends#reddit though.
But if that's not good enough, I'm done.
In So Reddit has decided that plain HTML is unsafemendel5
alternative-front-ends
Web Development2021–2026
mendel5 / alternative-front-ends
alternative-front-ends
Overview of alternative open source front-ends for popular internet platforms (e.g. YouTube, Twitter, etc.)
25Distinct people
26Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
9.3KGitHub stars
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What it is
Overview of alternative open source front-ends for popular internet platforms (e.g. YouTube, Twitter, etc.)
GitHub
Where it is used
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This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 3:56:07 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 year26 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2021-08-21 12:35:24 UTC to 2026-07-22 23:13:03 UTC.
* 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
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 7 | 2 | 5 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 7 | 0 | 7 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2026 (partial) | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
From the project README
An excerpt from the repository, fetched Nov 13, 2026.
Read the project’s introduction
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
YouTube Music
Twitter
Reddit
TikTok
Imgur
Spotify
Apple Music
Bandcamp
Twitch
Discord
Google Search
Google Translate
Facebook
Facebook Messenger
Mastodon
Medium
IMDb
Quora
Reuters
Apple AirPlay
Shazam
Hacker News
Telegram
Other services
Redirection
Related projects
About this repository
Overview
YouTube
Invidious: Invidious is an alternative front-end to YouTube - Lightweight, no ads, no tracking, no JavaScript required
Home page: https://invidious.io
Invidious instances: https://docs.invidious.io/instances/
Invidious instances API: https://api.invidious.io
Installation guide for self-hosting: https://docs.invidious.io/installation/
Piped: An alternative privacy-friendly YouTube frontend which is efficient by design - Lightweight, no ads, no tracking
Official instance: https://piped.video
Public instances: https://github.com/TeamPiped/Piped/wiki/Instances
Installation guide for self-hosting: https://github.com/TeamPiped/Documentation/blob/main/content/docs/self-hosting/index.md
Poketube: The privacy-friendly youtube front-end built with the InnerTube API
Official instance: https://poketube.fun
CloudTube: Alternative front-end for Invidious
Official instance: https://tube.cadence.moe
Installation guide for self-hosting: https://git.sr.ht/~cadence/tube-docs/tree/main/item/docs/cloudtube/Installing%20CloudTube.md
YouTube.js: Full-featured wrapper around the Innertube API, which is what YouTube itself uses
FreeTube: Open source YouTube desktop player for privacy on Windows, Mac and Linux
Official Instance: https://freetubeapp.io/
Invuedious: An alternative frontend for invidious built with vue.js
Official instance: https://bocchilorenzo.github.io/invuedious
Youtube-viewer: Lightweight YouTube client for Linux
pipe-viewer: A lightweight application (fork of straw-viewer) for searching and playing videos from YouTube.
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
OpenVideoDownloader aka jely2002/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
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"
TubeSync: TubeSync is a PVR (personal video recorder) for YouTube. It syncs YouTube channels and playlists to a locally hosted media server
TubeArchivist: A self hosted YouTube media server
ytfzf: A POSIX script that helps you find Youtube videos (without API) and opens/downloads them using mpv/youtube-dl
ytcc: Command line tool to keep track of your favorite playlists on YouTube and many other places. Can import youtube subscriptions from Google Takeout and provide them as an RSS feed for your favorite reader
smtube: Stand-alone YouTube video player
Website: https://www.smtube.org
SMTube is part of SMPlayer
SMPlayer website: https://www.smplayer.info
SMPlayer repository: https://github.com/smplayer-dev/smplayer
mps-youtube: Terminal based YouTube player and downloader
minitube: Lightweight youtube client with a kid-friendly interface. Can make playlists from search keywords
yattee: Alternative YouTube frontend for iOS, tvOS and macOS built with Invidious and Piped, supports sponsorblock
ytcast: Cast YouTube videos to your smart TV from the command line. This program does roughly the same thing as the "Play on TV" button that appears on the player bar when you visit youtube.com with Chrome or when you use the YouTube smartphone app
LibreTube: Android frontend for YouTube, based on Piped
BlackHole: Android music player app for YouTube Music and Spotify made with Flutter
oleksis/youtube-dl-gui: Cross-platform front-end GUI of the popular youtube-dl written in wxPython
YouTube Music
ytmdesktop: Cross-platform (Windows, Mac, and Linux) desktop app for YouTube Music. Has a (proprietary?) remote control app for Android
Beatbump: An alternative frontend for YouTube Music created using Svelte/SvelteKit, powered by Cloudflare Workers
Official instance: https://beatbump.ml/
AudioTube: Client for YouTube Music. Plasma-mobile project with an interface designed for Linux phones
th-ch/youtube-music: YouTube
Read the full README on GitHubWhat Hacker News says
26 sourcesThis is badly needed, but in my case on iOS. There are alternative frontends to most social networks, that can be used or adapted, however. https://github.com/mendel5/alternative-front-ends .. is one list.. but there are others (for example listing alternative Instagram frontends)
In Show HN: I built an app to block Shorts and ReelsLook into LibRedirect and the projects it uses and also things like youtube-dl/yt-dlp.
https://libredirect.github.io/
https://libredirect.codeberg.page/
> A web extension that redirects YouTube, Instagram, Reddit, TikTok and other websites to alternative privacy-friendly frontends.
https://github.com/mendel5/alternative-front-ends
https://github.com/digitalblossom/alternative-frontends
https://www.privacyguides.org/en/frontends/
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36146076
In Show HN: A Chrome extension to give you back control over short-form videoshttps://github.com/mendel5/alternative-front-ends
Some of these are open source and easy to run, like https://github.com/iv-org/invidious
In Freetube is the best way to watch YouTubeTIL alternative front-ends are a thing.[1]
I wonder what an alternative commercial culture might look like, to enable a monetized FRAND ecosystem of UI diversification and evolution.
[1] https://github.com/mendel5/alternative-front-ends
In Show HN: If YouTube had actual channels> Do you block YouTube on your network so you don't see content from that platform? I'd wager you don't.
I don't block YouTube, I just don't use any of their official frontends. There are plenty of alternatives in this space[1]. This might not work for everyone, but I get a much better UX with these tools. Not seeing ads is one benefit, but it's also about not being a participant in training algorithms that have a, mostly negative, psychological impact.
> I am pretty sure you pay for things that bring value or make thing easier for you in life
Of course. And I happily support content creators who don't rely on advertising or Google itself. I just refuse to be forced into a corrupt business model.
Anyway, I didn't mean to antagonize you, so apologies if my response came across that way.
[1]: https://github.com/mendel5/alternative-front-end
Read the rest
Or use any of the many alternative YouTube frontends: https://github.com/mendel5/alternative-front-ends#youtube
In YouTube slows down video load times when using FirefoxThere is a great list of many alternative frontends I found here: https://github.com/mendel5/alternative-front-ends
They work well for internet archiving too, e.g. when Twitter or Reddit are being annoying and showing popups/login redirects/etc. you can replace the URL with an alternative frontend version and archive the content without the cruft.
In Invidious – An open source alternative front-end to YouTubeNo, only alternative client apps.[0]
[0] https://github.com/mendel5/alternative-front-ends#facebook
In Tell HN: Facebook now requires login to read public timelinesI use Tor for everything that doesn't require identification, and I use very few of those services. For example, this HN account and the email for it have never been used without connecting through Tor. Feel free to ask me anything.
>There are sites that I have been unable to get working
This happens, most of the time because of Cloudflare. A solution is to get a new Tor circuit 3-5 times, and then the page will load. If a site simply won't work, like Meta platforms I won't use them. Using alternative front-ends[1] makes most sites that usually wouldn't work, work as well.
>The Tor browser does help here, by not easily allowing obvious mistakes like using http.
This is false, HTTPS only is enabled by default in Tor Browser. It's common knowledge for everyone including users of Google Chrome and Firefox to not use HTTP sites.
[1]: https://
Read the rest
May I suggest:
https://github.com/mendel5/alternative-front-ends#facebook
In You’re Not Imagining It: Social Media Is in ChaosYeah it's freaking ridiculous.
There's an alternative world of frontends that don't suck. Check here
https://github.com/mendel5/alternative-front-ends
In Slide to UnlockYou're likely using a VPN, or they consider your IP "problematic" for some reason. Use an alternative frontend: https://github.com/mendel5/alternative-front-ends#imgur
In People have been having less sex, whether they’re teenagers or 40-somethingsUse an extension to redirect Imgur URLs to a privacy-respecting frontend. I use Redirector[0] to redirect to one of the frontends listed at https://github.com/mendel5/alternative-front-ends#imgur.
[0] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/redirector/?u...
In People Who Apply for Jobs by Showing UpShowing the 15 most recent of 26 sources. Enable JavaScript to search and browse every indexed mention.