Abhinav the Prince: Best 5 Download Managers for Windows

Of course, nowadays, one might not ask why not just use a good Web Browser to download files. Well, Web browsers cannot split up downloads into segments or threads like Download managers. Hence, I tested some of the download managers to deliver this post on the Best or Top 5 Download Managers.

The test was based on the following features, I looked for.

Resume support
Mirror Search support
Flash Video download
Prioritised downloads
Categories downloads
Bandwidth allocation
Browser Plug-in
BitTorrent support
Scheduler
Remote access

Free Download Manager (FDM)
As the name suggests, it's free and with possibly the most features I have seen including the above ones. It has an Easy-to-use GUI with small RAM usage about 15MB.
FDM supports BitTorrent Protocol & also comes with an Upload manager. It has a unique feature called Community Options to get or give comments/feedback by other users, on files you are downloading. The bad part is that Flash Video download feature is a bit quirky.

Orbit Downloader (Link)
Another freeware, with simplistic approac. It doesn't have a BitTorrent support, FTP support or a Video converter like FDM but is one of the best Flash Video grabbers. It has a filter system to set the file types that are allowed or not to download. Also, the best part is that it uses only 4MB of RAM.

FlashGet (Link)

It used to be a freeware, but is now free. It has some additional features like Categorised Download, Scheduler & even a good monitoring filter. It has a Site Manager which functions as an FTP explorer. The worse part is that it uses a high amount of RAM about 32MB.

Internet Download accelerator (IDA)
It's a shareware with 5 variable speed limits. IDA has its own FTP Explorer & more user-friendly than FDM. IDA can download Flash video but doesn't have a video converter like FDM. Also no BitTorrent protocol support .

Internet Download Manager (IDM)
It has got almost good features, but it's not a freeware. It has a better browser integration through Plug-ins than FDM, but unlike the latter, it lacks features like BitTorrent support, Remote Access, Community support & Video converter. If you really want to pay for a Download Manager than use a freeware, then IDM should be the choice. It only uses 6MB of your RAM.