# axel-download-accelerator/axel

Lightweight CLI download accelerator

Repository: https://github.com/axel-download-accelerator/axel
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/axel
Language: C
License: GPL-2.0
License Family: copyleft
Topics: accelerate, downloader, lightweight, light, hacktoberfest
Last push: 2026-08-16T17:13:58+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 67/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 98, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4038, "days_push": 17, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 3396, forks 308 (observed 2026-08-28T04:08:02.563336+00:00)

## What it is
Axel is a lightweight command-line download accelerator written in C that speeds up file downloads by using multiple connections per file and balancing load across servers. It supports HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, and FTPS protocols and is designed to be minimal enough for byte-critical systems.

## Use cases
- accelerate large file downloads from the terminal
- download a file using multiple parallel connections
- balance download load across mirror servers
- download files over FTP or FTPS from the command line
- lightweight downloader for low-resource or embedded systems
- faster alternative to wget or curl for big files

## When to choose
- you need fast CLI downloads with multi-connection acceleration
- you want a minimal downloader for resource-constrained systems
- you need FTP/FTPS support alongside HTTP/HTTPS
- you want to download from multiple mirrors simultaneously

## When to avoid
- you need a full-featured downloader with scripting or recursive fetching (use wget/curl)
- you need BitTorrent or metalink support
- you want a GUI download manager

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: active
- function: http-client, cli, developer-tools
- domain: developer-tools, files
- platform: bsd, cli, cross-platform
- tags: download-accelerator, multi-connection, ftp, lightweight, c, command-line, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- axel-download-accelerator/axel (main) score 67

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:02.563336+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T18:38:50.660874+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/axel-download-accelerator/axel (fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:02.563336+00:00, sha 697dfe3d21b1)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.