Front Ends

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“Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage’s whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.” - Ayn Rand

Privacy Front ends are interfaces that interact with well known services that dont respect your privacy. Apps like Youtube or Facebook can be accessed via privacy respecting generally open source apps.

Apple AirPlay #

  • air-pi-play - Turn a Raspberry Pi into an Airplay server using RPiPlay to enable screen mirroring on tvs, monitors and projectors.
  • RPiPlay - An open-source AirPlay mirroring server for the Raspberry Pi. Supports iOS 9 and up.

Apple Music #

  • Cider - Cross-platform Apple Music experience based on Electron and Vue.js written from scratch with performance in mind

Discord #

  • gtkcord4 - A lightweight Discord client written in Golang which uses GTK3 for the user interface

Facebook #

  • SlimSocial - Android, alternative front-end for Facebook, built with Java
  • Frost - An extensive and functional open source third party app for Facebook (Android app)

Facebook Messenger #

  • Caprine - Unofficial and privacy-focused Facebook Messenger app with many useful features
  • fb-messenger-cli - Use your Facebook account to chat with your friends sneakily in the command line, it’s as easy as logging in, choosing a convo and chatting away

  • LibreX - Privacy-respecting free meta-search engine (free as in freedom). Small and simple meta-search engine, fetches and anonymizes results from Google only, has API support, allows redirects to Invidious/Bibliogram/Nitter/Libreddit.

  • SearXNG - SearXNG is a free internet metasearch engine which aggregates results from various search services and databases. Users are neither tracked nor profiled (SearXNG is a fork of Searx).

  • Searx - Searx is a free privacy-respecting internet metasearch engine which aggregates results from more than 70 search services. Users are neither tracked nor profiled. Additionally, Searx can be used over Tor for online anonymity.

  • Whoogle Search - A self-hosted, ad-free, privacy-respecting metasearch engine for Google.

Google Translate #

  • Crow Translate - Simple and lightweight cross-platform translator that allows translation using LibreTranslate, Lingva, Google, Bing, and Yandex, as well as text-to-speech using Google.

  • DeepL Android - Unofficial Android client for DeepL.

  • InstaLate - Distraction-free translation for Android, to be used directly from within any app. Supports Beolingus, DeepL, Dict.cc, GNU CIDE, Heinzelnisse, LibreTranslate, Linguee, WikDict, and Wiktionary.

  • Lingva Translate - Alternative front-end for Google Translate, serving as a free and open-source translator with over a hundred languages available.

  • SimplyTranslate - Provide fast and private translations to the user without wasting much overhead for extensive styling or JavaScript. Supports Google Translate, DeepL, ICIBA, and LibreTranslate.

  • SimplyTranslate Mobile - Unofficial Android client of SimplyTranslate.

Hacker News #

  • Hackers - A native iOS app for Hacker News.

  • Hackerweb - A simply readable Hacker News web app.

  • Hckrnws - A custom front-end for a better reading experience of HackerNews.

  • HN-search - Algolia Hacker News search.

  • HNTopLinks - Top Links on Hacker News.

Imgur #

  • Imgin - Minimal Imgur front end
  • Imgrs - Imgrs is a free and open-source alternative Imgur front-end focused on privacy. It’s a Rust rewrite of a previous Imgur proxy project, Omgur.
  • Omgur - Omgur is a free and open-source alternative Imgur front-end focused on privacy. Inspired by the Invidious, Nitter, and Teddit projects.
    • No JavaScript or ads
    • All requests go through the Omgur backend, client never talks to Imgur
    • Prevents Imgur from tracking your IP or JavaScript fingerprint
    • Lightweight
    • Self-hostable
    • Mirror of the original repository on Github: https://github.com/geraldwuhoo/omgur
  • Rimgo - Self-hosted frontend for Imgur written in Go.
  • Rimgu - Self-hosted alternative frontend/ proxy for Imgur

Instagram #

Mastodon #

  • Fedilab - multi-account Android Mastodon client
  • Hyperspace - cross-platform Mastodon client for the fediverse written in TypeScript and React
  • Pinafore - Alternative web client for Mastodon, focused on speed and simplicity
  • Sengi - cross-platform multi-account Mastodon & Pleroma desktop client
  • TheDesk - cross-platform Mastodon & Misskey desktop client
  • Tootle - simple GTK-based Linux Mastodon client
  • Tusky - lightweight Android Mastodon client

Medium #

  • Scribe - Alternative front-end to Medium.com

Other services #

  • ArchiveBox - Open source self-hosted web archiving. Takes URLs/browser history/bookmarks/Pocket/Pinboard/etc., saves HTML, JS, PDFs, media, and more
  • etherpad-lite - Collaborative rich text editor. A modern really-real-time collaborative document editor
  • Gitea - Lightweight git server. Git with a cup of tea, painless self-hosted git service
  • Hedgedoc - Collaborative markdown editor. A platform to write and share markdown
  • Librarian - Alternative frontend for LBRY / Odysee.com
  • MediathekViewWeb - Video content of German public-service television broadcasters (e.g. ARD, ZDF)
  • NoPaste - NoPaste is an open-source website similar to Pastebin where you can store any piece of code, and generate links for easy sharing
  • PrivateBin - Zero knowledge encrypted paste-bin. A minimalist, open source online pastebin where the server has zero knowledge of pasted data. Data is encrypted/decrypted in the browser using 256 bits AES
  • Snapdrop - Similar to Apple’s Airdrop but in your browser. A Progressive Web App for local file sharing
  • Vaultwarden - Password manager. Unofficial Bitwarden compatible server written in Rust, formerly known as bitwarden_rs
  • Wikiless - A free open source alternative Wikipedia front-end focused on privacy

Reddit #

Due to recent changes with the Reddit API Policy you may have mixed success with these. These are kept here in the event that this changes, but otherwise these are mostly dead projects

Redirection #

  • Farside - Farside provides links that automatically redirect to working instances of privacy-oriented alternative frontends, such as Nitter, Libreddit, etc. This allows for users to have more reliable access to the available public instances for a particular service, while also helping to distribute traffic more evenly across all instances and avoid performance bottlenecks and rate-limiting.
  • LibRedirect - App that redirects multiple apps to privacy front ends. If you click on a link of a Youtube like it will redirect to you to Newpipe, Twitter to nitter, Wikipedia to Wikiless etc.
  • Privacy Redirect - A simple web extension that redirects Twitter, YouTube, Instagram & Google Maps requests to privacy friendly alternatives
  • UntrackMe - UntrackMe transforms Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Reddit and Medium and Wikipedia links to links of open source, privacy friendly front-ends. Converts Google Maps links to OpenStreetMap links. Removes tracking parameters from any url. Then delegates the action to other apps that are capable of handling them. (Android app)
  • Watch on Odysee - Browser add on that redirects you from YouTube to odysee a decentralized Youtube alternative
  • libredirect - A web extension that redirects popular sites to alternative privacy-friendly frontends and backends. Actively maintained fork of Privacy Redirect that supports Youtube, Youtube Music, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Imgur, Reddit, Searx, Google Translate, Google Maps, Wikipedia, and Medium

Reuters #

  • Neuters - An alternative front-end to Reuters.com. It is intended to be lightweight and fast, and was heavily inspired by Nitter

Shazam #

  • SongRec - Open-source Shazam client for Linux, written in Rust.

Spotify #

  • Downtify - Open source Spotify ripper.
  • Kotify - Requires Spotify Account - Multiplatform desktop client for Spotify focused on library organization for power users. Relies on official Spotify client for playback
  • Librespot - Requires Spotify Premium Account - librespot is an open source client library for Spotify. It enables applications to use Spotify’s service to control and play music via various backends, and to act as a Spotify Connect receiver. It is an alternative to the official and now deprecated closed-source libspotify. Additionally, it will provide extra features which are not available in the official library
  • Oggify - Download Spotify tracks to Ogg Vorbis (with a Spotify premium account), based on librespot
  • psst - Fast and multi-platform Spotify client with native GUI
  • Spot: Gtk/Rust native Spotify client for the GNOME desktop. Only works with premium accounts
  • Spotiqueue - Minimalistic queue-oriented macOS-native client for Spotify, with Guile Scheme scriptability
  • Spotiflyer - Download free content from Youtube, Spotify, Sound Cloud and more
  • Spotube: A lightweight and free Spotify crossplatform-client which handles playback manually, streams music using Youtube & no Spotify premium account is needed
  • SpotX: Modified Spotify Client for Windows (Windows Only) - Blocking ads and updates for the desktop version of Spotify, disabling podcasts and more

Telegram #

  • Telegram-FOSS - Unofficial, FOSS-friendly fork of the original Telegram client for Android.

TikTok #

Twitch #

  • ElectronPlayer - Electron Based Web Video Services Player. Supports Netflix, Youtube, Twitch, Floatplane, Hulu and more
  • streamlink-twitch-gui - Multi platform Twitch.tv browser for Streamlink
  • Twire: Alternative and open source Twitch client for Android
  • Xtra - Twitch player and browser for Android

Twitter/X #

Due to recent changes with the Twitter API Policy you may have mixed success with these.

  • Fritter - A free, open-source Twitter client for Android.
  • Harpy - Android, alternative front-end for Twitter, built with Flutter/Dart.
  • Nitter - Alternative Twitter front-end - Lightweight, no ads, no tracking, no JavaScript required
  • Shitter - Android, alternative front-end for Twitter, built with Java.
  • Tweet-app - Desktop Twitter client only for tweeting. Timeline never shows up.
  • Tweeterr - A tool to use Twitter from the command line on the fly.
  • Tweepy - Twitter for Python
  • Twidere X - Android, alternative front-end for Twitter, built mostly with Kotlin, in early stage.

YouTube #

  • Alltube - Web GUI for youtube-dl
  • AudioTube - Client for YouTube Music. Plasma-mobile project with an interface designed for Linux phones.
  • Beatbump - An alternative frontend for YouTube Music created using Svelte/SvelteKit, powered by Cloudflare Workers.
  • BlackHole - Android music player app for YouTube Music and Spotify made with Flutter
  • CloudTube - Alternative front-end for Invidious
  • FreeTube - Open source YouTube desktop player for privacy on Windows, Mac and Linux
  • Invidious - Invidious is an alternative front-end to YouTube - Lightweight, no ads, no tracking, no JavaScript required
  • Invidious-viewer - Python application to watch YouTube videos through the Invidious API, in the terminal (requires MPV player and libmpv.so, provided by Linux distro)
  • Invuedious - An alternative frontend for invidious built with vue.js
  • LibreTube - Android frontend for YouTube, based on Piped
  • minitube - Lightweight youtube client with a kid-friendly interface. Can make playlists from search keywords
  • mps-youtube - Terminal based YouTube player and downloader.
  • NewPipe - A libre lightweight streaming front-end for Android
  • oleksis/youtube-dl-gui - Cross-platform front-end GUI of the popular youtube-dl written in wxPython
  • OpenVideoDownloader aka jely2002/youtube-dl-gui - A cross-platform GUI for youtube-dl made in Electron and node.js
  • Piped - An alternative privacy-friendly YouTube frontend which is efficient by design - Lightweight, no ads, no tracking
  • pipe-viewer - A lightweight application (fork of straw-viewer) for searching and playing videos from YouTube.
  • Plumber - Local and remote video trimmer, can trim parts of video without downloading whole video, utilizes youtube-dl, allows conversion to GIFs
  • smtube - Stand-alone YouTube video player
  • SmartTubeNext - SmartTubeNext is an advanced YouTube app for Android TVs and TV boxes, free and open source. It is not a live TV client and does not support “YouTube TV”.
  • SkyTube - An open-source YouTube app for Android.
  • Tartube - A GUI front-end for youtube-dl, partly based on youtube-dl-gui and written in Python 3 / Gtk 3
  • th-ch/youtube-music - YouTube Music desktop app based on Electron bundled with custom plugins (including built-in ad blocker and downloader).
  • TubeArchivist - A self hosted YouTube media server.
  • TubeSync - TubeSync is a PVR (personal video recorder) for YouTube. It syncs YouTube channels and playlists to a locally hosted media server.
  • ViewTube - An alternative front-end for YouTube, written in Vue.js, uses Plyr video player; supports SponsorBlock, multiple Invidious instances support, chapters
  • Vividl - Modern Windows GUI for youtube-dl
  • Youtube-dl - Command-line program to download videos from YouTube.com and other video sites
  • Youtube-viewer - Lightweight YouTube client for Linux
  • YouTube.js - Full-featured wrapper around the Innertube API, which is what YouTube itself uses
  • uYouPlus - uYouPlus (uYou+) is an alternative YouTube app for Apple’s iOS and iPadOS.
  • yattee - Alternative YouTube frontend for iOS, tvOS and macOS built with Invidious and Piped, supports sponsorblock
  • yt-local - Browser-based client for watching Youtube anonymously without forcing javascript (Fork of youtube-local)
  • yt-dlp - A youtube-dl fork with additional features and fixes.
  • ytcc - Command line tool to keep track of your favorite playlists on YouTube and many other places. Can import youtube subscriptions from Google Takeout and provide them as an RSS feed for your favorite reader.
  • ytfzf - A POSIX script that helps you find Youtube videos (without API) and opens/downloads them using mpv/youtube-dl.
  • ytmdl - A simple app to get songs from YouTube in mp3 format with artist name, album name etc from sources like iTunes, LastFM, Deezer, Gaana etc.
  • ytmdesktop - Cross-platform (Windows, Mac, and Linux) desktop app for YouTube Music. Has a (proprietary?) remote control app for Android.
  • ytdl-gui - A simple-to-use, cross-platform graphical interface for youtube-dl
  • youtube-local - Browser-based client for watching Youtube anonymously and with greater page performance
  • ytcast - Cast YouTube videos to your smart TV from the command line. This program does roughly the same thing as the “Play on TV” button that appears on the player bar when you visit youtube.com with Chrome or when you use the YouTube smartphone app

YouTube Music #

  • AudioTube - Client for YouTube Music. Plasma-mobile project with an interface designed for Linux phones.
  • Beatbump - An alternative frontend for YouTube Music created using Svelte/SvelteKit, powered by Cloudflare Workers.
  • th-ch/youtube-music - YouTube Music desktop app based on Electron bundled with custom plugins (including built-in ad blocker and downloader).
  • ytmdesktop - Cross-platform (Windows, Mac, and Linux) desktop app for YouTube Music. Has a (proprietary?) remote control app for Android.