Best Torrent Clients For Linux

Torrenting is one of the fastest methods for downloading large files. Usually downloading large files directly from the host server is slow especially when a lot of users are downloading that file.

For software developers, providing software through the host server is costly as it requires developers to upgrade the server resources as the users increase.

When users are downloading files through torrents, software developers do not have to worry about server resources because the files are automatically served to the users in pieces through the nearest users who have already downloaded that file.

Today many popular software are available to download through torrent clients. Downloading through torrent is faster for users because the pieces of files are being served to them from the nearest users who have already downloaded that file.

Why are torrents illegal?

It’s not. Many assume that torrents are illegal because it’s only used to download illegal content. In simple terms, torrenting is a method to distribute large files to users and anyone can use torrents for downloading their favorite content provided by the content creators.

Because torrents are faster, people also use it to distribute pirated content such as movies, software, and other premium content for free. It is illegal to distribute and use pirated content not only through torrents but in any other way.

Many countries have already blocked sites that they think provide illegal or pirated material. So downloading through torrents is not a crime but downloading through a specific site and illegal content may lead you to some legal trouble.

Today most open source projects provide a torrent link for letting users download it through torrents. Almost every Linux distribution can be downloaded through torrents, whether it be the Ubuntu or fedora. All of them provide their software through torrents.

When it comes to torrent clients, there are many torrent clients for Linux. Many Linux distributions ship with a torrent client, Transmission. Transmission is a simple torrent client, and it just works. If you need more from a torrent client such as for better torrent management, scheduling, queuing, you may want to find a better alternative.

In this article, I will list some of the best torrent clients for Linux. If you find any other software that I should have included, please let me know in the comment section below this article. I will consider including it in this list.

Best Torrent Clients for Linux

1. qBittorrent

qBittorrent based on Qt toolkit and libtorrent-rasterbar is the best torrent client for Linux. It’s an open-source alternative to uTorrent available on Windows.

The user interface is clear. Whereas uTorrent the most popular torrent client for Windows shows a ton of advertisements, qBittorrent interface is immune from any type of advertisements.

All torrents are well categorized in the pre-existing categories. For example, the sidebar shows the torrents by their status such as Downloading, Seeding, Completed, and Paused, etc. Besides these categories, users can also create custom categories to better manage the torrent files.

qBittorrent supports bandwidth control to limit download/upload speed, torrent queueing, prioritize specific torrents or torrent’s content to download them quickly.

Integerated Search engines

qBittorrent search engine feature lets users search for files from multiple torrent sites simultaneously. It also supports searching under specific categories such as Books, Music, Software, etc.

To enable search engine, click View in the menu and check ‘Search Engine’. It will enable a new tab next to Transfer named Search. As you can see in the image above, just search for a term and it’ll show all the results from different torrent sites.

Besides the .torrent extension, qBittorrent also supports many other torrent extensions including Magnet links, DHT, PEX, and LSD. qBittorrent also supports private torrents and encrypted connections.

qBittorrent Web UI

qBittorrent has a web interface so that you can manage the torrent clients from a web browser either from the same device or any device connected to the same network.

To enable qBittorrent Web UI, go to Tools > Preferences > Web UI and enable web user interface.

By default, the program listens on port 8080. Though, the port can be changed easily to any unused port on the device. After enabling the Web UI and setting the port, open the web browser, and visit localhost:8080. It’ll open up the qBittorrent in the web browser.

This Web interface can also be accessed from any other device connected to the same network. Just replace the localhost with the device IP and it’ll work.

By default, the interface is protected. But, one can disable the protection or set the username and password in the same window where the Web UI was enabled.

Set the new username and password, click OK and that’s it. Now enter the username and password.

How to install qBittorrent?

qBittorrent is available in the repository of major Linux distributions such as Ubuntu, Fedora, and Manjaro. To install in your distro, use the specific package manager provided by your Linux distro. If your distro has an app center such as Ubuntu Software in Ubuntu, you can easily search and install it using the software center. Or use the command line –

For Debian or derivatives –

sudo apt install qbittorrent

For Fedora or derivatives –

sudo dnf install qbittorrent

sudo yum install qbittorrent

For Arch or derivatives –

sudo pacman -S qbittorrent

Or compile from source code –

2. Deluge

Deluge is a lightweight, free and open-source Linux torrent client. Deluge has all the basic features that a torrent client should have such as, torrent queueing, prioritize torrents or its content, support for protocol encryption, LSD, PEX, DHT, UPnP, NAT-PMP, Proxy support, Web seeds, and bandwidth control global or specific torrents.

Deluge can also put the computer on sleep or shut it down after the download completion. Categories allow users to manage their torrents easily.

Deluge plugins support

Besides having all the basic features, Deluge has a good number of plugins to extend its functionality. All the Deluge plugins are available here. These plugins can provide information/features that most torrent clients do not have.

Deluge Web UI

Like qBittorrent, Deluge also has a web interface to manage it from the web browser. By default, the Web UI plugin is installed but not enabled. To enable the plugin, go to Edit > Preferences > Plugins and check Web UI.

Hit Ok and it’ll enable a new menu in the Preferences named Web UI.

Click Web UI and check Enable WebUI.

After this, visit localhost:8112 in the web browser and it will open up the web interface of Deluge. From here you can manage all the torrent files on this device. This WebUI can even be accessed from any other device connected to the same network.

How to install Deluge?

Deluge is available in almost all Linux distributions repositories. To install it, one can either open the GUI software manager and search for deluge or use the command line package manager to install Deluge.

For Debian or derivatives –

sudo apt install deluge

For Fedora or derivatives –

sudo dnf install deluge

sudo yum install deluge

For Arch and derivatives –

sudo pacman -S deluge

Or compile it from source code –

3. Vuze

Vuze is a popular open-source torrent client. It is well known among Windows users. Vuze has a large number of features for making torrenting faster and more manageable.

The basic version of Vuze is available for free. It has almost all the features that one needs but the interface is also cluttered with Ads. The premium version called Vuze Plus has a built-in antivirus, make unlimited DVDs, play videos sooner, and no ads.

Vuze StudioHD Network

The basic version is more than enough unless you want to make DVDs of content provided by Vuze StudioHD Network.

Vuze StudioHD Network is a content discovery network. Here one can discover different categories of videos or movies. If you have subscribed to Vuze Plus, you can make unlimited copies of DVDs.

Swarm merging

Swarm merging is another unique feature in Vuze. It makes slower downloads faster by merging common files between two or more downloading torrents. For more information, read the official guide that explains how this feature works.

How to install Vuze in Linux?

Vuze is availbale in Snap store. So if you have snapd set up on your Linux distro, you can simply use the following command to install Vuze –

sudo snap install vuze-vs

For setting up snap app on your distro, please refer to this guide.

Alternatively, you can also download Vuze source from the download page. Extract the vuze file and run vuze file from the command line.

./vuze

4. Tixati

Tixati is a simple, lightweight, and fast torrent client for Linux. Besides basic features such as DHT, PEX, and Magnet Link support, it also supports RC4 connection encryption for added security, bandwidth management, UDP Peer Connections, and NAT router hole-punching, RSS, IP Filtering, and Event Scheduler.

Tixati contains no ads, it is free, open-source, and supports Linux distributions natively.

How to install Tixati in Linux?

Tixati .deb and .rpm files are available on the download page. If your distribution supports neither deb or rpm, you can also use binary file to install it on your distro.

5. KTorrent

KTorrenti is a great torrent client for Linux built by KDE. It comes preinstalled on almost all Linux distributions with the KDE desktop environment. KTorrent is one of the best alternatives to BitTorrent. It’s simple, feature-rich, and can be easily installed on any Linux distribution.

KTorrent supports all range of features such as torrents queuing, bandwidth control, ability to preview certain file types, import fully or partially downloaded files, prioritize torrents, or specific files per-torrent, IP filtering, and a lot more.

How to install KTorrent on Linux?

KTorrent is already available in repositories of almost all major Linux distributions. Simply use the package manager to download and install it in your distro.

For Debian or derivatives –

sudo apt install ktorrent

For Fedora or derivatives –

sudo dnf install ktorrent

sudo yum install ktorrent

For Arch or derivatives –

sudo pacman -S ktorrent

For snap users –

sudo snap install ktorrent --candidate

6. Transmission

Transmission is one of the most basic torrent clients for Linux. It comes pre-installed with many major Linux distributions including Ubuntu.

It has got a very simple user-interface, easy to use, and is available in repositories of almost all major Linux distributions. If you just want a torrent downloader, Transmission is a good one for you.

How to install Transmission on Linux?

As I said above, Transmission is available in almost all Linux distributions’ repos. To install it, use the package manager command or install it using the GUI software center (if it is available in your distro).

For Debian or derivatives –

sudo apt install transmission

For Fedora or derivatives –

sudo dnf install transmission

sudo yum install transmission

For Arch or derivatives –

sudo pacman -S transmission

Transmission is also available as Flatpak and snap. If you use any one of these, you can install transmission in any Linux distribution.

Download Transmission flatpak

sudo flatpak install transmission

Download Transmission Snap

sudo snap install transmission

7. WebTorrent

WebTorrent is my personal favorite for watching torrents videos. Something that is not available in most torrent clients, WebTorrent has it out of the box.

WebTorrent can stream videos or music before it finishes downloading. It is written in Javascript and uses WebRTC for peer-to-peer transport.

How to install WebTorrent in Linux?

WebTorrent provides an installer for Debian and rpm based distributions. Installers can be downloaded from the GitHub repo.

If you have set up flatpak in your distro, then you can also install WebTorrent from Flathub.

sudo flatpak install webtorrent

Summary

So there you have it, the best torrent clients for Linux. All the applications I have listed are available for free (except for Vuze that has a free and premium version) and open source.

Using the famous BitTorrent client in Linux is also possible but it’s not official. I do not recommend using software that has better alternatives available from the open source community.

If you think I have missed any torrent client, let me know in the comment section below. I will consider adding it to the list.

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