Here’s a list of the best torrent clients.
Doesn’t matter if you’re on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android or iOS, you’ll be able to download torrents in the next few minutes.
Well yes, you heard that right. I’ve included a step-by-step guide on iOS torrent downloads, just scroll to the bottom.
But, before we start, let’s see if we can increase your download speeds?
While we’re at it, let’s also make you legally safe and secure before you start using these best torrent clients.
How to Get Faster Torrent Downloading Speed?
Torrents or Torrenting isn’t illegal.
But, you may not always be aware of a downloaded file’s legality or copyrights.
What if the contents are illegal or copyrighted and you don’t know of it?
If you’re caught, that’s serious crime.
Moreover, most ISPs do not support or allow Torrenting.
Hence, when you use Torrenting websites or clients, they reduce your Internet speed.
That’s just unfair, isn’t it?
The simple solution to both the problems is a VPN.
First, it’ll mask your IP address and offer you a new identity on the web. This also hides your real location from anyone who’s snooping.
Hence, even if someone wishes to trace a download or upload, they can’t link it to you, this keeps you legally safe.
Secondly, when you use a VPN, your ISP can’t track your web activities.
Hence, they don’t know of your Torrent use, and so they can’t throttle/reduce your speed.
Although obviously, using a VPN also encrypts your connection and provides a lot more security than non-VPN connection.
Did you know that your IP address is visible to other users when you’re downloading Torrents?
That’s another problem a VPN solves. Your real IP address stays hidden and the VPN’s IP address is shown.
I personally use and recommend NordVPN. It’s one of the cheapest (around $3.50/month.) fastest and most secure VPNs around.
It’s also the only VPN which has proven via an independent audit that it truly doesn’t log your IP address, or activities. This isn’t true for most other VPNs.
Sure, other VPNs provide a few similar benefits. You can choose from our list of the best VPN providers as well.
Bittorrent
Website: https://www.bittorrent.com/
Bittorrent markets itself as the “world’s most popular torrent client”.
Even though the claim is sure debatable, it’s not completely outrageous.
Bittorent is one of the oldest, most widely used, and feature-rich torrent clients in existence.
For starters, you can assign “priority speeds” to torrents. Choose which files you wish to download the fastest.
As is obvious, alike most other best torrent clients, it does allow downloading any number of files simultaneously.
Then its “play while downloading” feature is pretty handy.
You don’t have to wait till download completion to verify a torrent’s content, video quality and other aspects.
Also offers malware protection! An important feature considering how torrents are a major sources of virus-distribution, aren’t they?
It also has a “file conversion” feature in-built, lets us convert files without additional software.
You can also set a speed-limit for your upload/downloads.
It also shows a torrent’s health prior to initiating a download, helps avoid dead or slow torrents, saving you half-used bandwidth and time.
Scheduling downloads isn’t a feature I personally use a lot, but it sure is available and possible with Bittorrent.
The free version shows ads. Paid plans start from a low $4.95/month. A number of advanced features though are limited only to the paid plans.
qBittorrent
Website: https://www.qbittorrent.org/
If it’s an open-source, 100% free torrent client you seek, qBittorrent is the answer.
Despite being free, it doesn’t display any ads.
Its search-feature is one of the most impressive aspects.
You can search for your torrent on multiple torrent sites at once.
The search-feature is pretty advanced and supports category-based searches.
It also encrypts the connections, supports magnet links, and also private torrents.
Wish to create your own torrents? That’s possible as well.
A torrent file may contain multiple files within, right?
qBittorrent allows selective-downloading, so, you download the content you wish to download, or ignore from a torrent file.
IP Filtering exists and (tries to) protects you from Copyright trolls.
But, let’s be honest, it’s 2021, the technique doesn’t hold much practical use today but it’s an additional feature nonetheless.
It even has a UI-lock feature, preventing others from using your torrent client without your permission.
Don’t speak English? Not a problem. qBittorrent is available in over 70 languages.
Bitcomet
Website: https://www.bitcomet.com/
If and when talking of features, there are but few parallels to Bitcomet.
Its Long-Term seeding is one such unique feature which makes it one of the best torrent clients.
In laymen’s terms? It helps you download torrent files even when they’ve 0 seeders.
This is done by fetching data from other peers who have 100% of the file.
Needless to mention, magnet files are supported as well.
Then, it has this “align pieces by content boundary” feature. Again, in simpler terms, it makes sure a torrent file only contains data from the same file and not multiple, different files.
Didn’t get it? Well, let’s just say it’s a solution to the common “torrent stuck at 99.9% downloaded” problem.
Unable to find a specific torrent file? How about getting it from another Bitcomet user? Well yes, the “torrent share” feature facilitates exactly that.
Bitcomet really cares for your system. Its “Intelligent Disk Cache” feature reduces the read/write frequency, resulting in longer device life.
Speed limits can be set for both uploads and downloads. You can set this universally for the torrent client, or individually for each file.
A bandwidth scheduler (helps you control bandwidth) is available as well.
It’s also capable of detecting mirror-servers, resulting in much faster downloads.
The interface, if I’m being honest is a bit outdated. But for all these features, I’ll take it.
You can also set priorities, or skip certain files in a torrent altogether.
And finally, the play-while-downloading feature too isn’t amiss.
It’s truly one of the best free torrent clients for Windows as well as macOS.
uTorrent
Website: https://www.utorrent.com/
uTorrent is truly one of the most popular torrent clients, isn’t it?
Personally, it’s the first-ever torrent client I ever used.
The only reason I didn’t list it earlier on this best torrent clients list? It was caught silently mining Cryptocurrency using users’ computers.
Fortunately, the issue seems to be fixed as of today.
One of its primary selling-points is its “size”. The program is less than 1MB hence isn’t taxing on your systems.
Alike Bittorrent, it too allows streaming the content of the torrent before it’s completely downloaded. Helps verifying the content and its quality.
That’s fitting, considering how it too is a product owned by Bittorrent itself.
The interface does resemble with that of Bittorrent’s as well.
In-built virus scans are another one of its primary features.
“Remote control” is another one of my favourites. You can start/pause and basically control your torrents remotely, without being on your primary system.
The in-built video converter isn’t missing either. Downloaded a foreign format maybe? Convert it to something that you can play on your devices.
You may have to bear with a number of ads on the free version though.
It also pushes additional bundled tools which may at times be frustrating.
The plans and payment modes are identical to Bittorrent, starting at $4.95/year.
Some of the features mentioned above (e.g. virus protection) are exclusively available on the paid plan.
Although, paying for it also grants you early-access to unreleased features!
It’s available on the Web, and on Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android.
Deluge
Website: https://deluge-torrent.org/
Deluge is a free and open-source Bittrorrent client.
But that’s not what makes it special.
The speciality lies in its limitless feature-extension possible due to its plug-in compatibility.
Nearly a dozen plugins are pre-included, they let you use graphs, decide actions after completion, or even limit bandwidth scheduling maybe?
Wish to download torrents alphabetically? Add trackers to your torrents maybe? Rename multiple files in a go? All of that’s possible.
Auto-pause all torrents after a bandwidth-threshold is reached.
Away from your computer? Prevent computer suspension when downloading the torrent.
Delete partially downloaded files in a go. The “Transdroid” feature lets you control your torrents from Android devices.
Message stream encryption and Protocol encryption protect against ISP throttling. However, nothing beats the simplicity or security of a VPN though.
Also allows downloading from IPv6 as well as proxy servers.
Even remote connections are possible from its command-line interface.
If you’re okay with a basic interface but extended features, Deluge is for you.
Vuze
Website: https://www.vuze.com/
Vuze is more than just an open-source torrent client.
It’s pre-packaged with a DVD burner.
The virus-protection too is available. It’s capable of detecting viruses not just in .exe files, but also in .zip, .tar and most other formats.
Because it uses Bitdefender tech, I must say the virus detection is truly one of the best in the industry. The virus-library is updated daily.
Vuze is one those torrent clients which claim to increase your speed, but honestly? I’ve no idea how. Neither will I say I it’s any faster than qBittorrent or Bittrorrent (in my experience.)
The stream-while-downloading feature too is available.
The wait-time before any in-progress torrent download can be played depends on the number of seeders (and, obviously your internet speed.)
Remote control, magnet link support, a plug-in library are some of the other features you’ll find with it.
As is expected, the free version does display ads.
Those can be prevented by going for the paid version (Vuze+).
It starts as low as $2.49/year (which is extremely cheap, isn’t it?). You can also choose to pay for a year, or a month which will cost you more for the exact same features.
It’s available on Windows, Mac and Linux. The only problem? It’s not updated very frequently.
BiglyBT
Website: https://www.biglybt.com/
I just said Vuze isnt’ updated frequently, didn’t I?
BiglyBT is a fork of the same, which is maintained by the same group of coders who coded Vuze.
BiglyBT boasts of trimming the torrent downloading client and has only kept the practically-useful features.
For one, it got rid of ads and bundled software.
Its swarm-merging feature is of special importance, it basically lets you download the same file from multiple torrents.
Hence, you get faster downloads. But, more importantly, you get the ability to download files even when the torrent has no seeds.
Almost any Android device can be used to remote-control BiglyBT.
Swarm discovery although not a major feature is still available. If you’re new, this basically shows you “related torrents” to the torrents you’ve downloaded.
Playing media and media conversions are some of its other superpowers.
Privacy-freak? In addition to the VPN, you can also use it over I2P.
How to Download Torrents on iOS Devices?
Apple banned torrent clients.
Hence, downloading torrents is harder for you if you’re an iOS user.
It won’t be. If you follow these exact steps, you’ll learn how to download torrent files on iOS devices:
- Download iDownloader from iTunes.
- Go to any one of the best torrent search engines and find the torrent you need.
- Copy the torrent link.
- Go to zbigs.com and paste the torrent link on zbigs.
- You’ll then get a direct download link to the file.
I get it, this isn’t a direct torrent client for iOS. But, I’m sure it solves your problem, doesn’t it?
Final Words:
So, which is the best torrent software on the planet?
I’d say Bittorrent is the obvious choice.
However, qBittorrent is a competitor of equal merit and is also open-source.
And, if you’re extremely picky, I’ve got 5 other options for you.
Rest assured, I doubt you’re walking off without a torrent client for yourself.
And that’ll be a wrap for this list of the best torrent clients folks.
