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User:Helpfoss/Comparison of BitTorrent clients

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A BitTorrent client is a computer program that manages using the BitTorrent protocol.

End User

Releases and Operating Systems

This is a table of FOSS software being actively developed. For a more complete table, please visit: Comparison_of_BitTorrent_clients.

wanted: first_release, latest_stable, License, language, library

  • No means that it does not exist or was never released.
  • Partial means that the BitTorrent client works, but lacks important functionality or is very unstable compared to versions for other OSs, that is to say it has roughly alpha or pre-alpha quality, and it is still being developed.
  • Beta means that a version of the BitTorrent client is fully functional and has been released, but is still in development, e.g., for stability.
  • Yes means that the BitTorrent client has been officially released in a fully functional, stable version.
  • Dropped means that the latest stable version of the BitTorrent client does not work on the operating system, although an older version is available that does. The number in parentheses is the last known stable version which was officially released for that OS.
  • Included means that the BitTorrent client comes pre-packaged as part of or has been integrated into the operating system.

This list is not exhaustive, but rather reflects the most common OSs today but does not include the growing appliance segment (for example, the Opera web browser has gained a leading role for use in mobile phones, smartphones, the Nintendo DS and Wii, and Personal Digital Assistants, and is also used in Interactive televisions). Both the BitTorrent client and OS means most recent version, example: Windows 7 with µTorrent 3.


BitTorrent client First public release date Latest stable Software license Spyware, Adware, Malware-free [1] Linux Windows Mac OS BSD Other
Aria2 [2] ? Template:Latest stable software release/aria2 GPL Yes Yes Yes Yes FreeBSD Solaris
Bitflu [3] ? 1.50 (July 11, 2012; 12 years ago (2012-07-11)) [±] Artistic License Yes Yes No Yes FreeBSD No
Deluge September 25, 2006 2.1.1 (July 10, 2022; 2 years ago (2022-07-10)) [±] GPL Yes Yes Yes Source only[4] FreeBSD Solaris
Flush January 1, 2009 0.9.12 (January 24, 2012; 13 years ago (2012-01-24)) [±] GPL Yes Yes No No No No
Free Download Manager 2004 6.13.4.3616 (February 9, 2021; 4 years ago (2021-02-09)) [±][5] GPL Adware: Optional Software Informer [6] No Yes No No No
FrostWire 2004 6.9.8 (build 312) (April 26, 2022; 2 years ago (2022-04-26)) [±] GPL Adware; Optional Ask.com toolbar Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
KGet May 26, 2002 4.14.3 (November 11, 2014; 10 years ago (2014-11-11)) [±][7] GPL Yes Yes Yes Yes FreeBSD No
KTorrent August 7, 2006 (the 2.0 branch) 5.2.0 (June 6, 2020; 4 years ago (2020-06-06)[8]) [±]


GPL Yes Yes Yes Yes FreeBSD No
Miro February 21, 2006 6.0 (April 16, 2013; 12 years ago (2013-04-16)) [±][9] 2011-07-21 GPL Adware: Optional Bing toolbar;
Sets Bing and/or MiroStart (a Miro start page
powered by Bing)
as default web browser search.
Yes Yes Yes FreeBSD No
MLDonkey December 2001 3.2.1 (August 20, 2024; 7 months ago (2024-08-20)[10]) [±] GPL Yes Yes Yes Yes FreeBSD, OpenBSD Solaris, MorphOS
OneSwarm 2008 Template:Latest stable software release/OneSwarm GPL Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
qBittorrent March 22, 2006[11] 4.4.5 (August 30, 2022; 2 years ago (2022-08-30)) [±][12] GPL Yes Yes Yes Yes FreeBSD eComStation
rTorrent July 15, 2004[13] rTorrent 0.9.8 / libTorrent 0.13.8 (July 19, 2019; 5 years ago (2019-07-19)) [±][14] GPL Yes Yes No Yes FreeBSD, OpenBSD Solaris
Shareaza July 1, 2002[citation needed] 2.7.10.2 (September 18, 2017; 7 years ago (2017-09-18)[15]) [±] GPL Yes No Yes No No No
SymTorrent ? 1.50
(November 26, 2008; 16 years ago (2008-11-26)[16])
GPL Yes No No No No Symbian OS
Transmission September 15, 2005[17] 4.0.1 (February 23, 2023; 2 years ago (2023-02-23)) [±][18] GPL/MIT License Yes Yes No Yes FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD Solaris, OpenWrt
Tribler February 26, 2006[citation needed] 7.12.1 (September 20, 2022; 2 years ago (2022-09-20)) [±][19] LGPL Yes Yes Yes Yes FreeBSD No
BitTorrent client First public release date Latest stable Software license Spyware, Adware, Malware-free [1]

Features

Features I

BitTorrent client Magnet URI Super-seeding Embedded tracker UPnP[20] NAT Port Mapping Protocol NAT traversal[21] DHT[22] Peer exchange Encryption UDP tracker LPD Proxy
Aria2 Yes No Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Bitflu Yes No No No No No Yes Yes No Yes No No
Deluge Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes HTTP(S), SOCKS4/5
Flush Yes No No Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No Yes No
Free Download Manager No No No No No No Yes Yes No No No No
KTorrent Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Partial HTTP,SOCKS4/5
MLDonkey No No Yes Yes Yes No No No No Yes No No
OneSwarm Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
qBittorrent Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes HTTP(S),SOCKS4/5
rTorrent Yes[23] Yes No No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No[24] No
Shareaza Yes No No Yes Yes Yes[25] Yes No No No No
SymTorrent No No No No No No No No No
Transmission Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[26] Yes Yes Yes No [27]
Tribler Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No No
BitTorrent client Magnet URI Super-seeding Embedded tracker UPnP[20] NAT Port Mapping Protocol NAT traversal[21] DHT[22] Peer exchange Encryption UDP tracker LPD Proxy

Features II

BitTorrent client Cache[28] Web seeding[29] Broadcatching (RSS) Prioritization Selective downloads SOCKS Tracker exchange [30] Remote control via web Search Engine Auto updates Notes
Aria2 No No No No Yes Yes No Yes No No
Bitflu Partial No No No Yes No No Yes No No No built-in Cache-Disk cache but a Delayed commit
Deluge Yes Yes Plugin[31] Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Notification, and update via package management system
Flush No No No Yes Yes No No No No No
Free Download Manager No No No Yes Yes No No Yes No Optional
KTorrent Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Built-in Web browser via package management system
MLDonkey Yes No 3rd party bash script Yes No No[32] No Yes Built-into Web browser via package management system
µTorrent Yes Yes[33] Yes[34] Yes[35] Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Versions are already portable
OneSwarm Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes Based on Azureus, has all BitTyrant features
qBittorrent Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[36] via package management system
rTorrent Partial No 3rd party utility [37] Yes Yes No No Yes No via package management system No built-in Cache-Disk cache but a Delayed sync
Shareaza Yes Yes No Yes Yes[38] No since v2.5.3.1
[39][40]
Yes Yes Yes [41]
SymTorrent No No No No No No No No No No BitTorrent client for cell phones.
Transmission Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes
Tribler Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No Yes Yes Fully distributed keyword search; integrated anti-spam measures[42]
BitTorrent client Cache[28] Web seeding[29] Broadcatching (RSS) Prioritization Selective downloads SOCKS Tracker exchange [30] Remote control via web Search Engine Auto updates Notes
Cite error: A list-defined reference named "OperaRSS" is not used in the content (see the help page).


Developer

Interface and programming

BitTorrent client User Interface other Programming language Based on IPv6[43] µTP
GUI web CLI
Aria2 No Yes Yes Daemon, XML over HTTP remote control API C++ - Yes [44] No
Bitflu No Yes Yes Telnet Perl - Yes No
Deluge Yes Yes Yes Daemon Python and C++ libtorrent (Rasterbar) Yes [45] No
Flush Yes No No No C++ libtorrent (Rasterbar) Yes No
Free Download Manager Yes Yes Partial No C++ libtorrent (Rasterbar) ? No
KGet Yes Yes Partial [46] No C++ - Yes No
KTorrent Yes Yes Partial No C++ - Yes Yes[47]
Miro Yes No No No C++ libtorrent (Rasterbar) ? No
MLDonkey Network GUI Yes Partial Telnet Ocaml - No No
OneSwarm Partial Yes No/Partial No Java Azureus Yes No
qBittorrent Qt (toolkit) Yes Partial No C++ libtorrent (Rasterbar) Yes Yes
rTorrent No Third Party Yes SCGI C++ libTorrent (Rakshasa) No[48] No
Shareaza Yes Yes Partial No C++ - No No
SymTorrent Yes No No No ? ? ? No
Transmission Yes Yes Yes Daemon, JSON-RPC over HTTP remote control API C - Yes From 2.30
Tribler Yes No Partial No Python ABC Yes No
BitTorrent client GUI web CLI other Programming language Based on IPv6[43] µTP

Libraries

Note: Libraries in purple are no longer in development.

General
BitTorrent Library First public release date Latest stable Software license Spyware, Adware, Malware -free
libKtorrent GPL Yes
Libtorrent (Rakshasa) July 15, 2004; 20 years ago (2004-07-15)[13] rTorrent 0.9.8 / libTorrent 0.13.8 (July 19, 2019; 5 years ago (2019-07-19)) [±][49] GPL Yes
Libtorrent (Rasterbar) September 8, 2005; 19 years ago (2005-09-08)[50] 2.0.7[51] (July 17, 2022; 2 years ago (2022-07-17)) [±] BSD Yes
MonoTorrent September 2006; 18 years ago (2006-09) 2.0.7 (December 23, 2022; 2 years ago (2022-12-23)) [±] MIT/X11 Yes
ttorrent June 27, 2011; 13 years ago (2011-06-27) 1.0.3[52] Apache Software License Yes
BitTorrent Library First public release date Latest stable Software license Spyware, Adware, Malware -free
OS Support and Programming Language
BitTorrent Library Linux/Unix Windows Mac OS X API Programming language
Libtorrent (Rakshasa) Yes No Yes Yes C++
Libtorrent (Rasterbar) Yes Yes Yes Yes C++
MonoTorrent Yes Yes Yes Yes C#
ttorrent Yes Yes Yes Yes Java
BitTorrent Library Linux/Unix Windows Mac OS X API Programming language
Supported Features I
BitTorrent Library Super-seeding Tracker UPnP[20] NAT Port Mapping Protocol NAT traversal[21] DHT[22] Peer exchange Encryption UDP tracker LPD Fast Extensions Magnet URI
Libtorrent (Rakshasa) Yes Yes No ? ? Yes Yes Yes Yes ? No Yes
Libtorrent (Rasterbar) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[53] Yes Yes
MonoTorrent Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
ttorrent No Yes No No No No No No No No No No
BitTorrent Library Super-seeding Tracker UPnP[20] NAT Port Mapping Protocol NAT traversal[21] DHT[22] Peer exchange Encryption UDP tracker LPD Fast Extensions Magnet URI
Supported Features II
BitTorrent Library Cache[28] Web seeding[29] Broadcatching (RSS) Prioritization Selective downloads SOCKS Remote control via web Engine Notes
Libtorrent (Rakshasa) Partial No No Yes Yes No Yes No No built-in Cache-Disk cache but a Delayed sync
Libtorrent (Rasterbar) Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
MonoTorrent Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No
ttorrent Partial No No No No No No No
BitTorrent Library Cache[28] Web seeding[29] Broadcatching (RSS) Prioritization Selective downloads SOCKS Remote control via web Engine Notes

Notes

  1. ^ a b Unless otherwise noted, programs marked "Yes" without other inline citations have been tested 100% Free or 100% Clean by Softpedia
  2. ^ "Aria2 project". SourceForge. Retrieved 2009-11-28.
  3. ^ "Bitflu". Bitflu.workaround.ch. Retrieved 2009-11-28.
  4. ^ Official packages for ports are no longer available.
  5. ^ "Free Download Manager 6 Forums". FreeDownloadManager.org. Retrieved 24 February 2021.
  6. ^ "general forum". Retrieved 15 July 2011.
  7. ^ "KDE Ships KDE Applications and Platform 4.14.3". KDE. 11 November 2014. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
  8. ^ Štikonas, Andrius (6 June 2020). "KTorrent 5.2.0". kde-announce-apps (Mailing list). Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  9. ^ ftp.osuosl.org :: Oregon State University Open Source Lab, 7 Oct 2012, retrieved 2013-01-04
  10. ^ "MLDonkey at GitHub". GitHub. 2017-01-22. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  11. ^ "qBittorrent at SourceForge.net". qBittorrent.SourceForge.net. 2006-03-22. Retrieved 2010-01-21. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
  12. ^ qBittorrent Release News, SourceForge.net
  13. ^ a b http://libtorrent.rakshasa.no/timeline
  14. ^ Sundell, Jari (2019-12-25), "Releases", rakshasa/rtorrent repo, retrieved 2021-06-09 – via GitHub
  15. ^ "Shareaza download page on sourceforge Web site". SourceForge. Retrieved 2019-07-06.
  16. ^ "SymTorrent - AMORG". Applied Mobile Research Group. 2008-11-26. Retrieved 2010-01-21. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
  17. ^ http://trac.transmissionbt.com/wiki/Changes
  18. ^ 4.0.1, retrieved 1 March 2023 – via GitHub
  19. ^ "Releases".
  20. ^ a b c d Automatically configure port forwarding (requires Router with UPnP support)
  21. ^ a b c d Many clients claim to support this, but just uPnP calls for opening a TCP port is not effective and disabled by factory default in most new hardware. "UDP NAT Traversal" is the proper working solution, supported by just a few.
  22. ^ a b c d DHT permits use of trackerless torrents (with supporting clients) to resume normal torrents when their tracker is down. However, some trackers that register their users for keeping tabs on fair usage (such as a ratio of bytes downloaded to uploaded) may not reliably measure and update usage for users employing DHT.
  23. ^ aided with a shell script documented in "That magnet uri ticket thing reincarnated". libtorrent.rakshasa.no. Retrieved 2011-07-04.
  24. ^ "local peer discovery". libtorrent.rakshasa.no. Retrieved 2010-04-17.
  25. ^ It's not a DHT network, but Shareaza uses Gnutella2 to find other Shareaza clients.
  26. ^ Exchanges with µTorrent and Azureus peers.
  27. ^ Proxy support was removed in version 2.12: "Ticket #3688". trac.transmissionbt.com. Retrieved 2011-06-11.
  28. ^ a b c d Reduces disk usage, file fragmentation (in case it is not preallocated) and latencies due to larger written blocks and cached data for hash checking finished pieces.
  29. ^ a b c d Recently implemented (unofficial) web seeding feature, see HTTP-Based Seeding Specification
  30. ^ a b http://www.bittorrent.org/beps/bep_0028.html
  31. ^ FlexRSS plugin not supported in current 1.2 release: http://dev.deluge-torrent.org/wiki/Plugins/FlexRSS
  32. ^ See task #4401 Socks Proxy; however, http proxy is supported.
  33. ^ "uTorrent 1.7 Stable Finally Released". TorrentFreak. 2007-07-13. Retrieved 2009-11-28.
  34. ^ "How to use RSS & BitTorrent to download TV shows". TorrentFreak. 2006-10-14. Retrieved 2009-11-28.
  35. ^ "uTorrent - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET" (in Template:Fa icon). Download.com. Retrieved 2009-11-28.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
  36. ^ Integrated
  37. ^ 3rd party utility RSSDler
  38. ^ Since Shareaza v2.4.0.2 r7924
  39. ^ Shareazas SVN changes in r8803 on Sourceforge.net
  40. ^ Shareaza also uses G2 to transmit download metadata, such as BitTorrent trackers to other G2 clients.
  41. ^ Max. number of active torrents depends on respective user settings and is limited to 31.
  42. ^ "Truly Decentralized BitTorrent Downloading Has Finally Arrived". TorrentFreak. 2010-12-08. Retrieved 2010-12-16.
  43. ^ a b Clients that have been seen in the real world to actually work with IPv6, see IPv6 BitTorrent Clients
  44. ^ http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=448390#20
  45. ^ "#335 (can not connect to ipv6 only tracker) – Deluge". Dev.deluge-torrent.org. Retrieved 2009-11-28.
  46. ^ Qdbus interface
  47. ^ "KTorrent 4.0 is out". KTorrent. Retrieved 2010-05-24.
  48. ^ "#1111 (Support for IPv6?) – The libTorrent and rTorrent Project". Libtorrent.rakshasa.no. 2009-07-20. Retrieved 2009-11-28.
  49. ^ Sundell, Jari (2019-12-25), "Releases", rakshasa/rtorrent repo, retrieved 2021-06-09 – via GitHub
  50. ^ http://sourceforge.net/projects/libtorrent/files/
  51. ^ "Releases · arvidn/libtorrent". GitHub. Retrieved 17 Jul 2022.
  52. ^ https://github.com/turn/ttorrent/tree/ttorrent-1.0.3
  53. ^ "libtorrent manual: features". Retrieved 2009-12-12.

See also