“YouTube ads are unbearable — I'm deeply grateful for the constant updates, now that YouTube's cracking down on adblockers. Didn't expect a one-time purchase to include so much maintenance.”
Public review signal · 422 reviews scanned · scope limited to review patterns.
4.3 ★756 ratings
—Downloads
4+Age rating
10 MBApp size
$1.99In-app purchases
About this app
Vinegar is a Safari extension that replaces the YouTube player with a minimal HTML video tag.
It removes ads, restores picture-in-picture, and allows videos to play in the background when set to audio-only quality.
Note: The phrase 'can read and alter webpages' in the permissions section is just an unfortunate choice of words. Vinegar needs access to the webpage to find the YouTube player and replace it. It's not doing anything creepy!
(Also, do check out Vinegar's companion app, Baking Soda. It's essentially a less powerful version of Vinegar, but it works on all websites except YouTube.)
Preview
Real screenshots from the store listing.
Independent evidence report
Evidence and review signals
This is where the page changes from an app-store listing into an evidence report: findings, important reviews, pricing and a dated history.
What we measured
Each line is a measurement published as a measurement, never a verdict.
Each line is a measurement, published as a measurement. Where we have not looked, the line says so rather than reading as a zero.
Developer replies to reviews
Replies to fewer than 1 review in 20
Price in the store description
States no price and billing period
Cancelling, in the store description
Does not say how to cancel
Themes reported by reviewers
No theme reported
Counted from the reviews we have read for this app. "No theme reported" means no theme reached our reporting threshold — it is not a finding that nothing is wrong with this app, and we do not say it is.
Five-star share of ratings
65–79% five-star
Arithmetic on the stores' own published rating counts. It says nothing about why the ratings fall where they do.
In the package we scanned
No package has been scanned for this app, so nothing is published about what it ships. That is an absence of evidence about the app, not a finding about it.
Graded bands · predicate set 1.4 · how these are measured
What the analysis found
App-specific findings, grouped by what each one rests on. How they are graded lives on its own page.
No ad complaints12 reviews · user report
Aggressive ad load8 reviews · user report
Highlighted reviews
Representative public review excerpts shown as user reports, not Appworthy audit evidence.
“10/10, highly recommend. — Absolutely great. I've resorted to using the browser version of YouTube after getting bombarded with ads on the app. Bought this since I missed the miniplayer. Made YouTube 100x more accessible. Many thanks!”
“Best money I’ve spent all year — Best money I’ve spent all year. YouTube is an actual website I can visit now instead of always trying to avoid due to the endless ads.”
Assessment & version history
App changes and Appworthy events in one timeline.
Store listing updated to version 3.5.2.
What this app sells
Useful store-disclosed pricing, kept below the app listing.
Business model$1.99
Prices and terms as disclosed by the store listing.