Comparison
BoltGet and IDM
Internet Download Manager is a mature, capable download manager. This page sets out what each one does and what has been measured, so the facts can speak.
Last reviewed: October 28, 2026, IDM version 6.43 build 16.
Measured download times
Both tools at their defaults, medians of 5 runs on October 28, 2026. The benchmark page has the spreads, a fixed 8-connection BoltGet configuration and the raw data.
| Target | IDM | BoltGet | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| cachefly-10mb10 MiB from the CacheFly CDN over HTTP | 3.22 s | 0.22 s | BoltGet faster in every run |
| cachefly-100mb100 MiB from the CacheFly CDN over HTTP | 4.06 s | 2.17 s | BoltGet faster in every run |
| nforce-100mb100 MiB from NFOrce in the Netherlands over HTTPS | 4.15 s | 3.96 s | No difference claimed |
| lab-throttled-100mib100 MiB from a local server that limits every connection to 2 MiB/s | 7.13 s | 6.78 s | BoltGet faster in every run |
| lab-1gib1 GiB from a local server over loopback, no limit | 4.66 s | 2.47 s | BoltGet faster in every run |
Features
BoltGet is at v0.1: the engine and the command-line tool. Rows with a milestone are planned, not shipped.
| Feature | BoltGet | Status | IDM |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engine | |||
| Multi-connection (segmented) HTTP and HTTPS downloads | Yes | Available now | Yes |
| Dynamic segmentation: a connection that finishes early takes over half of the largest remaining part | Yes | Available now | Yes |
| Connection count adapted from measured throughput | Yes: starts at 4, adds connections only while they help | Available now | Unknown |
| Maximum connections per download | Up to 32 (adaptive default caps at 16) | Available now | Up to 32 |
| HTTP/2, one connection per segment | Yes | Available now | Unknown |
| Resume after pause, crash or reboot | Yes, checkpointed to SQLite | Available now | Yes |
| Progress recorded only after the data is on disk | Yes | Available now | Unknown |
| Continue with a new link after the old one expires | Yes, checked by size and ETag or sample bytes | Available now | Yes |
| Global and per-download speed limits | Yes | Available now | Yes |
| Checksum verification (SHA-256, SHA-512, SHA-1, MD5) | Yes, including digests the server sends | Available now | Unknown |
| HTTP, HTTPS and SOCKS5 proxies | Yes | Available now | Yes |
| FTP and FTPS | Planned | post-1.0 | Yes |
| Desktop app | |||
| Desktop app | Planned (Tauri 2 and Svelte 5) | v0.2 | Yes |
| Dark theme | Planned: dark first, light too | v0.2 | No |
| Categories with destination folders | Planned | v0.2 | Yes |
| Queues with concurrency limits | Planned | v0.2 | Yes |
| Scheduler: time windows, start and stop, shut down when done | Planned | v0.5 | Yes |
| Interface languages | English | v0.2 | Many languages |
| Website grabber (offline copies of sites) | Not planned for 1.0 | Yes | |
| Browser and video | |||
| Extension for Chrome, Edge and Firefox | Planned (Manifest V3, native messaging) | v0.3 | Yes |
| Cookie, referrer and header forwarding from the browser | Planned | v0.3 | Yes |
| Video and stream downloads with a format picker | Planned (yt-dlp and ffmpeg) | v0.4 | Yes |
| Command line | |||
| Command-line tool | Yes (boltget) | Available now | Partial (idman.exe switches) |
| JSON output for scripts | Yes (--json) | Available now | No |
| Built-in benchmark command | Yes (boltget bench) | Available now | No |
| Platform | |||
| Windows | CLI now; app previews from v0.2 | v1.0 | Yes |
| macOS and Linux | The CLI builds on Linux today; apps after 1.0 | post-1.0 | No |
| Code-signed installer | Planned | v1.0 | Yes |
| License | GPL-3.0-or-later | Proprietary, paid after a trial | |
Unknown: we could not confirm it either way. If you know, please open an issue with a source.
Moving from IDM
How IDM's concepts map to BoltGet, and when each one arrives.
| In IDM | In BoltGet |
|---|---|
| Max. connections number | Adaptive by default; -c N fixes the count, --max-connections caps it. Available now. |
| Refresh download address | boltget refresh <id> <new-url>, which checks that the new link is the same file. Available now. |
| Speed limiter | --limit on a download, boltget config set limit for all of them. Available now. |
| Categories | Categories with destination folders, in the desktop app (v0.2). |
| Queues and scheduler | Queues in v0.2, time windows and when-done actions in v0.5. |
| Browser integration | The BoltGet extension for Chrome, Edge and Firefox (v0.3). |
| Your download list and settings | Import is being investigated for v1.0. |
License
BoltGet is free and open source under GPL-3.0-or-later. IDM is proprietary software, sold after a trial period.