When comparing BitTorrent Surf vs BitTorrent, the Slant community recommends BitTorrent for most people. In the question“What are the best Torrent clients?” BitTorrent is ranked 15th while BitTorrent Surf is ranked 26th. The most important reason people chose BitTorrent is:
BitTorrent covers basics such as Prioritization, Selective Downloading, DHT, PEX, LPD and Magnet URIs as well as Broadcatching, Sequential downloading and Search. It includes MSE/PE for security. It has graphical and web interfaces. Has UPnP, NAT-PMP, NAT traversal for automatic router configuration. Has UDP tracker and µTP data transfer protocol support. Even covers IPv6, web seeding, Embedded tracker, Super-seeding and proxy servers. And it auto-updates.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Built-in custom search
Built-in search engines allow finding torrents to download right from withing the torrent client. BitTorrent Surf can be customized to include multiple custom search engines.
Pro Full-featured
BitTorrent covers basics such as Prioritization, Selective Downloading, DHT, PEX, LPD and Magnet URIs as well as Broadcatching, Sequential downloading and Search. It includes MSE/PE for security. It has graphical and web interfaces. Has UPnP, NAT-PMP, NAT traversal for automatic router configuration. Has UDP tracker and µTP data transfer protocol support. Even covers IPv6, web seeding, Embedded tracker, Super-seeding and proxy servers. And it auto-updates.
Pro Clean and easy to navigate user interface
A clean, visually-appealing interface that’s incredibly simple to navigate and cuts down on clutter by allowing unwanted elements to be hidden.
Pro Easy to make your own skin
Pro Additional features with the purchase of BitTorrent Pro
If you pay $19.99, you will get features such as removal of advertisements and added support for an internal HD media player.
Cons
Con Unknown underlying technology
It is unclear what BitTorrent protocol features or extensions are supported by the add-on.
Con Slow development
BitTorrent Surf has been in beta since it was announced in 2013. No changes to the add-on have been made since.
Con Ads
Includes "BitTorrent Bundle recommendations".
Con No tracker exchange
Tracker exchange functionality allows peers to exchange information about trackers of a given file. It is another way of ensuring that the file is downloaded from the optimal source. BitTorrent lacks this functionality.
Con Proprietary
No source code is publicly available. As such there's no way to independently check what security and privacy features are implemented and how as well as whether there's any malicious code or not.
Con Data Leech
Uses way too much background data, while task manager and bittorrent up on the foreground and Bittorrent showing a combined 300kb/s up/download avg on the torrents & TaskManager showed it was actually using an avg of 1000kb/s. There is no way it should be using this amount, and makes one wonder what it's up to.
