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Updated August 28, 2024 Reviewed & Updated by Ashish Mohta Expertise: Windows, Social Media, Automation Education: B.E (Computers)Ashish, Computer Engineer by profession, has been writing about tech for 16 years, with a primary focus on Windows and Smartphones. He has a keen interest in writing about social media, as it constantly evolves, introducing new features to explore. Learn about our Tech Review Board
The FDM app for Android comes from the same FDM organization, which has been a popular download manager software for Windows and Linux since its launch in 2004. It is a feature-packed app with a neat user interface with no intrusive ads.
FDM comes with three download modes: Fast, Moderate, and Slow. The app restricts the maximum download speeds depending on the mode you choose, which helps you manage bandwidth. These settings also adjust the number of simultaneous downloads.
The FDM app also supports torrents. You can either manually add a torrent file or directly download torrent files using magnet links. It allows you to download torrents while keeping seeding disabled. The app also has a built-in web browser, where you can paste links to your download page and start downloading your file.
You can also pause a download and schedule it for a later time. FDM supports over 20 global languages. The app also offers light and dark modes, which you can choose from the settings.
Pros
Cons
Price: Free
Advanced Download Manager, or ADM, has the highest number of downloads on the Google Play Store for a download manager app. The vast number of features in ADM account for its immense popularity.
ADM lets you adjust the speeds of downloads, along with the maximum number of simultaneous downloads. It also has support for torrents. The app also has a section for categories, which sorts your download lists between videos, images, files, archives, etc.
The best part about ADM is its browser. It lets you open multiple tabs, making it a powerful web browser. The app also lets you pause and resume downloads, but you cannot schedule downloads on a per-file basis. Instead, you can only schedule the entire app.
ADM also provides a graph showing download speeds and helping you record bandwidth consumption. The app is free but has a small ad banner at the bottom. In our experience, we did not encounter any full-screen ads in ADM. You can also disable these ads with a one-time in-app purchase.
Pros
Cons
Price: Free; One-time purchase: $4 to remove ads
1DM has over 10 million downloads on the Google Play Store, which makes it the second most downloaded app in its category, behind ADM. The app is known for its old-school yet simple user interface and ad-blocking capabilities.
The 1DM app has all the features you would expect from a download manager app. You can pause and resume downloads, adjust bandwidth speeds, and even download torrents. The best part of 1DM is its built-in browser, which comes with ad-blocking.
1DM will block all ads and unnecessary popups on the download page. However, you might see occasional ads in the app, which are from 1DM. This means that you won’t have to deal with ads on the download page; instead, you will see them in the download list within the app.
The biggest downside of 1DM is its full-screen ads, which appear for around 10 seconds when you complete a download. However, you can buy the 1DM+ app separately for a completely ad-free experience.
Pros
Cons
Price: Free, 1DM+: $2 without ads
Download Manager by Magdalm gets the basics right and is one of the few applications from the Play Store that does not bombard you with ads at every step. The app requires you to paste the download link in its browser, after which it picks up the file.
The app has a few ads in between that are not intrusive. The user interface is clean, and you will have no complaints about the downloading functionality. Since this is a bare-bones app, it has advanced features such as torrent and scheduling.
Download Manager by Magdalm may not impress you much compared to the other apps on the list. But when you look at the other options on the Google Play Store, this app proves to be the least intrusive one and makes it to this list because of its fluidity. The download manager app market is dominated by FDM, ADM, and 1DM; hence, not many developers enter this segment.
Pros
Cons
Price: Free; In-app purchase: $1 onwards.
Yes, it is safe to use third-party download manager apps for Android as long as they come from a reputed developer.
No, an external download manager app cannot fetch downloads automatically from Chrome or any other browser on Android.
In our opinion, FDM is the best download manager app for Android. It offers multiple features, such as torrent and download scheduling, and an ad-free experience.
