Paste, drop or select
Press ⌘V in the window, drop a link on the menu bar icon, or select one anywhere and choose Services › Download with Aqueduct.
See how it works
The same file from a server that holds each connection to the same speed. With eight, each piece has its own connection, and a connection that finishes takes over half of the biggest piece left.
Many servers limit each connection like this, and one connection to a server far away rarely fills a fast line. Aqueduct starts with two and adds more only while they make the download faster.
One file, many channels
In pieces, all at once
Each piece of the file comes over its own connection. When one finishes, it helps with the biggest piece left, so they all finish together.
Picks up where it left off
Pause it, quit, lose the network, even restart the Mac. Progress is saved every couple of seconds, after the bytes are on disk.
Never two versions in one
Every piece checks it's still the same file. If it changed on the server, the download stops and says so, instead of stitching versions together.
Quiet in the menu bar
The channel over the arches fills as files come in. The window opens when you want it, with a Dock icon only while it's open.
Busy servers, expired links
A busy server is asked again as late as it says. If a link expires partway, paste a fresh one and the download carries on; nothing is lost.
A speed limit
Keep some of your connection for everything else. One limit for all downloads, in Settings or with aqueduct limit 5.
Names like your browser
A second copy is “Album (1).zip”, the way Chrome names it, or the way Firefox, Safari or Finder do, if you prefer. Nothing is ever replaced.
Marked like a browser download
Finished files are quarantined, so Gatekeeper checks them as it does Safari's, and Get Info shows where they came from.
Rules
Disk images to one folder, video to another, or everything from one site somewhere of its own. A site that dislikes many connections can get fewer.
Check a checksum
Paste the SHA-256, SHA-1 or MD5 a site gives, and the finished file is checked against it before it takes its name.
Pages aren't files
When a link opens a sign-in or a download page instead of the file, Aqueduct stops and says so, and opens the link in your browser.
From Terminal
aqueduct add a link, list, pause, resume. It talks to the app over a socket only you can open, since links often carry tokens.
Private
No accounts, no analytics. Diagnostics are for you to copy into a bug report, and they never have links or file names.
At home on your Mac
A native app, small and calm: system fonts and controls, Reduce motion respected, and nothing running while nothing downloads.