Best Free Download Manager

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Fri, 01/02/2009 - 12:16 — Jojoyee

• PC Freeware
• Internet, Email & Messaging

  In a Hurry?   Go straight to the Quick Selection Guide Introduction There comes a time when you are downloading a large file and the download stops part of the way through. If you are using the Windows download applet there is nothing you can do about it; you will just have to start again. A good download manager will allow you to resume the download, picking up where it left off.   Good download managers also allow you to start several concurrent download sessions from available resources for the one file. This works by splitting the file into parts with each part downloaded at the same time from the resources. At the end the file is then re-assembled.   This can result in dramatic improvements in download speed given a transmission speed limited by internet service providers.  

Below are a few free download managers short listed for review based on the basic requirements including:

• Speed, or lapsed time to download a file
• Interface with web browsers and supported protocols
• Management of downloaded files
• Other features 

Discussion Gigaget download manager is in general the fastest by far for downloading files. It utilizes cutting-edge Net Grid technology to tap the unused resources of networked PCs and servers to greatly improve your download speed.   Gigaget monitors major browsers, such as Internet Explorer, and monitors clipboard for auto downloading once a download link is copied to the clipboard. It has all the features you would need, safe and easy to use.   Among the features, it allows you to easily pause,  resume or delete a download, import or export list of downloads, and it has a powerful task manager with data transfer encryption, auto data integrity validation and correction, classfication of downloaded files, etc.   On the negative side, this program in the version under this review will occasionally prompt an 'about:blank' error message when the browser home page is set to blank. If you click ok, the program clears the message and nevertheless proceeds to work well.   Further, Gigaget seems to have stalled in development from the last version, while its original Chinese version "Xunlei" (or "Thunder"), one of the most popular download managers among Chinese users, is still actively updated. The Chinese version contains advertisements but with powerful P2P leeching capability to accelerate downloads from BitTorrent and eMule networks. (Thanks to Wedung for the update.)     Alternatively Free Download Manager is a good choice for its stability and support for various browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Chrome and Safari.   It offers simultaneous multi-part downloads, easy restarting and recovery, a powerful scheduler and downloading from mirrors.   It also features downloads from RapidShare, prioritized and partial torrent downloads, adjusting traffic usage, flash video download and an upload manager. Management of downloaded files is supported.     Another popular download manager is Orbit Downloader, which is devoted to the new generation web to make downloading any social media easy and fast.   Moreover, Orbit Downloader features Grab Pro to support video download from sites which use anti-leeching technology like YouTube, Pandora, etc. It also supports most streaming media protocols and file-sharing service websites.   Support of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera and Maxthon together with general download management is included.     FlashGet download manager is also worth a try as it is designed for speed and management of downloaded files as well.   It increases the download speed by applying multiserver hyperthread technology and supports HTTP, FTP, BT, eMule and other various protocols.   FlashGet provides download monitoring with Internet Explorer and integrates well with FlashGot extension to Firefox too. It supports unlimited categories for managing downloaded files.   On first running of the program after installation, it comes with a 'recommended message' at the right panel, but this can be disabled easily as an option. Other Download Managers These are a number of other free download managers which were brought up in comments here or noted from other sources. As they are not rated in this review, I am listing them here with brief descriptions and links to their sites for ease of reference.  

• Download Accelerator Plus (free) is a toned down version of commercial DAP Premium but basic features are available such as multi-connections to download sites, mirror search, etc. It has an active 'information pane' at the right panel which is not allowed to disable.
 
• Star Downloader Free accelerates your downloads by splitting files into parts and downloading them from mirror sites. It is also a toned down version without some of the needed features such as link leecher available to commercial Star Downloader Pro.
 
• MetaProducts Download Express is a small application at a size of about 680 KB. It supports IE and Firefox browsers and allows you to download individual files from the Web and FTP sites with multiple channels technology. It features a Projects list without classification of downloaded files. Download speed is slower than the top-picked download manager.
 
• DownThemAll is a browser entension to add advanced download capabilities to Firefox. This add-on is useful if you are using Firefox and need to download many files on a web page at one go. It allows you select all files or certain file types for download. However, for a selected file in a larger size, its download speed is much slower than a standalone download manager such as Gigaget.

  The fastest by far to download files, monitor major browsers and clipboard, resume/pause download, import/export list, data transfer encryption, classification of downloaded files.   Occasional 'about:blank' errors when browser's home page is set to blank.   http://www.gigaget.com   http://www.gigaget.com/download.htm   2.0 MB    1.0.0.23    Unrestricted freeware    Windows 95-Vista

Free Download Manager    

  Stable, support for IE, Firefox,  Opera, Chrome and Safari, simultaneous multi-part downloads, flash video download, restart and recover, powerful scheduler, management of downloaded files, etc.   Slower than Gigaget to download files in general.   http://www.freedownloadmanager.org   http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/download.htm   6.4 MB    3.0    Unrestricted freeware    Windows 95-Vista

Orbit Downloader    

  Make downloading social media easy and fast, support video download from anti-leeching sites, support IE, Firefox, Opera and Maxthon, management of downloaded files, etc.   Slower than Gigaget to download files in general.   http://www.orbitdownloader.com   http://www.orbitdownloader.com/download.htm   2.06 MB    2.7.8    Unrestricted freeware    Windows NT-Vista

FlashGet    

  Increase speed with hyperthread technology, support various protocols, monitor IE, integrate with FlashGot extension to Firefox, managing downloaded files.   A recommended message at the right panel needs to disable upon first use. Slower than Gigaget.   http://www.flashget.com/index_en.htm   http://www.flashget.com/en/download.htm   4.44 MB    1.9.6    Unrestricted freeware    Windows 95-Vista

This software category is maintained by volunteer editor Jojoyee. Registered site visitors can contact him by clicking here.

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#1Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 01/13/2009 - 20:07.

GigaGetis a trimmed down version of Chinese softare XunLei - Thunder. Thelatest version of XunLei is 5.8, I guess the Gigaget is based on 5.5.The interface is similar but Gigaget removed lots of Ads. It shouldsupport all major protocols including emule, bt, HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, MMS,RTSP and RTMP, also Xunlei has its own resource base. A common downloadis the trimmed version but the there is still some characters on theinterface. I am not sure if GigaGet support BT.

Flashget is a software developed by Chinese. Support all majorprotocols, latest version 2.0 (chinese) does not support emule, whilein the stable 1.9.2 support all of them.

Tuoto is another Chinese download manager that support all major protocols. Interface is clean. Here are some reading.
http://leechermods.blogspot.com/2007/07/tuotu-30102-200772.html?showComm...

Another chinese software named "super cyclone" is also popular,clean in interface, but has no English version. Not support emule.

Orbit downloader is another good one, but not support bt and emule

I did a comparison between utorrent and XunLei trimmed version, whenthe download speed of utorrent is struggling arount 10k for two days,the same seeds on XunLei reachs 100k in about 10 minutes.

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#2Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 01/11/2009 - 02:18.

Gigagetis ADWARE and and the Chinese ads ask for Chinese fonts to beinstalled. NOT NICE. Also, NO increase in speed. I'm removing it as wespeak.

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#3Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 01/11/2009 - 04:51.

I didn't see any Chinese ads there, neither did I install Chinese fonts. Runs smoothly and fast. No issue to me.

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#4Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 01/09/2009 - 11:56.

FlashGet is rated RED by McAfee SiteAdvisor:
www.siteadvisor.com/sites/flashget.com

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#5Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 01/02/2009 - 19:20.

Try MetaProducts Download Express 1.9. Its not been updated but works well.

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#6Submitted by Jojoyee on Sat, 01/03/2009 - 03:39.

Thanks for the info. Grouped under Other Download Managers for reference.

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#7Submitted by Anupam on Fri, 01/02/2009 - 10:16.

New version 3.0.843 of Free Download Manager has been released.

Anupam Shriwatri, India

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#8Submitted by Jojoyee on Fri, 01/02/2009 - 12:18.

Thanks for the update.

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#9Submitted by Anupam on Fri, 01/02/2009 - 15:08.

You are welcome :)

Anupam Shriwatri, India

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#10Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 01/01/2009 - 21:34.

Iwould like to configure one to use the SD/USB storage device as thedestination and scratch disk in settings. Is there one like that? Ihave a 4gb HD and can not upgrade with ease. If you can think ofsomething post it here. Thanks for these.

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#11Submitted by Jojoyee on Fri, 01/02/2009 - 03:34.

Ifyou are looking for a setting in a download program to download filesto a folder in external storage, this can be done easily. Such as inGigaget, go to Config and change the 'Save To' default folder to yourpreferred folder in an external storage device while it is plugged in.Click Apply Button to enable the change.

Hope this is helpful.

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#12Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 12/10/2008 - 18:43.

Iwas impressed with Gigaget performance in my old pc running Windows XP.And when i tried to use it in my new Dell Notebook running WindowsVista Home Premium, Internet Explorer crashs and restarts. I've triedso many time reporting to them, but couldn't find a solution yet. Idisagree to use any other DM because Gigaget had made a solidimpression in my mind. And the same problem occured to my friendrunning with same OS. Has anyone undergone the same problem.

Would be glad if any friend can give me a working solution.

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#13Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 12/12/2008 - 09:24.

Gigaget works well for me on Vista. For browsers, I use Firefox and Chrome, much faster and safer.

IMO, one way to prevent IE from crashes is to disable all add-ons orreset IE settings (Tools/Internet Options/Advanced/Reset). A ratherslow and outdated browser residing in my system but hardly used.

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#14Submitted by Keyur on Fri, 12/05/2008 - 17:39.

Hi

If you are using Firefox, downThemAll is a good add on.. and you probably wont need separate download manager.. here is the link

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/201

Thanks

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#15Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 12/23/2008 - 02:33.

Itis only useful if you download all the links, images contained in awebpage. I tried it to download a larger file and it's slow.

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#16Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 12/04/2008 - 05:39.

So, I take it that Gigaget isn't compatable with Opera?

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#17Submitted by Jojoyee on Fri, 12/05/2008 - 13:58.

It is stated in the Gigaget homepage that it is compatible with major browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox and Maxthon.

If you are using Opera, Chrome, or any other newer version ofbrowsers which are not monitored by Gigaget, you will need to copy thedownload link to the clipboard, Gigaget will then auto download thefile as it monitors the clipboard as well. I rely more on this feature.

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#18Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 11/09/2008 - 14:05.

FDM will not run on my VISTA 64 bit at all .... this disqualifies it being a "best download manager"

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#19Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 11/19/2008 - 03:14.

Andwho even uses Vista 64 bit as their only OS? That is far from a majorenough reason to strip down it's title here. There are many other farmore important features in it. Also if you even look at the systemrequirements properly, it states that it works in 32-bit versions only.Although it didn't work for me as well (not because I use 64-bit, somethings just don't work on my dated pc), I've gotta disagree with yourselfishly needless comment there. Just move on to some of thealternatives (this is why they exist after all), or whatever.

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#20Submitted by ekadim on Fri, 11/07/2008 - 07:30.

Ihave been using Giganet, FreeDownload Manager and Star Downloader Freefor a long time. All of them have their own cons and pros. ThoughStarDownloader seems to be not updated for a long time and notintegrated with Flashgot, it is a remarkable download manager.

One thing I like with Star Downloader is when I navigate to thetarget directory for saving, I can see all the files and subfolders inthat directory so that I can check whether I have downloaded it beforeor not. And when the filename is the same it prompts for yourconfirmation for overwriting. It is worth to give a try:

http://www.stardownloader.com/downloads.php (you may click one of the links on the right bottom corner of the page)

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#21Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 10/23/2008 - 20:53.

Gigagetis my personal favorite. Its very fast, I like that I can integrate avirus scanner, and has a bunch of useful features. and the banner in itblends in well and is a link to gigagets site.

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#22Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 10/04/2008 - 18:59.

Ijust started using Gigaget--the increase in download speed is amazing.It's integrated with the Flashgot plugin for my Firefox browser--I wishI had found this a long time ago.

Thanks Gizmo and crew!

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#23Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 10/06/2008 - 06:19.

I try to scan giganet using virustotal.com ...esafe software detected a virus..i dont know if it is a false positive.

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#24Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 09/23/2008 - 22:34.

Ihave a question that I would like answered. Do you need any specialrules for optimizing download managers to their full potential when youhave a firewall? I'm currently using Gigaget and Commodo.

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#25Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 09/08/2008 - 00:31.

Iam longtime user of FDM. Have been using only the Lite version eversince two versions have been offered. Not sure why others are havingproblems with SourceForge, I just right-click and choose "save targetas" and I always get the file, not the PHP script... ? Don't know howto help with this...

My only issue with FDM, is it crashes if several dozen IE7 tabs orbrowser instances are open. When it crashes it takes all the IE7instances with it. After yet another crash today, I came here to seewhat else is available.

I used FlashGet years ago when it was freeware, when it becameshareware I abandoned it in favor of FDM. I see that it's freewareagain, so I tried it (the new version). Like the experience postedabove, FlashGet immediately made several outbound connections andtransferred quite a bit of data before I could choke it down with afirewall. I don't know what it stole from me. I uninstalled itimmediately.

I am trying Orbit right now, it appears to be simple and efficient.I really love FDM, but if Orbit can handle the high number of IE7 tabsand/or instances that I like to use, then I will stay with Orbit.

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#26Submitted by Mosaddeq on Sun, 08/24/2008 - 19:13.

Flashgetis the best download manager. But not the current version but ratherthe classic version 1.73. Flasget provides better control overdownloads. Be it passing custom referrer or specifying number ofconcurrent connections etc. All in all its the best imho.

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#27Submitted by abhishek on Sat, 08/16/2008 - 14:58.

Ihave been using Orbit for about 3 years now, It has never let me down.It worked well on my ancient dial-up and works just as well on mybroadband.....

-Abhishek
India

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#28Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 08/11/2008 - 20:03.

Iam using DownThemAll a plugin for Firefox and is incredible how fasterdownloads are compared to standard Firefox downloads. It also supportsresuming interrupted downloads. Regards, Joe

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#29Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 07/18/2008 - 10:42.

TriedFlashGet and just after opening it the first time it tried to make 12connections to different sites, and that's without me adding adownload! Disabling updates and most options that could cause unwantedconnections, it still tried a few connections at startup. Might belegitimate, but anything that acts like spyware gets uninstalledimmediately.

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#30Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 07/12/2008 - 23:11.

Silent monitoring doesn't work in Free Download Manager ver. 2.5 build 758.

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