Torrents are a great way to crowdsource sharing of data and make it easy to find almost any file imaginable. One of the most popular clients for downloading torrents is uTorrent. However, after uTorrent was bought out by BitTorrent, some unpopular changes were made which have made some users shift to other clients. These other clients are meant as a response to the closed source, ad-driven client that uTorrent has become. If you enjoy downloading using torrents and have grown weary of uTorrent or just want an alternative, check these suggested clients out.
1. qBittorrent
qBittorrent is based on the original BitTorrent code base and is meant to be minimalist but functional and open source with no advertising. Though it lacks some advanced features, for many users who simply want to queue and download torrents, it is more than adequate and does in fact have some additional features like bandwidth control and filtering. The biggest advantage is that it works well and doesn’t include ads and is not closed source. It’s also available on nearly every OS from PC, to Mac and Linux.
2. Deluge
Deluge is also based off the BitTorrent code and is also open source, free and without ads. It has support for numerous plugins for advanced features and is a very solid choice comparable to qBittorrent. Like qBittorrent it is available on many platforms from PC, to Mac and Linux.
3. Vuze
Vuze is closed source, has advertisements, and has some features locked behind a paywall. It also tries to install adware when you install it and you must be careful to not allow it to be installed. Despite these major shortcomings, Vuze offers many advanced features for serious torrent users including file conversion, remote control, bandwidth control, filtering, etc.
4. Tixati
Tixati is another light and minimalist client with an interesting feature called Channels. Channels adds a social aspect to the Tixati client and you can chat and share with other users who might be sharing or downloading torrents with tastes similar to your own. Besides that, Tixati is a very competent lightweight torrent client with all the basic features you could want and is available on PC, Mac, and Linux.
5. Transmission
Transmission is strictly for Mac and Linux users and is another very solid minimalist torrent client. It has many features ranging from the most basic to some that are rather advanced. Transmission is highly recommended for Linux and Mac aficionados. If you really wanted to, a specialized version can also be downloaded and run on a PC.