IDM stands for Internet Download Manager, and it’s a useful tool for organizing your downloads. The software was released in 2001 and is available in more than 50 languages, making it one of the more popular download management systems.
You can enhance IDM even more by coupling it with proxy servers. You can add a foreign proxy IP address to IDM to bypass geographical restrictions and access previously unavailable content. Proxies also obfuscate your original IP address increasing your online privacy, which is excellent for countries with strict torrenting laws.
Lastly, proxies can help you avoid ISP speed throttling and increase your download speeds. Some ISPs put secret limits on maximum download speed to save bandwidth if they notice a user is downloading large files. When you connect to a proxy, you channel your IDM download through a different server and can get better results.
Best Local Proxy Providers of 2023 – Quick Summary
1. IPRoyal – The fastest Internet Download Manager proxies
2. Bright Data – Optimized for large business downloads
3. Smart proxy – Fast residential proxies
4. Oxylabs – Filled with advanced features
5. MarsProxies – Great geo-targeting options
6. SOAX – Numerous additional features
7. Storm Proxies – Excellent for proxy beginners
8. GeoSurf – Outstanding city-level targeting
9. ProxyRack – Provides unmetered residential proxies
10. Kproxy – Proxy service with a great free plan
What Is IDM?
Internet Download Manager – or IDM – is a popular tool for organizing your downloads. Many Internet users use Web browsers to download files, but they aren’t the best option available. Web browsers often lack advanced features to schedule your downloads, make them more private, or even drop the download on IP change without the ability to resume.
On the other hand, IDM provides a Download Dialog Box filled with useful information. You can group your downloads, schedule them for later, and set the speed limit in case it slows down the network too much.
This tool is excellent for downloading large files because it will refresh the download from where it ended if your connection drops or the server crashes. This way, you will not have to start from the beginning, saving you time and resources.
Which Is better: IDM or FDM?
An alternative to IDM is Free Download Manager – or FDM – another popular download organization tool. Even though it has a few advantages over IDM, it cannot compete with its paid counterpart. Here’s how FDM and IDM compare.
FDM is free, open-source software. Meanwhile, you have to make a one-time payment for a lifetime IDM subscription. If you want to set a speed limit for your downloads, FDM will do it globally for all of them. That’s uncomfortable when you want to limit only some downloads and get others faster. IDM allows setting the limits individually.
IDM is better at catching download files, like PDF, RAR, or EXE files, which FDM often skips. Furthermore, FDM sometimes places them in incorrect folders, so you have to locate them yourself. On the other hand, FDM has a built-in torrent client, which IDM lacks. It also has a recycle bin, which can restore deleted downloads if you did it by mistake. Overall, IDM is more reliable and comfortable, yet FDM also has a few unique advantages.
Full Providers review
We have analyzed dozens of IDM proxy service providers to see which ones perform best. You will find IDM proxy providers optimized for business needs as well as for personal use. Let’s dive in!
IPRoyal.com
- Pricing: IPRoyal’s pricing is competitive, asking for $7/GB for residential proxies with unlimited traffic. Datacenter proxies start at $1.39/proxy, also with unlimited traffic, and five private proxies cost $9.00 per month.
IPRoyal has been making its way to top-quality proxy service providers for a few years. Currently, they are the industry’s fastest proxy service provider, making it the best for IDM.
IPRoyal provides 8+ million IP addresses with an astounding 99.9% uptime. Their servers are spread worldwide and support the SOCKS5 protocol, which ensures your downloads are private and secure.
No less important are several additional features, such as a proxy tester, Google Chrome and Firefox browser extensions, and a 24/7 customer support team. We asked them how to use proxies with IDM and got a quick and accurate response, and the download speeds were amazing.
Lastly, they offer six proxy types: static or rotating residential, datacenter, mobile, private, and sneaker proxies. Combined with affordable and flexible payment plans, this is the best IDM proxy provider.
Bright Data
- Pricing: Bright Data’s datacenter proxies cost $0.80/IP + 0.110/GB, Mobile is $40/GB, and residential proxies start from $15/GB. However, you can get better prices if you subscribe to more online traffic.
Bright Data was established in 2014 and has made a strong reputation since then. It’s a business-oriented professional proxy service provider that has put much effort into building an elaborate proxy server pool. You will get more than 72 million proxies in four types: residential, ISP, datacenter, and mobile proxies.
They have developed their proxies to respond to many business queries. They excel at data scraping, bypassing geo-blocks, and optimizing multiple downloads. The latter feature puts them at the best IDM proxy list because you can expect to increase your download speed and download files from geographically restricted regions.
Because their services are pricey, they are primarily used for business purposes. So if your business relies on fast downloads with IDM, this could be one of the best choices.
Smartproxy
- Pricing: Smartproxy’s service is averagely priced, starting from $10/month for 100 datacenter IPs and $12.5/GB for 1 gigabyte of residential proxy traffic.
You should choose this proxy service provider if you require private and anonymous IDM downloads. Their 40+ million residential IPs are very fast and have excellent uptime, and we had no trouble organizing multiple downloads with them.
However, they have somewhat limited datacenter options. For example, they provide only 100K+ shared datacenter IPs worldwide, and dedicated datacenter proxy servers are located only in the US.
On the other hand, they offer free unique features, like X Browser, which you can use to manage multiple online profiles anonymously. It’s an excellent choice to organize several downloads simultaneously without exposing your online activities to any third parties.
Oxylabs
- Pricing: Oxylabs prices are relatively expensive, with starter plans costing $15/GB for residential proxies, $250/month for mobile, and $50/month for shared datacenter proxies.
Oxylabs was established in 2015 in Lithuania, a country with one of Europe’s fastest Internet connection speeds. They are business-oriented and take the job very seriously. Currently, they offer seven proxy types: residential, mobile, rotating ISP, shared and dedicated datacenter, SOCKS5, and static residential proxies.
Alongside proxy server variety, they offer four API types: SERP, Web, E-commerce, and Real Estate Scraper APIs. They are among the best choices if your company utilizes multiple large IDM downloads with data scraping.
You can be sure Oxylabs will give you an advantage with their blazing server speeds. Lastly, you will find tons of useful self-help material on their website, guiding you to use the server at maximum capacity.
MarsProxies
- Pricing: MarsProxies provides competitive pricing, asking for €3/GB for Ultra residential proxies, €2/proxy for Mars ISP residential, and €1.4/proxy for Mars Obsidian datacenter monthly plan.
This IDM proxy service provider will not overburden you with high prices or unnecessary features. Instead, they provide straightforward proxy solutions that are sufficient to use with large file downloads.
Their primary benefits include excellent download speeds and an intuitive dashboard to help you organize your proxies. Furthermore, moderate prices ensure you will not spend extra and have additional funds to invest elsewhere. Although they offer only 550,000 IP addresses, they are spread in 190 countries and efficiently bypass geo-blocks.
SOAX
- Pricing: SOAX has monthly or annual payment plans and asks for $99/month for 8GB residential traffic or $950/year for the same plan.
This IDM proxy provider is not the cheapest, but you can test it on a free trial to see whether it fits. SOAX specializes in mobile and Wi-Fi proxies, which are cheaper but provide lower connection speed and stability. However, both of these are residential, and their mobile IPs demonstrate excellent performance.
Because mobile and Wi-Fi connection often drops, SOAX automatically rotates them to ensure service availability. This should not be an issue with IDM because this manager successfully stops downloads in case of a connection drop and then resumes them without starting from the beginning.
Storm Proxies
- Pricing: Storm Proxies plans start from $39/month for 40 simultaneous backconnect proxies connections, increasing to $59/month for 80, and 150 costs $97/month for the best price/value ratio.
You should choose this option if you’re new to proxy services and aren’t looking for advanced features. Storm Proxies provide a straightforward backconnect proxy solution and offer 200,000 IPs. It cannot compete with other service providers but stands out regarding its cheap prices.
Its geo-targeting capabilities are limited to the most popular regions, however, you can use them to bypass geographical restrictions and download more online content. Lastly, they provide good uptime and stable speeds for an affordable price, finally putting them on this list.
GeoSurf
- Pricing: You can get the Geo Surf Residential Explorer plan for $300/month for 25GB of traffic. The professional residential plan costs $800/month with 100GB traffic, and you can order an additional GB for $8.
GeoSurf has provided proxies since 2009 and has established proxy servers worldwide in many cities. Currently, they offer 3,7+ million IPs in 1,700+ locations, making them one of the market leaders global coverage-wise. They take very little time to set up, which is perfect for IDM, so you can immediately start your operations.
Alongside fast downloads, GeoSurf excels at anonymous web scraping and browsing and is optimized for torrenting. Although they don’t provide datacenter proxies, their residential proxy network is optimized for online privacy, so this might be your option if you don’t want your online activities exposed to third parties.
Proxyrack
- Pricing: ProxyRack offers a variety of plans, starting from $49.95 for 10GB premium residential traffic, and unmetered residential proxies cost $65.95 for five ports.
Unmetered plans are a significant advantage when looking for an excellent IDM proxy service. Although with limited IPs, you can get ProxyRack residential proxies that do not cap the bandwidth amount. Sadly, they do not support SOCKS5 protocol on residential servers, but you can get it on their datacenter proxies.
ProxyRack allows buying more proxies straight from its dashboard, simplifying the whole process. You can authenticate via username and password or add whitelisted IPs. Combined with their moderate prices, this provides an extremely comfortable service without spending extra on it.
Kproxy
- Pricing: Apart from an amazing free trial, the basic plan costs $5 for ten days, and the premium plan costs $10 for thirty days.
Kproxy is an excellent choice if you want to optimize your IDM downloads for no additional costs. You will have to subscribe to a paid professional plan if you’re looking for advanced features, but its free plan is more than enough to obfuscate your IP address and bypass ISP speed throttling.
Furthermore, the paid plans are really affordable and provide numerous additional features, such as a portable browser, Chrome, Edge, and Firefox extensions. The service works surprisingly well, unlocking geo-restricted content even on a free version!
Advantages of Using a Proxy With IDM
Proxies can enhance your IDM experience in several useful ways. Firstly, it’s crucial to stay safe while downloading files. Whether you are using torrents and want to avoid detection or simply do not want to expose your real IP address for privacy reasons – proxies will get the job done.
You can use a proxy IP address with IDM to channel your downloads through a different server. This way, you can bypass online geographical restrictions and download previously unavailable content. Many use it to broaden their streaming options, but it’s also an effective way to download business-related information or data reports restricted to particular regions.
Furthermore, some Internet Service Providers choose to limit users’ download speed if they notice large file downloads. You can avoid this by connecting to a proxy server, which will handle the download at the maximum possible speed without exposing your activities to the ISP.
How Can I Download Faster With IDM?
According to the software developers, you can increase your download speed up to five times by using IDM.
Firstly, you should make sure there is no speed limit applied. In IDM, click “Downloads” and navigate to “Speed Limiter”, then turn it off.
Second, you can make it use your full bandwidth. In “Downloads,” click on “Options”, navigate to the “Connection” tab, and set the “Connection Type/Speed” to “LAN 10Mbs”. Then set the “Default max. comm. number” to “8”, and click OK.
As mentioned above, you can use reliable IDM proxies to bypass ISP speed throttling and download your files at a maximum speed.
Lastly, you should turn off any other programs using your bandwidth or limit their speeds to avoid interfering.
Conclusion
IDM is a comfortable tool for organizing your downloads, but it can be even better combined with professional IDM proxies. It’s important to remain safe while downloading, be it torrenting or avoiding malicious actors from reading your unique IP address. Proxies will strengthen your online safety and increase the download speeds at the same time if your ISP is throttling large file downloads.
FAQs
Is IDM safe?
Yes, IDM is safe to use, but it’s not developed as a cybersecurity tool. You should combine its safety with reliable IDM proxies to take its safety to the next level. They will obfuscate your original IP address protecting your online activities from unwanted attention.
Why should I avoid free proxies for IDM?
Free proxies often cannot provide sufficient Internet connection speed for a comfortable download. IDM is frequently used to organize multiple downloads, and free proxies will lower each download speed to an unbearable state. Furthermore, free proxies often gather and sell user data putting your confidential information at risk.
