Type Download manager | License GPL v3 (free software) | |
Initial release 5 November 2007; 9 years ago (2007-11-05) Stable release 3.5.6 / 21 December 2015; 14 months ago (2015-12-21) Operating system Available in English, German, French | ||
ClipGrab is a multi-platform software for downloading videos from popular websites such as YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion or Metacafe. It also provides the possibility to convert the downloaded files to other file formats such as MP3, MPEG4, OGG Theora or WMV. It is published as free software under the terms of version 3 of the GNU General Public License.
Contents
Features
ClipGrab officially supports the download from a handful of video websites which include YouTube, Collegehumor, Dailymotion, Vimeo. In addition to this, the software provides a heuristic which can also download videos from sites that are not officially supported. When available, ClipGrab offers different quality options for a video. With this feature, the user can choose between downloading a high definition, standard definition or low definition version of the video. ClipGrab can automatically detect compatible URLs when they are copied to the clipboard. The program also provides an integrated search function for YouTube. It has been especially praised for its clean and easy-to-use user interface. Software review site softoxi.com states that "[ClipGrab] has a beautifully designed graphical user interface" and "stands out immediately for its look, feel and performance"
Development
ClipGrab was originally developed in the proprietary programming language PureBasic, and could only download one video at a time. Later, the software was rewritten using C++ and the Qt framework and published under the terms of the GPL v3. Since version 3.0, the program is also available for Mac OS X.
OpenCandy
The ClipGrab installer for Windows uses OpenCandy, an advertising software module.
The website contains a smaller download link under the main download button that allows users to download a portable adware-free version of the software.