Looking for a free 4K Video Downloader alternative for Mac? Here's how they compare — feature by feature, price by price.
A side-by-side look at what each app offers.
| Feature | Star Video Downloader Winner | 4K Video Downloader |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free + $5 one-time Pro | Free (limited) + $15/year or $45 lifetime |
| Subscription required | ✓ No subscription — ever | ✗ Annual subscription for full features |
| Max video quality | ✓ Up to 8K | ✓ Up to 8K (paid) |
| Free daily downloads | 5 per day free | 30 per day free |
| YouTube playlists | ✓ Pro | ✓ Paid |
| YouTube channels | ✓ Pro | ✓ Paid |
| Supported sites | ✓ 1000+ via yt-dlp | ~50 sites |
| Audio extraction (MP3) | ✓ Pro | ✓ Paid |
| Video format conversion | ✓ Built-in (MP4, MKV, MOV, WebM…) | ✗ Not included |
| Video repair tool | ✓ Pro — fixes corrupted files | ✗ Not available |
| SponsorBlock | ✓ Pro | ✗ Not available |
| Subtitles | ✓ Pro | ✓ Paid |
| Chapters | ✓ Pro | ✗ Not available |
| Batch URL input | ✓ Pro | ✓ Paid |
| Native macOS (not Electron) | ✓ Built in Swift | Qt-based |
| Apple Silicon optimized | ✓ Native ARM build | ✓ Universal binary |
| Works fully offline | ✓ 100% offline | ✓ Yes |
| Macs per license | ✓ Up to 3 | 1 (Personal) / 3 (Family) |
4K Video Downloader charges $15/year for their paid tier — meaning over 3 years you'll pay $45. Star Video Downloader's Pro is a $5 one-time payment, forever. No renewals, no price increases, no account needed. For most users this alone makes it the better choice.
4K Video Downloader supports around 50 sites. Star Video Downloader is built on yt-dlp, the most actively maintained video download library available, which supports over 1,000 sites. This includes YouTube, Vimeo, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter/X, Reddit, Twitch, Dailymotion, and hundreds more. If a site has embeddable video, yt-dlp almost certainly supports it.
Star Video Downloader Pro includes two features that 4K Video Downloader simply doesn't have:
Video Repair — fix corrupted, truncated, or unplayable video files using a six-stage ffmpeg repair pipeline. Services like fix.video charge $6–$24 per file for this. With Star Video Downloader Pro, it's included for $5 total, unlimited repairs, entirely offline.
SponsorBlock — automatically detect and remove sponsored segments from downloaded YouTube videos. No other Mac video downloader includes this.
4K Video Downloader downloads video — that's it. Star Video Downloader also includes a full video conversion tool that converts between MP4, MKV, MOV, WebM, AVI, and extracts audio as MP3, M4A, FLAC, WAV, AAC, and more — no separate app needed.
If you specifically need more than 5 free downloads per day without paying anything, 4K Video Downloader's free tier allows 30. Star Video Downloader's free tier allows 5. That's the main trade-off — but at $5 one-time for Pro, it's hard to justify avoiding the upgrade.
For most Mac users, Star Video Downloader is the better choice. It's cheaper, supports more sites, includes features 4K Video Downloader doesn't have, and is built natively for macOS. Download the free version and see for yourself.
No account needed. Free tier available. Pro upgrade is $5 one-time.
macOS 14+ • Apple Silicon & Intel • No subscription