Good Clients List:
Selecting a BT (BitTorrent) Client

This guide is one of a series of guides that are theTorrentSpy FAQ(part of the*Spy FAQfamily).

A BT (BitTorrent) Client is a program that will manage all of your downloading and uploading you do using torrents. There are many BT clients out there, each offering different pros and cons - all will download at the same speed, but they differ in terms of advanced features such as DHT, and ease of setup & use. Only use one client at a time, as running more than one will slow things down.

Here is a list of recommended BT clients you can use:

ClientPlatformNoteRecommended by:
Azureusmultiplatform
  • complex and a resource hog
  • lots of excellent help available
volunteer mod-squad
TomatoMac
volunteer mod-squad
uTorrent
(aka µTorrent)		Windows
  • extremely light on resource usage
  • very easy to get started with

volunteer mod-squad

and TorrentOOgle

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ .

Bad Clients Listing:

Here is a list of NOT recommended BT clients (and the reasons why some trackers / other clients ban them):

ClientBannedReasonRe: by:
ABC
randomly reports bad stats to the tracker
Acquisitionby many trackersnot a proper Torrent client.
BitComet by trackers and clients

still banned by some trackers

update 7jan2007 BitComet is now being banned by some clients, due to "selfish" client behaviour

Torrent Tracker sites, owners, and individual users.
BitLordby many trackersbanned by many trackers - based on old buggy BitComet code.
BitSpiritby many trackersrandomly sends DHT packets to its own public tracker
BitThiefby trackers and clientsbeing banned by some clients, due to "selfish" client behaviour
BitTorrent
(aka Mainline) users caught cheating with this client, old and decrepit
Bittorrent++by many trackers???
BitTyrantby trackers and clientsbeing banned by some clients, due to "selfish" client behaviour
burst!by many trackersno longer maintained
CTorrent
and clones		by many trackerscommunicates with the tracker incorrectly (aka not following BT spec)
ed2kby many trackersnot a proper Torrent client.
eDonkey2000by many trackersnot a proper Torrent client.
eXeemby many trackersnot a proper Torrent client.
G3by many trackersconsistently reports bad stats to the tracker
Mainline
See BitTorrent
MLdonkeyby many trackersnot a proper Torrent client.
Operaby many trackersnot a proper Torrent client.
Qtorrentby many trackersDoes not identify itself correctly and gets caught by another client ban.
Rufusby many trackersconstantly reports bad stats to tracker
Shareazzaby many trackersnot a proper Torrent client.
SuperTorrent???Apparently contains adware
Torrent101???Apparently contains adware
Torrent Stationby many trackersDoes not uniquely identify itself.
Torrentstormby many trackersdevelopment and bug fixes ceased 30th March 2005.
Turbo Torrentby many trackersrumoured to do bad things
XBT Clientby many trackersby default does not identify itself on the swarm or can be configured to pretend to be another client.
Ziptorrentby many trackersdoes not identify itself correctly (specifically it lacks version number). Being used principally by spoofers, taking advantage of this bad code decision.