The best iOS 6 YouTube extension: YourTube vs ProTube

YourTube for iOS 6 costs $4.99 on Cydia ($3.99 on sale for a limited time), and it’s a free upgrade for all existing YourTube or YourTube HD customers. If you’ve been jailbreaking for a while, then there’s a good chance that you’ve purchased at least one of those tweaks in the past, which means that YourTube for iOS 6 is most likely a free download for you. If not, you can get $1.00 off the regular price if you pony up $3.99 now.

ProTube Extension for YouTube is $1.99. If you purchased ProTube or ProTube HD after May 2012, then you can snag ProTube Extension for just $0.99.

While both tweaks are largely the same in function, there are still some visual and usage differences that you should be aware of before deciding which one to buy. Which one is the right one for you? Take a look as I compare them both inside.

YourTube, on the left, integrates better from a visual standpoint

Both ProTube extension and YourTube for iOS 6 are addons to the standalone YouTube app. In other words, these are not standalone apps in themselves, they merely piggyback on top of the existing YouTube app to provide addition function. Overall, I found YourTube look best. YourTube is designed so that it could pass for a stock portion of the YouTube app. The CocoaNuts, the folks behind YourTube, have always been on point with their design aesthetics, and YourTube for iOS 6 is no exception.

I even found minor things like the download icon to look better on YourTube (left)

With ProTube, you’ll find a tweak that lacks some of the polish found in YourTube, but you’ll also notice a more completed experience from beginning to end. ProTube heavily benefits from its integration with Bridge — another jailbreak app by the same developer, which makes adding music and video to your iTunes or Video libraries better than the competition.

Yet another example of better looking visuals for YourTube (left)

Things start becoming more of a mixed bag for YourTube after your media files are downloaded. The options, while similar, aren’t as robust when compared to ProTube. I also found that the prompts featured within ProTube’s workflow were more helpful in guiding me along from a to z.

Importing videos and music is pretty much the same, sans a few minor differences

This is mainly due to the fact that YourTube uses Gremlin as a means of importing media files, while ProTube links to the aforementioned Bridge. Bridges lends much more flexibility to importing different media types, and working with meta data. It’s also great for receiving confirmations when a task is completed.

You don’t get the rename option in YourTube, like you do with ProTube (right)

When you import media using YourTube, you don’t receive any sort of confirmation prompts that the action was successful, which I found to be confusing the first couple of times I put it to work. ProTube does more hand holding through the process, and part of that is due to Bridge. Of course, the presence of Bridge could certainly be looked at as a disadvantage for ProTube, depending on how you look at it. On one hand, you absolutely cannot import media into your library without Bridge, while that same functionality is built right into YourTube. On the other hand, the functionality that you gain from Bridge is superior to that of YourTube’s import method in nearly every way.

Interestingly enough, YourTube (left) features a much better preference section for managing certain features

While both of these tweaks are almost identical when it comes to features such as ad blocking, AirPlay enabling, etc., YourTube is the only one of the two that includes a preference section to manage such features.

At the end of the day, either way you decide, you’ll likely be happy with your decision. The main reason that people are interested in either of these tweaks is for the ability to download YouTube videos for offline viewing. In my experience, both tweaks do that very well, though, YourTube is a more pleasant experience from an aesthetic standpoint. ProTube does more hand holding, and requires an extra app — Bridge — to import any media to your library. YourTube, on the other hand, is completely self contained.

As far as pricing goes, YourTube for iOS 6 is a free download for any previous purchasers of YourTube or YourTube HD. That’s a pleasant surprise, because the tweak is worth paying for. Otherwise, if you’ve never purchased a YourTube app before, it’s $3.99 for a limited time, $4.99 thereafter.

With ProTube, there’s a $0.99 upgrade if you’ve purchased a previous version of ProTube after May 2012. Otherwise, the tweak rings in at $0.99. And remember, if you want the ability to import media into your library like YourTube, you’ll need Bridge as well — that’s another $1.99. If you’re completely new to both tweaks, then it’s basically a wash as to who comes out cheapest.

So, which one would I pick? If I’m looking for fine grained control over the import process, then it’s ProTube all day. Otherwise, if I just need YouTube video downloading ability, and basic import functions from time to time, then I’d have to go with the better looking YourTube for iOS 6. In my case, I don’t need the advanced import functionality, so I choose YourTube. YourTube, is in my opinion, the best YouTube app jailbreak extension for iOS 6. What do you say?

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