AB Download Manager vs Firelink
AB Download Manager
abdownloadmanager.comFirelink
github.comSide by side
| Figure | AB Download Manager | Firelink |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 2 | 2 |
| Spec score · Download Manager Software | 9.1 (#2) | 8.6 (#7) |
| Browser support | The browser integration supports Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Brave, Opera, and Vivaldi. | The Companion supports Firefox and Chromium Manifest V3; Edge installation is available through Microsoft Edge Add-ons, while other Chromium browsers use a manually installed package. |
| License | The project is published under the Apache-2.0 license. | Firelink is available under the MIT License, while bundled tools and fonts retain their own licenses. |
| Platforms | The software is available for Android, Windows, Linux, and macOS. | Desktop packages are listed for macOS Apple silicon, Windows x64, and Linux x64. |
| Privacy | The maker says the app contains no ads and respects user privacy. | The extension says requests stay on the local machine and it does not send download data to a remote service. |
| Purpose | AB Download Manager is a free, fast, open-source download manager for seamless, organized downloads. | Firelink manages direct downloads, browser captures, media, playlists, queues, and scheduling in one desktop app. |
| Queues | Users can place downloads into custom queues that run sequentially. | Persistent queues support pause, resume, retry, redownload, and scheduling. |
| Support | The site provides tutorials, step-by-step guides, and answers through its documentation help center. | The maker directs users to GitHub Issues to report bugs and request features. |
Plans
In their own words
AB Download Manager
AB Download Manager is a free, open-source tool for organizing downloads. Its multi-threaded connections can increase download speed by up to 500%, according to the maker. Users can queue files for sequential downloading, schedule queues to start and stop automatically, and limit how much bandwidth the app uses. Browser integration supports Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Brave, Opera, and Vivaldi. For browser links to route through the manager, the desktop application must be running in the background. Listed platforms include Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS, with browser extension support also listed. The project uses the Apache-2.0 license, and the maker says it contains no ads and respects user privacy. The site provides tutorials, step-by-step guides, and documentation help. Release notes say API key authentication was added and the integration server was restricted to local connections. The Free plan is free. Video downloading and a portable version are listed; remote control is not.
Firelink
Firelink is a free desktop download manager for direct files, browser handoffs, media, playlists, torrents and scheduled queues. It supports segmented HTTP and HTTPS downloads with retries, speed limits, connection controls and adaptive mirror selection. Queues can be paused, resumed, retried, redownloaded and scheduled. Bundled yt-dlp, FFmpeg and Deno support media and playlist downloads, including direct HLS, DASH and Smooth Streaming manifest URLs; DRM and other protected-key workflows are not supported, and subtitle or multiple-audio-track selection is not exposed in the current phase.
The Firelink Companion can send browser downloads, selected links, media pages and torrent information to the desktop app for review. It supports Firefox and Chromium Manifest V3, with Edge installation through Microsoft Edge Add-ons and a release ZIP for other Chromium browsers. The extension says download data stays local. Firelink is available for macOS, Windows and Linux under the MIT License. The macOS package is ad-hoc signed and not notarized, the Windows installer is unsigned, and the current Linux AppImage requires glibc 2.35 or newer.