PullTube 1.8.6.41 — Mac version

The thumbnail pops up the moment you drop a link. That instant preview answers the first question most people have: did it grab the right video. Here are a few others that come up.

Which sites actually work — YouTube, Vimeo, TikTok, Twitch, Facebook, Instagram, Bilibili and SoundCloud are all listed by the developer. If a site isn't on that list, drag a link in and see. The app detects playlists from pasted links too, so you can queue up a whole series in one go.

What you get at the end — video downloads as standard, or you can tell it to save only audio. MP3 and M4A are both there for the audio-only route. Each item shows its title and duration before you commit, so you know exactly what you are pulling down.

What happens after — there is a setting to quit the app once every download finishes. Set it, walk away, come back to a tidy desktop.

Quality tags you can tack onto file names

A few small touches make everyday use smoother once you spot them. The app can append quality info to the file name — tick the box in settings and you will see (1080p) or (4K) tacked on the end. No more guessing which version you grabbed last week.

Drag and drop is not just for single links. Select a bunch of URLs in your browser, drag the whole lot onto the PullTube window and it queues them up. Works the same with text clippings from notes or messages. One motion, several downloads lined up.

The quality picker remembers your last choice, so if you always pull 1080p video with M4A audio, set it once and forget it. Change it only when you need something different. And if you right-click a queued item, you can switch just that one to audio-only or bump it to a higher resolution without touching the rest of the batch.

Where PullTube keeps things simpler than Downie

There are a few familiar names in this corner of the Mac world. Downie is probably the closest cousin — it pulls from a huge list of sites and handles playlists well. Where PullTube pulls ahead is in simplicity. Downie has more knobs to turn, which is great if you want fine control, but PullTube gets you from link to file with fewer clicks. If you mostly grab from YouTube and Vimeo, the difference in site coverage barely matters.

ClipGrab is free and does the basics: paste a link, pick a format, download. But it feels bare-bones next to PullTube. There is no playlist detection, no thumbnail preview, no queue management beyond a simple list. ClipGrab works for a quick one-off, but if you are pulling down a series or want to see what you are getting before it starts, the gap is obvious.

JDownloader is a different beast entirely. It handles everything — video, archives, file lockers — but the interface shows it. Menus inside menus, a link grabber that intercepts everything from your clipboard, and an updater that runs on launch. For people who only want video and audio from a handful of sites, PullTube or the like feels more at home on a Mac. JDownloader is for when you need a Swiss Army knife; PullTube is the tool you reach for nine times out of ten.

Pulling a playlist: start to finish

Say you find a three-part tutorial on YouTube you want to keep for a long train journey. Here is a workflow that takes about a minute.

Grab the playlist link. Open the playlist page in your browser and copy the URL from the address bar. That is the cleanest way — the app spots the list= bit in the link and knows what to do.

Drop it in. Move your browser window aside so you can see the PullTube window. Drag the link across and let go. A list of titles fills the pane, each with a thumbnail and duration. Skim through to confirm it caught all three episodes.

Set the output. The quality dropdown at the bottom is already on your usual pick — let's say HD with M4A audio. If episode two is only available in a lower resolution, the app shows that next to the title, so you are not surprised later.

Choose audio only (optional). Right-click the third episode — maybe it is just a Q&A with a static screen — and switch it to MP3. The others stay as video. That is the bit people miss: mixed-format batches in one go.

Hit start and walk away. Click the download button, tick "Quit when finished" if you like, and leave it. Three files land in your output folder, named clearly. The train journey has a soundtrack and a watchlist.

PullTube 1.8.6.41 delivers the developer’s latest maintenance work, keeping the download tool steady on its feet.

• macOS 11 or newer
• Works on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs