What problem does TubeGrab — Rust Desktop Downloader solve?

yt-dlp is powerful CLI but non-technical users need a GUI. Existing GUIs are Electron-heavy (100MB+ memory, slow startup) or platform-locked.

What was the outcome of TubeGrab — Rust Desktop Downloader?

A cross-platform Rust + Dioxus native GUI wrapping yt-dlp — single binary per OS, ~20MB memory, instant startup, with a clean queue and format picker.

TubeGrab — Rust Desktop YouTube Downloader

Overview

TubeGrab is a modern desktop application for downloading YouTube videos, playlists, and entire channels. Built with Rust and the Dioxus UI framework for a native, responsive interface.

Why Rust + Dioxus

Dioxus provides a React-style component model that compiles to native desktop (webview), targeting smooth 60 fps with minimal memory use. Rust's async runtime handles concurrent download queues without blocking the UI.

Features

Download single videos, playlists, or entire channels
Format selection: MP4, WebM, MP3 (audio-only)
Quality selection: 4K / 1080p / 720p / 480p
Download queue with progress bars
Clean, minimal UI inspired by native macOS aesthetics
yt-dlp backend — works with any yt-dlp-supported site

Tech

Rust, Dioxus (desktop webview), yt-dlp, Tokio async runtime.