An ad-free, private YouTube desktop app with browser-style tabs.
Watch YouTube without ads or tracking. Open videos, channels, and searches in tabs — just like a browser.
If you use FreeTube, you already know the pain. You're watching a video, want to check a channel, look up another video, and come back to what you were watching. But FreeTube forces you into one view at a time. You lose your place. You lose your scroll position. You lose your flow.
For years, users have asked for tabs. Duplicate issues were opened and closed. The feature sat at the top of every wishlist. No one built it.
Until now.
FreeTube + Tabs is a fork of FreeTube that adds one thing: real, browser-style tabs. Nothing else changes. You keep all your privacy, all your features, all your data.
Tabs that actually work:
- Open any video, channel, or search in a new tab (middle-click)
- Switch between tabs without losing your place (scroll position, video timestamp, everything preserved)
- Background tabs pause when you play another video
- Drag tabs to reorder them
- Keyboard shortcuts you already know:
Ctrl+T,Ctrl+W,Ctrl+Tab,Ctrl+1-9 - Right-click tab menu: Close, Close Others, Close to Right, Duplicate
- Your tabs restore when you reopen the app
Everything else is stock FreeTube:
- Same privacy protections
- Same ad-free experience
- Same Local API and Invidious support
- Same subscriptions, playlists, and history
- Same SponsorBlock and DeArrow
- Regular syncs from upstream FreeTube
The upstream project explored three paths for tabs and hit dead ends on all of them:
| Approach | Why it failed |
|---|---|
electron-tabs library |
Uses Electron <webview> tags, which Electron recommends against. Library archived Jan 2024. |
| Switch to Tauri | CORS is a dealbreaker. System webview fragmentation. Maintainers ruled it out permanently. |
| Wait for Electron native tabs | Only exists on macOS. No cross-platform API planned. |
This fork takes the fourth path: tabs as a pure Vue.js feature inside the existing app. No new dependencies. No Electron hacks. The same approach VS Code, Notion, and Discord use for their tabs.
Releases: GitHub Releases
Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux (same platforms as FreeTube).
Already using FreeTube? Your existing data (subscriptions, playlists, history, settings) works as-is. Just install and go.
Download the .flatpak bundle from the latest release, then install:
# Install the bundle
flatpak install --user freetube-plus-tabs-*-linux-x86_64.flatpak
# Run it
flatpak run io.github.countgitmick.FreeTubePlusTabsTo update, download the new .flatpak bundle and install it again — Flatpak handles the upgrade automatically.
To uninstall:
flatpak uninstall --user io.github.countgitmick.FreeTubePlusTabs# Try it
nix run github:countgitmick/FreeTubePlusTabs
# Add to your flake.nix inputs
inputs.freetube-plus-tabs.url = "github:countgitmick/FreeTubePlusTabs";
# Then in your system packages
environment.systemPackages = [ inputs.freetube-plus-tabs.packages.${pkgs.system}.default ];This fork regularly merges from upstream FreeTube. You get every bug fix, every YouTube adaptation, every new feature. Tabs are additive; they don't conflict with upstream changes.
Will my FreeTube data carry over? Yes. Subscriptions, playlists, history, and settings are fully compatible. Install this fork and everything is already there.
Can I run this alongside regular FreeTube? No. This fork replaces FreeTube — they share the same data directory by design. Uninstall one before installing the other. Your data (subscriptions, playlists, history) carries over in both directions.
Can I go back to regular FreeTube? Yes. Your data is untouched. Uninstall this, install upstream FreeTube, done.
How many tabs can I open? Default limit is 20 (configurable in settings). Each tab holds its state in memory, so the limit keeps things responsive.
Does this break multi-window? No. Multi-window still works the same way. Tabs and windows are independent features.
Where do I report bugs? Report all issues to this fork's issue tracker, not to upstream FreeTube. Tab-related or not — if you're running this fork, report here.
Why not contribute this upstream? FreeTube's contribution guidelines do not currently accept this type of contribution. This fork exists so the feature is available to everyone regardless.
If FreeTube + Tabs saves you time, consider supporting development. Donations go toward maintaining this fork, keeping it in sync with upstream, and building new features.
Monero (XMR):
473aJKYE7YRX2eWQfPqhaEh6EV9ZrQxyWUWEEyy6KrnraSPEQXAzwNaHBN7EsqVLMFUocT1J2EnvgLArwLwsho9UHsUTFP4
Note: This supports the fork only. To support the upstream FreeTube project, visit freetubeapp.io.
FreeTube + Tabs is built on top of FreeTube by the FreeTube team. All credit for the core application goes to them. This fork adds the tab feature only.
See the full list of People and Projects that make FreeTube possible.
FreeTube + Tabs is Free Software under the GNU Affero General Public License v3, the same license as upstream FreeTube.