Torrent clients or Torrent downloaders are a lightning-fast way of downloading files. However, not all of them will give you the experience you’re searching for. Some are slow and you may unknowingly end up violating some rules.
To prevent that from happening, this guide comes into play. Apart from giving you an idea of what torrent clients are, we’ll tell you what you need to know to pick the best torrent clients out there.
All the best torrent clients we have picked for you have three things in common… They are lightning-fast, allow peer-to-peer sharing, and work on multiple operating systems, including Windows and macOS.
Deluge is one of the best torrent clients on the market in 2024. It has been around for quite a while, which is always a good sign as longevity isn’t a strong forte of average torrent clients. Deluge also supports peer to peer sharing and lets you schedule the downloading of files, too.
Pros:
Cons:
Deluge torrent is also versatile and open-source. Its smaller size gives it the upper hand among competitors such as UTorrent that weigh heavily on your system’s storage. You can also integrate it with your web browser for a seamless experience. Plus, it is powerful and can download files at lightning speeds.
qBittorent is one of the best torrent clients in the market. It also comes across as an excellent alternative to uTorrent. It boasts a clean user interface without any clutter and is therefore incredibly easy to use.
Pros:
Cons:
uTorrent is the most popular downloader on the market for devices that use a Windows operating system. Just like qBittorent, it is neat and very simple to use, even for beginners. Unlike it, however, it’s available in free and paid versions.
Keep in mind that its free version is loaded with ads and lacks features that are available in the paid/professional version.
uTorrent also has a version that comes with a paid VPN attached, thereby helping you stay anonymous while downloading your chosen files. Overall, it is a very reliable torrent client.
Pros:
Cons:
Our next pick is WebTorrent. This torrent client is written completely in Javascript and is compatible with macOS, Windows and Linux.
One of the best things about WebTorrent is that you can use it without having to download it first. Another exciting thing about WebTorrent is that it allows you to use other torrent clients (such as BitTorrent and uTorrent) to stream your selected shows.
Pros:
Cons:
This is one of the best torrent clients on the market. It is simple to use and ideal for beginners. BitTorrentClient is free, but it is supported by ads which can be quite intrusive and overwhelming. On top of everything else, the BitTorrent Client features a built-in search engine that makes finding specific content easy and hassle-free.
Pros:
Cons:
Multiple features set Tixati apart from its competitors. The first of which is that it’s open-source. This means that it comes free of charge with no ads.
Secondly, it is compatible with both the Windows OS and Linux. Tixati has been proven to be free of spyware, too, as all of its content is checked for malware.
Another one of its unique features is that it has a chat room that allows you to send encrypted messages to other Tixati users.
Pros:
Cons:
Vuze is an efficient torrent client that is supported by ads but has managed to keep the ads from being intrusive and overwhelming. It is both powerful and lightweight. Plus, this client gives you full control over your torrents and torrent management.
Its Android app comes equipped with features that help you manage your torrent downloads and set the download and upload speeds to your comfort.
Unlike the program itself, the android app does not come with any ads. This allows it to boast a simple and navigable user interface. While the free version is good, Vuze Plus comes with added perks such as a built-in antivirus and live streaming to justify its asking price.
Pros:
Cons:
BitLord is quite similar to Deluge. Both make downloading and streaming your favorite content a cinch, are secure and safe, and boast a minimalist interface that even the most inexperienced users find easy to navigate.
That’s where the similarities end. Unlike Deluge, BitLord lets you stream content using Chromecast. Also, while Deluge offers HD video quality, Deluge’s video quality is only above-average at best.
Pros:
Cons:
BiglyBT is an open-source, safe torrent client that is funded by the users and is therefore ad-free. It comes loaded with different features that make your experience seamless. The best thing we can say about BiglyBT is that it is much similar to Vuze.
BiglyBT can perform p2p sharing with WebTorrent peers, comes with a built-in torrent tracket and allows swarm merging. The last feature will get your attention while you’re using BiglyBT. How? By boosting your download speeds.
Pros:
Cons:
The transmission torrent client is freely accessible. It offers various useful features such as peer-to-peer sharing, magnet links, tracker editing, among others.
Unfortunately, its multiple user interfaces might make using Transmission a daunting experience for users who have never used a torrent client before.
Pros:
Cons
When using torrent clients, you’re potentially exposing yourself to multiple threats. One of the threats is ‘fake torrents’ that contain malware. Copyright trolls, that are constantly on the lookout for users that are downloading files illegally, are another potential risk.
Follow these tips to remain safe while torrenting:
The best way to protect yourself from copyright trolls while using torrent clients is to use an efficient VPN. A VPN will mask your IP address, making sure that ISP cannot track your internet activity which includes your torrenting activity. VPNs also protect you by encrypting all the information that is going in or out of your device. You’d become a virtual ghost as all of your online activity will remain hidden from prying eyes.
Aside from that, using a VPN is the best way to avoid being nabbed for illegal activity and paying fines. Some VPNs come with end-to-end military encryption, are equipped with a malware blocker and also have an ad blocker to make your browsing experience smooth, uninterrupted, and protected.
VPNs don’t just protect you from copyright trolls, they also protect you from hackers who may try to use your IP address to access information about you which can include your location. This is especially important when torrenting because there is a chance that you might download a bit of information that contains malware that is meant to copy your data. If your data is encrypted and your IP address is masked, you are safe from such attacks.
To stay safe while torrenting, use ExpressVPN. It offers lightning-fast speeds, unrestricted p2p traffic, and military-grade encryption strength. And the best thing about using ExpressVPN for torrenting? It’s incredibly easy to use.
You cannot see what is in a torrent file you are downloading. Torrents do not contain the actual data that you want to download, they only contain information about the data that you want to download; this can be the name of a movie or a book and the size of the file.
You can only see what a torrent file contains once you have completed the download. As you might guess, this increases your risk of downloading suspicious files that contain viruses and malware. That’s why you should only download torrents from reliable sites.
Another way to avoid being slapped with legal action is to only download those movies that are not copyrighted and/or are free to download for the public. One way to do that is to download movies that have been around for quite some time.
When a new movie is released, refrain from rushing to download it using your torrent client. That’s because copyright owners are more vigilant soon after releasing new content and you are likely to get caught and fined as a result.
Here are a few tricks using which you can identify fake torrent files/torrents:
Use an antivirus to scan every file you download from torrent sites, especially if you’re downloading ZIP and/or RAR files. Follow this tip even if you’re using reliable torrent sites to download files. That’s not all.
If you are downloading a movie, TV show, or music and you come across a file that is labeled as ZIP, WMV, WMA, or RAR, it is advisable to delete the torrent file immediately without opening it as such media does not have anything to do with these types of file extensions.
Another file type to look out for is TAR. It is similar to the above-mentioned file types in that it can be easily used to launch malware that can infect your system and cause numerous problems, including compromising your online security and making your personal information accessible to hackers.
Authentic torrent files always have a larger number of seeders compared to leechers. A good ratio is when a torrent has 2000 seeders and 1000 leechers. If there are more leechers than seeders or if there is a negligible number of leechers compared to seeders, you should take that as a red flag.
The best torrent websites like BitTorrent have built-in checks to ensure that the files on their platforms are not infected by malware. BitTorrent marks all torrents that have been checked and verified as “verified” to save you from downloading infected files.
Torrent clients are pieces of software or Peer-to-peer file sharing apps that help users rapidly download files. Instead of downloading files from a host server (a process which is often time-consuming), they download different pieces of the file from people who already have them.
Once all the pieces are downloaded, they are connected or assembled in the correct sequence to create one file. This is faster than downloading a file from one source and is an excellent option to download bigger files like movies.
Torrent clients work by downloading files from different devices or seeds.
Without torrents, you would open your browser and type in the name of the file you need and the file will pop up for you to download, which means the download is from a single source. If you are using a torrent client, instead of downloading a complete file, your torrent client will collect bits and pieces of your required file from different devices or ‘seeds’ that are using the same torrent client that your device is using.
This means that torrent users rely on each other for information. Information in your device can also be downloaded by your torrent client for transfer to another device as you are downloading it into your device, which means that you can be downloading and uploading a file at the same time.
Unless you’re downloading copyrighted files or information, you aren’t doing anything illegal. This means that if you want to stay on the right side of the law, you must make sure that you’re only downloading files that are publicly available to everyone.
That is easier said than done given that about 95% of the files that are downloaded using torrent clients are copyrighted, which means that the owner of the content loses large amounts of money since their content is now available for free. These files include movies, books, music, software, and more.
Torrenting also paves the way for other people to access the files that you are downloading. This co-dependent nature of torrenting means that as you download bits and pieces of a copyrighted file from other users, other torrent users can also access bits of that copyrighted material from you.
Torrenting itself is not illegal, though it is now largely viewed as an illegal activity because most of the files that are downloaded using torrents are copyrighted. If you download copyrighted information using torrents without using a VPN, your Internet Service Provider can track down your IP address and you can get fined for the misdemeanor.
Torrent clients are nirvana for movie lovers who need a lightning-fast way to download their favorite movies. There are numerous torrent clients on the market, but not every torrent client will give you a seamless experience.
According to our ratings, the best torrent clients on the market right now are Deluge, uTorrent, and WebTorrent. If you are using a macOS operating system, Transmission would be the best pick for you.
