BitTorrent is the common protocol adopted by many people for transferring large files online. There are two prerequisites in the BitTorrent concept, torrent file and torrent client. Torrent file is a file that contains metadata about files and folders to be distributed, while torrent client is the application used to open the torrent file. In other words, torrent client is the tool to download the files from the server to your computer.
There are many torrent client apps available for Linux, mostly free. Deluge and Transmission are the examples of popular torrent client for Linux.
In addition to two apps mentioned above, there are also other torrent clients you can install on Linux. This article will show the best torrent clients you can use on Linux.
1. Transmission
Transmission has long been a favorite torrent client for Linux. This tool comes with a very simple and easy-to-use interface. It is capable of handling multiple torrent clients at once. When the internet connection is going slow, you can pause the transferring processes to continue later. Despite probably tends to popular in the Linux user scope, Transmission is actually also available for Windows and macOS. This tool is completely free. The developer says that they don’t play with the users to make money. Transmission is volunteer-based project. Most Linux distributions have included Transmission as one of the default apps, including Ubuntu.
2. uTorrent
BitTorrent, Inc. is the company that is responsible for the ongoing development of the BitTorrent peer-to-peer protocol, while uTorrent is the torrent client developed by the company. So, you can say that uTorrent is the official torrent client app. uTorrent is also available on Windows, macOS and also Linux. However, the installation of this app is a bit more complex. In Linux, uTorrent is available as a web app. uTorrent itself is a freemium torrent client. If you use the free version, you have to deal with ads.
3. Deluge
Deluge is a cool torrent client that is very easy to install and use. Most Linux distributions has been added this app to their software repositories so you can install it using the package manager of the distro you use. The interface of Deluge is quite similar to Transmission, but it comes with more statistics info regarding the transferring process, which you can see at the bottom side of the Deluge interface. Deluge is also capable of handling multiple torrent files. Deluge is also a cross-platform app just like two first apps above, released under the GNU General Public License. Currently, Deluge is maintained by Andrew Resch, Damien Churchill and John Garland.
4. qBittorrent
qBittorrent is also cool app to open and run a torrent file. The interface is also extremely easy to learn and use. You can also use it to open multiple torrent clients at once. qBittorrent is an open source torrent client that is available for Windows, macOS and Linux. In Linux, you can install qBittorent from the source code, which is available on GitHub and the official site of qBittorent. Or if you use Ubuntu, you can install it by running the following commands.
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:qbittorrent-team/qbittorrent-stable
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install qbittorrent
qBittorrent was originally authored by Christophe Dumez. It’s now maintained by Sledgehammer999 along with other programmers. qBittorent is released under the GNU General Public License.
5. Tixati
Tixati is a free torrent client app developed and maintained by Kevin Hearn. The app is available for Windows and Linux. Despite available for free, Tixati is a proprietary software. It is also capable of handling multiple torrent files at once, with an easy-to-use interface. For Linux, the developer of Tixati has provided several different binary packages. In addition to standard BitTorrent client sharing functions, Tixati provides integral chatrooms with the channel chat as well as private messaging being strongly encrypted.
6. Vuze
Vuze is a Java-based torrent client app. So, before installing this app ensure that you have Java installed on your machine. Vuze is developed and maintained by Azureus Software and released as a cross-platform software. In addition to Linux, Vuze is also available for Windows and macOS. You can also use it to open multiple torrent files at once. Vuze is available in two version, free and plus. What makes them different is ads. You will see some ads if you use the free version of Vuze. Vuze also offers plugins to enhance its functionality.
7. FrostWire
Last but not least. FrostWire is another Java-based torrent client which you can use to open multiple torrent clients at once. Since it is built with Java, you need to ensure that you have Java installed on your machine. This app is available for major platforms including Windows, macOS and of course, Linux. FrostWire is an open source software that is released under the GNU General Public License. The developer of FrostWire provides three different Linux packages of FrostWire; DEB, RPM and tarball.