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| Original author(s) |
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| Developer(s) | Bigly Software |
| Initial release | 27 July 2017 [1]  |
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| License | GPLv2 or later |
| Website | www |
BiglyBT is a BitTorrent client written in Java forked from Vuze. It is free and open-source software and ad-free. [3]
BiglyBT has most of the features of Vuze, its predecessor. However, it lacks Vuze's premium and proprietary features and features the developers considered bloat, including DVD burning, gaming promotions, the video-sharing content network, and the installer's advertisements. [3] [4] Some removed features such as the embedded media player, RSS scanner, and iTunes integration are available via downloadable plugins. [5]
BiglyBT's features include swarm merging, using different torrents to download the same file; [6] limiting download/upload speeds by tag, peer-set (e.g. country), network (public or I2P), and individual peer; [7] detecting and integrating with VPNs; [5] [7] support for the I2P network; [8] remote control [7] with any Android app that supports Transmission's RPC protocol; and "robust settings". [9] Many of these features are included via bundled plugins. [10]
Development of Vuze ground to a halt in early 2017, with no new releases or commits being made since April, featured content from the content network becoming inaccessible, and users reporting outdated antivirus definitions. [11] The two main developers, parg and TuxPaper, left the project and focused their efforts on an ad-free fork called BiglyBT with goals of shedding commercial interests. [12] They proceeded to remove Vuze's premium and proprietary features and license the entire project under the GNU General Public License. [13]
In December 2017, after pushing an update for review, the Android version of BiglyBT was rejected from Google Play for mentioning "other brands: Bittorrent" in the app listing's description, surprising the developers. The app was restored to Google Play after all mentions of "BitTorrent" were replaced with "torrent". [14]
Version 2.5—released 22 September 2020—added support for version 2 of the BitTorrent protocol, [15] making it the first BitTorrent client to do so. The updated protocol features improved checksums, including per-file hashes that allow improved swarm merging. libtorrent, a BitTorrent library used by popular clients such as qBittorrent and μTorrent Web but not BiglyBT, implemented the functionality a few weeks prior (with version 2.0, released 7 September 2020 [16] ), but clients that use the library had yet to incorporate the functionality as of BiglyBT's update. [6] [17]
In April 2020, TorrentFreak named BiglyBT the tenth popular BitTorrent client with 0.3% of the market share. [18]
Reviewers noted the higher amount of computer resource consumption due to using Java and appreciated the amount of features, praising the swarm merging feature and amount of options. [5] [7] Whitson Gordon of PCMag described BiglyBT as "Features Galore, If You Want Them". [19]
BitTorrent, also referred to simply as torrent, is a communication protocol for peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P), which enables users to distribute data and electronic files over the Internet in a decentralized manner. The protocol is developed and maintained by Rainberry, Inc., and was first released in 2001.
The Invisible Internet Project (I2P) is an anonymous network layer that allows for censorship-resistant, peer-to-peer communication. Anonymous connections are achieved by encrypting the user's traffic, and sending it through a volunteer-run network of roughly 55,000 computers distributed around the world. Given the high number of possible paths the traffic can transit, a third party watching a full connection is unlikely. The software that implements this layer is called an "I2P router", and a computer running I2P is called an "I2P node". I2P is free and open sourced, and is published under multiple licenses.
BitComet is a cross-protocol BitTorrent, HTTP and FTP client written in C++ for Microsoft Windows and available in 52 different languages. Its first public release was version 0.28. The current BitComet logo has been used since version 0.50.
Magnet is a URI scheme that defines the format of magnet links, a de facto standard for identifying files (URN) by their content, via cryptographic hash value rather than by their location.
In file sharing, super-seeding is an algorithm developed by John Hoffman for the BitTorrent communications protocol that helps downloaders become uploaders more quickly, but it introduces the danger of total seeding failure if there is only one downloader.
A BitTorrent tracker is a special type of server that assists in the communication between peers using the BitTorrent protocol.
FrostWire is a free and open-source BitTorrent client first released in September 2004, as a fork of LimeWire. It was initially very similar to LimeWire in appearance and functionality, but over time developers added more features, including support for the BitTorrent protocol. In version 5, support for the Gnutella network was dropped entirely, and FrostWire became a BitTorrent-only client.
Protocol encryption (PE), message stream encryption (MSE) or protocol header encrypt (PHE) are related features of some peer-to-peer file-sharing clients, including BitTorrent clients. They attempt to enhance privacy and confidentiality. In addition, they attempt to make traffic harder to identify by third parties including internet service providers (ISPs). However, encryption will not protect one from DMCA notices from sharing illegal content, as one is still uploading material and the monitoring firms can merely connect to the swarm.
Peer exchange or PEX is a communications protocol that augments the BitTorrent file sharing protocol. It allows a group of users that are collaborating to share a given file to do so more swiftly and efficiently.
qBittorrent is a cross-platform free and open-source BitTorrent client written in native C++. It relies on Boost, OpenSSL, zlib, Qt 6 toolkit and the libtorrent-rasterbar library, with an optional search engine written in Python.
Tribler is an open source decentralized BitTorrent client which allows anonymous peer-to-peer by default. Tribler is based on the BitTorrent protocol and uses an overlay network for content searching. Due to this overlay network, Tribler does not require an external website or indexing service to discover content. The user interface of Tribler is very basic and focused on ease of use instead of diversity of features. Tribler is available for Linux, Windows, and OS X.
Vuze is a BitTorrent client used to transfer files via the BitTorrent protocol. Vuze is written in Java, and uses the Azureus Engine. In addition to downloading data linked to .torrent files, Azureus allows users to view, publish and share original DVD and HD quality video content. Content is presented through channels and categories containing TV shows, music videos, movies, video games, series and others.
The following is a general comparison of BitTorrent clients, which are computer programs designed for peer-to-peer file sharing using the BitTorrent protocol.
libtorrent is an open-source implementation of the BitTorrent protocol. It is written in and has its main library interface in C++. Its most notable features are support for Mainline DHT, IPv6, HTTP seeds and μTorrent's peer exchange. libtorrent uses Boost, specifically Boost.Asio to gain its platform independence. It is known to build on Windows and most Unix-like operating systems.
Micro Transport Protocol is an open User Datagram Protocol-based (UDP-based) variant of the BitTorrent peer-to-peer file sharing protocol intended to mitigate poor latency and other congestion control problems found in conventional BitTorrent over Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), while providing reliable, ordered delivery.
The usage share of BitTorrent clients is the percentage of users that use a particular BitTorrent client, regardless of version.
In the BitTorrent file distribution system, a torrent file or meta-info file is a computer file that contains metadata about files and folders to be distributed, and usually also a list of the network locations of trackers, which are computers that help participants in the system find each other and form efficient distribution groups called swarms. Torrent files are normally named with the extension .torrent.
BTDigg is the first Mainline DHT search engine. It participated in the BitTorrent DHT network, supporting the network and making correspondence between magnet links and a few torrent attributes which are indexed and inserted into a database. For end users, BTDigg provides a full-text database search via a Web interface. The Web part of its search system retrieved proper information by a user's text query. The Web search supported queries in European and Asian languages. The project name was an acronym of BitTorrent Digger. It went offline in June 2016, reportedly due to index spam. However in 2024 it appears to be back online but due to IP Filtering. A lot of IP Addresses cannot access btdig.com but they can access the tor link due to how tor works.
μTorrent, or uTorrent, is a proprietary adware BitTorrent client owned and developed by Rainberry, Inc. The "μ" in its name comes from the SI prefix "micro-", referring to the program's small memory footprint: the program was designed to use minimal computer resources while offering functionality comparable to larger BitTorrent clients such as Vuze or BitComet. μTorrent became controversial in 2015 when many users unknowingly accepted a default option during installation which also installed a cryptocurrency miner.
WebTorrent is a peer-to-peer (P2P) streaming torrent client written in JavaScript, from the same author, Feross Aboukhadijeh, of YouTube Instant, and the team at WebTorrent and on GitHub, for use in web browsers, as well as a WebTorrent Desktop stand alone version able to bridge WebTorrent and BitTorrent serverless networks.
BiglyBT is the first torrent client to add full support for the BitTorrent v2 specification, including hybrid torrents. The client is far ahead of the curve as the first torrent site has yet to adopt the new specification.
Taking the anonymous download baton forward, BiglyBT has I2P support is available, installed by default as a plugin. Naturally, the download will be slower than the default settings owing to peer relay.
The list is further completed by qBitTorrent, Deluge, Free Download Manager (FDM), and BiglyBT. The latter is operated by former developers of Vuze, which was the second most-used torrent client ten years ago, but is no longer actively developed.