<100MB
RAM while playing
Light on your machine
A few dozen megabytes at rest. Idle CPU stays near zero.
CrabyTube
YouTube Music,
minus the browser.
A lightweight, native YouTube Music player written in Rust. No browser. No account. Just music.
Version 0.1.0 · Also: portable Windows zip · macOS zip · SHA256SUMS · release notes
0:00
01 / Features
Small app. Big sound.
Everything you expect from a music player, in a native app that stays out of your way and off your RAM.
Pure Rust. No browser inside.
Built with Rust and Iced, not Electron. It opens fast, and the next track is ready before the current one ends.
Lyrics that keep time
Line-by-line lyrics, plus word-by-word karaoke with translations for many popular songs, from two sources at once.
Just press play
Plays YouTube Music anonymously. Your data stays on your device.
Black, mono, one-pixel lines
Pure black, monospaced type and crisp outlines. The layout scales from a phone-sized window to 4K.
02 / Screens
03 / Install
Up and running in a minute.
Each release on GitHub has the packages for every system. Nothing is signed with a paid certificate, so your system asks you to confirm the first start once.
Linux
Flatpak- Download
CrabyTube.flatpakand install it for your user:
flatpak install --user CrabyTube.flatpak- If Flatpak asks for a runtime, allow it; it comes from Flathub.
- Start CrabyTube from your application menu.
Windows
10 · 11 · x64- Download the installer (
.msi) and open it. If SmartScreen says "Windows protected your PC", click More info, then Run anyway. - It installs CrabyTube for your user, without an administrator password, adds it to the Start menu and opens it. The installed app updates itself.
- Prefer no install? The portable zip runs from any folder. Keep all its files together; it does not update itself.
macOS
11+ · Universal- Download the disk image (
.dmg), open it and drag CrabyTube to Applications. It runs natively on Apple Silicon and Intel. - The app is not notarized, so macOS blocks the first start. On macOS 15 and later, open System Settings → Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway. On macOS 14 and earlier, Control-click the app and choose Open.
- Or run this once in Terminal:
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/CrabyTube.appUpdates
On Windows and macOS, CrabyTube checks for a new version once a day and can install it for you with one click, after verifying its signature; you can turn the check off in Settings → Updates. The portable Windows zip opens the release page instead. On Linux, install the new .flatpak the same way. Your settings, favorites and history stay as they are.
04 / Privacy
Your music stays yours.
CrabyTube only talks to the services it needs for the features you use. Nothing else leaves your computer.
Full privacy details- No account, no login. YouTube Music is used anonymously. No credentials or cookies are stored.
- No telemetry. No analytics, no tracking and no crash reporting.
- Lyrics, only when asked. Lyrics come from LRCLIB and Better Lyrics, and are cached on your computer for 30 days.
- Streams, never saves. Audio is only kept temporarily in the cache while it plays.
05 / Open source
Free, open and yours to read.
CrabyTube is free software under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later. Read the code, build it from source, or help translate it into your language.
CrabyTube is an unofficial client. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Google or YouTube. YouTube and YouTube Music are trademarks of Google LLC. CrabyTube is intended for personal use and has no download feature.