The following is a list of notable software for running a BitTorrent tracker.
Tracker | Programming Language | License | IPv4 | IPv6 | Operating System Support | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
MLDonkey [1] | OCaml | GPL-2.0-or-later | Yes | Windows, OS X, Unix-like, Morph OS | Has a built-in tracker and announcement service | |
MonoTorrent [2] | C# | MIT | Yes | Windows, Mac OS, Unix-like | Uses Mono or .NET Core for cross-platform support (.NET) | |
Opentracker [3] | C | Beerware | Yes | Yes (IPv4 and IPv6 have separate binaries and processes that do not share any information between them. If a client communicates to the tracker over IPv6, it will only receive IPv6 addresses in the response.) | Unix-like (source code only) | Uses libowfat, [4] performs well even on embedded hardware. Only requirement is a POSIX compliant OS. Supports only a compact peer list. |
PeerTracker [5] | PHP | GPL-3.0-or-later | Yes | Web application | Extremely lightweight and efficient BitTorrent tracker. Supports SQLite3, and MySQL for storage. | |
μTorrent [6] | C++ | Freeware | Yes | Windows, OS X, Linux, Android | Does not have a list of hosted torrents. | |
qBittorrent [7] | C++ | GPL-2.0-or-later | Yes | Yes [8] | Windows, OS X, Unix-like, OS/2 | Lightweight. Supports DHT, PEX, announcements via UDP. Does not have a web interface or list of hosted torrents; it is not designed for secure or large-scale application. |
Vuze [9] | Java | Disputed | Yes | Windows, Mac OS, Linux | Vuze (formerly Azureus) has a built in tracker. | |
Torrust-Tracker [10] | Rust | AGPL-3.0-or-later | Yes | Yes | Windows, Mac OS, Linux | Open source tracker and indexer. |
Torrust-Actix [11] | Rust | MIT License | Yes | Yes | Windows, Mac OS, Linux | Open source tracker server, very light in resources and stable. |
Shareaza is a peer-to-peer file sharing client running under Microsoft Windows which supports the Gnutella, Gnutella2 (G2), eDonkey, BitTorrent, FTP, HTTP and HTTPS network protocols and handles magnet links, ed2k links, and the now deprecated gnutella and Piolet links. It is available in 30 languages.
BitTorrent, also referred to as simply 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.
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.
KTorrent is a BitTorrent client that is part of the KDE Gear.
File sharing is a method of distributing electronically stored information such as computer programs and digital media. Below is a list of file sharing applications, most of them make use of peer-to-peer file sharing technologies.
Transmission is a BitTorrent client which features a variety of user interfaces on top of a cross-platform back-end. Transmission is free software licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License, with parts under the MIT License.
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 not legal 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.
This is a comparison of notable free and open-source configuration management software, suitable for tasks like server configuration, orchestration and infrastructure as code typically performed by a system administrator.
Opentracker is a free BitTorrent peer tracker software that is designed to be fast and to have a low consumption of system resources.
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.
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.
ZeroNet is a decentralized web-like network of peer-to-peer users, created by Tamas Kocsis in 2015, programming for the network was based in Budapest, Hungary; is built in Python; and is fully open source. Instead of having an IP address, sites are identified by a public key. The private key allows the owner of a site to sign and publish changes, which propagate through the network. Sites can be accessed through an ordinary web browser when using the ZeroNet application, which acts as a local webhost for such pages. In addition to using bitcoin cryptography, ZeroNet uses trackers from the BitTorrent network to negotiate connections between peers. ZeroNet is not anonymous by default, but it supports routing traffic through the Tor network.