OmniGet vs lux
OmniGet is a free, open-source (GPL-3.0) desktop alternative to lux for Windows, macOS and Linux. In a pass over nine free test items on September 30, 2026, lux 0.24.1 (its latest release, from May 2024) downloaded one, the Bilibili video at 480p, while the OmniGet 0.10.1 app and its command line downloaded eight each.
Written by Antonio Leandro, who makes OmniGet. lux is described from its own repository and releases.
Short answer
lux 0.24.1 failed on all three YouTube items within seconds ("unable to find basejs URL in playerConfig"), saved an HLS stream as its 752-byte playlist, stopped at once on Internet Archive and PeerTube pages and has no torrent support. It downloaded Blender's WING IT! from Bilibili logged out, at 480p; OmniGet saved the same video in 1080p. lux stays a small single binary for many systems, with JSON output and an aria2 hand-off. Timed rounds on a direct file and on Bilibili are still to be run.
Pros and cons, side by side
Written from our study of each app's repository and releases. Every row names the better app, including when it is not OmniGet.
| What matters | OmniGet | lux |
|---|---|---|
| Works on YouTube today | All 3 YouTube test items | Fails on every YouTube item in 0.24.1 ("unable to find basejs URL"); no release since May 2024 |
| Free test items downloaded | 8 of 9 (app and command line each) | 1 of 9 (Bilibili, 480p) |
| Bilibili, logged out | 1080p, 19.2 MB (one run, 50 s) | 480p, 13.3 MB (one run, 31 s) |
| Streams, pages and torrents | HLS streams, PeerTube, Internet Archive albums, torrents and the sites yt-dlp supports | 42 sites plus direct links that send a size; an .m3u8 is saved as text; no torrents |
| Scripts and footprint | Desktop app, 37-119 MB; MCP server for agents | One 8 MB binary for 19 systems; JSON output, aria2 hand-off, Go library, MIT |
OmniGet wins 4, lux wins 1, 0 tied
Download speed
What each app can do
| OmniGet | lux | |
|---|---|---|
| Playlists and channels | Yes | Partly |
| Subtitles | Yes | Partly |
| Audio only | Yes | Partly |
| Choose quality and format | Yes | Yes |
| Private and members-only videos (your login) | Yes | Partly |
| Browser extension | Yes | No |
| Torrents and magnet links | Yes | No |
| Direct file links | Yes | Yes |
| Queue and parallel downloads | Yes | Partly |
| Watch channels for new videos | Yes | No |
| SponsorBlock, chapters, metadata | Yes | No |
| AI agents and MCP | Yes | No |
Who wins what
-
Free test items downloaded correctly (9 in one pass)
OmniGet
OmniGet 89 % · lux 11 %
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The apps in this benchmark
Other lux alternatives
Free, open-source apps that do some of what lux does.
- Open-source yt-dlp GUIs compared Every desktop app we track, ordered by GitHub stars, with its license, latest release and who it suits.
- OmniGet vs ezytdl Electron front end for yt-dlp with advanced options. Compared with OmniGet
- OmniGet vs Media Downloader Qt/C++ front end for several download engines, including yt-dlp, gallery-dl and aria2c. Compared with OmniGet
- OmniGet vs SCrawler Windows app that saves media from social sites and user profiles. Compared with OmniGet
- OmniGet vs Videomass Cross-platform FFmpeg front end for batch conversion with presets; it removed its yt-dlp downloader in version 6.1.12. Compared with OmniGet
- OmniGet vs Vividl Windows front end for yt-dlp built with WPF. Compared with OmniGet
- OmniGet vs Hindsight Agent memory system by Vectorize: retain, recall and reflect over a memory bank, as a server with Postgres or embedded in Python. Compared with OmniGet
- OmniGet vs aria2 Command-line download utility for HTTP, FTP, BitTorrent and Metalink, with many connections per file. Compared with OmniGet
- OmniGet vs you-get Command-line downloader written in Python that scrapes media from web pages. Compared with OmniGet
- OmniGet vs youtube-dl The original command-line video downloader that yt-dlp was forked from. Compared with OmniGet
- OmniGet vs yt-dlp The command-line audio and video downloader that OmniGet runs on. Compared with OmniGet
- OmniGet vs Open Video Downloader Cross-platform yt-dlp front end built with Tauri and Vue, with a very small installer. Compared with OmniGet
- OmniGet vs Parabolic yt-dlp front end with a native interface: WinUI on Windows and GNOME on Linux, published on Flathub. Compared with OmniGet
- OmniGet vs VidBee Electron app built on yt-dlp that also makes local transcripts, AI summaries and RSS subscriptions. Compared with OmniGet
- OmniGet vs ytDownloader Electron yt-dlp app with a clip trimmer and a video compressor, on many app stores. Compared with OmniGet
- you-get on GitHub Command-line downloader written in Python that scrapes media from web pages.
- yt-dlp on GitHub The command-line audio and video downloader that OmniGet runs on.
- youtube-dl on GitHub The original command-line video downloader that yt-dlp was forked from.
Where OmniGet still loses
We publish this on purpose. It is the list we work from to make OmniGet better.
- Sites: lux has extractors for Chinese sites that neither yt-dlp nor OmniGet covers, such as Kuaishou, Haokan, Tangdou, Hupu, Miaopai and Yinyuetai. Whether each still works was not tested here.
- Bare IDs: lux takes a Bilibili BV, av or ep ID without the full link.
- Footprint: lux is one 8 MB download (21 MB on disk) for 19 systems, including Windows on ARM, the BSDs and 32-bit Linux, with a SHA-256 checksum file for every release. OmniGet is a desktop app for Windows, macOS and Linux.
- Scripting: lux prints every stream with its exact size (-i), prints the extracted links as JSON (-j), picks items from a playlist or a URL file (--items 1,5,8-10) and can hand the links to an aria2 server (--aria2). It is also a Go library under the MIT license.
Method
Run it yourself
LUX=<lux 0.24.1 release binary> node scripts/bench/speed.mjs --slug omniget-vs-lux --tools omniget-app,omniget-cli,lux --success-only (timed rounds still to run: --tools omniget-app,omniget-cli,lux,lux-tuned --items bilibili,direct-large --speed-only --rounds 5 --warmup 1) Data licensed CC BY 4.0: reuse it freely with a link to this page.
Sources
Other benchmarks
Try OmniGet 1.0.0
Free and open source, for Windows, macOS and Linux.
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