OmniGet vs SCrawler
OmniGet is a free, open-source (GPL-3.0) alternative to SCrawler that runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. Checked on September 30, 2026, SCrawler 2026.9.21.0 is a Windows-only 378.1 MB zip that archives whole social profiles and then only their new posts, while OmniGet 0.10.1 is a 37.1 MB Windows setup that downloads from any site yt-dlp supports, plus torrents and direct files, but keeps no per-profile archive.
Written by Antonio Leandro, who makes OmniGet. SCrawler is described from its own repository and releases.
Short answer
SCrawler and OmniGet solve different problems. SCrawler, a GPL-3.0 VB.NET app for Windows 10 and 11, is built around people: you add a user, it downloads the whole profile once and afterwards only the new posts, keeps a list of what went missing and runs on a schedule. OmniGet is built around links and runs on three systems: YouTube and the other yt-dlp sites, its own extractors, galleries, torrents and direct files, with a browser extension that brings your login along. There is no speed race on this page because SCrawler needs Windows. SCrawler's release is 378.1 MB zipped and 860.3 MB unpacked; OmniGet's Windows setup is 37.1 MB.
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 | SCrawler |
|---|---|---|
| Whole profiles, then only new posts | Follows channels for new uploads; no per-profile archive for social sites in 0.10.1 | Per-user ledger of seen posts, missing items retried alone, 18 site plugins plus DLL plugins |
| Systems | Windows, macOS (Apple silicon and Intel) and Linux (x64 and ARM) | Windows 10 and 11 only, portable zip |
| Sites and kinds of download | yt-dlp sites and its own extractors, gallery-dl galleries, torrents, direct files, HLS | 18 built-in site plugins (some adult sites), no torrents or generic direct files |
| Getting logged-in content | Browser extension forwards your cookies per site | Cookies or credentials set up by hand per site; Deno installed by hand for YouTube |
| Scheduled checks | Scheduled downloads and background checks of followed channels | Automation plans every N minutes over filtered user groups, while the app is open |
| Download size | 37.1 MB setup | 378.1 MB zip, 860.3 MB unpacked |
OmniGet wins 4, SCrawler wins 1, 1 tied
There is no timed download on this page: SCrawler runs only on Windows 10 and 11 (its README doubts it works on Linux or Mac), it has no command line, and no Windows machine was available on the test day. The numbers below are what can be measured without running it: the size of its official release and the dates of both releases.
What each app can do
| OmniGet | SCrawler | |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | Not confirmed |
| Queue and parallel downloads | Yes | Yes |
| Watch channels for new videos | Yes | Yes |
| SponsorBlock, chapters, metadata | Yes | No |
| AI agents and MCP | Yes | No |
What each one needs from you
Most SCrawler profiles need cookies or credentials configured per site first, and its YouTube support needs Deno installed separately. OmniGet's browser extension forwards the cookies of the site you are on, and the app bundles or fetches its tools. SCrawler has no browser extension, torrents or SponsorBlock; OmniGet has no MD5 de-duplication and no automation plans over groups of users.
SCrawler (AAndyProgram/SCrawler, GPL-3.0) is a Windows Forms app on .NET Framework 4.6.1. It has its own scrapers for social sites and calls yt-dlp, gallery-dl, FFmpeg and curl, all shipped inside its zip. Its README says it downloads a full profile first and after that only new posts. OmniGet is a Tauri app for Windows, macOS and Linux that downloads links with yt-dlp, its own extractors, gallery-dl, a direct-file downloader and a BitTorrent client.
On 30 September 2026 the SCrawler 2026.9.21.0 zip was downloaded from its GitHub release, checked with SHA-256 and listed file by file; its features were read in the code at commit 51d8326. OmniGet 0.10.1 is the published release of the same day. SCrawler could not be run: this test used a Mac and SCrawler has no macOS, Linux or command-line build.
Download size and packages
Why SCrawler is ten times bigger
The zip carries FFmpeg, FFprobe and FFplay (about 127 MB each), libVLC for both x64 and x86, ImageMagick for three architectures, yt-dlp, gallery-dl and curl. OmniGet ships a small installer and downloads its engines when a download first needs them.
Seen enough? Get OmniGet for your system.
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OmniGet is a desktop app
It runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. There is no Android or iOS version. Send this page to your computer:
The apps in this benchmark
-
OmniGet
- License:
- GPL-3.0
- Built with:
- Tauri (Rust + web UI)
- GitHub:
- 14.4k stars · v0.10.1
- Version tested:
- 0.10.1 (September 21, 2026)
- Its own extractors, torrents and direct files on top of yt-dlp.
- An MCP server and AI coding agents in the same app.
-
SCrawler
- License:
- GPL-3.0
- GitHub:
- 2.3k stars · 2026.11.8.0
- Version tested:
- 2026.9.21.0 (September 21, 2026)
Profiles against links
SCrawler's model is the profile. Each user gets settings, a list of every media item marked downloaded or missing, and a list of post IDs it has already seen; its scrapers read the timeline newest first and stop at the first known post. That makes a daily check of many profiles cheap. OmniGet's model is the link: paste it, pick a quality, download. For channels it can check for new uploads, but it does not keep a per-profile archive for social sites in 0.10.1.
Which one should you pick?
- Choose OmniGet if you are on a Mac or Linux, want one app for YouTube, other video sites, galleries, torrents and direct files, or want a browser extension that brings your login along.
- Choose SCrawler if you use Windows and want to archive many social profiles, keep them up to date on a schedule, and retry only the files that went missing.
Other SCrawler alternatives
Free, open-source apps that do some of what SCrawler 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 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
- gallery-dl on GitHub Command-line program that saves image galleries and collections from image hosting sites.
- Instaloader on GitHub Command-line tool that saves Instagram photos and videos with their captions and metadata.
- JDownloader on GitHub Java download manager for Windows, macOS and Linux that handles file hosts, link lists and archives. The standard Windows installer carries optional software offers.
Where OmniGet still loses
We publish this on purpose. It is the list we work from to make OmniGet better.
- Profiles as the unit: SCrawler keeps a ledger per user (seen post IDs, every file marked downloaded or missing, the last update) and each run downloads only what is new. OmniGet 0.10.1 follows channels for new uploads, but keeps no per-profile archive for social sites.
- Missing items: SCrawler lists failed media as missing and retries only those. OmniGet retries a download, not the missing files of a profile.
- Automation plans: several schedules, each over a filtered group of users (labels, sites, favorites, not downloaded in N days), with pause modes.
- Social depth: native scrapers for stories, highlights, tagged and saved posts, likes and bookmarks on the sites it supports, plus third-party plugins as DLLs.
- Image de-duplication by MD5 across a profile's folder.
Trying OmniGet costs nothing
OmniGet saves to normal folders and takes plain links, so you can keep SCrawler for the profiles you archive on Windows and use OmniGet for everything else, or on your Mac and Linux machines.
Method
Run it yourself
curl -sLO https://github.com/AAndyProgram/SCrawler/releases/download/2026.9.21.0/SCrawler_2026.9.21.0_x64.zip && shasum -a 256 SCrawler_2026.9.21.0_x64.zip && unzip -l SCrawler_2026.9.21.0_x64.zip | tail -1 (SHA-256 ce2271927a85d171aa36ef2af7d02b5c1432c4645b8cd5f9c64f5e9536534730; OmniGet: omniget_0.10.1_x64-setup.exe from its GitHub release) Data licensed CC BY 4.0: reuse it freely with a link to this page.
Sources
Questions
Does SCrawler work on Mac or Linux?
No. SCrawler is a .NET Framework app for Windows 10 and 11, and its README says the author doubts it runs on Linux or Mac. OmniGet runs on Windows, macOS and Linux.
How does SCrawler download only new posts?
It keeps files per user with the IDs of posts it already saw and every media item it saved, and each scraper stops at the first known post. On YouTube it keeps the date of the last download per channel tab and passes it to yt-dlp.
Is SCrawler safe?
SCrawler is open source under the GPL-3.0 and its releases are on GitHub. The zip is not signed with a checksum on the release page; the SHA-256 of the 2026.9.21.0 x64 zip measured here is ce2271927a85d171aa36ef2af7d02b5c1432c4645b8cd5f9c64f5e9536534730.
Why is the SCrawler download so large?
Its zip bundles FFmpeg, FFprobe and FFplay, libVLC, ImageMagick, yt-dlp, gallery-dl and curl, for 378.1 MB zipped and 860.3 MB unpacked.
What is a good SCrawler alternative?
On Mac and Linux, OmniGet is a free, open-source downloader for links from yt-dlp sites, galleries, torrents and direct files. For whole galleries and profiles from a terminal, gallery-dl is the engine SCrawler itself uses for some sites.
Other benchmarks
Try OmniGet 1.0.0
Free and open source, for Windows, macOS and Linux.
Download