If you want to save a video in case it's taken offline or make a backup of your own videos for safekeeping, you need a free YouTube downloader.

These free tools will enable you to download and save videos from YouTube – and often other video sharing sites too – in a format of your choice. You can usually choose to save the whole clip or just the audio, which is a great choice for music videos and video podcasts.

YouTube downloaders can also come in handy in other circumstances. If you have a slow internet connection, you'll find that streaming videos can be a pain. With the right downloader, however, you can set the videos you are interested in to download overnight so they are ready and waiting for you to enjoy in the morning, stutter-free and buffer-free.

Free YouTube downloaders are always changing, but we upgrade this guide frequently so you can be sure that you're always getting up to date advice.