Top 5 BitTorrent clients for the Mac
When it comes to sharing the wealth, BitTorrent is the protocol of choice for the great majority of individuals, and increasingly businesses, to distribute the load and move gigabyte and larger files. Here’s a quick and subjective look at the tools of the trade.
When was the last time you used a truly terrible piece of software? Changes are if you try all five of the BitTorrent clients listed below, you probably won’t hate any of them. Dig in, find the one you like and pop us a note in the comments.
What’s the difference between an orange?
• μTorrent (1.1MB; Mac, PC)—Some of those who like this client have an almost religious attachment to it. Maybe it’s because it’s fast or it could be that it’s skinable. Whatever the case, this is perhaps the most popular GUI-based BitTorrent client (quit everything I tried to search).
• Vuze (10.7MB; Mac, Linux, PC)—the BitTorrent client formerly known Azureus is often mentioned in the same breath with μTorrent and has a loyal following. It’s also a GUI-based client that allows search, subscription, download and playback, but it looks like hell.
• Transmission (3.6MB; Mac, several *nix flavors)—is perhaps the best loved client for the Mac because of its simple, easy to grok user interface and lightweight, low impact design. That said, it’s my personal favorite because it’s fast, reliable and doesn’t hog resources.• Tomato Torrent (607K, Mac only)—another lightweight yet powerful client for the fairer platform that has the added benefit of being AppleScript compatible.
• XTorrent (1.3MB, Mac only)—this multi protocol client gets a mention simply because it does many things, like subscribing to specific content, and it has a fairly pleasing UI. That said, it’s not free (nagware).
Although BitTorrent clients have their partisans, I’m pretty sure any of first three listed above can easily satisfy your needs from a technical stand point. That said, preference will come down to which client has that extra special feature or perhaps a user interface that pleases your eye…
What’s your take?
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April 3rd, 2009
I love Transmission. Very classy interface, great performance.
April 3rd, 2009
I love Vuze. You need to set it to use the “classic UI” which makes it look like Azureus and gets rid of all the useless Vuze add-ons, and after that it’s pure Azureus bliss.
I tried uTorrent but it crashed in the middle of a download at night. That’s a big no-no for me as I have a slow connection and downloads will take days. I also didn’t see anything that would make it better than Vuze/Azureus.
I also tried Transmission but at least at the time it was significantly slower than Vuze. That killed it for me. I got about 2x the download speed with Vuze and also uTorrent.
Vuze is eternally stable – it never crashes, and it never loses your data even if the machine dies mid-download. It will just continue where it left off as if nothing happened. That’s fantastic.
It’s also maximizing my download speed, and it has UPnP support and NAT checking so I don’t need to deal with changing any router settings – it just works. As it should.
The Vuze interface is a huge mistake and kinda tries to sell you (? – or something, I don’t know actually) into some sort of media platform that never was and probably never will be.
Therefore, find the preferences panel, find the UI settings, and set it to classic mode. Azureus might not be the prettiest around, but it gets the job done and has more options, preferences, and technical views than you can shake a stick at.
April 3rd, 2009
I’m a big fan of Transmission. Stable, great OS X interface.
April 3rd, 2009
I’ve tried a few of these, but prefer Limewire 5, as it supports all of my P-to-P activities with one central console — not only BitTorrent, and it allows multi-tasking different activities through the same well-designed interface. Highly recommended.
April 3rd, 2009
I would prefer Download from sites like Hot Share Spot and all other free download sites.
Torrents are kinda problematic for me.
April 3rd, 2009
gfhfgh
April 3rd, 2009
Life is like a dream..take it
December 8th, 2009
I like the new Torrent client- Folx. Now it’s free and has great features as for me.
December 4th, 2010
http://nanotorrents.com torrent tracker – looks like new? This one is good for the list?
January 16th, 2012
I have fun with, lead to I discovered exactly what I was taking a look for. You have ended my 4 day long hunt! God Bless you man. Have a great day. Bye