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Add to SafariWhen comparing µTorrent vs Rtorrent, the Slant community recommends Rtorrent for most people. In the question“What are the best Torrent clients?” Rtorrent is ranked 5th while µTorrent is ranked 16th.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
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.
Pro Supports thousands of torrents easily
Pro CLI interface
Pro Reasonable feature set
rTorrent covers basics such as Prioritization, Selective Downloading, DHT, PEX and Magnet URIs. It includes MSE/PE for security. It has graphical and command line interfaces. Has UDP tracker and µTP data transfer protocol support. Even covers Super-seeding.
Pro No extraneous functions
Torrent is a CLEAN client. Meaning there’s no search engine, tools, or other things to bloat the program.
Pro RUTorrent is a great web interface for RTorrent
Cons
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.
![[deleted]](https://avatars.slant.co/identicons/50/a1404da0-5397-55ec-a973-a1a26b33e81c)
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.
Con No IPv6 support
Con Requires manual router configuration
The client lacks support UPnP, NAT-PMP or NAT traversal for automatic router configuration.
Con Files can't be downloaded sequentially
Con No embedded tracker
An embedded tracker allows turning the client into a server offering an easy way of sharing files with others. rTorrent lacks embedded tracker support so another method of sharing or different client has to be used to share files.
Con No proxy server support
Con Lacks µTP transfer protocol support
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. rTorrent lacks this functionality.
Con No search
Built-in search engines allow finding torrents to download right from withing the torrent client. rTorrent lacks such functionality.
Con No web seeding
Web seeding support allows downloading file parts from an HTTP source alongside the swarm. It's usually used for long-term seeding and easing some of the load on web hosts that supply direct downloads by offering a BitTorrent download as an alternative while still ensuring that the file is always available in its entirety regardless of the swarm. rTorrent lacks this functionality.
Con No built-in web interface
Con No local peer discovery
