Top 5 BitTorrent Clients
Features Tested:
Priotarization: Is the client able to assign download priorities to the torrents? This option allows you to assign more bandwidth to a torrent.
DHT: Does the client support “trackerless” torrents. DHT keeps the torrent alive if the tracker goes offline.
Selective Downloading: Can you select files within the torrent that you want to download (or not). Can be very useful to check samples (most movies have samples) or to download 1 album out of a “complete discography” torrent.
Encryption: Does the client support “protocol encryption”. To protect yourself against traffic shaping / throttling ISP’s.
Tracker: Does the client have a (built in) tracker. Can be useful if you’re publishing torrents.
Remote Control: Does it support (web based) remote control. A web Gui allows you to access your torrents from any computer in the world.
Super Seeding: Are you able to super seed. Super seeding is different (more efficient) from seeding because it tries to send out pieces of the file that have not been sent before.
RSS: Does the client have RSS support. With RSS you can automatically download your favorite torrents.
UPnP Port Mapping: Is there UPnP support. If your router supports UPnP, you don’t need to forward any ports
1. utorrent
Click here to download utorrent
uTorrent is the absolute winner, without a doubt. It supports all the features that I mentioned. Is is extremely lightweight, it uses only 7000K memory instead of 50.000K that a clean install of Azureus uses.
Another great option, especially for starting users, is the “setup wizard” that helps you to configure uTorrent’s settings.
uTorrent is actively under development and the developers carefully listen to their users.
uTorrent supports 9 out of 9 features.
2. Azureus
Click here to download Azureus
Azureus is the runner up. They do support all the features that are listed (some via plugins), Azureus and uTorrent are in fact the only clients that support all these features. Azureus is a great client, and especially for those who don’t care about memory and cpu usage but like to get all kinds of fancy features to pimp up their BitTorrent client.
But it uses 7x as much memory as uTorrent, and requires Java, which some people might consider a problem.
Azureus has an outstanding dev team that is constantly improving their client, the runner up, but a really
great one.
Azureus supports 9 out of 9 features.
3. Bitcomet
Click here to download Bitcomet
Bitcomet is regaining its credibility. It removed the IE toolbar in the latest release, and the torrent encryption is now compatible with Azureus and uTorrent. Bitcomet doesn’t have a Remote Control feature and it doesn’t support Super Seeding. The memory usage is on average 30.000k.
Bitcomet supports 7 out of 9 features.
4. ABC
Click here to download ABC
ABC (another BitTorrent client). Decent client, nice interface. ABC does not support BitTorrent Encryption, RSS, DHT and it doesn’t have a tracker. BitTorrent is based on Bittornado, and added a queuing system.
ABC supports 5 out of 9 features.
5. Bittornado
Click here to download Bittornado
Bittornado has the same options as ABC but without the queuing system. It is the successor of Shad0w’s Experimental Client, one of my all time favorites (used it for almost a year). Bittornado was the first client to implement the Super Seeding feature.
Bittornado supports 5 out of 9 features.