Linkifier Review

Linkifier is a multihoster service that supports downloading from 80+ different filehosting sites through a single account, as per their website’s copy. I first discovered the service in late 2017 and performed some initial testing of their service this past December.

It’s now April, 2018 and I’ve had the opportunity to test the service pretty extensively over the past couple of months. I wish I would have kept track of how much I downloaded during these tests, but I’d imagine it was well over 100GB. This is a departure from my usual testing, but before this year, my internet was capped at 65Mbps down whereas now I have 200Mbps+ available to me. Beyond that, I wanted to really get a feel for how the service performed over time before writing a full review.

This is going to be a long one… So here’s the table of contents:

• Testing setup and tools used
• Review limitations
• Supported Sites
• Download managers support
• Hoster download limits
• Download speeds
• Problems with downloads
• Support
• tl;dr review summary
• Linkifier review conclusion

Review / Testing Setup and Tools

I tested using Chrome on Linux and Windows, jDownloader, IDM, Mipony, Ant download manager and Load!. All of my tests were run on a 100Mbps-200Mbps capable VPN connection (using Private Internet Access), 6-core machines, 16GB+ RAM with local file storage either SSD or RAM Disk.

Review Limitations

I download files a certain way. I did experiment with browser downloads and various download managers, but because I personally only use jDownloader anymore, I may have missed settings or optimizations to improve download reliability or speed while using other methods.

While I tried to test as many filehosting services as possible, it was difficult finding download links for specific filehosts. In the post-Megaupload era (January 19th, 2012 and beyond), filehosting services have changed to hide download pages from search engines and most indexers have shuttered. Finding download links in general is super-easy, finding a non-adult Depositfiles download link, on the other hand, for example, was not easy for me. To some, this would be trivial, I know. I created a script to help me identify Linkifier download links on a page, which I should be offering on this site shortly, but that wasn’t created until my testing was almost over.

I did not test Linkifier every day, and may not have even tested it every single week over the past 6-8 weeks. However, I did test the service at various times of the day and night, sometimes several days in a row.

Supported Sites

Linkifier purports to support 80 sites:

Some of those counts include video-streaming sites, which is standard across any multihoster service I’ve looked at. While those numbers mostly match up with the supported hosters list (available within the member’s area), not all of those supported hosters actually work.

Specifically: openload.co and uploadgig.com. That I can recall, I was not able to download from these two services in any of my testing this year, but they are both still listed as “ON” on the hoster-status page.

I had significant off/on issues with Nitroflare, and Keep2Share was back and forth, but I tested that to a lesser extent. Turboit and Depositfiles were a little inconsistent.

Rapidgator, Uploaded.net, Filefactory, Uptobox and Datafile mostly worked for me, but that was highly dependent on how I was downloading the files.

I did download from Alfafile and Depfile as well a couple of times, and both of those tests worked.

Download Manager Support & Experience

When I started testing the service, Linkifier listed support for two download mangers: jDownloader and Mipony. Since then, they have added two more: IDM and Load!. Unfortunately, I could not update Load! for some reason to actually test the newly-added Linkifier support, I had already tried IDM (Internet Download Manager) before they listed it as supported and grew to despise it quickly, and Mipony wouldn’t recognize either ul.to or rg.to as a supported filehoster for my Linkifier account, so I gave up on that. I can’t remember which one it was.

Further, for about two weeks, every single download I tried in jDownloader with my Linkifer account failed. Downloads worked with another service in jDownloader, downloads worked through the Linkifier website, but they wouldn’t even start with Linkifier with jDownloader. That issue was fixed, but overall I was not impressed with any of the above download managers, either because of the software’s behavior having nothing to do with Linkifier (IDM, Load!), beta, incomplete support for Linkifier (Mipony) or just consistent problems (jDownloader).

One thing I will recommend, though: if you’re using a premium account or a multihoster service with jDownloader, check out disabling free mode. This may help with some specific problems that affect premium downloads.

For most of my testing, I ended up using Ant download manager. Though Linkifier isn’t specifically supported, I had very few problems downloading files with that download manager outside of the occasional download that went to my browser downloader instead. It’s not free software (pro trial, like IDM), but it worked well for my purposes, and if I used Windows, I might even consider keeping the pro version.

If you’re comfortable with Internet Download Manager, I think that’d be a good choice for Linkifier as well. Downloads were very fast overall, but for me the behavior was unacceptable, especially because I was trying to record some of the download sessions.

Based on my experience up until April, 2018, I would not recommend using jDownloader with Linkifier. I assume that Load! and Mipony support will improve once the association matures. I know some people use it, and it works for them. It didn’t work well for me. Your mileage may vary.

Filehoster Download Limits

Linkifier has daily limits for several filehosting sites. This is standard with any service I’ve ever personally used. Because I was only testing the service, not actually downloading files that I was looking for, they didn’t even come into play except when I tried downloading a 2.3GB Alfafile file with a 2GB daily limit. I don’t actually know how that ended as I killed the download when I noticed it.

As of this writing, these are the more-notable daily limits:

• 10GB – Depfile, Depositfiles / Dlfiles.eu, Rapigator / rg.to
• 2GB – Filejoker, Fileboom, Nitroflare
• 5GB – Filesmonster, Turbobit
• 3GB – Keep2Share / k2s.cc

The full list is available on the hoster’s status page.

Like the update in my testing last year, the daily tracking “bandwidth used” for limited hosters does seem to be working properly, it might even be a little bit on the generous side.

Download Speeds

Overall, download speeds were quite fast. I was actually very impressed with some of the speeds I saw downloading though Linkifier. Some downloads were around 40MB/s individually (300Mbps!) when I forgot to turn on my VPN. While that wasn’t the norm or even the average (my VPNs usually ran 100Mbps-200Mbps – via PIA), seeing 15MB/s-25MB/s on a VPN in parallel was pretty standard. With a faster connection, I’m guessing I would have seen even higher speeds.

I tested my VPN connection before each test, so at least to the speedtest server, all Linkifier download tests were performed with a 100Mbps+ connection.

This isn’t to say that every single download was fast or it was consistently 100Mbps speeds I was getting with Linkifier downloads. I do think time of day factors in to speed, seeing most of my best speeds in the AM US Central Time, and some of the slower speeds more consistently during PM hours US Central Time. I’ve been using multihoster services since 2011, just before Megaupload got taken down. Anything around 2MB/s-3MB/s or higher with a single download from a multihoster — I’m quite content with that.

There was only one occasion where I saw downloads unbelievably slow. I believe that was a batch of Uploaded or Rapidgator files using jDownloader. I was seeing speeds like 23Kb/s on files — just abnormal. I don’t know if it was Linkifier, my traffic’s network path, the filehoster, or maybe all of the above factoring in. Either way, I was definitely satisfied overall with Linkifier’s download speeds for the downloads that worked.

I do have a few video tests of my download sessions available on the multihoster download tests page.

In case you’re not aware, straight web-browser downloads will usually (as in pretty-much always, with few exceptions) be slower than downloads with a download manager. At least using a web-browser’s built-in downloader. Download managers usually have the ability to speed up downloads whereas web browsers generally do not.

Problems With Downloads

For this part, I’m speaking strictly about downloads initiated through the Linkifier website, which means browser downloads, IDM, Mipony, Ant download manager, etc.

For the most part, Rapidgator, Uploaded, Datafile and a few other hosters worked to the extent that I was able to download the file I intended to download. However, this process was not always flawless. It didn’t happen all the time, but there were multiple instances where I had to click the ‘download’ link more than once to actually get the file to download. I’d click the download link, and then would be presented with this ‘Error starting your download’ page:

You may legitimately run into that error because the download link expired at some point. Which, I did have a download link expire between the time I checked it in a browser and went to download it a moment later. However, the biggest culprit was that, for whatever reason, Linkifier couldn’t or wouldn’t download a particular file in that moment.

Unfortunately, that I am aware of, there is no way of knowing if it’s a temporary error that can be remedied by clicking the link again (and your download starts at that point) or it’s a persistent error where it’s not presently possible to download this specific file with a Linkifier account.

This behavior really varied, too. Sometimes I’d run some tests and didn’t have an issue. Other times, it was like 4 out of my 5 files I tested needed to be clicked 2+ times to actually start downloading. I believe that Rapidgator had the most consistent problem with this, though, again — it wasn’t a persistent issue, but it happened off and on all throughout my months of testing.

So, if for whatever reason your download fails, try it again. Outside of hosters I couldn’t download from at all, I believe most files I tried to download did actually download if they were affected by this issue.

Support

I wrote to support numerous times because of the jDownloader issue, and also because of the issues I had with a couple of the hosters. Support was responsive and eventually they were able to identify the issue with jDownloader, at least the issue that prevented me from being able to download anything.

Unfortunately, because they knew I was writing this review, it may have changed the level of support I received, so at this time I cannot fairly say whether any other user would receive the same level of support that I did for this specific issue. I did have video proof of my problem, and I believe that probably helped, especially as they couldn’t replicate the behavior from their end at first.

All that aside, it does seem that they work to maintain and improve the service. They’ve added support for two download managers in the past month or so, and at least with Keep2Share, I know that’s a reported problem that has been fixed on more than one occasion. I also believe they’ve done some things to improve their load issues, which was apparent at night sometimes where certain areas of the member’s area loads slowly.

tl;dr – Linkifier Review Summary

• Speeds via download managers were generally decent to really fast. 2MB/s to over 20MB/s for individual links. It was not uncommon to see 5MB/s+ per file when using a download manager.
• Parallel browser downloads usually managed to keep good speeds. People with 50Mbps and lower internet could probably max out their download speeds regularly without using a download manager. This is more of a limitation of the browser rather than Linkifier.
• Openload and uploadgig support was non-existent over a couple of months AND they are still listed as working on their site (as of April 8th, 2018)
• Nitroflare and Keep2share support was flaky and inconsistent
• Some of the filehoster download limits will be problematic for some users, specifically the 2GB or 3GB daily limits
• jDownloader support was not good in my tests. Despite a problem being fixed (explained above), some files I couldn’t download with jDownloader worked via the premium link generator on their website just fine.
• Website downloads worked well with Ant download manager and should with Internet Download Manager if you’re a fan. I did not have the means or time to verify the level of Mipony or Load! support, which are both newly supported.
• I was able to download most of the files that I attempted to download, outside of from hosters listed above. However, I ran into several instances where I needed to retry downloads several times to get them to start.
• Linkifier appears to provide valid support to members, have addressed some problems with downloading and appear to be working to expand their service by adding support for more download managers in the past month.
• I tested a wide range of popular filehosters and was quite happy with the download speeds, and overall mostly pleased with the service. If I used Windows with Ant download manager or IDM, I’d definitely like it more.

Linkifier Review Conclusion

I think I tested Linkifier harder in a shorter period of time than any multihoster service I have before. There are many reasons for that, but I’m glad I was able to do it. I had a terrible time with download managers in the middle of it all, but testing here within the past week has brought things full circle.

I think Linkifier can be a good option if you have the choice for multiple different filehosters where you download files. Where I download files, I would have no problem using a Linkifier account based on my experience over the past couple of months (Well, again, and I used Windows + IDM or Ant). Because that’s where I spent most of my testing time — at places where I’d personally find files to download. I would not recommend Linkifier or any multihoster service if you have very specific needs for a limited number of premium filehosters, especially if you want to download 20GB+ per day or 100GB+ per month from a single filehosting site. If you need that type of support, you really should consider a premium account, even if only to supplement your multihoster use.

If you’re in the market for a multihoster service, pick up a 30-day account, test them out and see if they’ll work for you. I definitely plan to revisit the service later this year as a followup, but if you’ve read through my review above, I have no problem recommending that you check them out.

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