Free Download Manager vs. uTorrent: What’s the Difference?

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Saidwali

Downloading music, movies, and other files on the Internet can be a great way to keep entertained and get things done, but it can also slow your computer down tremendously, especially if you’re downloading multiple files at once.

Main Difference

To make downloading faster, you can use either Free Download Manager or uTorrent to divide files into parts or create multiple downloads of individual files instead of one giant file that you have to wait to download entirely before you start the next one. So which of these programs should you choose? Take a look at the table below to see how they compare in some of their most important features.

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Introduction To Free Download Manager

Open-source FDM is a multi-threaded download manager. It supports HTTP, FTP, BitTorrent and Metalink. The program also has its bandwidth scheduler which allows you to define different speeds for downloading and uploading files. FDM features auto-resume and resumes queue. Furthermore, it provides support for resume/continuous download. This feature is especially helpful if your connection drops during a download operation.

Free Download Manager FI

Introduction To uTorrent

uTorrent is a freeware program that lets you download files from your favorite P2P sites. It is best used for downloading small pieces of files, typically less than a few hundred kilobytes in size. It is also great for downloading large files but users have found that using Free Download Manager is better at handling these tasks. Overall, it’s an excellent download manager with a bit of a learning curve.

uTorrent

Difference between Free Download Manager and uTorrent

The free download manager is a great software program that allows users to manage their downloading history and queue files into categories without having to open multiple browser windows. This program includes a free version with standard features and a paid upgrade version that offers additional features.

Many other websites are offering free downloads but they usually only have small file sizes. In addition, many sites offer torrents, but not all provide quality transfers. With this article, we’ll highlight the differences between both programs and help users choose what works best for them.

Design: FDM vs. uTorrent

Both FDM and uTorrent offer a simple, clean design for their torrent-management software. While there is some variation in color scheme, both designs are simple and easy to navigate. Both are also ad-free, which is certainly appealing to people who don’t want unsolicited advertisements cluttering up their pages.

User interface & performance: FDM vs. uTorrent

The user interface of Free Download Manager is more intuitive and easier to use, with a tabbed section offering access to all its features. In addition, when you’re downloading files from different hosts, you don’t have to re-login into each host – saving valuable time.

Security: FDM vs. uTorrent

Where your files are going is an important consideration for private users. Even if you don’t care about who might be watching as you download movies and music, security-minded users will want to know that their file transfers aren’t being intercepted or monitored.

Windows 8 comes with a built-in secure file transfer tool in File Explorer, which allows for secure transfers from PC to PC or PC to cloud storage service—assuming your service of choice has secure support.

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Extra features: FDM vs. uTorrent

FDM allows for scheduling, and a queue of downloads (download multiple files at once). It also has some very advanced features including downloading from sites behind firewalls, detection of incomplete or corrupt downloads, resume broken downloads, and much more. You can learn more about FDM here. Both client packages have an auto-shutdown feature for your computer which is useful if you forget to turn off your PC when a download completes.

Support: FDM vs. uTorrent

FDM is a highly customizable download accelerator that supports most of the major platforms available including Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. It comes with features such as multilingual support, a user-friendly interface, and BitTorrent protocol which is an effective downloading option for large files.

However, it doesn’t support Magnet Links protocol which is used by default in some torrent clients and you may need to install a third-party add-on like Magnet URL extension to make FDM work with Magnet links.

Compatibility: FDM vs. uTorrent

Freeware applications have much better compatibility, meaning that they can run on operating systems that are not officially supported. If you’re an Apple user, for example, and don’t want to get viruses from Windows-based downloads, FDM is a better option. It also has a wide range of compatible platforms and third-party apps with which it can communicate (e.g., web browsers), making it more user-friendly than its competitor.

Comparison Chart Between FDM and uTorrent

Feature Free Download Manager µTorrent
Multiple languages Yes NO
Resume interrupted downloads Yes NO
Ad-free Yes NO
BitTorrent support Yes NO
Browser integration Yes NO
Built-in Torrent client Yes NO
Clean design Yes NO
Download Accelerators Yes NO
Downloader Yes NO
Download YouTube Playlist Yes NO
File management Yes NO
Firefox Extensions Yes NO
Support for MAGNET links Yes NO
Support for MEGA Yes NO
Music Library Yes NO
Portable Yes Yes
Torrent search Yes NO
User friendly Yes NO
Video Download Yes NO
Youtube downloader Yes NO
Google Chrome Extensions Yes NO
Capture Video Yes NO
Auto-detect videos Yes NO
Auto grab links from the browser Yes NO
Auto-identifies vids Yes NO
Download from Soundcloud Yes NO
Adware Yes NO
Captcha Recognition Yes NO
Clipboard monitoring Yes NO
Command-line Yes NO
Command-line interface Yes NO
Google Chrome Integration Yes NO
Lightweight Yes Yes
i2P integration Yes NO
Swarm Merging Yes NO
Download torrents Yes NO
Torrenting Yes NO
Download videos from youtube Yes NO
Media grapper Yes NO
Aria2 Yes NO
Peer-To-Peer No Yes
Digital Signage No Yes
File sharing No Yes

Conclusion

Torrenting is a pretty straightforward process. The torrent client software, such as uTorrent, handles all of your torrent needs. And while it’s still possible to download Torrents using a web browser, most people will use a piece of dedicated software because it is faster and more efficient. However, it seems like almost every day there is something new coming out in terms of Torrent clients.