Comparing File Download Managers

Curtis M. Humphrey — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 15:55:06 +0000

The Objectives:

My objective is to find a WordPress plugin that will allow me to at least do:

display in a post a download (link, picture) to an arbitrary file type
to have the link to the download be neat and nice e.g. /download/filename.type
provide a nice upload tool

Furthermore, it would be nice if added the download code to a post provided nice options like a picture or number of hits…

The Search:

So the hunt begins. I went searching through the plugins and I found the following ones a possible candidates.

Wordpress Download Monitor 2.2.3
Attachment Manager 2.0.1
WP-DownloadManager 1.40

Wordpress Download Monitor

Pros: The plugin has a nice admin download page. It does support nice URLs. It also has a very nice integration with the edit post page.

Cons: It seems to require one to list the acceptable file types. It also puts the download admin page under tools, I would have preferred it under Media.

Attachment Manager

Pros: Nice icons to go with the download files.

Cons: Opps, it appears that this one should not have been a candidate for comparison. This one is focused on icons and not really file upload and download.

WP-DownloadManager

Pros: It places the admin pages under a new Download section. Not bad but I would still have preferred under Media. It has many nice options under the admin pages and a nice focus on download listing and stats. I however will probably have little download listing pages.

Cons: The download URLis tied to a number and not a title. Who wants a download url to be /download/1231 and not /download/filename.type?

The Find:

In conclusion I have found that Wordpress Download Monitor to be the plugin to best match my objectives. If your objectives are the same as mine, then I would recommend using this plugin for your file management needs.