There are plenty of features to love here, like the in-app search engine for locating specific files, a bandwidth scheduler, and support for extensions including those for private torrents and encrypted connections. Totally ad-free, qBittorrent is focused on functionality for frequent torrenters. It should be noted that torrents are sometimes used for illegal piracy, and Digital Trends does not condone that use in any way. Xunlei is included in the comparison tables. In 2013 Thunder Networking Technologies publicly revealed that some of their employees surreptitiously distributed a Trojan horse with certain releases of Xunlei, the company's BitTorrent-ready download manager. Opera 12, a web browser, can also transfer files via BitTorrent. Some download managers, such as FlashGet and GetRight, are BitTorrent-ready. Many BitTorrent programs are open-source software others are freeware, adware or shareware.

īram Cohen, author of the BitTorrent protocol, made the first BitTorrent client, which he also called BitTorrent, and published it in July 2001. Because BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer communications protocol that does not need a server, the BitTorrent definition of client differs from the conventional meaning expressed in the client–server model. A BitTorrent client enables a user to exchange data as a peer in one or more swarms.

The BitTorrent protocol coordinates segmented file transfer among peers connected in a swarm. The following is a general comparison of BitTorrent clients, which are computer programs designed for peer-to-peer file sharing using the BitTorrent protocol. For the software application by Bram Cohen, see BitTorrent (software).

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