MP3 up to 320 kbps, M4A, lossless WAV, and MP4 up to 4K.
macOS desktop app (media downloader)
Siphon
Video/audio downloader. Save audio and video from anywhere.
Overview
What Siphon is and why it exists.
Siphon is a native-feeling Mac app for saving audio and video from YouTube and over a thousand other sites. Paste a link, pick MP3, M4A, WAV or MP4, and get a properly tagged file with cover art in seconds. It handles single videos and whole playlists, keeps a searchable library of everything downloaded, and quietly keeps its download engine up to date so it keeps working when sites change.
Highlights
Why people love Siphon.
Cover art, titles and tags embedded automatically.
Whole playlists in one go, each saved to its own folder.
Detects a copied link and offers it when you return to the app.
Live streams and premieres are detected and explained instead of hanging.
Automatic engine updates with one-click rollback.
Light and dark themes that follow the system.
The story
From problem to product.
The problem
Downloader apps on the Mac tend to be expensive subscriptions, cluttered with upsells, or break whenever YouTube changes its player. Free command-line tools are reliable but intimidating, and leave users to deal with formats, codecs, rate limits and updates on their own.
The approach
A focused, polished app built on proven open-source engines (yt-dlp and FFmpeg). Siphon wraps them in a clean interface with sensible defaults, live progress, and automatic engine updates, plus safeguards for the real-world limits of video sites: request pacing, automatic retries, and a pause-and-resume when a site asks clients to slow down.
Under the hood
How it came together.
Scope
What the product covers, end to end.
- End-to-end product design, from first-run setup to the download library.
- Link inspection with previews, format choices and file size estimates.
- Playlist support with per-video selection and dedicated folders.
- Download queue with live progress, cancel, retry and resume.
- Library with search, filters, and undoable move-to-Trash.
- Self-managed engine with automatic updates, nightly channel and rollback.
- Signed and notarized release for distribution outside the App Store.
Technology
How it is built and kept running.
- Flutter for macOS desktop
- Riverpod state management
- Process orchestration of yt-dlp and FFmpeg
- Native Swift platform channels
- Resilient networking: pacing, retries and backoff
- Code signing, hardened runtime and Apple notarization
Role & delivery
What NashSaint designed, built and shipped.
- Product and interface design, including the app icon.
- Architecture and implementation of the download pipeline.
- Reliability engineering around platform limits and rate limiting.
- Release engineering, signing and notarization.
Outcomes
The difference it makes.
- 01 A dependable replacement for paid downloader subscriptions.
- 02 Downloads keep working through site changes thanks to managed engine updates.
- 03 Fewer failures on large playlists through pacing and automatic retries.
- 04 A notarized app that installs cleanly on any Mac without security warnings.
Need a hand?
Questions about Siphon?
Send a support request and you will hear back by email. Privacy and terms are always one click away.