Best Download Manager for Mac OS X

Internet is suffering from the PROBLEM OF PLENTY. Probably, download manager for Mac and Windows are one of the most used software after the browsers and antivirus products. Stand-alone download managers with the inherent capability to automatically capture download links, support for torrents, flash video capture, auto grabber are most craved creature on the internet. Like Windows users, Mac OS users are also blessed with an abundance of options as far as download managers are concerned. Leech, Folx, Download Accelerator plus and many other options free and paid options are available in the iTunes store. In the past, we shared ever growing list of download managers for Linux, which was updated a couple of days back only.

Essentially, an ideal download manager for Mac, Windows or any OS, should support some of the functions like pause/resume, integration with popular browsers, simultaneous download, auto grabbing of URLs, torrent support, auto categorizing etc. The fundamental function of such software is to boost up the downloading speed with possible multiple thread support. Although not necessary, but most of them have started integrating torrent search and download facility in the application. Die-hard fan of torrents can look at some of the online torrent downloaders like ZbigZ or few others mentioned over here.

In case, if you are not interested in downloading stand-alone download manager for Mac, you can try browser add-ons too. Of course, they will be restricted to that particular browser, which is often undesirable as you will have to keep a tab on that browser during the download time. As an athirst Windows user, switching from Windows to Mac was a big learning curve for me. The first thing, which I missed was IDM, which is my one of the most favorite Windows software. However, due to the plethora of available options, it wasn’t a daunting task to fall in love with Mac and  available applications. The article will strictly mention some of the best download manager for Macintosh users.

Top Mac Download Manager

Without further ado, let us take you through some of the best options available in the market. There are paid and free options available and we’ve tried our level best to give justice to both of’em.

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Folx

Folx is a free download manager for Mac OS that comes with a host of features that matters the most. The PRO version, priced at $9.95, offers more solid features like iTunes integration, torrent search and more. The iTunes integration will give you an option to directly add downloaded music files to iTunes playlist, which can further be synced with other iDevices. A simple tagging feature, that lets you tag your download, allows you to manage the downloaded files efficiently. Folx is a 2-in-1 app: it supports both common programs and torrents. Other features like scheduling download, automatic capture, automatic tag assignment, growl integration come extremely handy. However, some of the features are locked and can be unlocked through Pro version. In a nutshell, Folx is a decent download manager that is not overhauled with useless features. Speaking of the interface then Folx has a pretty simple and to the point interface. Floating windows will help you to navigate to your downloads quickly.

Folx free version is more than sufficient for a normal end-users.

Leech

Leech is a super lightweight download manager for Mac users. Besides providing all the usual features, it smartly integrates with Safari, Firefox browser to support direct download from those web browsers. You’d need to use FlashGot extension for Firefox to automatically capture the download links. Moreover, the range feature will help you to bulk download files by simply inputting the range in curly braces i.e. {1-5}.jpg. Leech will expand such range to 1.jpg, 2.jpg, 3.jpg, 4.jpg, 5.jpg and download all the images to your Mac.

Nifty features like site and file excluding, again, helps in letting the browser handle them. For instance, you can let Firefox handle PDF files in its own PDF viewer. Rapidshare and other file hosting providers do not let the download managers take over the downloads, in such case you can include them in excluded sites list. Even, the smart drag-drop features will make downloading very easy. Multiple URLs can also be dragged and drop on Leech, which then will be handled separately. Overall, you can consider Leech as one of your best buddy that does what you ask it to do.

BTW, Leech is priced at $14 making it a more expensive option. The trial version is also provided to test the features of Leech. Get  Leech.

JDownloader

A cross-platform compatible Java based open source download manager, JDownloader, has always been in the top of the list in spite of  few drawback. It’s cross-platform functionality makes it a prime candidate of vulnerability. The other side of coin is that it makes it much more lovable and adoptable software. JDownloader has been a favorite download manager on Linux, Windows and Mac platform with over 15 millions crazy users. The stand-alone version is not that useful, however, by adding third party add-ons make it a much more powerful application. It integrates well with the system. Moreover, it supports multiple thread support and few usual additions. You can pause/resume download, add multiple URLs, schedule download and do much more with this smart Mac download manager.

JDownloader has few popular extensions that you must install to make it an elegant download manager. For example, JDownload Integration will scan your links and help you downloading files directly from one of the 1000s of supported websites. There are few more extensions which will enhance the functionality of this nifty little utility.

Download JDownloader

DAP

Speedbit’s DAP or Download Accelerator Plus has been around for over a decade. They have a wide range of products under their belt. You’re required to shed $29.95 from your pocket if you want to use DAP. The same is also available on Windows operating system. DAP integrates is with most popular browsers and takes over a charge from them. It has a very sumptuous past record, which makes it a worth considering utility for Mac users. Mirror download, multi-thread support, download accelerator, pause/ resume support, multiple download options are already integrated into it. Currently, it supports HTTP(S) and FTP downloads only. For torrent download you’d have to rely on something else. The most impressive feature of DAP is mirror search. It’ll look for the mirrors on servers and will serve you with the fastest possible route.

Make sure you look into the features before making a purchase. You can try out DAP trial version to know the product properly.

iGetter

iGetter should probably up higher in the list. Having said that, keeping it at the end of the list doesn’t make it less worthy. iGetter is a feature rich download manager for Mac users that does all. With support for segmented download and mirrors, it makes download a breeze. A unique site explorer or FTP explorer will provide all links available on the site and you can begin batch download. This is extremely helpful if you want to download multiple files from FTP server. Schedule of file downloading is possible based on the traffic demand. Optionally, you can pause and resume download. Unfortunately, there is not support for the torrent downloads which is again a big set back. iGetter allows you to preview the content of .zip files before downloading.

You already know the drill. You’ll have to spend $25 to enjoy the software on your Mac or else you can use it as a shareware with annoying pop-ups.  Grab iGetter from here

Over to You

While IDM for Windows is the best example of how download manager should be, unfortunately Mac download manager doesn’t come with more support. Surprisingly, most of them are distributed as a shareware or paid version. Amongst the mentioned list, Leech seems to be an affordable option with more features in it. Moreover, it is very light weight and offers some advanced features which are not seen in other download manager. Would you like to recommend download manager for Mac which you’ve tried personally? Guess what? The comment section is right below where you can provide your opinion.

Lisy.ly users can also participate by adding more download manager to the list. This will ultimately help all of us