Reviews

Free YouTube to MP3 Converter review

A quick, easy way to download audio from videos and save it in the format of your choice

OUR VERDICT

Free YouTube to MP3 Converter takes a no-frills, no-nonsense approach that’s refreshing and accessible.

FOR

Very easy to use Well designed interface

AGAINST

Ads can be distracting No built-in search

There are many YouTube downloaders, but Free YouTube to MP3 Converter does something slightly different: it just grabs the audio. You might want to use it to grab the audio from a concert someone has uploaded, or perhaps save the narration from a vlog.

With support for saving audio as MP3, M4A (AAC), WAV, FLAC, and OGG, Free YouTube to MP3 Converter can create audio files suitable for any device. There are no frills – the name tells you what it does, and it doesn’t really veer from that path.

It’s important to note that you should only download videos when you have the copyright owner’s permission to do so. YouTube’s terms of service explicitly prohibit unauthorized downloading.

User experience

Free YouTube to MP3 Converter is wonderfully simple to use. There’s really very little opportunity to go wrong. Fire up your favorite web browser and surf your way around YouTube. When you find a video whose audio you’d like to save for posterity, just copy the URL to the clipboard and turn to Free YouTube to MP3 Converter. After you’ve pasted in the address, the program will analyze the video, then let you choose the format and quality you would like to save the file in. Hit the Download button, and the program works its magic.

In some ways, Free YouTube to MP3 Converter feels like a big advert designed to encourage you to upgrade to the paid version. The in-app prompting is hard to ignore to start with, but over time it’s possible to turn a blind eye to it.

It’s a shame that the free version doesn’t include the option to download entire playlists – you’ll have to resort to grabbing audio from videos individually – but it’s no great hardship really, unless you become a hardcore downloader.

Free YouTube to MP3 Converter offers a simple interface that won’t confuse you with unnecessary options

We liked

The program interface is well-designed, clean, and uncluttered. The key features are accessible through a handful of buttons, and you may find there is never a need to venture into the menu system – a real boon for anyone working in unfamiliar territory.

The real beauty of Free YouTube to MP3 Converter is that it focuses on a single task, and does it really well. It doesn’t pretend to be anything it’s not; it just gets on with the job in hand. One nice touch is the option to have your computer shut down once a download is complete – great if you want to start a lengthy download before going to bed.

Simply paste a video URL into Free YouTube to MP3 converter and click the Download button to get started

We disliked

It is a little fiddly having to skip back and forth between a browser window and the program. Because of this, it would have been nice to have a YouTube search function built in so everything could be done from one place. Free YouTube to MP3 Converter doesn’t cost anything, but the lack of price tag is subsidized by ads that appear throughout the program. While not a major problem, it’s a little irritating.

If it annoys you too much, you can upgrade to the Premium version for US$19 (about £14, AU$25). This not only removes ads, but also unlocks extra features such as additional audio encoding options.

The ads and prompts to upgrade to the premium version of the software can be a little overbearing at times