What is the best download manager for Windows?

Question

9

Options
Considered

220

User
Recs.

1 hr

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

The Best 1 of 8 OptionsWhy?

Best download manager for Windows	Price	Platforms	Protocol Support:
91 Free Download Manager	-	Windows	-
-- Internet Download Manager	$29.95	-	-
-- XDM - Xtreme Download Manager	Free	Windows, Linux, macOS	HTTP, HTTPS, FTP
-- aria2	-	-	-
-- JDownloader 2	FREE	-	-

See Full List

7 Other Options Considered

Internet Download Manager

Top Pro

Really fast

You can easily tell the difference of download speed after and before IDM. See More

Top Con

Has issues with Google Chrome

Integration with Google Chrome is bad, extension on Chrome store is not available. See More

EnterprisingJavine's Experience

it just downloads better See More

Top Pro

Awesome overall

Absolutely AWSOME integration with browsers, the trial is easily bypassed by crack software, and overall i would buy it just to support the devs. Best out of all these, and JRDOWNLOADER 2 is good for a free option for those who dont like to get their hands dirty with cracks. See More

Top Con

Commercial

30-day trial then you need to pay to use it. See More

Electron's Experience

Capable of resuming from where it stopped (if supported by the website link), multiple threads for fast download See More

Top Pro

Advanced features for power users

Top Con

Free alternative available called Free Download Manager

Has same functionality with IDM but it's fast, easy to use, and free. See More

SpontaneousBelili's Experience

Very easy to use and setup compared to the free managers. I guess the 30 USD is for the convenience. See More

Top Pro

Downloads youtube videos easily

Easy to download youtube videos on youtube and other websites. Just no option to download only m4a or converted mp3 from youtube. See More

Top Con

No Audio only download feature

Its useful when making local library of music from youtube See More

ShojiVR's Experience

It is commercial and has issues with chrome See More

See All

XDM - Xtreme Download Manager

Top Pro

Integrated with a number of browsers

XDM is integrated with Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Vivaldi, and any other Chromium or Firefox clone. This integration has you installing an extension on your browser that redirects all downloads to be handled by XDM rather than the browser itself. See More

Top Con

No torrent support

Doesn't support torrent downloading See More

Eric Waters's Experience

Been using it for a bit now on my desktop and laptop. I've used it in Firefox Quantum and Vivaldi, and it works smoothly with both. Pleasing GUI, easy browser integration, faster downloads, previews for DLed video, and the ability to download any video stream - just great stuff. And it's Open Source! See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Linux, macOS

Protocol Support::HTTP, HTTPS, FTP

Browser Support:Chrome, Firefox, Vivaldi, Opera, Chromium

Top Pro

XDM is very fast for download files

XDM download speed is very fast because the internet speed on XDM is more optimized than other download managers. See More

Top Con

Horrific project management

There are no versioned source tarballs, no build documentation or build system, and the binaries seem to be built from a private repository as the source code does not reflect the changes. See More

DiligentMuldjewangk's Experience

This manager is great it can download videos it can preview video while downloading See More

Top Pro

Resumes interrupted downloads

If you have a power outage, your internet disconnects, or your download is otherwise interrupted, XDM will be able to resume from where it left off just fine. See More

Top Pro

Uses download acceleration techniques

XDM intelligently and dynamically segments files as they're being downloaded, allowing it to use multiple threads per file. XDM also uses connection reuse to cut back on the amount of time it takes to establish a connection with a given server. See More

Top Pro

Supports ripping media from sites

XDM has the ability to rip files (MP4, AVI, webm, etc.) from media sites like Youtube or Vimeo. Unfortunately, audio streaming sites like Bandcamp or Soundcloud don't seem to work with this feature. See More

Top Pro

It can get the download link without the need for other tools

Through the browser integration extension it is able to capture multimedia download link by itself - while other download managers need the link to be sent to them. See More

Top Pro

Supports multiple download queues

With XDM you can set up a number of download queues, both scheduled and unscheduled, to give you better control over what batch of files gets downloaded when. See More

Top Pro

Pleasing and easy to use GUI

The GUI has a pleasing look, and the design is easy to navigate and use. See More

Top Pro

Built in scheduler

XDM's scheduler allows you to set a specific time for XDM to begin downloading, and then disconnect or shut down your computer when it's finished. See More

See All

aria2

Top Pro

Supports multiple download protocols

Has support for lots of download protocols including BitTorrent, Metalink, HTTP, HTTPS and FTP. See More

Top Con

No native graphical user interface

While there is a web-based GUI, there is no native interface. See More

Specs

License:GPL

Platform:OSX Linux Windows Android

Search:?

IPv6:?

See All Specs

Top Pro

Clean web interface

The web interface consists of pure HTML+JS, no server-side needed (except aria2c of course). It uses the same RPC that can work even over WebSockets. See More

Top Pro

Small memory footprint

Due to aria2 being a CLI only tool it uses very little memory. See More

Top Pro

Free and open source

Top Pro

Remote control over simple standardized RPC

XML or JSON-based RPCs can be used to control aria2 remotely with both APIs completely documented. Simplest client that uploads torrent to be downloaded is 3 Python lines long (no 3rd-party libraries, only stdlib). See More

See All

JDownloader 2

Top Pro

Click and Load

Jdownloader can crawl all links and find downloadable content based on those links, very helpful to download entire website content, video playlist, or hidden content too. See More

Top Con

Regular installation tries to install Adware along with program

Oughta look for the ad-ware free installer. Dubious. See More

DecisiveYiDeokchun's Experience

Contains adware See More

Top Pro

Open-source

There is no limitation. See More

Top Con

Not safe

It seems like VirusTotal has detected something with a scan. : https://www.virustotal.com/es-ar/file/c3467621d7f2479bac6fba7afae7b32bc5f3b25f61c562543ab498cdd9c5e33c/analysis/1550301403/ . See More

ShrewdHineNuiTePo's Experience

Way too easy and good to use See More

Top Pro

Supports multiple parallel streams

It means you can download any stream source such as youtube or similar video site with options to choose its quality and filetype. See More

Top Con

Apparently not fully open source

ShojiVR's Experience

Offers downloading in multiple parallel streams, captcha recognition, automatic file extraction, etc See More

Top Pro

Captcha recognition

You can input captcha on some free file hosting sites directly on Jdownloader. See More

Top Con

ULTRA extreme file fragmentation

There is no file size allocation protocol to prevent file fragmentation. And declared that there is no plan to fix it. See More

Top Pro

Auto-extracts archives

No need to manually extract your downloaded archives, while Jdownloader can automatically extract them for you. See More

Top Con

Has ads

Which is on by default but can be disabled in advanced setting. See More

Top Pro

Auto-saves to configured folder

Automatically save files with certain filenames to certain preconfigured folders. See More

Top Con

Captcha solving requires Browser extension which spies on you

Top Pro

Batch import links

Helps to batch download files. See More

Top Con

Resource intensive

It is a Java application so you will always having the JavaVM(Java virtual machine) running alongside. See More

Top Pro

Cross-platform

Because JDownloader runs on Java, any platform that can run Java, can run JDownloader. See More

Top Pro

Advanced packaging system

You can pack files into packages for better file management. See More

See All

uget

Top Pro

Open Source

Top Con

doesn't organize the files downloaded to categories

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score 77 · Accepted Answer

Free Download Manager

Top Pro

Torrent client

It has a built-in torrent client which can be used to download torrent. See More

Top Con

Adware/Proprietary

Although some older versions were open-source, all the newer versions are proprietary software and contain adware. See More

RickZeeland's Experience

Powerful, easy-to-use and absolutely free download accelerator and manager. Includes HTTP/FTP/BitTorrent support. Available for Windows, Mac, alpha version for Android. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows

Top Pro

Scheduler

Allows to start and stop downloads at a set time, or perform other actions like launching applications. See More

Top Con

No group downloading

ReflectiveThelxiepeia's Experience

mjjjlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll See More

Top Pro

Partial download of ZIP files

Free Download Manager lets you download only the necessary parts of a .zip file. See More

Top Con

No Linux support

ShojiVR's Experience

Better than idm with audio/video files preview, site explorer, torrent client, and dark theme See More

Top Pro

HTML Spider

Download web pages or even complete web sites. See More

Top Pro

Dark Theme Supported

Starting version 5, the dark theme will be available on settings. See More

Top Pro

Portable

Features a portable mode. See More

Top Pro

Zip files partial download

Free Download Manager lets you download only the necessary part of a zip file. See More

See All

The Best 1 of 8 OptionsWhy?

My Recommendation for Free Download Manager

My Recommendation for Free Download Manager

Torrent client

Adware/Proprietary

Scheduler

No group downloading

Partial download of ZIP files

No Linux support

HTML Spider

Dark Theme Supported

Portable

Zip files partial download

7 Other Options Considered

My Recommendation for Internet Download Manager

My Recommendation for Internet Download Manager

Really fast

Has issues with Google Chrome

Awesome overall

Commercial

Advanced features for power users

Free alternative available called Free Download Manager

Downloads youtube videos easily

No Audio only download feature

My Recommendation for XDM - Xtreme Download Manager

My Recommendation for XDM - Xtreme Download Manager

Integrated with a number of browsers

No torrent support

XDM is very fast for download files

Horrific project management

Resumes interrupted downloads

Uses download acceleration techniques

Supports ripping media from sites

It can get the download link without the need for other tools

Supports multiple download queues

Pleasing and easy to use GUI

Built in scheduler

My Recommendation for aria2

My Recommendation for aria2

Supports multiple download protocols

No native graphical user interface

Clean web interface

Small memory footprint

Free and open source

Remote control over simple standardized RPC

My Recommendation for JDownloader 2

My Recommendation for JDownloader 2

Click and Load

Regular installation tries to install Adware along with program

Open-source

Not safe

Supports multiple parallel streams

Apparently not fully open source

Captcha recognition

ULTRA extreme file fragmentation

Auto-extracts archives

Has ads

Auto-saves to configured folder

Captcha solving requires Browser extension which spies on you

Batch import links

Resource intensive

Cross-platform

Advanced packaging system

My Recommendation for uget

My Recommendation for uget

Open Source

doesn't organize the files downloaded to categories

My Recommendation for pyLoad

My Recommendation for pyLoad

Actively developed

No GUI

Highly customizable

Written in Python

Cross-platform

Lightweight

Highly extensible and many plugins

Web User Interface

Free and open source

My Recommendation for Eagleget

My Recommendation for Eagleget