All six candidates wrap yt-dlp ⭐ 169k — so the “which tool” question is secondary to the shared infrastructure question: every project breaks together when YouTube tightens bot detection, and the February 2026 LOGIN_REQUIRED bot wall hit all simultaneously [issue #15865]. Plan for monthly yt-dlp updates and, for unattended operation, a co-deployed bgutil POT provider ⭐ 559 to mint proof-of-origin tokens on demand.
The binary decision confirmed across all three sub-topics: TubeArchivist ⭐ 8.1k vs PinchFlat ⭐ 5.0k. These are not interchangeable — they solve different problems. TubeArchivist is a self-contained watch application: Elasticsearch full-text search across transcripts and comments, an in-browser player with watched-state tracking, and real multi-user auth. The cost is three containers at ~4 GB RAM [docs]. PinchFlat is a single-container SQLite channel/playlist manager that feeds Jellyfin, Plex, or Kodi; it explicitly states it is “not for consuming content in-app” [GitHub]. If you already run a media server, PinchFlat slots in without duplication. If you don’t and want one app for everything, TubeArchivist is the choice — and its Elasticsearch weight is the canonical reason people switch away.
Automation depth diverges hard. PinchFlat leads on download filtering: per-source title regex, download cutoff date, min/max duration, Shorts/livestream toggles, and a dry-run preview tab [FAQ wiki]. TubeArchivist has none of those filters; the only lever is a per-channel page-size override to disable Shorts or livestreams globally [channels docs]. For post-download automation, PinchFlat again: Apprise notifications, SponsorBlock, and per-event lifecycle scripts (bash/Python, jq bundled) at a single hook path [lifecycle wiki]. TubeSync and ytdl-sub both match PinchFlat on filter breadth, but TubeSync carries open reports of stalled and mass-skipped downloads [issue #459] and ytdl-sub requires YAML fluency with no browser UI.
Liked-video sync is universally supported and universally fragile. All candidates feed yt-dlp a browser cookie to reach the private LL playlist. TubeArchivist makes this smoothest — the companion extension pushes cookies with one click and immediately validates them by testing access to your Liked Videos [app settings]. The fragility is system-level, not tool-level: Chrome 127+ (July 2024) introduced app-bound encryption that blocks all external cookie readers, leaving Firefox as the only reliable source in 2026 [cookie guide]; cookies expire in roughly two weeks when used outside a browser [PinchFlat wiki]; and a known yt-dlp bug can return only ~11 items from a large liked playlist in a single run [issue #8732]. Re-exporting Firefox cookies on a ~10-day cadence is the irreducible manual step regardless of tool choice.
For a self-hoster who values polished UI and automation depth: run PinchFlat + Jellyfin/Plex if you already have a media server — it wins on filter richness, lifecycle hooks, and operational simplicity. Run TubeArchivist if you want a standalone YouTube-at-home experience with in-browser playback and full-text search. The unsettled question is whether PO token enforcement stabilizes enough for genuine set-and-forget operation: right now, plan for periodic hands-on maintenance, not zero-touch.