OmniGet vs Media Downloader
OmniGet is a free, open-source (GPL-3.0) alternative to Media Downloader for Windows, macOS and Linux. Measured on September 30, 2026, OmniGet 0.10.1 downloaded 8 of 9 free test items against 6 for Media Downloader 5.6.6, and a 372 MB file in a median of 112.3 seconds against 177.1; Media Downloader lets you choose the engine for each link, which OmniGet 0.10.1 does not.
Written by Antonio Leandro, who makes OmniGet. Media Downloader is described from its own repository and releases.
Short answer
OmniGet got 8 of 9 free test items and Media Downloader 6: it missed the audio-only item, the album and the torrent. On a 372 MB direct file OmniGet's median was 112.3 s against 177.1 s, faster in four of five rounds, but one slow OmniGet round makes it a tie on the table. OmniGet peaked at 51.2 MB of memory against 154.7 MB and is the smaller download on Mac and Windows. Media Downloader wins on control: a different engine per link or per site rule (yt-dlp, gallery-dl, aria2c, wget, you-get, lux, svtplay-dl), a Windows 7 build, Fedora and Flathub packages and 18 languages.
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 | Media Downloader |
|---|---|---|
| Speed on a large direct file | 112.3 s median for 372 MB, split into segments | 177.1 s with yt-dlp on one connection; one OmniGet round took 263.8 s, so the spread overlaps |
| Free test items downloaded | 8 of 9 in the same-day pass | 6 of 9: missed audio only, the album (Batch tab skips playlists) and the torrent |
| Choosing the engine | Automatic: own extractors, yt-dlp, gallery-dl, torrents and direct files | Per row or by URL rule, from 8 engines added as extensions |
| Browser, torrents and agents | Extension that forwards your login, a BitTorrent client, an MCP server | No extension of its own (a -u/-a command for link-opener add-ons), no torrents |
| Memory while downloading | 51.2 MB at the peak | 154.7 MB at the peak |
| Old Windows, Linux repos, languages | 64-bit Windows only, .deb/.rpm/AppImage, 12 languages | 32-bit Windows 7 build, Fedora repositories and Flathub, 18 languages |
OmniGet wins 3, Media Downloader wins 2, 1 tied
Download speed
What each app can do
| OmniGet | Media Downloader | |
|---|---|---|
| Playlists and channels | Yes | Yes |
| Subtitles | Yes | Yes |
| Audio only | Yes | Yes |
| Choose quality and format | Yes | Yes |
| Private and members-only videos (your login) | Yes | Yes |
| 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 | Partly |
| SponsorBlock, chapters, metadata | Yes | No |
| AI agents and MCP | Yes | No |
Where Media Downloader is ahead
Control over the engine is its strength. Every row in the Batch tab can use a different engine, and URL Manager rules pick an engine and options by pattern, so a gallery site can always go to gallery-dl and a file host to aria2c. It also restores the batch list after a restart, reads links from a text file, keeps a download archive for its manual playlist subscriptions, and ships builds for Windows 7 (32-bit) and Fedora's official repositories. OmniGet decides the engine for you and adds what Media Downloader lacks: a browser extension that forwards your login, torrents, followed channels checked in the background, SponsorBlock and an MCP server for AI agents.
Who wins what
-
Direct file from download.blender.org (372 MB)
OmniGet
OmniGet 112.3 s · Media Downloader 177.1 s
-
Free test items downloaded correctly (9 in one pass)
OmniGet
OmniGet 89 % · Media Downloader 67 %
Media Downloader, by Francis Banyikwa (mhogomchungu), is a Qt/C++ front end to command-line downloaders, licensed under the GPL-2.0 or later. yt-dlp is its default engine, and gallery-dl, aria2c, wget, you-get, lux, svtplay-dl and others are one click away as extensions. OmniGet is a Tauri app with its own extractors, yt-dlp, gallery-dl, a segmented downloader for direct files and a BitTorrent client, picked for you.
Media Downloader 5.6.6 (the Apple silicon .dmg from GitHub, 9 September 2026) ran against the published OmniGet 0.10.1 on the same Mac and network on 30 September 2026. Each link was handed to the open Media Downloader window with its own `-a -u` option, the one its README gives to browser add-ons, and its download folder and URL rules were set per test. The 372 MB file was timed in five rounds in alternating order after a warm-up; the nine free test items ran once.
Download size and packages
Size, memory and safety
OmniGet is the smaller download on macOS (44.1 MB against 73.3 MB) and Windows (37.1 MB against 82.5 MB), and it peaked at 51.2 MB of memory on the large file against 154.7 MB for Media Downloader with its yt-dlp. Neither Mac build is notarized, so macOS asks for permission on first launch; Media Downloader's author also tracks Windows antivirus false positives in issue 481. A 2017 Mac adware shared the name; it has nothing to do with this open-source project.
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OmniGet is a desktop app
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The apps in this benchmark
-
OmniGet
- License:
- GPL-3.0
- Built with:
- Tauri (Rust + web UI)
- GitHub:
- 14.4k stars · v0.10.1
- Its own extractors, torrents and direct files on top of yt-dlp.
- An MCP server and AI coding agents in the same app.
-
Media Downloader
- License:
- GPL-2.0-or-later
- Built with:
- Qt 6 (C++)
- GitHub:
- 5.1k stars · 5.6.8
- Pick the engine per link or by URL rule: yt-dlp, gallery-dl, aria2c, wget, you-get, lux, svtplay-dl and more, each added as an extension.
- Batch tab that reads links from a text file, restores the list after a restart and runs several downloads at once.
- Builds for Windows 7 (32-bit), a portable Windows version, Flathub, the official Fedora repositories and 18 interface languages.
The direct file
On the 372 MB file from download.blender.org, OmniGet's median was 112.3 seconds and Media Downloader's 177.1. OmniGet splits a direct file into parallel ranges; Media Downloader hands it to yt-dlp, which uses one connection unless you add the aria2c engine. OmniGet was faster in four of the five rounds, but one of its rounds took 263.8 seconds while the line speed was dropping (from 38.5 to 19.7 Mbps over the test), so the ranges overlap and the table calls it a tie.
The free test items
Media Downloader got 6 of the 9 free test items: the 1080p YouTube video, the direct file, the HLS stream, a subtitled film, Blender's PeerTube video and WING IT! from Bilibili, logged out. It missed the audio-only YouTube item, where yt-dlp stopped without leaving a file; the four-track album on the Internet Archive, because its Batch tab filters playlists out (its Playlist tab handles them, but only the Batch tab can be reached from outside the window); and the torrent, which it does not support. OmniGet's pass on the same day got 8 of 9 and missed the HLS stream. Every video item asked for 1080p at most; Media Downloader got that through one URL Manager rule per link, its documented way to set options per site.
Which one should you pick?
- Choose OmniGet if you want the app to choose the engine, a browser extension that carries your login, torrents and direct files in the same queue, followed channels, lower memory use or the MCP server for agents.
- Choose Media Downloader if you want to choose the engine for each link or site, need engines OmniGet does not run (you-get, lux, svtplay-dl, wget), use Windows 7 or 32-bit Windows, or install from Fedora's repositories.
Other Media Downloader alternatives
Free, open-source apps that do some of what Media Downloader 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 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
- Parabolic on GitHub yt-dlp front end with a native interface: WinUI on Windows and GNOME on Linux, published on Flathub.
- GDownloader on GitHub Java desktop app that sends each copied link to the right engine: yt-dlp, gallery-dl or its own segmented HTTP downloader.
- YTSage on GitHub yt-dlp front end written in Python and PySide6, with SponsorBlock and subtitles.
Where OmniGet still loses
We publish this on purpose. It is the list we work from to make OmniGet better.
- Engine per link: Media Downloader lets you pick yt-dlp, gallery-dl, aria2c, wget, you-get, lux or svtplay-dl for each row, or by URL rule. OmniGet 0.10.1 picks the engine for you.
- Old Windows: Media Downloader has a 32-bit build for Windows 7; OmniGet ships 64-bit Windows builds only.
- Linux repositories: Media Downloader is in Fedora's official repositories and on Flathub; OmniGet ships .deb, .rpm and AppImage only.
- Languages: 18 translation files against OmniGet's 12.
Trying OmniGet costs nothing
Both are free and save to normal folders. Media Downloader keeps its own yt-dlp copy, so you can install OmniGet next to it and send each link to the one you prefer.
Method
Run it yourself
MEDIA_DOWNLOADER=<MediaDownloader.app/Contents/MacOS/MediaDownloader 5.6.6> node scripts/bench/speed.mjs --slug omniget-vs-media-downloader --tools omniget-app,media-downloader --items direct-large --speed-only --rounds 5 --warmup 1; then --tools media-downloader --success-only Data licensed CC BY 4.0: reuse it freely with a link to this page.
Sources
Questions
Is Media Downloader safe?
The mhogomchungu project is open source under the GPL-2.0 or later, and its releases on GitHub publish SHA-256 hashes; the .dmg tested here matched its published hash. Some Windows antivirus tools flag it, which the author tracks as false positives in issue 481. An unrelated 2017 Mac adware was also called Media Downloader.
Why does macOS say Media Downloader is damaged?
Its macOS bundles are signed ad hoc and not notarized by Apple, as the README says, so Gatekeeper blocks a downloaded copy. OmniGet's Mac build is not notarized either and needs the same one-time permission.
Does Media Downloader work on a Mac?
Yes. Version 5.6.6 ships .dmg files for Apple silicon and Intel and needs macOS 14 or later. On first launch it downloads yt-dlp from GitHub into its own folder.
What is a good Media Downloader alternative?
OmniGet is a free, open-source alternative for Windows, macOS and Linux that chooses the engine for you and adds torrents, a browser extension and an MCP server. Parabolic, GDownloader and YTSage are other yt-dlp apps, each compared with OmniGet on its own page.
Can Media Downloader download with aria2c or gallery-dl?
Yes, as extensions you add in Configure, then pick per row or by URL rule. On macOS, aria2c must already be installed. OmniGet uses gallery-dl for image galleries and its own segmented downloader for direct files, without a choice per link in 0.10.1.
Other benchmarks
Try OmniGet 1.0.0
Free and open source, for Windows, macOS and Linux.
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