IDM (Internet Download Manager) vs ?

Just received the sad news that my license for Internet Download Manager (IDM) is expiring in 5 days :upset:

Of course, after this year I find myself wondering how I lived without it.

However, I dutifully clicked the "Buy Online" button in the Registration menu only to find there's no renewal price, but the normal price for a license. :saddd:

I had already been wondering how IDM's competitor's compared and there being no renewal price break really made me wonder.

I recalled there was Download Accelerator Plus (DAP) offering as part of ABC3 (I entered in hopes of winning since I knew IDM was going to expire soon... but no luck... oh well!)

So I checked to see what the winners had to say in the Giveaway Reviews subforum... only to find there are none yet! :disillusionment:

But what can I say? I haven't finished installing my new machine yet and so I haven't posted feedback reviews on the couple of wins I scored either... yet!

Anyway, what I'm wondering is if any one has extensively tried IDM as well as any of it's competitors like DAP?

If so just how well do they compare with IDM?

I mainly use the increase DL speed and the video download functions in IDM, on some rare ocassions I also use the SiteGrab function.

Any feedback and sharing of experience will be greatly appreciated since I have only 5 days to pony up some $ or go back to slow-ville. :Cry:

I'm not sure if IDM will revert back to trial after 1 year?

they r offering a reduced price of $24.95 now. Check their webpage

If u have revo, try cleaning IDM installation and use the trial for 30days, and thereafter repeat the process

If u have sandboxie, install IDM in it & keep using it.

The only alternate I have used is FDM. though never happen to compare the two.

Well, DAP Free one is good if you can live with too many obtrusive Ads. Unfortunately I cant.

As Grr said, FDM is a good alternative, but you shouldn't expect it to be as good as IDM. Out of every alternative of IDM tested by me, FDM is the best choice.

For features like site grabbing, you can use better tools like WinHTTrack which does the job. Similarly for videos, you can use plugins available for free.

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Originally Posted by Avinash

Well, DAP Free one is good if you can live with too many obtrusive Ads. Unfortunately I cant.

As Grr said, FDM is a good alternative, but you shouldn't expect it to be as good as IDM. Out of every alternative of IDM tested by me, FDM is the best choice.

For features like site grabbing, you can use better tools like WinHTTrack which does the job. Similarly for videos, you can use plugins available for free.

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I agree on what u have said.

For videos I suggest vdownloader, as I'm not a plug-in person.

Few alternates to IDM

Ok i would suggest orbit downloader. But remember to use the /NOCANDY switch while installing.
For eg: You have saved orbit.exe on your desktop, do the following

Open command prompt. Go to start menu- type cmd in search and press enter

Now in cmd type cd desktop

after that type orbit.exe/NOCANDY

Note: Replace orbit.exe with the file name of the installer like xyz.exe

Then the open candy ad showing process wont be launched.

:)

Try DAM (Download Accelerator Manager)

DAM is to IDM, as Haozip is to WinRAR :heh:

Download Download Accelerator Manager 4.5.4 Free - A fast and easy download manager for resuming and managing Internet downloads - Softpedia

Jelson,

Here is a giveaway going on thru Friday for 15 licenses to enter and you just might win. Good Luck

Finding a perfect alternative to IDM is very difficult. Only, two download managers come to my mind, when I think of IDM alternatives. They are :

1. DAP

Pros : a) Supports majority web browsers.
Cons : a) Ads.
b) DAP may corrupt downloads. This issue is well known in previous versions, but the latest version which I tested for ABC3 review didn't lead to corrupt downloads.

2. FDM.

Pros : a) No Ads.
b) It is fast, steady and reliable.
c) Comes with In-built site grabber.

Cons : a) Doesn't support many browsers. If you want to integrate it with Firefox, then you must use Flashgot addon.

You can also try the download managers recommended by other members. Please let me know when you find the best alternative :)

Sam until i know FDM is able to capture all downloads from opera and firefox.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by avibky

Sam until i know FDM is able to capture all downloads from opera and firefox.

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Thanks for the info Bala. When I used (I think its v3.5 or 3.6) it didn't supported Firefox. Looks like they are now releasing updates frequently.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ashwin

Try DAM (Download Accelerator Manager)

DAM is to IDM, as Haozip is to WinRAR :heh:

Download Download Accelerator Manager 4.5.4 Free - A fast and easy download manager for resuming and managing Internet downloads - Softpedia

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This DAM looks interesting, first time I read something about it.

About alternatives to IDM: I tried FDM and got good speeds but it froze some times, maybe it was my PC's fault or maybe it was FDM's fault :noidea: I prefer DownThemAll: good speeds and hasn't failed me yet.

Thank all of you guys for the great feedback!! :first:

BTW, I looked around the IDM website and it seems the license is lifetime (Support | licensing) but Purchase pate says you get all updates for free for 1 year. (Support | licenseing says you get all minor updates until next version #)

So... we'll see what happens in 4 days. Perhaps the license I have behaves differently since it was a promo license. I'll report back what I learn. Thanks again everyone!!!

Update: I also took a look at Gizmo's Freeware Reviews for Download Managers HERE

Unsurprisingly, he had very good things to say about Free Download Manager and Orbit Downloader

I think I'm gonna try FDM 1st (mainly because it says you can opt for a portable version and I do love portables).

Thanks again!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jelson

Thank all of you guys for the great feedback!! :first:

BTW, I looked around the IDM website and it seems the license is lifetime (Support | licensing) but Purchase pate says you get all updates for free for 1 year. (Support | licenseing says you get all minor updates until next version #)

So... we'll see what happens in 4 days. Perhaps the license I have behaves differently since it was a promo license. I'll report back what I learn. Thanks again everyone!!!

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If you've bought IDM, then it'll work for lifetime, but you won't be eligible for free updates/upgrades after 1 year. Without updates and upgrades you can continue to use it. On contrary, if it's a license which you won at a giveaway, then you can neither be entitled for free updates/upgrades nor you can use it after 1 year.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Samuel

If you've bought IDM, then it'll work for lifetime, but you won't be eligible for free updates/upgrades after 1 year. Without updates and upgrades you can continue to use it. On contrary, if it's a license which you won at a giveaway, then you can neither be entitled for free updates/upgrades nor you can use it after 1 year.

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This is a new thing for me. Are you sure sam??

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Originally Posted by Alpha

This is a new thing for me. Are you sure sam??

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I think Sam is right :) But would love if someone contradict this fact :)

Thanks avi I never knew that. Maybe it's because i have never used IDM for a complete year.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Alpha

This is a new thing for me. Are you sure sam??

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Yes Arn. When I asked Tonec during giveaway at TIS, they told me that. Here are few quotes from recent giveaways :

1. You can get an original license key from IDM which has one year validity - coolpctips.com

2. the license expires in one year and is eligible for Free upgrade to all new versions of IDM during one year - webtrickz

3. We have ten lifetime licenses for Internet Download Manager to give away. - Ghacks

Now, the 1st quote may also mean 1 year validity for free updates, anyway leave it, as it is not clear (infact many bloggers won't talk more about the details of license key). Now, in the 2nd quote you see, that Mayur is telling that the license itself is going to expire. Now, let us come to Ghacks quote. It's not directly agreeing to my statement, but it'll in contrapositive way. Here, Ghacks talks about lifetime licenses, infact you won't find anything like LIFETIME license at the official IDM page. So, Martin should be talking about the usual license keys that are valid for lifetime but are entitled for 1 year free upgrades/updates... (Also, see this FAQ from IDM)

:clap2: Thanks for the explanation sam

At these days, it is still quite difficult to find download managers which support Google Chrome natively. In addition, most of download managers are not incorporated with automatic download interceptor like IDM. I can mention few which does, they are Free Download Manager (FDM), Internet Download Accelerator (IDA) and GetGo Download Manager. I have never liked FDM. To me, it is bloated and somehow I never succeeded in capturing any YouTube videos with it. IDA is also bloated by ads. GetGo by far is the closest to IDM as to features. In fact, its one-click flash video grabber is better than IDM. Simply placing the normal URL of the video, and GetGo shall "sniff" the content for us. But to my dismay, it installs toolbar and does not support Chrome (May be because Chrome does not allow any third-party toolbars). :disturbed:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ashwin

Try DAM (Download Accelerator Manager)

DAM is to IDM, as Haozip is to WinRAR :heh:

Download Download Accelerator Manager 4.5.4 Free - A fast and easy download manager for resuming and managing Internet downloads - Softpedia

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Nah, tried that. :sleepy:
Albeit the interface is IDM-alike, but it lacks several features IDM has. Unless you are a paid user, you will not be provided with sufficient acceleration. Limited to only 4 segmentation, if I am not mistaken. No zip preview nor Scheduler (?) either. Neither does one-click YouTube download. The absent of one-click flash content is offset by the Media Grabber which I think is less practical. This Media Grabber has to be opened prior to download.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jelson

Thank all of you guys for the great feedback!! :first:

BTW, I looked around the IDM website and it seems the license is lifetime (Support | licensing) but Purchase pate says you get all updates for free for 1 year. (Support | licenseing says you get all minor updates until next version #)

So... we'll see what happens in 4 days. Perhaps the license I have behaves differently since it was a promo license. I'll report back what I learn. Thanks again everyone!!!

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In the mean time, try to keep the latest IDM 6.09 build 2 setup then.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Samuel

If you've bought IDM, then it'll work for lifetime, but you won't be eligible for free updates/upgrades after 1 year. Without updates and upgrades you can continue to use it. On contrary, if it's a license which you won at a giveaway, then you can neither be entitled for free updates/upgrades nor you can use it after 1 year.

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If that is proven the case, then I am afraid almost everyone of us here who have IDM will have to bid farewell to the program after the license expires because I am sure the majority of us got IDM from giveaways.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Avinash

I think Sam is right :) But would love if someone contradict this fact :)

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jelson can be our guinea pig. If he succeed to continue using IDM after, let's say, a week onwards after the expiry date then the case will be proven otherwise. You wouldn't mind, would you, jelson? :wave:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by corker

jelson can be our guinea pig. If he succeed to continue using IDM after, let's say, a week onwards after the expiry date then the case will be proven otherwise. You wouldn't mind, would you, jelson? :wave:

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Yeah!!! :whoo: I get to be the guinea pig! :boom:

Hey, wait a minute :bolt:

:) BTW, just downloaded the latest build (6.09.2.1) from their website.

I think Sameul is right. It makes good biz sense to giveaway a 1 yr license. If the product is really good, then you'll likely to plunk your $ down. And if the paid license is lifetime with all minor updates, that's cool. Especially since they're at 6.09 Wonder how long it will be before they have a major update to 7.x?

If the paid licenses were 1 yr only, then I'd have a problem with that.
Anyway... will report back soon. Clock is ticking! :clock:

For free i still say go with Orbit you wont go wrong. Yes FDM has been become bloated but I always download the core installer and if i need any extra feature i add it using the plugins.

If for paid my best bet is always DAP. I used to use it long ago, got a license from dunno whom :dunno: but after my old hard drive wnet bad i lost everything.

Thanks corker for putting up interesting points. BTW, you can try FDM lite, if you think the standard version is bloated.

PS : I'm keen to see your reply Jelson... :O_O:

UPDATE

Well the other shoe dropped today. Upon launching Firefox was greeted with the message that my IDM has expired.

Interesting data:

• Feb 26, 2012 --> expired
• Feb 19, 2012 --> msg that was expiring in 5 days
• Mar15, 2011 --> first installed (as evidenced by creation date of IDM folder in Program Files dir)
• Mar 03, 2011 --> received license key from AvinashTech

So, the license must have started on Feb 26, 2011. Likely the day the license keys were created by Tonec.

So, looks like I'll be trying out some of the alternatives but I wouldn't be surprised if I end up paying for a IDM license for my new machine.

Imagine I'll end up using an alternative for my soon to be "old" (XP) machine.

:doh: That means IDM licenses don't have any self life.... Thanks Jelson for providing this great info...
Guess i need to think quickly on what to do with my (unused) license. :upset:

Arn i am ready acceept any unused licenses. :).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jelson

UPDATE

Well the other shoe dropped today. Upon launching Firefox was greeted with the message that my IDM has expired.

Interesting data:

• Feb 26, 2012 --> expired
• Feb 19, 2012 --> msg that was expiring in 5 days
• Mar15, 2011 --> first installed (as evidenced by creation date of IDM folder in Program Files dir)
• Mar 03, 2011 --> received license key from AvinashTech

So, the license must have started on Feb 26, 2011. Likely the day the license keys were created by Tonec.

So, looks like I'll be trying out some of the alternatives but I wouldn't be surprised if I end up paying for a IDM license for my new machine.

Imagine I'll end up using an alternative for my soon to be "old" (XP) machine.

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You could try what Grr said

Edit: Deleted info about using IDM beyond trial. Sorry guys :frown:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ashwin

You could try what Grr said

Ash's Edit:Removed the comment partially.

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It's likely they write something to the registry in a Classes | CLSID entry that says you first installed a trial version so that you can't find it and delete unless you know exactly what you're looking for.

I suspect that's why Grr suggested Sandboxie.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jelson

It's likely they write something to the registry in a Classes | CLSID entry that says you first installed a trial version so that you can't find it and delete unless you know exactly what you're looking for.

I suspect that's why Grr suggested Sandboxie.

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Indeed. I found some registry files with Regseeker.

Removed my comment about extending IDM trial period.
Jelson, I had to edit your post too, just removed what you quoted from my comment. I didn't edit what you had written. Sorry about that .

Reason: Apparently it violates some policies.

We should avoid discussing things like how to use IDM beyond trial. We can switch to free alternatives like IDM just as I do. The licensing policy of IDm infact is new for me and perhaps should be changed. :)

No problem, Ashwin. I understand

So, what I said is right. Thanks for updating us Jelson :hug:

The summary of your observation seems quite unpopular info, jelson.

But did you guys notice that I wrote

Quote:

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Originally Posted by corker

If that is proven the case, then I am afraid almost everyone of us here who have IDM will have to bid farewell to the program after the license expires because I am sure the majority of us got IDM from giveaways.

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The text in bold should indicate there is at least someone who does not belong to the group. And who that could be? :spy: None other than I MYSELF! :;-):
I obtained my key from translating IDM. And guess what? I looked into my IDM receipt. It was issued on 2009-12-24 so it is more than two years ago and yet it is still running fine even now. Either downloading or updating, everything OK! :drum:May be it is a special treat exclusive for me. Ha...ha...ha.... :becky:

So, Happy Hunting for new IDM keys to you all! :wave: :heh:

And jelson, as long as you can afford it, I advise you'd better go with purchase. It is well worth the money. Or you may try out Mass Downloader from MetaProducts beforehand. It is cheaper and its renewal policy is based on major version release. However, Mass Downloader can't intercept download automatically like IDM does. And there is slight possibility it will be featured on Giveaway of the Day.

Thanks for the info Corker. Corker probably yoy have a luck lifetime license. :) enjoy.

corker, yeah... good advice. I'll end up purchasing a license for my new machine.

On this one (XP) I'll try an alternative.

Interesting thing was I HAD to uninstall IDM after it expired. Every time a page opened with a video on it... here came the popup box for entering a license key. VERY annoying.

And... everytime I download something I'm reminded of how convenient IDM makes downloading. No more, open Download folder, select, Move to and then navigate to proper folder.

IDM one year license means you can use and update during this year. And can't use after one year. It'll remind you in 5 days before your license expires.