Windows Download Managers

It is important to have a powerful download manager when down­load­ing a lot of files. Download managers increase the download speed of data packages and offer more features than Windows’ pre-installed down­loader. In this post, we will provide you with an overview of free and paid Windows download managers.

Download managers offer more func­tion­al­i­ty for down­load­ing files and provide faster download speeds compared to the built-in Windows down­loader. Files can be trans­ferred much faster by splitting data packages into sub-packages and down­load­ing them at the same time. Ad­di­tion­al features include custom download sched­ul­ing, re­sump­tion of in­ter­rupt­ed downloads, offline browsing of full websites, and export functions. You can also use browser ex­ten­sions to au­to­mat­i­cal­ly download in­di­vid­ual website elements (e.g., photos and HTML files) or multiple linked downloads.

Many download managers are freeware or are free open source programs. However, some down­load­ers offer ad­di­tion­al features that are only available in their paid pro versions.

Here are all the free and paid download managers for Windows that we have compared for you:

We will present various programs and how they work to help you decide which download manager is right for you.

Free Download Manager is among the most popular down­load­ers for Windows and macOS. One of the best free download managers in terms of ef­fi­cien­cy thanks to its powerful software. The ap­pli­ca­tion’s developer says that FDB can increase download speeds by up to 600%.

Features:

• Resuming aborted download op­er­a­tions
• Download support for Bit­Tor­rent and FLV
• Download options for HTTP, HTTPS, and FTP as well as for RTSP and MMS
• Automatic website downloads can be performed by importing URLs into FDM via drag & drop or the clipboard
• Supports Chrome and Firefox

The free download manager JDown­loader is a piece of open-source software that greatly improves download speeds. As a JavaScript app, JDown­loader offers special support for one-click file hosts like Uploaded, cloudZer, and Share-Online. It supports container formats like CCF and DLC and offers numerous features for automated ex­tract­ing and down­load­ing of multiple files at once.

Features:

• Custom download speeds
• Automatic ex­trac­tion of RAR and ZIP archive files
• Automatic solving of Captcha queries before downloads
• Even faster download speeds with premium file host accounts
• Link grabber to custom download multiple download links on one website
• Plugins for ad­di­tion­al features like YouTube video downloads

YouTube Down­loader HD is a free download manager specif­i­cal­ly for YouTube videos.

Features:

• Saves YouTube and Vimeo HD videos at 720p and 1080p
• Also converts videos to AVI, AVI HD, FLV, and MP4 file formats (for iOS devices)
• Download starts when video URLs are copied into the download manager

Ninja Download Manager is a download manager available in free and pro versions. The software segments downloads into different packages and downloads them at the same time over various con­nec­tions. This means that you can expect tremen­dous download speeds, and enjoy the ability to control, pause, resume, or restart download progress yourself.

Features:

• Custom download man­age­ment, including con­cur­rent downloads via queues, custom download speeds, and the ability to pause, resume, and restart downloads
• Shred function for deleting/removing meta data and anonymized down­load­ing
• Easy to use by copying links to the download manager
• In­te­grat­ed media converter for HD video downloads
• More ad­di­tion­al features in the pro version

Internet Download Manager multiples your download speeds by five and offers flexible, custom download control, as well as a sched­ul­ing feature for down­load­ing files at set times. In addition, you can download entire websites or the contents of in­di­vid­ual websites and view them offline without any re­stric­tions.

Features:

• Custom download man­age­ment with queues for si­mul­ta­ne­ous downloads and the ability to flexibly start, pause, and resume multiple downloads
• Practical sched­ul­ing of downloads at specified times
• Download speeds increased fivefold with file seg­men­ta­tion via Smart Download Logic
• Site grabbing to download and view entire websites or website contents offline
• Down­loaded files are scanned for viruses
• ZIP preview and download quotas
• Can be used as a browser extension, separate ap­pli­ca­tion, or command line command
• Supports all popular servers and file hosts

As the name suggests, the Google Books Down­loader is freeware that works specif­i­cal­ly as a download manager for Google Books. Depending on the country, the copyright of books is limited to a fixed period (in the United States it is usually 70 years after the author’s death, but this may vary) and expires at the end of the pro­tec­tion period. Once the in­tel­lec­tu­al property rights have expired, authors’ works enter the public domain and can be made available to the public free of charge. Google also takes advantage of this provision and publishes millions of works in the public domain in its Google Books online col­lec­tion. The Google Books Down­loader makes it easy to download online books as PDFs.

Features:

• Download online books available on Google Books as PDFs, PNGs, or JPGs for computers, print, or e-book readers