Split, fetch, merge.
Each download is cut into parts that load at the same time. When a part finishes, a free connection takes half of the biggest one left, so the last stretch is never a single slow tail.
New Updates inside the app, a welcome tour and a lighter window
Every download,
Every download,
accelerated.
Swift Download Manager splits each file into up to 32 connections, picks up where it left off after a restart, and can use Wi-Fi, Ethernet and a phone's USB tethering at the same time. Free and open source, for Windows, Linux and macOS.
Apache-2.0 licence No ads, no account, no telemetry Signed releases built by GitHub
Corallight
32connections per file
15colour themes
21MCP tools for AI assistants
22platform builds, x86 to RISC-V
Why it is fast
Built to use every bit of your connection.
A browser fetches a file down one pipe. Swift Download Manager opens several, keeps them all busy, and never starts over when one breaks.
Pause, quit, come back.
Resume works after you close the app, restart the computer or lose the line. Broken connections are retried, and busy servers get fewer of them.
Survives restartsRetries on its ownKeeps what it has
Wi-Fi + Ethernet + your phone.
Tick the networks to use and every download spreads over all of them, so the speeds add up. Plug in a phone while a download runs and it joins within seconds.
Right where you already download.
An add-on for Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera and Firefox catches downloads, passes your login along, adds a right-click entry, and spots the videos and sounds on a page. Close the window and downloads keep going from the tray.
- Starts with the system, quietly, if you want it to
- Clipboard watching: copy a link and the app offers to fetch it
- Link grabber, batch downloads and numbered ranges such as img*.jpg
ChromeEdgeBraveOperaFirefoxSystem tray
Queues & schedules
Queues with start and stop times, daily or once, and an option to close the app when they finish.
A server for a team
A web page and a Docker image: people sign in, the server downloads, everybody gets their own folder.
Private by design
No ads, no account, no telemetry and no update pings. It only talks to the servers you download from.
Checked, then trusted
SHA-256 checks on finished files, and releases whose programs, packages and checksums are signed.
Always current, never stuck
Updates inside the app, and a way back.
Help → Check for updates shows what is new and installs it with one button. The same list offers every older version too, so a release that does not suit you is one click from being undone. Your downloads, queues and settings stay.
- Checked before installed. A file is only installed when its SHA-256 matches the list, and only over https.
- Your server, if you like. Read the versions from GitHub, from this website, or from a mirror of your own.
- Off until you say so. The welcome on the first start asks; nothing about you is sent either way.
- Progress windows that get out of the way. Shrink one to a small bar, or close it to the tray, which lists what is running.
Make it yours
15 themes. Light and dark.
Every picture below was drawn by the app itself. Pick a look and watch the whole window change, title bar included. Text stays easy to read in every theme: tests check it.
The 20-second tour
All fifteen, one after the other.
Coral, WinUI 3, Files, Carbon, Blue, Green, Black, Purple, Pink, Orange, Teal, Gold, Nord, Dracula and Mocha. Switching glides from one look to the next, and the app follows your system's light or dark setting unless you say otherwise.
Windows 11, to the letter
A theme made of WinUI 3, not painted to look like it.
Colours, translucency, sizes and type come from the design tokens of Microsoft's own controls. The system accent, light and dark, the transparency switch and a Mica material made from your wallpaper are all followed live.
Mica, Mica Alt and AcrylicYour wallpaper, blurred and tinted, shows through the title bar, sidebar and status bar and shifts as you move the window.
The accent of Windows, all seven shadesRead through
UISettings, the source WinUI uses, and followed while the app is open. Or pick your own.Follows the systemLight or dark, transparency effects on or off, high contrast, the dark title bar and the rounded corners of Windows 11.
Segoe UI and the real type ramp4 px controls, 8 px cards, a 3 px progress bar and a 3 px accent mark on the chosen row, as the XAML says.
MicaMica AltAcrylicSolidSystem accentLight & dark
Windows draws Mica for WinUI apps, but this app draws with OpenGL, whose window Windows lays over a plain white sheet. So the app paints the same material itself from your wallpaper, tinted with the colours of MicaController. It stays opaque and looks the same on every graphics card. On other systems the theme uses solid colours and the app's own typeface.
For AI assistants
Let Claude run your downloads.
Swift Download Manager speaks the Model Context Protocol. Ask an assistant to download a list of links, check what is still running, or retry what failed. The app, not the assistant, decides what is allowed.
- Access levels enforced in the app. Look only, Standard or Full, and a per-connection --read-only that can only lower it.
- No trips to your router. Private addresses, localhost and cloud metadata are refused as text and again when the connection is made, so redirects cannot sneak in.
- Prompt-injection aware. File names and error texts from remote servers are cleaned before an assistant reads them, and assistants can never delete files or pick folders.
- An audit log of every call, with site allow and deny lists, rate limits and "wait until I start them".
An example conversation · Claude Code
21 tools, three levels
Look read only
See what is going on. Nothing changes.
- list_downloads
- get_download
- get_status
- list_queues
- get_settings
- probe_link
- get_audit_log
Standard the default
Add, pause, resume, move and remove. No file is ever deleted.
- add_download
- add_downloads
- pause_download
- resume_download
- pause_all
- resume_all
- start_queue
- stop_queue
- move_download
- verify_download
- remove_download
Full you opt in
The overall speed limit, networks and tidying up.
- set_speed_limit
- list_networks
- clear_completed
# Claude Code
claude mcp add swift-download-manager -- /path/to/swift_download_manager --mcp
// Claude Desktop and most other MCP clients
{ "mcpServers": { "swift-download-manager": { "command": "/path/to/swift_download_manager", "args": ["--mcp"] } } }
Live preview
Manage it from any browser.
The page on the right is the real web interface, running against pretend data right here in your browser. Pause something, add a link, open the settings: nothing is downloaded and nothing leaves this page.
- Add many links at once, with an answer for each
- Networks, speed limit, access tokens and users, from the settings sheet (the gear)
- Light and dark, and it works on a phone
- Plain JSON underneath, plus /healthz and Prometheus /metrics
# a download server for your team
docker run -d --name sdm -p 8080:8080 -v sdm-data:/data \
-e SDM_ADMIN_USER=admin -e SDM_ADMIN_PASSWORD='a long password' \
ghcr.io/namitjain07/swift-download-manager:latest
Try the web interface
It loads the real page with a pretend server. Nothing is downloaded.
Get it
Download Swift Download Manager.
Free, with nothing to sign up for. Every file is built by GitHub from the release's source code and listed with its checksum.
Recommended for your computer
Choose your platform
Pick a tab below, or let the page suggest the right file for the computer you are on.
Windows may say the publisher is unknown, because the installer is signed with the project's own certificate rather than a paid one. Choose More info, then Run anyway, or check the signature first: SECURITY.md has the fingerprints. Quiet install: setup.exe /VERYSILENT.
Ubuntu 22.04+, Debian 12+ and Mint 21+: sudo apt install ./swift-download-manager_<version>_amd64.deb. Arch, Manjaro and EndeavourOS: sudo pacman -U <file>.pkg.tar.zst. Anything else: make build && sudo make install from the source. The tray icon needs a desktop that shows them (KDE, Xfce, Cinnamon, MATE, or GNOME with the AppIndicator extension).
Build it on your Mac
A Mac app can only be built on a Mac. It takes a few minutes with Rust installed.
The Mac version is not signed with a paid Apple developer account, so on the first start right-click the app and choose Open.
Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera: unzip into a folder you keep, open chrome://extensions, turn on Developer mode, choose Load unpacked. Firefox: open about:debugging, This Firefox, Load Temporary Add-on. The app has to be running; otherwise the browser downloads as usual.
# Docker: 64-bit Intel/AMD for now. :latest follows the newest stable release.
docker run -d --name sdm -p 8080:8080 -v sdm-data:/data \
-e SDM_ADMIN_USER=admin -e SDM_ADMIN_PASSWORD='a long password' \
ghcr.io/namitjain07/swift-download-manager:latest
Put a reverse proxy with HTTPS in front before you open it to a network, and add --secure-cookie. Links to private addresses are refused unless you trust your team enough for --allow-private. The full guide.
Build it yourselfmake build compiles it, and a Docker toolchain builds 22 platforms at once. The steps.
Something wrong?Report a bug in a minute: the page opens a ready-made GitHub issue.
Every version
Browse, read, preview and download any release.
Read what changed, grab the files of any version, or open its web interface in a preview (versions from 1.6 on have one).
Questions
Good to know.
Is it really free?
Yes. It is open source under the Apache License 2.0: no ads, no account, no paid tier. It only contacts the servers you download from, and it never sends usage data anywhere.
How does it compare with IDM or aria2?
Like IDM it has a friendly window and a browser add-on, but it is free, open source and runs on Windows, Linux and macOS. Like aria2 it is open and scriptable, but it has a graphical window, and a web interface with a Docker image for teams. Details are in the comparison.
Why does Windows say "unknown publisher"?
The programs and installers are signed with a certificate that belongs to this project, not with a paid one from a certificate authority, so Windows SmartScreen does not know the publisher yet. You can verify the signature and the GPG-signed checksums yourself; SECURITY.md lists the fingerprints.
Is there a Mac version?
Yes, but a Mac app can only be built on a Mac, so there is no download here: build it with a few commands (see the macOS tab). The same goes for the BSDs and other platforms, which the Docker toolchain can cross-compile for command-line use.
Can an AI assistant delete my files?
No. Assistants can add, pause, resume, move and remove entries from the list, but never delete a file from disk and never choose a folder. You can also limit them to looking only, restrict the sites they may use, and read a log of everything they did.
Does it work behind a login or a proxy?
Yes. The browser add-on passes your cookies along, saved site logins and a per-download referrer are supported, and there is a proxy setting plus overall and per-download speed limits.
Fast downloads shouldn't cost a thing.
Get Swift Download Manager and see how quick a big file can be.