this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2026
36 points (95.0% liked)

DeGoogle Yourself

17566 readers
42 users here now

A community for those that would like to get away from Google.

Here you may post anything related to DeGoogling, why we should do it or good software alternatives!

Rules

  1. Be respectful even in disagreement

  2. No advertising unless it is very relevent and justified. Do not do this excessively.

  3. No low value posts / memes. We or you need to learn, or discuss something.

Related communities

!privacyguides@lemmy.one !privacy@lemmy.ml !privatelife@lemmy.ml !linuxphones@lemmy.ml !fossdroid@social.fossware.space !fdroid@lemmy.ml

founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Hey guys! Just started degoogle and its a fun experience! I'm found out that Nebula was made as a oficial alternative to Youtube made by creators against Youtube alghoritm. You guys think its a valid choice? I'm considering using it on GrayJay. What you guys think?

top 41 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] lithiumground@lemmy.world 2 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

Peertube is a decentralized open-source alternative : https://joinpeertube.org/

[–] Auster@thebrainbin.org 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Directly, I don't think so. Youtube letting anyone join in, and generally being free to use, are the opposite of what Nebula does. Closest to Youtube afaik are Peertube, Odysee, Rumble and Bitchute. Other platforms come to mind but imo it starts getting a bit too small/niche at this point.

Nebula, and Dropout if I may add, from what I understand and checked, would be closer to cable TV, or Netflix and the sort if they were more generalist (or let their creators be). Still, subscribing to both, I think the two are worth to have around.

Now, on tangent, but still in the scope of escaping Youtube, from my experience, it is something hard to achieve. Constantly seeking redundancy for what I follow, still about half the video channels are Youtube-only, and jumping across sites only helps to annoy and want to stay at a single place (imo the intended experience from what I call the "2010's sites").

To avoid this annoyance, if you can, I'd suggest trying to aggregate all alternatives in a single place, like RSS readers, Grayjay/NewPipe/PipePipe, here at the fediverse through tracking bots, Peertube channels being treated as communities, etc., and/or other aggregators you may find. Helps at easing the process and not be annoyed into ~~submission~~ sticking to the more overarching platform.

[–] NokkR6@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I think only odysee and peertube are open source direct alternative to youtube right? I was thinking in using Grayjay to watch nebula. I was thinking about it and it really sucks peertube and odysse aren't taken seriously. Youtube might be free but they sell your data and annoy you with a lot of ads. Nebula at least pay their creators better. So its really a ouroboros situation :/ hope one day peertube can grow and be a direct rival to youtube. But it really need investment.

[–] Auster@thebrainbin.org 1 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Imo, one form of investment anyone can do is adoption. No use being the best option available if no one uses it. And Peertube channels are treated as communities on Lemmy/PieFed, have native RSS, and Grayjay and the *Pipe apps have integrations for it, so plenty of ways to follow. Then as adoption grows, so does relevance, and the more relevance there is, the higher is the chance is for people with the perfect alignment of interest, skills and time to improve the engine to appear.

Direct financial investment also helps, though that grows expensive fast, so worth being careful not to overspend in supporting. And as the local saying goes, if something is free, you are the product, which helps being ever more suspicious of how platforms like Youtube stay afloat indeed. So the better option, for those willing to support with money, is also to go slow and steady.

On a last note, Odysee's open source? Never heard of that.

[–] NokkR6@lemmy.world 1 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

You mean paying for Nebula? And yes, Odysee is open source.

[–] Auster@thebrainbin.org 2 points 10 hours ago

Paying for whatever you find worthwhile, but in the scope of the original question, for services that pose as alternatives of Youtube.

Also interesting, wasn't aware of Odysee being open source. Living and learning!

[–] Reannlegge@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I got a life time subscription when it first launched, thinking if it was still around in 3 years the subscription would have paid for itself self. I am a fan of Wendover and a few of the other creators so it was a good investment for me. The ability to find new content is lacking though, the only reason why I still have a gmail account is because I use Unwatched on my iPhone and iPad to watch my YouTube algorithm.

[–] NokkR6@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah, i heard they have no alghoritm. But to me is ok. I just really want to get rid of youtube, but the only thing keeping me there is game trailers.

[–] Reannlegge@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 day ago

Don’t worry soon those will go away, with the death of physical media why would they bother advertising on youtube when they can just advertise on their store’s webpage. Sure Microslop backed down (a little) when they tried killing physical, but Nintendo has not and Sony is already retooling its centres that printed disks. You will pay for stuff but not own it and you will be happy about it!

Just remember: If buying is not owning piracy is not stealing!

[–] raspirate@lemmy.world 38 points 3 days ago

It's a good platform, but it absolutely does not cover the same breadth of content as YouTube. To me, Nebula feels a bit more like old-school discovery channel before it got all crappy. I pay for Nebula, but I still watch 99% of my online video on YouTube. Of the range of different types of content I watch on YouTube, I'd say Nebula covers about 5% of it. It is pretty nice for when a creator is dealing with copyright bullshit on YouTube, but I can still watch the video on Nebula.

[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 25 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (4 children)

No. Nebula is a Zionist platform. They kicked Second Thought because he wasn't pro-Israel enough.

Peertube is a decentralized alternative but currently there's not that much activity.

[–] NokkR6@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago

Yeah. Peertube is a great concept but there is no enough content.

[–] don_kiedyck@lemmy.world 11 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I remember that. He’s on means.tv now, right?

[–] davel@lemmy.ml 9 points 3 days ago

Yes, and on YouTube still.

The Kavernacle has recently started calling compatible left content creators the “Nebula left.”
https://xcancel.com/TheKavernacle/status/2061872971019591710

Damn, didn't know that

Isn’t YouTube owned by Israel?

[–] xxxb@feddit.org 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

well idk. They don't have the content monopoly yt has and isn't it paid? Also, PeerTube is the Fediverse alternative. So basically what Lemmy is to Reddit, PeerTube is to YouTube. And if you are ok with watching YouTube but just don't want the surveillance, you should use NewPipe or PipePipe.

[–] NokkR6@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I actually want to get rid of youtube. The only thing still keeping me on YT tbh its games trailers. There was a channel on peertube that used to upload games trailers but it was abandoned :(

[–] KentNavalesi@mstdn.social 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

@NokkR6
@xxxb

I wish people would just download from youtube, upload to peertube, and share the peertube link as a matter of course when they want to share videos. It adds a few steps, but you'd save a lot of people from having to deal with that hellsite.

[–] NokkR6@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago
[–] EnsignWashout@startrek.website 19 points 3 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Nebula is a fantastic alternative to YouTube.

It seems like they pay their creators much better, which is enough reason alone, for some of us.

Nearly every video on Nebula has a nice little extra for Nebula viewers. Most are just a quick thank-you, but some are much more substantial.

Legal Eagle sometimes fully drops lawyer mode in post-video bits for Nebula subscribers. This amuses me because I wasn't sure he could before I joined Nebula. Haha.

Extra History and Extra Credits often have full extra videos on vaguely related topics, I think.

And Nebula is amazingly good for travel videos. Anyone who loves trains should at least try Nebula.

DropOut is my goto for humor, but Abolish Everything on Nebula also regularly provides a solid laugh. Also, DropOut and Nebula folks cameo across companies a bit. No non-compete contracts there, I suspect.

Obviously, Nebula has much smaller set of content creators, than YouTube.

I appreciate that too though. Average video quality is way higher.

[–] Daryl76679@lemmy.ml 9 points 3 days ago

As someone who doesn’t have Nebula, but watches many creators who are on it, if you like people like Wendover Productions, Not Just Bikes, and Practical Engineering, it’s probably for you

[–] EnsignWashout@startrek.website 13 points 3 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

There's also DropOut.tv, which has many comedians from the former College Humor comedy group.

DropOut.tv doesn't really do educational content, but their funny stuff is unrivaled and very varied. Their game show, Game Changer is the best thing happening to streaming, right now.

There's even a (fan) DropOut bot here on Lemmy that creates dedicated threads for the dozen or so of us DropOut fans to discuss episodes when they drop.

And both DropOut and Nebula now have deep back catalogs. I few years ago I felt like I could run out of things to watch. Now I only ever rewatch favorite episodes. Most Game Changer episodes are good enough to watch twice, and then watch the "making of" video afterwards.

It's still not YouTube where it's physically impossible to watch everything, but for my cueing habits, there's enough created that there's always going to be stuff I haven't gotten to. DropOut has a new high quality episode of a flagship show most week days.

Nebula is more like YouTube, where between all the different creators, there's usually more new content available in a given day than I could consume, if I wanted to.

[–] NokkR6@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

Thank you for the reccomendation!

[–] ILikeTraaaains@lemmy.world 11 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I’ve been using Nebula for years.

It depends, first check the creators there to see if you are already watching them on YouTube.

There is no algorithm, that for me is a plus but for some people it is a downside.

Some creators add a little extra in their videos that is not in the YouTube version, others add companion videos to the main one that is only on Nebula.

[–] NokkR6@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago

I was checking some creators and got really surprised when i found out a lot of channels i follow are there. Even the therapist that review characters and movies.

[–] EnsignWashout@startrek.website 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Curiousity Stream is also an alternative to YouTube. The video quality feels lower across the board than Nebula or DropOut, but it also has some fun stuff, and any competition to YouTube is probably a good thing.

[–] NokkR6@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Would be great to have a open-source app like Nebula. I think monetization is a big deal when it comes to youtube alternatives.

[–] EnsignWashout@startrek.website 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

There is PeerTube. But to your point, full time creators need money, and monetization isn't solved on PeerTube,

[–] NokkR6@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Yes! Thats the problem. There was great content creators on peertube but they all left.

[–] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Define a valid alternative. As a consumer, is it a valid source for high quality, educational, and non-bigoted content? Yes. Is it a full replacement for YouTube? No. Primarily because Nebula is invite-only. You can't just sign up for an account with Nebula and start posting content. You first have to have an account somewhere else (almost certainly YouTube.) Then once you get a good enough following, if you pass a vibe check, you can get invited to Nebula. It's a "don't call us, we'll call you" situation.

There's also less community engagement on Nebula. There's no comment section under the videos. I can understand why they chose to not have comments. But from time to time I actually do like commenting on YouTube videos and often receive good replies, sometimes even from the video creators themselves.

Don't get me wrong, I love Nebula. I've been a paid subscriber there for several years. It's just not a one-to-one replacement for all aspects of YouTube. Like with any DeGoogling option, there are going to be some tradeoffs.

[–] NokkR6@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

Yeah, i was considering those points :/ i heard about peertube, but those youtube alternatives(incluiding odysee) unfortunately suffers the same problem. No monetization means that there is not a real effort on editing/creating videos. There was a lot of cool channels that just dissapeared and stopped creating content.

[–] freeman@feddit.org 2 points 2 days ago

I am not subscribed to nebula (altho almost all Youtubers I watch are on it, so I should probably try it). I use greyjay on Android for Youtube and the app has an option for showing nebula AND youtube videos side by side. So its probably for a lot of people in this comment section.

[–] julianwgs@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It is a good platform definitely worthwhile the money. Especially if you already know some YouTubers who are on Nebula. I just wish you could turn off all political content. I just don‘t believe that political journalism / creator economy / influencers mix well together. This is true for YouTube as well, but because Nebula has less content there are more often recommended.

[–] NokkR6@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago
[–] chrisbtoo@lemmy.ca 5 points 3 days ago

I’m a nebula subscriber, I like the idea and I will try to watch stuff on that over the same video on YouTube, but if I’m brutally honest I probably watch a good 20x as much YT as I do nebula. It just doesn’t have enough of the stuff I want to see, and a lot of what I try to watch on there just doesn’t do it for me.

YMMV.

[–] solrize@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

No idea what Nebula is. There are lots of good Youtube front ends (I use newpipe) but all are unauthorized and all inherently are nearly useless without the video collection residing on Youtube servers. They in fact break quite often because of changes at the YT backend. So far they've managed to recover from the breakages, but that's not guaranteed to last. It's an unpleasant situation.

[–] NokkR6@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Nebula is a app created by Youtube content creators, as a alternative to Youtube. Not only they are paid better here but also the content created is more "curated" than just people posting videos.

[–] bmpvy@piefed.social 1 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Is it iOs only? Can't find the app on android

[–] bmpvy@piefed.social 3 points 3 days ago

Ok wait I found it, thx

[–] NokkR6@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

I use GrayJay to acess nebula. You can create your account on the web tho.