The Best Torrent P2P Software, 2010

Here they are: the most popular 'music pirate' downloading software for torrent file sharing. This list is compiled from hundreds of user comments and reader suggestions. Currently, the two most popular tools are uTorrent and Vuze. But definitely look at all the choices below for yourself.


Related: How to Spot Fake Torrents

1. Tixati

Tixati is a slick new torrent program authored by the architect of the WinMiX OpenNap program.  Definitely a sophisticated and forward-thinking client, Tixati is already embracing the shift towards trackerless torrent swarming:  magnet links, PEX, and DHT swarming works very well in Tixati.  The throttling features and wide range of priority adjustments will make any fussy P2P user quite happy, and you'll find that download speeds are at least as fast as Vuze and uTorrent.  The bitfield graphs and 'executive dashboard' display is very professional, and this product easily earns itself a spot amongst the best torrent clients today.  Definitely try Tixati for torrent P2P needs.

http://www.tixati.com/

2. uTorrent

Known as both "u-torrent" and "micro torrent", this is the most popular torrent tool today. uTorrent has all the functions a torrent downloader will ever need, and it only requires 1 MB of hard drive space and memory. uTorrent has all the downloading and seeding performance of its competitors, but with minimal impact to the rest of your computer's speed.

http://www.utorrent.com/

3. Vuze (formerly 'Azureus')

You can call it 'bloatware', or you can call it 'the Lexus of torrent software': Vuze is a large software product that offers a smorgasbord of features (most of which you may never use). You can play any media in Vuze, including HD videos. You can play music, and run most any media in this product. Apparently, you can also use Vuze to run media on your iPhone, Xbox, or PSP. Vuze is very popular, and you'll want to give Vuze a try for a couple days and decide for yourself if this powerful product fits your style of downloading and viewing media.

http://azureus.sourceforge.net/

4. Deluge Torrent

Linux and OS X people: rejoice! Here is a software that is very friendly towards your operating systems, and many About.com readers say good things about this product. It has a clean metallic-but-soft interface design, and most any statistic and metric you might ever want to see about your uploads and downloads. Like most torrent clients, the product is free, and built/supported by programming enthusiasts who truly believe in file sharing.

http://deluge-torrent.org/

5. Transmission Bittorrent

Mac users and Linux users: this product is for you. Tranmission is a lean product that allegedly uses the smallest memory footprint of any torrent client today. It's open source, clean-looking, and a favorite amongst Mac users. Give Transmission a try if you are an Apple or Linux user.

http://www.transmissionbt.com/

6. ABC (Another Bittorrent Client)

This product is quite plain looking. But don't let the appearance fool you: this product is solid, and offers good functionality. You can easily configure the display to show stats/seeds/trackers. You can easily pause and queue any torrent at any time. You can also set timers on your upload options (very nice for serious P2P users). And the product is written in the lean Python/wxPython code languages.

http://pingpong-abc.sourceforge.net/

7. TurboBT

TurboBT is a product that is published in multiple human languages, including: Mandarin, Romanian, German, Portuguese, Russian, and French. TurboBT is free to download and use, and has been recommended as a solid Python-based P2P product.

http://turbobt.sourceforge.net/indexen.htm

8. BitComet

This free software is very good, but has lost many users to uTorrent, Transmission, Vuze, and Tixati.  If you are a serious downloader who has particular tastes in interfaces, definitely give BitComet a try.  If you are a new user, start with uTorrent or Vuze first. Note that many private torrent sites will ban you for using BitComet, as there is a pervasive belief that BitComet reports incorrect ratio information, and also leaks data to DHT.

http://www.bitcomet.com/