Internet download Manager (IDM) or Download accelator plus (DAP) – Which is the Best Downloader?

Posted by: Rajeel in Computers, Tech, Utilities

This has been one of the most popular debate online. Everywhere you want to download something, you can see at-least two three people talking this is the best and that is the best !! I am fed up with these arguments and so I am posting this based on my experience with these two popular Download accelerators.

Generally a download accelarator increase the speed of downloads by collecting from the fast servers or by splitting them or else. Whatever technique they may use, what we care is the speed, right ? IDM and DAP are the 2 most popular download accelerators on the web. So, when comparing them the most influencing factor is the speed they provide.

How I am comparing DAP Vs IDM ?

I am not comparing their speed by downloading a 100 MB file and calculating the time taken by dap and that by IDM. It won’t be accurate as the speed at an instant depends on many things like server from where you downloading, traffic at that time, speed of your connection at that instant, traffic at that server at the instant ….. etc. So I am making my marks on my observations and experience.

I have a 1 mbps connection with which i can get a decent speed of about 100+kbps approximately.

IDM or DAP - which is the best ?

Which is the best Download accelarator – IDM or DAP ??

So let’s list the features, advantages and disadvantages of both IDM and DAP. Let’s start.

Download accelerator plus (DAP )

DAP is called as the most popular and free Download accelerator on the web and is developed by speedbit. Focusing on increasing the download speed DAP can increase the download speed to a great extend and has the ability to add many addons (in latest version) and all.

This is the first download accelerator I used and had used it for over a year. I get about a maximum of 200-220 kbps while downloading, but the average is about 120 – 140 kbps. Let’s check it’s pros and cons

Pros ;-

Light wight and Fast
Increase the Download speed
Accelerate videos and can download YouTube videos in a single click
User friendly and simple Interface
FREE !!

Cons ;-

Speed varies everytime, You can’t always get a constant speed
Can only download flv videos from YouTube, Blind to other videos
Can’t resume broken downloads – If your download got paused at 99%, You can’t get the file and will have to re-download it all again
Can’t always withstand slight disconnections, easily errors while downloading
It installs toolbar and sent frequent mails

Internet Download Manager (IDM) ;-

IDM is the most popular download manager, but unfortunately after the trial period of 30 days you will have to pay for it. But there are a lot of cracks available on the web and eventhough we don’t encourage it, hope it won’t be a problem. I have used it for about 5 months and it really impressed me.

It had a compatibly issues with some browsers which irritated me, but is fixed now. It increases speed to a great extend and the main fact is it is always nearly constant. The maximum speed I got is 220 kbps but it always gave me a 190-200 kbps speed. Also It is highly reliable and can rescue you from network timeouts, unexpected computer shutdowns, connection erros etc and you can pause and resume downloads whenever you want.

Pros ;-

Increases the speed upto 5 times (They say)
The Speed is accelerated and maintains at a similar level throughout.
Can pause and resume downloads, It’s a great feature if you want to download large files
Can withstand and resume broken and interrupted downloads due to connection errors or unexpected shut downs
Can download flv videos from Youtube and also from other sites
User friendly and simple interface
Can schedule downloads
Other features like ZIP preview

Cons ;-

It had bugs in integration with chrome browser in the previous editions. ( Fixed now )
It is NOT Free. You have to pay after the trial season is over

Comparison ;-

While comparing, I have to state that DAP is free and IDM is paid. There is a premium version of DAP but I hadn’t tested with it.

DAP provides huge speeds and acceleration at some times but is not constant throughout, Wheras IDM maintains a constant speed throughout.

IDM has resume capabilities and pause and resume downloads which DAP can’t. It is very useful when downloading large files. In case of DAP, if any slight errors like network dropout or unexpected shutdown or sleep could break the download, ultimately leading you to re-download the same. This drawback of DAP had annoyed me many times and i had even uninstalled it some times in temper when I lose the downloads I was just about to complete. In case of IDM, it can mange such condition and can resume the download.

The Video download of DAP is not so good and isn’t fast enough. It also won’t support any sites other than YOUTUBE whereas IDM supports many sites and works at the same speed as that of other downloads.

IDM also has many features like Zip preview, Scheduler etc as it is a paid software and it is far more reliable than DAP.

Conclusion

You know that everyone has their own definitions and meanings for the word ‘best’. It will be different in different eyes. So My best may won’t be your best – It’s all upto you ! Anyway, as far as I had used, I should say that IDM is the BEST. I say that for a numerous reason that you will surely finds if you had read this post completely.

So I conclude that IDM is the best choice for you if your willing to get the best and spent some money. But, If you don’t want to spent anything, DAP is best for you. It may won’t let you to schedule or resume downloads but can give you an amazing speed.

It’s all up to you !!

5 comments

Ashish Chandra
July 13, 2012 at 10:38 am

IDM is the one I am currently using. It works great in terms of speed and caching automatically. It often happens that when I update firefox the IDM plugin fails to work and then I have to re-install IDM again. I have not used DAP, so no idea about that.

- Rajeel
  July 13, 2012 at 11:14 am
  
  So Far IDM is the best. Give a try for DAP too, not bad anyways !
  
Concepcion
November 16, 2012 at 11:06 am

I am not sure where you are getting your info, but great
topic. I needs to spend some time learning much more
or understanding more. Thanks for great information I was looking for this information for
my mission.

Mister Iuss
November 25, 2012 at 4:44 pm

IDM is the best bang for the buck, if you are planning to buy premium DAP, no real good difference from the free version. Also IDM and DAP have the same burden on the computer processing speed, FYI.

Ahamed Basim
October 31, 2016 at 4:48 pm

i think is idm is better because i have youtube downloader

Don of web The tech underworld

Internet download Manager (IDM) or Download accelator plus (DAP) – Which is the Best Downloader?

How I am comparing DAP Vs IDM ?