Best Download Managers for Windows and MacOS

Best Download Managers for Windows and MacOS

/ Andrew Holdeman

Obtaining a Download Manager for windows or any operating system should be a priority if you regularly download files from your browser. They are a significant asset for improving your download speed and helping manage multiple downloads, which helps prevent broken files.

If it’s considered the best download manager, it will ultimately contain many utilities for downloading files mentioned below.

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In no particular order, this will include some of the best download managers commonly used up to date.

Why do I need a download manager?

Having a top download manager can be proven helpful in situations you can’t control. A perfect example is if you have multiple file downloads and the browser were to crash, lose your WIFI connection, or even have a power outage. Luckily, an advanced download manager would be able to resume broken downloads.

Broken downloads (or interrupted downloads) result from a download process being interrupted by an event and not carrying all of the data over to the new file.

Download managers will resume broken downloads once the browser extension is either back online or recovered from a crash. They will also provide more organized file management, whether you download large or batch files.

Are download managers safe?

Yes, download managers don’t collect any of your information, and when your PC is at rest, it will not download files until your operating system is running. Although you do have the capability of scheduling downloads manually for when you know your PC is asleep.

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Is Internet Download Manager spyware?

The primary functions of all download managers are to help prevent broken downloads, increase download speeds, and to organize. None of their tools involve collecting information from your downloaded files or adware and contain no spyware components.

Unless you decide to give or share access to these file downloads, no person or platform should be able to transmit any information from your system.

What does a download manager do?

All the best download manager programs utilize tools to automatically download recurring files while making the process faster, more straightforward, and more reliable. Having a program like this on your desktop is unnecessary if you rarely are on your device. Still, if you’re very active and utilize many tools that download multiple files, then it’s wise to look into what other download managers there are.

Various forms of content are made much easier when utilizing intelligent file management, which helps schedule, organize, and prioritize when downloading multiple files.

You’re also usually given the option to pause, resume broken downloads, or schedule downloads.

Should I use a specific Operating System?

Most download managers will function the same on either operating system, whether it’s Windows PC, Mac, or Linux OS.

An example of a download manager not being compatible are Windows download managers (such as Internet Management Downloader) for Windows PC, which are only available to one specific operating system.

What is the fastest Download Manager?

The vast majority of download managers have virtually the same download speeds. You can say the same about their abilities to pause and resume broken downloads and their advantage of effortlessly organizing any downloaded file.

The few significant gaps that separate many of the Best Download Manager reviews are their browser integration, if they are an open source download manager, and if they have a free version.

While pricing is always a variable, another fine line is encrypted and secure downloads. Even some considered the best free download manager would have a default setting to have items and files shared automatically.

Download Manager and PC Sleep Mode.

Download managers are very manually operated programs. Unless you schedule downloads for your PC to start in sleep mode, your download manager will not automatically download videos or support files.

Even when your file downloads are interrupted, your download manager will resume interrupted downloads where they were left off, so they don’t remain broken. If you schedule downloads, that particular file won’t pursue any other function until you manually differ it.

Ninja Download Manager

When looking for the “best download manager,” Ninja Download Manager (NDM) is an internet download accelerator on the list of best noted. You can find the NDM download link on their official website at ninjadownloadmanager.com.

It contains a multitude of tools that many other download managers also utilize. Tools that haven’t been mentioned, such as Password manager, enable you to securely keep track of many website log-ins so that they will automatically be set the next time you open your chrome browser.

It is available on all operating systems that use Windows and Mac OS and is a free download manager.

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Ninja Download Manager can be installed on your desktop for $19.00; then, if you’d like 3 PCs, it would be $29.00, then at last, for six operating systems, it would be $49.00

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Having one download manager across multiple devices would also allow you to sync downloading files and download links across each system simultaneously.

GetGo Download Manager

Developed by Getgo Software Ltd, GetGo Download Manager (GDM) is free to download on sites such as download.cnet.com and uptodown.com, shown below.

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GetGo Download Manager is a free downloader for Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, helping make your Web Browsing much smoother when it comes to the user interface for browser integration.

GetGo’s download manager app features are entirely free and download files such as video files just as fast as many paid download manager software. 2018 is when they had their last update; it enables the software to support batch downloads and floating drop box, which helps provide quick and simple downloads.

Xtreme Download Manager

Xtreme Download Manager (XDM) is another free download accelerator well-known for downloading media files and videos. Download links for this software can be found on sites such as softonic.com and sourceforge.net for free, or go straight to their website xtremedownloadmanager.com.

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Xtreme Download Manager will integrate with Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox Quantum, Vivaldi, and other chromium and Firefox browsers. It reduces the time for downloading videos by 500%. You can use XDM on Windows PC, Mac OS, and Linux. This also involves XDM’s built-in video converter, which allows you to convert your downloaded videos to the suggested format to watch them on your mobile device and TV. The converter will support over a hundred different types of visual entertainment devices.

Once you have XDM installed, go to settings to optimize your download speeds and click “tools.” Then you should be able to choose Network optimization and your network type.

XDM will support and intergrade with every type of proxy server, including Windows ISA and multiple firewalls. Batch downloads, Digest, and Negotiate algorithms for authentication are also supported.

Free Download Manager

You probably guessed that Free Download Manager (FDM) is a free-to-download and open-source software. It is cross-platform for Windows 7+ and Mac OS (Highly recommended that you use FDM on Windows XP and Vista). It has a friendly and easy-to-use system that helps the user preview zip files and pause and resumes downloads on one device from another. You can download FDM at their website https://www.freedownloadmanager.org/.

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You can also use their site explorer tool to view the website and specific files you need to download from instead of downloading files in bulk with data you do not want. Free Download Manager will provide you with HTML Spider, allowing you to download web pages or even whole websites. Once files are installed on a hard drive, Free Download Manager will automatically place them in predefined folders.

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If you’d like to view the process of your downloads while you’re away from home or on your PC, you can view your downloads from your mobile device. All-access to their tools is completely free. You may even pause downloads on your PC from your phone and wait to finish resuming downloads when you locate back to your desktop without affecting your download speed.

Another tool provided is the ability to adjust your traffic usage. These traffic modes involve being able to track traffic usage when browsing the internet and when you download multiple files at the same time.

FDM users also can view, pause and resume videos before they’re fully downloaded to their hard drives. Previewing the video link will not cause it to be interrupted or broken upon completion.

Android Download Manager

Android Download Manager (ADM) has a PC platform that enables its user interface between mobile and desktop devices. It is a free-to-use download manager, and ADM is a free download manager on Mobile and PC.

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Internet Download Manager

Internet Download Manager (IDM) offers installations for Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, previous and current versions of Edge, Opera, as well as other commonly known browsers. It is a powerful download engine that puts segmentation technology to optimum use.

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You also get the ability to customize what your neat download manager looks like. Selectable tabs and buttons can be changed to a different icon, color, or shade, and depending on which object you’re customizing, you can change where it is positioned to suit your needs better.

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IDM comes with user-friendly instructions on categorizing your files and videos and scheduling multiple downloads.

You are given a 30-day free trial to use IDM before choosing to become registered, which still gives you the same features, utilities, and download speed. The registered version is for lifetime use, has no usage limitations, and is a ready-to-go logic optimizer. For the following three years after purchase, you receive all updates for free.

JDownloader

JDownloader is another free download manager where you can remotely monitor your downloads from your mobile device. It can integrate with Windows, Linux, macOS, and any operating system that supports Java.

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They also utilize a tool called LinkGrabber. This tool will automatically add any download links from a clipboard onto the platform so you can instantly begin downloading files after the links are. All of the links that are saved are securely placed into password-encrypted files.

Like many free download managers, you can pause and resume broken downloads. JDownloader will not publicly share any files or links that are being downloaded; they go straight into your hard drive and will remain encrypted. You are even able to complete downloads on files from password-encrypted websites.

FlashGet – The Best Download Manager

Many review websites for download managers will most likely write about FlashGet (FG). FlashGet is straightforward to learn how to operate and has the highest amount of online users, and it can work on the lowest systems criteria and still not affect your regular job or study. You can download FlashGet straight from their website at www.flashget.com.

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You can download files from HTTP, BitTorrent, FTP, etc., without any of them significantly impacting your download accelerator. FG will also support floating desktop buttons and automatic predetermined filing. The software will also monitor Firefox, which can scan any form of download for viruses and preview their download sizes.

Do ALL Download Managers Prioritize Download Files?

By this point, you most likely understand how download files work and how important it is to keep your files safe and protected.

Almost any commonly used download manager for Windows, Mac, and Linux will make it an automatic function to encrypt your files upon downloading them. Widely known as a form of Spyware, there are programs that, when they download videos or any file, will have a built-in function that automatically shares all the download links.

BitTorrent

BitTorrent is a popularly used download software for the gaming industry. Like the other best download managers, BitTorrent will simultaneously download files rapidly. This platform is also a Peer to Peer (P2p) operation. This means that the information on the torrent files is usually shared with someone or something.

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A torrent file works like a defining index for software; it provides computer access to multiple file downloads and dates through a BitTorrent user.

Browser Integration

Any accelerator that might be considered the best free download manager, you can probably count on having multi-platform browser integration. The browsers typically will not affect the download speed acceleration of the managers you commonly see.

The download process itself is specifically on the software and network alone. Bowsers will also not alter how any download manager decides to copy links and save them.

Andrew Holdeman
Meet the author

Andrew has extensive experience with a wide range of writing platforms and automation systems. He has spent over 6 years creating content and troubleshooting for various companies. He also enjoys spending time with his family and his fiancé, while staying active and healthy.