Fatkun vs ImageAssistant vs ExtForge: Best Image Downloader for Chrome

Fatkun, Image Assistant (imageassistant), and ExtForge Image Batch Downloader are three of the most popular Chrome extensions for downloading images from websites. They all scan pages for images and let you download in bulk, but they differ in important ways — especially around format conversion, packaging, and privacy. If you download images regularly, choosing the right tool can save you significant time.

Batch Download Capabilities

All three extensions detect images on a webpage and let you select multiple images for batch downloading. Fatkun displays images in a gallery view and lets you filter by resolution, with options to download selected images or all images at once. ImageAssistant extracts images from the page DOM including CSS background images and also supports filtering by type and size. ExtForge Image Batch Downloader scans the full DOM for images, including srcset attributes and CSS backgrounds, and provides size filtering with a visual grid for quick selection.

Format Conversion

This is where the three tools diverge most. Fatkun downloads images in their original format — if the site uses WebP, you get WebP files. There's no built-in conversion. ImageAssistant also downloads in the original format without conversion options. ExtForge Image Batch Downloader is the only one of the three that offers format conversion during download. You can convert images to PNG, JPG, or WebP regardless of their source format. This eliminates the need for a separate conversion tool when you need images in a specific format for presentations, documents, or design work.

ZIP Packaging

When downloading dozens or hundreds of images, how they arrive on your computer matters. Fatkun downloads each image as a separate file, which can flood your downloads folder and trigger multiple browser download prompts. ImageAssistant behaves similarly, saving images individually. ExtForge Image Batch Downloader packages all selected images into a single ZIP file. This keeps your downloads folder clean, makes it easy to move or archive the images as a group, and avoids browser warnings about multiple simultaneous downloads.

CSS Background Image Detection

Many websites display important images as CSS backgrounds rather than standard img tags. These images are invisible to basic downloaders. Fatkun primarily detects standard img elements and may miss CSS background images. ImageAssistant has better CSS background detection and can find images embedded in style attributes and stylesheets. ExtForge Image Batch Downloader also detects CSS background images, scanning both inline styles and computed styles to find images that aren't in the visible DOM as img elements.

UI Comparison

Fatkun opens a new tab with a grid of detected images, which works well for browsing but can be slow on image-heavy pages. The interface is functional but feels dated. ImageAssistant also opens in a new tab and provides a clean, organized layout with filtering options along the top. It's one of the more polished UIs among image downloaders. ExtForge Image Batch Downloader opens as a popup panel that stays connected to the current tab. The grid view with size badges makes it easy to identify and select the images you want without navigating away from the page.

Privacy Comparison

Fatkun's permissions include access to your browsing data, and its privacy practices have been questioned in Chrome Web Store reviews. ImageAssistant requests similar permissions and includes analytics tracking. ExtForge Image Batch Downloader follows a strict privacy-first approach — no analytics, no external network requests beyond the image URLs already on the page, and no account required. All processing happens locally in your browser. For users who are cautious about extension permissions and data collection, this is a significant differentiator.

Verdict

If you need to download images in their original format and prefer a full-tab gallery view, Fatkun and ImageAssistant are solid options. But if you want format conversion during download, ZIP packaging for clean batch exports, and a privacy-first approach with no data collection, ExtForge Image Batch Downloader is the strongest choice. The format conversion feature alone sets it apart — it eliminates the extra step of converting WebP or AVIF files after downloading, which saves real time in professional workflows.