When comparing qBittorrent vs µTorrent, the Slant community recommends qBittorrent for most people. In the question“What are the best Torrent clients?” qBittorrent is ranked 1st while µTorrent is ranked 23rd. The most important reason people chose qBittorrent is:
qBittorrent is available as free, ad-less software licensed under GPL with source code available on [GitHub](https://github.com/qbittorrent/qBittorrent/). Being open source allows anyone to check if the software has no malicious code, is secure and respects privacy.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Free, ad-less and open source
qBittorrent is available as free, ad-less software licensed under GPL with source code available on GitHub. Being open source allows anyone to check if the software has no malicious code, is secure and respects privacy.
Pro Lightweight
Pro Full-featured
qBittorrent 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, web and command line interfaces. Has UPnP, NAT-PMP, NAT traversal for automatic router configuration. Has UDP tracker and µTP data transfer protocol support. Even covers Tracker Exchange, IPv6, web seeding, Embedded tracker, Super-seeding and proxy servers.
Pro Sequential downloading
Allows to download the first file of a series prior to the following items.
Pro Preload Magnet metadata
Obtain lists of files in Magnet before prompting the user for a download location.
Pro Auto torrent adding
Torrents can be automatically read from a folder.
Pro Enables streaming media while it's downloading
qBittorrent supports sequential downloading that allows users to download files in sequential order. That means that media such as video or audio can be streamed a the same way it can be with any other streaming service.
Pro Allows share ratio limiting
Can configure to what ratio (amount uploaded/amount uploaded) the torrent should be seeded. You can also configure on whether you want them to be paused or removed after this.
May also set this directly in the ~/.config/qBittorrent/qBittorrent.conf
:
[Preferences]
Bittorrent\MaxRatio=2.5
Bittorrent\MaxRatioAction=0 # 0=Pause, 1=Remove
Pro Super-seeding
Algorithm that helps downloaders to be able to become uploaders more quickly.
Pro In-Program torrent search via various search-engines
Uses python plugins made and maintained by users that can be found on the official websites.
Pro Can be used to create torrents (embedded tracker)
qBittorrent can be used to create a torrent to share large files/folders with other people.
Pro Good web interface
The remote API and web interface works well. There is headless version too (called qbittorrent-nox).
Pro RSS support
Add RSS feeds for automatic downloading. Apply filters to only download what you want.
Pro Has a command line interface and a daemon
Can be run on a headless Linux (for text-only mode from the command-line without requiring X11). The package is commonly named qbittorrent-nox (and it's officially supported by qBittorrent).
Pro Search engine plugins
What i love most about qbit is the "SEARCH" option thru major torrent-websites.
Pro IP filtering
IP filtering blocks set IP addresses. It's usually used to block communications with certain companies that are against p2p activity, etc.
Pro Tracker exchange
Makes it possible for BitTorrent peers to learn about new trackers for a swarm they have joined. Ideally ending up with every peer knowing about every tracker used for the torrent
Pro Tagging
qBittorrent now allows tagging individual torrents. So, besides Categorising torrents (ISO, Video, Podcasts, etc) you can tag torrents too (Jul, Aug, Sep or whatever).
Pro Quick and non-intrusive
Pro Lightweight
Weighs just barely over 1MB. And while it's gained a bit of feature creep over the years, it's still a lighter-weight client than many of its competitors.
Pro Full-featured
µTorrent 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 any element of the UI not needed to be hidden.
Pro Doesn't slow down other Internet activities
The application automatically manages bandwidth it takes up to not get in the way of other Internet-dependent activities.
Pro Portable
µTorrent can be run without having to be installed as it stores all files and settings in the same folder. It can be put on an external storage device (such as a USB drive) and run directly from it.
Pro Built-in search
Built-in search engine allows finding torrents to download right from withing the torrent client.
Pro Cross-platform
µTorrent is available on Windows, Mac, Linux and Android.
Cons
Con Has issues with large torrent numbers
Various issues occur with large torrent numbers (anywhere between 300 and 1000 torrents) including timestamp and file corruptions.
Con Consumes much RAM
It doesn't leave small footprint on your system.
Con Old UI
Looks a bit ugly.
Con Needs to be reinstalled from time to time
Sometimes it just stops downloading, the fix is uninstalling and installing again. It's a pain, but ends up working.
Con No mobile web UI
When accessing the web ui on a mobile device such as a phone, it uses the desktop interface.
Con Torrent downloads can freeze
Multiple people have reported that torrents stop downloading and stay in a "stalled" state indefinitely.
Con Search engine requires installing Python
Con No global sequential downloads toggle, yet...
Forcing you to toggle it individually everytime.
Con Can freeze in the background when exiting the program
Forcing you to kill the task in the sysmon.
Con Search engine does not function after version 4.1.5
Con WebUI version is slow when going into files tab
It's moving in slow motion when accessing the WebUI files tab of a seedbox with a phone.
Con Constant IO error

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 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. µTorrent lacks this functionality.
Con Are known to bundle riskware
In additional to typical toolbar and ad bundles, µTorrent has previously bundled an automatic cryptocurrency-miner called EpicScale even if the user opted out of other bundled software.
Con Inappropriate ads (can be disabled)
Not only does μTorrent have ads in the free version, they tend to be inappropriate ads for scammy things like "meet russian women".
Ads can be disabled in the options. It's important to note that disabling ads (as well as all bundled software and featured content) can be a difficult process as it requires manually editing multiple key/value pairs in advanced settings.
The following keys have to all be turned to false by going to options > preferences > advanced:
bt.enable_pulse
distributed_share.enable
gui.show_notorrents_node
offers.left_rail_offer_enabled
gui.show_plus_upsell
offers.content_offer_autoexec
offers.sponsored_torrent_offer_enabled
offers.featured_content.badge.enabled
offers.featured_content_notifications_enabled
offers.featured_content_rss_enabled
Con Bundles bloat
Installation wizard starting with version 3 offers installing a variety of garbage features including toolbars and ads. And makes the process of opting out of such bundled software difficult. It's possible to find version 2.2.x online (1,2) - same lightweight, feature packed application without all the unneeded extras or ads.
