Best free download manager of 2024 (2024)

The best free download managers make it simple and easy to increase your download speeds and better manage your downloads, without paying a subscription.

Download managers can be especially helpful when you routinely need to download multiple files, especially large files, such as databases or backups. The ability to organize, prioritize, and streamline your downloads process can be invaluable, especially to avoid time-out errors.

Other features you’ll find on many of these download managers include scheduling, batch downloading, file previewing, BitTorrent support, support for compressed file types, and a number of security features. No matter if you want something that can work as an extension of your browser or as a standalone app, there are plenty of options available to you.

And, to help you decide which one works best for you, we’ve gathered our picks for the top download manager here. We've compared these download managers across numerous aspects, from their download speeds and ease of installation to their interface and learning curve. We also checked if they had solid file conversion tools and privacy features, among other things.

Below we list what we think are the best free download managers currently available.

Also, we've featured the best file managers.

The best free download managers of 2024 in full:

Best overall

Ninja Download Manager is a relative newcomer to the downloading party, and it looks considerably more contemporary than its, er, contemporaries.

Its interface is simple and modern (if a little dark), and its accelerator can help you get your files 10 times faster. It does this by splitting each file into chunks, then downloading each one using a different server connection, making downloads not only faster, but also more reliable. If you're into music and movies you'll be delighted by its sequential setting, which lets you begin playing a file while it's still downloading.

There's also a built-in video downloader with support for YouTube and Vimeo, and a video converter that changes the file format automatically once it's finished downloading.

There are lots of fantastic options around, but if you love music, films and TV then Ninja Download Manager is the tool for you.

Note that the link to download the free version of Ninja Download Manager is at the very bottom of the developer's homepage.

Read our full Ninja Download Manager review.

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Best for music

Free Download Manager aims to be all things to all people – and succeeds. It is a download accelerator, a BitTorrent client, an audio and video previewer and a traffic management tool, and because it is open source, it is completely free and receives regular updates from its community of developers.

It includes powerful scheduling features and a very handy remote control that means you can leave your downloads running and check on their progress from any internet-connected device.

It can spider sites to download specific kinds of files, and you can choose to download only the bits of a ZIP file you actually want. It is an exceptional program, and it was tough to choose between this and Ninja Internet Download Manager for the top spot.

Read our full Free DownloadManager review.

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Best for power users

JDownloader is a free, open source download manager with a massive developer community, and it's available for Windows, Linux and Mac.

It's really one for power users, with support for over 300 decryption plugins, automatic RAR extraction, password list searching and OCR to complete some of the captcha 'I'm not a robot' checks you encounter on download sites.

You'll need the Java Runtime Environment to run it, and you'll have to be careful when installing it: the installer contains adware, which will be bundled in with the download manager if you don't specifically deselect it.

Downloading the jDownloaded tool can feel tedious because it's in RAR format, and you'll need to figure out how to decompress the RAR file if you don't have a decompressing tool.

Also beware fake 'download' buttons on the site; the actual download link is a line of text.

Read our full JDownloader review.

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FAQs

How we test

We tested various free download managers to determine their performance. We looked at the ease of finding and download the manager, the download speeds, interface, learning curve, and privacy features.

We checked what formats users could download files in, and whether the download managers offered reliable file conversion tools that supported various formats.

We also considered additional features on the software, like download scheduling, batch downloading, and media previews, along with checking if they came bundled with adware or other software.

Read more on how we test, rate, and review products on TechRadar.

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