Advertisement If you’re one of over 100 million uTorrent users, you should immediately upgrade to of the BitTorrent client. In November 2017, Google’s Project Zero identified a vulnerability, which BitTorrent Inc.
(the company that owns and develops uTorrent) patched just in the nick of time. While the patch was only deployed to the Beta version at first, it has progressed to the Stable version in the meantime. It’s not the first time that uTorrent came under pressure.
Criticized for bundling bloatware and containing annoying banner ads, one of their biggest faux-pas yet was revealed in 2015: uTorrent bundled the cryptocurrency mining software Epic Scale and essentially. These are prime examples of user deception and exploitation. Can you still trust uTorrent? You don’t have to. Here are five great uTorrent alternatives.
The Best Alternative to uTorrent: qBittorrent Key Features. At a glance, you can see the status of all your downloads, and you can view them by category, tags, or trackers. Through the menus at the bottom, you can bring up background information about peers, your downloading and seeding speed, and more. You can drag-and-drop.torrent files and magnet links onto the tool to initiate the download.
If you don’t want the download to start automatically, head to Tools Options Downloads and check the box next to Do not start the download automatically. QBittorrent includes a Search Engine that comes pre-loaded with a selection of Torrent sites that you can search simultaneously. Note that this tool requires a Python Interpreter; the installation files are included. You can enable the Search Engine through View Search Engine. You can add additional Torrent sites: open Search, click on the Search plugins button in the bottom right, click Install a new one, and either click Local file if you want to add a qBittorent search plugin you’ve downloaded or Web link if you’d like to add a URL. Use the Search Engine to avoid overblown search websites.
Download: for Windows Mac Linux Runner-Up Alternatives to uTorrent 1. Tixati Key Features:.
Supports Magnet links and DHT. Encryption under Settings Network Connections. IP filter. Scheduler. RSS-based auto torrent downloader. Web interface under Settings User Interface Tixati has a no spyware, no adware, and no-nonsense guarantee. Unlike the other clients on this list, however, Tixati is not open source.
The installation takes a moment, but it’s free from third-party offers and appears clean. When you first launch Tixati, you’ll have to confirm your initial configuration, which mainly concerns the download folder, incoming port, and bandwidth throttle (off per default).
Next, the Windows Defender Firewall will pop up and you’ll have to give Tixati access to your network. You can switch between different interfaces, including Transfers, Bandwidth, or the DHT (pictured below).
The Home tab displays Tixati’s log file and a summary of all your transfers and incoming connections. Like qBittorrent, Tixati comes with an internal search engine, which lets you avoid potentially seedy torrent sites.
Among the clients covered in this article, Tixati’s interface is the most complex, which is also reflected in Tixati’s comprehensive options. Nevertheless, it’s one of the more Guns don’t share illegal files. People share illegal files. Or, wait, how does it go again?
What I mean to say is, BitTorrent shouldn't be dissed based on its potential for piracy. Download: for Windows (, ) Download: (Portable) 2. Transmission Key Features:. Encryption, set preferences via Edit Preferences Privacy Encryption. Support for Magnet links, DHT, PEX, and more. Web interface.
Webseed support. Watch directories. Edit tracker. Limit global and per-torrent speed. Add bad peer blocklists via Edit Preferences Privacy Blocklist Like uTorrent, the open-source client Transmission has had Transmission was struck with malware twice in one year, so you might want to consider a new Mac torrent app. Having overcome these unfortunate setbacks, however, it remains the default BitTorrent client on many Unix and Linux distributions, including Solaris, Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, Puppy, and GNOME (an openSUSE flavor).
One of Transmission’s benefits is that it’s a lightweight BitTorrent client. The installation is fast, free from nag screens, and concludes with a brief notification about the tool’s file sharing nature. The interface is functional and minimal. Note that you have to start a local or remote session before you can download anything.
Go to Edit Change Session to launch a new session. When you first start a Transmission session on Windows 10, the Windows Defender Firewall will pop up to let you know it blocked some features. Click Allow access to give Transmission permission to communicate on your network. Download: for Windows Mac Linux 3. Deluge Key Features:. Encryption, set preferences via Edit Preferences Network Encryption. Support for Magnet links, DHT, PEX.
Web seeds. Global and per-torrent speed limits. Web interface.
Plugins Deluge, originally known as gTorrent, is a free, open source, and cross-platform BitTorrent client that heavily draws features on the library. By adhering to the, it can “work across many desktop environments.” The installation took a little longer and several more clicks than any of the other clients. Fortunately, Deluge is free from bloatware, toolbars, or ads. The interface is similar to qBittorrent, though slightly more crowded. You can add additional details to the download section of the client through View Columns. Download: for Windows Mac Linux Unix Which Torrent Client Will You Choose? We have a clear recommendation: qBittorrent.
But maybe it’s lacking a feature that another client offers. Whichever client you choose, if you need to share or download sensitive torrent files, we strongly recommend using a VPN that has an In an age where every online movement is tracked and logged, a VPN seems a logical choice. We've taken a look at six VPNs that take your anonymity seriously., so that you won’t accidentally leak your IP in case your secure connection drops. Wondering why Vuze isn’t featured in this list? We tested it and decided not to recommend it. Vuze was the only client on this list that came with bloatware: Avast, the Spigot toolbar, and a Google Chrome extension.
Moreover, the free version of Vuze contains animated ads and has a busy interface with unnecessary features. If you’re looking for a clean and trustworthy uTorrent alternative, Vuze isn’t it. Explore more about:,.
Up until now, BitTorrent users on a Mac haven’t had the chance to use the fastest, smallest, most portable and appealing BitTorrent client ever, but this is about to change. Unfortunately we don’t have a confirmed date for the official release yet, judging on the state of the BETA version that’s at the moment, it wont take long. Let’s start off with some screenshots.
The Installation Disk Image Main Window with Downloads Click to enlarge. Speed The main reason I like uTorrent so much is because downloads are considerably faster in it than in any other BitTorrent client. This held true when I compared uTorrent Mac to. The downloads speeds in both couldn’t match uTorrent’s. Azureus was the only one that came close, just as I had expected. Application Launch Time uTorrent Mac, just like its Windows counterpart, is super-light. It launches immediately (not even 1 bounce in the Dock!).
This is clearly one piece of well-coded software. Probably part of the reason why BitTorrent Inc decided to buy it. Interface uTorrent Mac has a simple, yet appealing interface that is easy to use and navigate. It’s not as stylish as Xtorrent’s, but then again, no one can create interfaces like. Search Though it may seem that uTorrent has some sort of built-in search functionality, currently only offered by BitRocket and Xtorrent on the Mac, it does not.
Typing something such as “HDTV” into the search box and hitting return will merely open a BitTorrent.com search page in your default browser. Conclusion It’s too early to draw conclusions but it’s a great first impression, especially for a pre-release version. It’s worth mentioning that some Mac users such as myself like uTorrent so much, we even prefer than using one of the available. UTorrent is not only the most popular Windows BitTorrent client according to a poll we conducted last year, but also the winner of our. Many of you are probably dying to download uTorrent Mac. Hang in there, it’s coming real soon.