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This question exists as it fills a specific criterion. While you are encouraged to help maintain its answers, please understand that "big list" questions are not generally allowed on Ask Ubuntu and will likely be closed per the FAQ. More information on the software-recommendation tag.

What download managers are available for Ubuntu? Can you provide the link as well?

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  • 1
    type in terminal, sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tahutek-team/prozilla, sudo apt-get update, sudo apt-get install prozilla. Sep 12, 2013 at 0:52

48 Answers 48

82

I would recommend the wget command line utility which is absolutely awesome!

wget is a GNU free software package that is used for retrieving files over the web. If you have got it installed, then all you have to do is to get the download link and use wget to download it.

In order to get the download link, right click on whichever download you want in the firefox download manager. There will be an option ‘copy download link’. Click on it.

Then open a terminal and go to whichever folder you want the file downloaded to. Assuming it is in the Desktop, type the following command at the prompt:

$ wget <paste your download link here>

Now even if it gets stuck in the middle, you can resume from wherever it was interrupted by giving the option -c to wget. That is, the command will be like

$ wget -c <paste your download link here>

And there it continues beautifully.

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  • I would say Aria2 is a better solution for downloading via the command line. aria2.sourceforge.net Feb 1, 2014 at 1:35
  • 17
    wget is not technically a download manager nor they identify themself as such.
    – Braiam
    Feb 10, 2014 at 12:54
  • 1
    This command also can't download resources that needs HTTP cookies, there is a workaround, sure, but who wants to type a command n times in a day? I don't.
    – undefined
    Oct 1, 2016 at 21:34
  • @Ram The beauty of commandline programs is that they can be scripted, scheduled, triggered on events, etc. so you don't have to type the same thing over and over :)
    – Warbo
    Sep 20, 2017 at 21:18
  • @Warbo Sure, they are useful. As a developer I use them every day but wget is not a download manager. You can of course develop a GUI app on top of it, just like some suggested apps in this question's answers!
    – undefined
    Sep 23, 2017 at 5:49
29

Axel is great! There is no limit on the number of connections, and you can utilize your bandwidth.

To install axel use this command:

sudo apt-get install axel

It's a CLI application. So open a terminal window and type in axel For more information and checking available options, you can look at the help page. I usually use these options:

axel -avn 50 address

It provides more information (-v), displays the alternative progress bar (-a) and downloads with 50 simultaneous connections (-n 50).


Downthemall extension for firefox is also great.

enter image description here

[Install it from here](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/downthemall/ or search downthemall in the addon manager.)

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  • 2
    Firefox has addons that are fast evolving. One of the best is Flashgot, which allows setting Axel as default or occasional (FlashGot Media) downloader.
    – user47206
    Oct 5, 2012 at 17:57
26
+100

Try using FatRat download/upload manager , though a QT based but supports a lot of Features and is continuously extended.

Some of its features:

  • HTTP(S)/FTP downloads
  • FTP uploads
  • Support for SOCKS5 and HTTP proxies
  • RSS feed support + special functions for TV shows and podcasts
  • BitTorrent support (including torrent creating, DHT, UPnP, encryption etc.)
  • Torrent search on major torrent sites incl. The Pirate Bay, EZTV, BitTorrentMonster...
  • RapidShare.com FREE and premium downloads
  • RapidShare.com uploads
  • RapidShare.com link verification and folder extraction
  • RapidSafe link decoding
  • MD4/MD5/SHA1 hash computing
  • Remote control via Jabber (!)
  • Remote control via an AJAX* web interface
  • Subtitle search
  • RAR/ZIP file unpacker
  • Scheduler
  • Clipboard monitor

You can even select the Download Protocol client, if supported as

enter image description here

On main Window , you can browse options like Details, Transfer speed Graphs ,Queue speed Graphs and Logs.

enter image description here

From settings window , you can setup FatRat for the following services

enter image description here


Other Useful Links :-

For Browser Integration

For Plugins and for Extensions

For FatRat Documentation

Official FatRat Page

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  • installed it from synaptic and it would not start. any tweaks?
    – user47206
    Aug 3, 2012 at 11:53
  • @cipricus - You mean cannot initialize ?? , if already running try fatrat -f to bring it to front . Since it also provides No-Gui mode. Do comment back.:)
    – atenz
    Aug 3, 2012 at 12:23
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    @cipricus - I didn't said No comment , i said DO comment :). Thanks for replying though . I guess it is because it based on QT library . In Lubuntu ( which i rarely) used doesn't include any component of QT library. You should go forward as post the question as eg. How to make Fatrat run in Lubuntu inspite of being a QT application.
    – atenz
    Aug 3, 2012 at 17:31
  • Is there any way that I can make it to shut down the computer after all download are finished ? I couldn't find anything.
    – Rsh
    Jan 22, 2014 at 23:12
23

There are plenty of them available.

Steadyflow

Steadyflow is a simple and easy to use download manager, written in GTK. It has a lot of good features without any unnecessary complexity.

enter image description here

It also has an indicator applet.

enter image description here

Install: sudo apt-get install steadyflow


Uget

uGet is a multi-platform GTK3 download manager that supports resuming downloads, comes with categories support, can download torrent and metalink files through aria2, a powerful command line download tool that's integrated into uGet.

enter image description here

Install:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:plushuang-tw/uget-stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install uget aria2

Jdownloader

JDownloader is a free and open source cross platform (Linux,Mac ..) download manager, written in Java, which allows the automatic download of files and split files from one-click. Additionally, many “link encryption” sites are supported – so you just paste the “encrypted” links and JD does the rest.

enter image description here Install:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jd-team/jdownloader
sudo apt-get update 
sudo apt-get install jdownloader-installer   

Aria

Aria is not a GUI download manager, but it can be used via several Firefox extensions. Two of them are:

Install: sudo apt-get install aria2


Gwget

Gwget is a gnome frontend for the popular downloading application wget. gwget also has firefox integration with the help of the firefox extension FireGet. However, it is not updated since 2009.

enter image description here


More Information

Steadyflow

Uget

Jdownloader

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  • These should've been split to several answers.
    – ulidtko
    Mar 17, 2013 at 17:19
  • 1+ for uGet, the rest is silence.
    – cipricus
    Mar 2, 2020 at 20:46
23

You can't download a file faster than what the speed of your connection allows. However as @llori pointed out "It is not about going faster than your local connection, but about overriding download bandwidth per stream from the server itself. That's why it is an 'accelerator.'" Thus it doesn't make your connection faster, but it lets you download faster from a server that doesn't allow you to do that.

Gwget

enter image description here

Gwget is a download manager for the Gnome Desktop . The main features are: Resume: By default, gwget tries to continue any download.


  • Notification: Gwget tries to use the Gnome notification area support, if available. You can close the main window and gwget runs in the background.
  • Recursivity: Gwget detects when you put a html, php, asp or a web page dir in the url to download, and ask you to only download certain files (multimedia, only the index, and so on).
  • Drag & Drop: You can d&d a url to the main gwget window or the notification area icon to add a new download.
  • Firefox Extension: Fireget

Sources: Wikipedia & GNOME.org

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  • 9
    It is not about going faster than your local connection, but about overriding download bandwidth per stream from the server itself. That's why it is an "accelerator".
    – liori
    Jun 5, 2011 at 14:58
  • i'll add that to my answer Jun 5, 2011 at 18:41
  • @cipricus Gwget apparently was abandoned and the last available package is for Lucid, you can try to install it though I don't know if it works on current releases. Jun 27, 2013 at 2:17
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No one can beat Aria2, Best Downloader I have seen ever. It can resume your download after several months, even from Mediafire. The Only drawback is - its a command line tool. But don't be afraid, it is quite easy to use. It also integrates with uGet as a plugin so you can use uGet as a GUI for aria2.

Install it with the command

sudo apt-get install aria2

enter image description here

You can also install Flashgot addon on Firefox, and set aria2 as Flashgot default downloader. That way, whenever you click to download something, flashgot will automatically download it with aria2.

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    I think, resuming support is website specific and As far as I know, mediafire support resuming option by default. That is why Aria2 can resume. If the site doesn't have resuming option, you can't resume, even with the best Download manager of the time.
    – Anwar
    Aug 1, 2012 at 12:01
  • Why several answers recommending uGet?
    – Braiam
    Feb 10, 2014 at 12:52
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Do you mean a download manager for ubuntu 10.10?

If so, i prefer jDownloader. jDownloader on PPA

enter image description here

There you also can see how to install it.

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  • SO, what are the features of this? Why should I use it?
    – Braiam
    Feb 10, 2014 at 12:50
10

Flareget is probably the best download manager available for Linux (quoting from softpedia.com) It is highly stable and has almost all the features you can think of. It is multi-threaded and supports upto 16 segments per download for download acceleration. It has inbuilt browser integration and YouTube video download support for all the browsers. It is also actively maintained and a pro version is also available.

This is not free software. Limitation of free version: only 2 segments per download of files larger than 25 MB. (as of v. 3.2.42 in 2014)

enter image description here

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    it should be noted that to get the 16 connections, browser integration and many other features that you will have to buy the "Pro" version as the free version does not offer these features. Jan 25, 2014 at 20:49
  • @MichaelTunnell Only 16 connection feature is restricted rest everything is free including browser integration. Jan 26, 2014 at 5:57
  • since when? the browser integration was the first thing that was limited...then they added on more and more limitations. Feb 1, 2014 at 1:33
  • @MichaelTunnell Since last 3 months, you better keep your self updated before commenting on any post Feb 1, 2014 at 5:35
  • 2
    that is absurd thing to say...the flareget site doesnt mention the differences anywhere you have to test the app first to find the limitations...saying people should use the app to see what the limitations are is absurd, there should be a Community vs Pro comparison page. I would never be wrong about it if it was made easier to know the differences. Feb 1, 2014 at 19:24
9

I still prefer to use wget on files.

Or you can try plowshare which is a command-line tool:

plowshare

9

Axel is the true Download accelerator for Ubuntu. It is a command-line based tool (which comes with a gui version which starts the download in a terminal window).

To instal : sudo apt-get install axel axel-kapt

Axel-kapt is the gui-version.

Downloading via axel is as simple as typing axel url on a terminal. Useful flags include :

  • -n to control number of simultaneous threads.

  • -a for a much simpler download progress bar (akin to wget)

  • -o to specify an output file

You can install Download Helper extension in Chrome (which allows axel to take over downloads in chrome).

In Firefox it can be easily used with FlashGot addon as alternative to the default downloader.

enter image description here

enter image description here I also use it with plowdown as an alternative to jdownloader (automatically downloads files from various websites, automating the browser)

9

UGet

The program uGet is available in the repositories and is an excellent download manager with many useful options. As you can see in the screenshot below, it can pause a large download and resume it successfully (if the server supports resuming). I have used it with great success to download large and small files alike.

You can also queue and classify downloads and allow it to monitor the clipboard for potential downloads. Bandwidth can be controlled per download or on a global scale and, if necessary, you can specify a proxy to use. When flashgot is installed in firefox, uGet can be chosen as the default download manager for that browser.

uGet in action with a large file partially downloaded and paused: :

To boost speed by using multi-thread downloads, enable area2 plugin:

enter image description here

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  • @cipricus By default probably not, but there is an option to specify the number of connections to use, although the number you can get will depend on the server to which you are connecting.
    – user76204
    Jul 11, 2013 at 19:42
  • uGet utilizes both Aria2 and CURL as a backend. Enabling the Aria2 Plugin activates the multi-connection, source, etc features that are not there by default. (both uGet and Aria2 are free so enabling the plugin doesn't have any caveats) Jan 25, 2014 at 20:53
  • Why more uGets?
    – Braiam
    Feb 10, 2014 at 12:53
7

You should try steadyflow Install steadyflow It seems quite good. and it integrates with unity. Do you see the cloud icon with the blue arrow in the top bar?

enter image description here

If you want to integrate it with Firefox, try the Flashgot plugin. For Chrome(-ium), use Chromeflow.

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  • Steady flow is good, but are you sure I can download 600 MB fedora using it ? Dont suggest me about the torrent. May 2, 2012 at 7:32
  • I believe you should be able to. Don't see any reason why not.
    – funkeh
    May 2, 2012 at 11:17
6

KGet is an awesome download manager. It's built for KDE, but supports HTTP[S], FTP, BitTorrent, MetaLink and combinations of all those things, as well as multi-threading, etc. It's cross-platform too.

DownThemAll! Firefox addon is great too.

Usually I use it. It doesn't support BitTorrent, though, but I use Transmission for that.

enter image description here

6

Even if i have no problems downloading big files with any downloader (maybe there is something wrong with your filesystem or internet connection) I can recommend the DownThemAll - Addon for Firefox

But maybe you can explain what you mean by "...none of them work..."

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  • @oZRiz: Yes the problem is I have only 30 KBPS Connection and therefore I need to download a file (Over 1GB) part by part. May 2, 2012 at 7:29
5

I use Uget. Its a simple downloader, and supports resuming. THe latest version of uGet ie v1.8.0 also supports torrents. when you run uGet, it also does very well to detect the presence of a filepath in the clipboard, and asks if you want to start downloading.

enter image description here

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  • 1
    uGet is one of the very few download managers with metalink support.
    – Nemo
    Jun 5, 2011 at 18:17
5

That product appears to be snakeoil. A download is a download; there is no magical incantation to make it go "5 times faster". The partial exception to this is when you are downloading from a site with multiple mirrors, then you can download from all of them simultaneously like the program axel does. This really only helps though if you have unlimited bandwidth and the mirrors are the bottleneck, and this is rarely the case.

2
  • NEW ONE: askubuntu.com/questions/259228/…
    – Naveen
    Feb 21, 2013 at 13:22
  • It's not snakeoil - IDM will begin downloading the file at 5 (or more) starting points in each request. That will keep 5 open connections running. It's especially useful for video downloads where the videos are meant to be streamed and the outbound bandwidth is throttled per request. But if outbound bandwidth is not throttled, then this technique has minimal impact. Aug 11, 2013 at 22:13
5

While I agree that this is complete nonsense (most sites don't trickle their connections to limit per-connection bandwidth caps, these days), of course there are download managers.

Possibly the most popular cross-platform application is DownloadThemAll!. It's a plugin for Firefox.

5

Unfortunately IDM is not available for Ubuntu/Linux but there are many utilities are available which can give you fastest speed like wget and Axel are powerful download utilities.

to install it

sudo apt-get install wget axel 

you may get confused how to use them in easy way. I have a nice technique which I usually do.

Type in terminal

Wget -c  '<link>'.

axel '<Link>'

Here link can be retrieved from firefox's download window .Begin Downloading any file from firefox . It will appear in firefox download box. Pause the download process. Right click on downloading file. Choose "Copy Link location"

Paste it in terminal in place of link. Here note that you should not missed single quote. If you want to stop then press CTRL+C best thing is that your download would never be corrupted and you can resume it by pressing Up key and enter( command again).

1
5

jDownloader

Pros

  • It can download from many file sharing site.
  • Its built-in link grabber makes it better at getting links.
  • It can be used to download from firefox with extension Flashgot
  • It has anti-capcha capability.
  • Fantastic resume capability.
  • Active team of developers

Cons

  • Developed in java and JVM is resource intensive some times. (same problem with Azureus or Vuze though in my opinion)
  • Complex GUI.

I used IDM on Windows long ago and I was missing a downloader like IDM and found jDownloader. you will need some time to get used to jDownloader

I have downloaded files greater than 2-3 GB with many disconnections (due to network problem) but the MD5 was exact !

5

Firefox extension DownThemAll with parallel download and resume support.

0
4

I think that JDownloader can do everything that you want:

5
  • 1
    thanks for the answer, it helps me too. Anyway, what type of jDownloader installation that you prefer? Using the PPA or download the .sh installer from the jDownloader site? Did the jDownloader support the function like "shutdown on complete"? Thanks for the answer :D Nov 14, 2011 at 20:46
  • 3
    Glad to help :) I prefer using the PPA, I think it is easier and keeps it updated. I never tried the "shutdown on complete" but there's an addon for that: jdownloader.org/knowledge/wiki/addons/list/jdshutdown
    – amfcosta
    Nov 14, 2011 at 20:52
  • Will the integration with browsers also work? Nov 15, 2011 at 6:37
  • According to Wikipedia this software is "Mostly GNU General Public License but partly closed-source". Thus, it's not wholly free.
    – N.N.
    Nov 15, 2011 at 7:35
  • I installed JD and integrated fith Firefox using Flashgot. But, whenever i am trying to download videos from Youtube, JD shows the download list as 'videoplayback'(not its original name). Also, i cannot download another video because it is also named 'videoplayback' to JD. I already selected option auto rename from settings.
    – 001neeraj
    Apr 17, 2013 at 16:59
4

Flareget

Is the most Versatile Download Manager I found.

It is having all most all the features of popular download managers like IDM or DAP

* Batch Download * Browser Integration * Scheduled Download

* Flash Video Downloading

All those features are there.

enter image description here

Installation:

  • Latest release can be downloaded from flareget.com

  • Upto Ubuntu 13.10: can be installed with following commands;

For 32 bit:

cd ~/Downloads && sudo wget -c "http://www.flareget.com/files/flareget/debs/i386/flareget_2.3-24_i386(stable)_deb.tar.gz" && tar xzvf 'flareget_2.3-24_i386(stable)_deb.tar.gz' && cd 'flareget_2.3-24_i386(stable)_deb' &&  sudo dpkg -i flareget_2.3-24_i386.deb 

For 64 bit:

cd ~/Downloads && sudo wget -c "http://www.flareget.com/files/flareget/debs/amd64/flareget_2.3-24_amd64(stable)_deb.tar.gz" && tar xzvf 'flareget_2.3-24_amd64(stable)_deb.tar.gz' && cd 'flareget_2.3-24_amd64(stable)_deb' &&  sudo dpkg -i flareget_2.3-24_amd64.deb
4

I humbly recommend TwistLoad for managing downloads. The program provides the core functionality you would expect in a download manager: automatically following redirects, cross-session interrupt / resume support, and a nice GUI interface to keep track of everything:

You can download TwistLoad from my PPA here.

Disclaimer: I am the author.

1
4

Hello from the uGet project team,

I would suggest uGet.

uGet is one of the most powerful download managers for Linux while still being very lightweight. Our latest version was released 10 days ago. (Sep. 9th, 2012)

Steadyflow is a great program but is very limited in features as it was designed to be because of being for minimalists.

JDownloader is Java based so it is not going to be the best when it comes to resource management.

MultiGet had potential but its current version is an Alpha stage and has not been updated since 2010.

4

I use jdownloader. It's a very good download manager which even supports various one click file hosters like rapidshare, fileserve etc.

You can download it from here.

3

You can use axel download manager. It is a command line tool but It support downloading files part by part, which is a popular method of accelerated download. The manual page of axel is saying this:

Axel is a program that downloads a file from a FTP or HTTP server through multiple connection, each connection downloads its own part of the file.

source: manual page for Axel

You can also explicitly mention the number of part it should do to accelerate download. The options of axel is as follows:

Usage: axel [options] url1 [url2] [url...]

--max-speed=x       -s x    Specify maximum speed (bytes per second)
--num-connections=x -n x    Specify maximum number of connections
--output=f      -o f    Specify local output file
--search[=x]        -S [x]  Search for mirrors and download from x servers
--header=x      -H x    Add header string
--user-agent=x      -U x    Set user agent
--no-proxy      -N  Just don't use any proxy server
--quiet         -q  Leave stdout alone
--verbose       -v  More status information
--alternate     -a  Alternate progress indicator
--help          -h  This information
--version       -V  Version information

Try this download manager. You'll be satisfied with this.

I want a perfect alternative of Orbit Downloader or Internet Download Manager of Windows

This can be a perfect replacement of Internet Download Manager. I tried downloading same file using wget and axel. The speed in axel outperforms wget very easily.

What I recommend from the three: If you want me to select a download manager from your list in the question, I would select JDownloader for it's feature richness. Though It requires Java to be run.

3

While Uri Herrera had a very good explanation for what a download accelerator is, the solution that was pointed out, Gwget, is far from what he described as a download accelerator. Gwget is exactly what its name implies, a GUI on top of wget, the most basic of basic unix download program.

One of the reliable ways to get the job (acceleration) done is to download through multiple threads from a particular server. Some servers restrict download speed by threads, instead of the IP. In such cases, if a server limits your download to 100KB/s, having 6 thread will give you an upper bound of 600KB/s, a very significant boost.

So far the one linux program that does this is Multiget, it's a little bit of a pain to setup with firefox, however. But at least it's easy to install on Ubuntu. Google "Multiget deb" to download the debian package. Then look up on the Multiget documentation to see how to hook it up with flashgot. Good Luck

3

I would recommend QuickDownloader.

QuickDownloader is a download manager that accelerates downloads by between 200-300%.

It provides a resume capability for resuming broken downloads. It supports both HTTP and FTP downloads.

Here are some key features of QuickDownloader:

  • Support for multiple Downloads
  • System Integrity Checkers which ensure that all system critical
  • components exists and are in the correct location
  • Memory use reduced to between 2-4mb
  • Capability to carry out both downloads and Resume simultaneously
  • Extensive Decoupling of Code to reduce dependencies between code which could cause problem in future
  • Better Handling of errors
  • Information on each Download that can be resumed
  • Buffer Resizing for optimum use
  • Proxy Configuration for systems behind firewalls
  • Support for all types of Network connections such as Dial Up, Broadband T1 etc.
  • Ability to download from both HTTP and FTP sites
  • 100 % Resume support on all downloads even if the server doesn't support it.
  • Uses Java JRE which runs on any machine such as Windows 2000, 98, Linux etc. 1

To download Click Here

1Source:Linux Softpedia

enter image description here

1
  • how to install it? it has downloaded as a bin file called LinuxInstaller
    – user47206
    Jun 27, 2013 at 10:18
3

You can try out flareGet ( a recently released download manager for linux). It is multi-threaded and supports upto 16 segments per download for download acceleration. It supports browser integration for all the browsers - firefox, chrome, opera etc. http://flareget.com/download

enter image description here

3

There are several download manager in Linux world but i preferred the following ones:

  • JDownloader: Most powerful download manager in Linux (in my opinion). Using it you can start, stop or pause downloads, set bandwith limitations, auto-extract archives and much more.
  • MultiGet: It is simple cross platform (Windows/Linux/BSDs/MacOS) download manager. It supports resuming downloads and SOCKS 4,4a,5 proxy, ftp proxy, http proxy. More information.
  • uGet: It is simple and lightweight and has several good feature like, "Resume downloads", "Queue downloads", "Firefox integration", "Clipboard monitoring" and more. - http://ugetdm.com
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