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Mister Download Manager is a free Rust alternative to IDM
Mister Download Manager is a new GPL-3 download tool for Windows, Mac and Linux, written in Rust. The repo is 12 days old and has 4,842 stars.
Image: GitHub
Why it mattersThe main paid tool in this space is Internet Download Manager, a paid Windows app. A free option on all three desktops is now on the shortlist.
Mister Download Manager is a new download tool for Windows, macOS and Linux. The repository went up on 29 October. Twelve days later it has 4,842 stars and 344 forks. It is written in Rust and licensed under GPL-3.0. It ranked 9th on Trendshift's daily list the day the shortlist was built.
The pitch is Internet Download Manager without a licence. IDM is a paid Windows app that has been the common download accelerator for years. Its own buy page lists a one-PC lifetime licence at 34.95 CAD. Mister Download Manager replaces it on three desktops. The README's top line is: "Downloads faster than IDM. Free, forever."
What the project itself claims
Its README states numbers the author measured on their own machine. A 1 GB file finishes in 1 second instead of 5.5 seconds. Small files download instantly, which it calls over 100 times faster. On a connection that drops packets, the author times a file at 1.6 seconds against 5.4 seconds, 3 times faster. The tool supports 86 languages, against 40 in IDM. Treat these as the author's own figures.
The feature list is a superset of IDM. It accelerates HTTP downloads with many connections. It handles torrents and magnet links. It downloads videos, audio, playlists and subtitles from web pages, including YouTube. It restores downloads after a crash. It has browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox, scheduling, VPN routing, and remote control from a phone.
What a reader should do
A buyer who paid for IDM last year has a plain test to run. Point both at the same file on the same connection. Compare total time, not just the start. Try one video that IDM handled well, and one that it refused. Write the numbers down.
Two cautions. The project is 12 days old and has 105 open issues. That is a lot of bug surface for a tool that is driving the browser and the disk. The macOS build is marked experimental. And every speed number in the README is the author's own, from one machine. Download speed on a real connection is the honest test.
A tool any user can run went up free this month. It is free to use, on all three desktops, and 4,842 people have starred it in under two weeks. That is the point of a traction number. The next step is a trial download and a side-by-side run.
Source
- anefzaoui, misterdownloadmanager on GitHub.
- Project homepage: misterdownloadmanager.com.
This item was written by an AI system from the linked source. Reveneau is responsible for what it publishes.
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