Mac BitTorrent Clients Reviewed
Written by Smaran on September 03, 2006The number of user-friendly, appealing BitTorrent clients available for the platform are very few in comparison to the number of those available for Windows.
In this article we will highlight the most popular Mac BitTorrent applications and compare their features.
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Mac OS X is heralded as the most appealing operating system on the market and one of the most capable as well thanks to its BSD (Unix) core.
Sadly, the number of user-friendly, appealing BitTorrent clients available for the platform are very few in comparison to the number of those available for Windows.
In this article we will highlight the most popular Mac BitTorrent applications and compare their features.
Let’s start with the granddaddy of them all, Bram Cohen’s self-titled BitTorrent application. It’s gotten kind of confusing since he named the protocol, his company and his application all BitTorrent. BitTorrent OSX is a very (and I mean very) basic application. It’s as feature-full as Safari’s download box and that’s not saying much. Now some people wouldn’t mind something like that, but if you’re looking for simplicity Transmission is a much better choice. BitTorrent OSX also takes an age to start up on my MacBook Pro.
Transmission is my current Mac B.T. client of choice. 
It’s an Open Source project, maintained by the developer of the popular Mac DVD ripping application, HandBrake. Transmission does its job well. A neat feature it offers is the ability to view download and upload rates in the dock, so I don’t even have to open up the program to check how my downloads are going. Another great thing Transmission does is copy the .torrent file to its support folder, then trash the original file from my desktop thereby leaving no mess of files behind for me to clean up. Now just like everything Transmission has its flaws, the biggest of which is that Demonoid, a leading BitTorrent directory has banned it on ocassion! They say it doesn’t adhere to set standards.
Azureus is a cross-platfrom BitTorrent client written in Java. It’s slightly slower than all the other native Mac B.T. applications, but has features none of the others can boast of. Therefore it remains one of the most popular clients, even on the Mac. The one reason I have both Azureus and Transmission installed at any given time is because Transmission doesn’t allow me to select which files I want from a particular torrent. We call the feature ‘Selective Downloading’ and Azureus is sadly the only popular Mac B.T. client that lets me do that! There are also a number of great plug-ins for Azureus that let you do all sorts of things like subscribe to RSS feeds with .torrent enclosures.
Tomato Torrent is a very plain alternative, seriously lacking in eye-candy and begging for a new icon (and maybe a new name too). It’s based on the official BitTorrent client. I think it desrves a mention because I know a few people who swear by it. It comes with an AppleScript file that you can place in folders you want to download to. When you want to download a torrent to a specific folder, you just drag the .torrent file onto the piece of AppleScript to initiate the transfer. One pro is that it’s an extremely light client that hogs very little RAM. It’s the closet thing to uTorrent on the Mac.
Bits on Wheels is a slightly out-dated (last updated Sep. ‘05), yet popular Mac BitTorrent client. It claims to be “the first 100% native BitTorrent client for the Macintosh” as it is written in Objective-C and Cocoa.
Bits on Wheels is freeware but not Open Source. One of its main features is a visual 3D Swarm with which you can observe what’s actually going on under the hood, how many seeders and leechers you’re connected to and the bits transferring between everyone. Bits on Wheels is very OSeXy (heh!), it’s how I’d imagine the default OS X BitTorrent downloader to look if there was one. 
If not to use the first native OS X B.T. client, I’d download it just to fly around in 3D chasing bits.
Conclusion
Clearly, feature-wise Azureus is the winner. Bits on Wheels and Transmission are both great alternatives to BitTorrent OSX. If only Bits on Wheels would be updated more often and Transmission become standards-compliant and both of them allow Selective Downloading, they might start taking back some market share. And lets not forget the light weighted tomato. Tomato Torrent could use a few more features and better interface, but it too is a great BitTorrent client.
Worthy Mentions
Acquisition is a Mac p2p program like Limewire that accesses popular file-sharing networks like Gnutella to search for files. It also doubles as a BitTorrent client. Although I have never been able to achieve superior download speeds that I do with Transmission or Azureus, it’s iTunes-integration is sweet.
From version 9 Opera the popular cross-platform browser has implemented a simple, built-in BitTorrent client. It’s supposedly “targeted at novice users.”
.torrents are OSeXy.
Windows Clients Comparison
BitTorrent Client Features (wiki)
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137 Responses
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I love Transmission! Unfortunately I find that my ratio over at Demonoid sucks because the two don’t communicate properly.
I LOVED transmission but found the same problems (torrent deleted,error blah blah) so then i found bit sticks…awesome..great rates on some things..i use that for files under 500mb. files bigger im using hurricane and azureus. hurricane has that OSX feel…azureus..not so much. both good though
Hey Everyone!
Just went on the utorrent website and read that they would be releasing a mac version soon.
Hope this is of any help to anyone!
pnihavyj zumyh sfrnj mjoxizt dbfu olnpvb yempuhbia
I’ve strictly been using Azureus for at least 2 years now but what’s with this new Vuze Hi-Def theater BS?
It smells a bit fishy to me and seems to have generated some questionable blocks in peer guardian.
please correct me if I’m wrong.
I’m just pissed with XTorrent and the way it does nothing but push you to buy the complete version…
With my experience so far with this program I wouldn’t buy it anyway, because I just got headaches from the “please buy” window that cannot be closed unless you visit the web page and that’s counting back the time I’ve got to do fast downloads…
And on top of that, what’s with this guy that’s trying to charge people for a piece of software that everybody will use to do ILLEGAL downloads.Ok, the interface is nice, and has many good ideas, but he can’t complain if someone else cracks or keygens his software… Come on, 24 bucks is way too much to pay for a torrent client… I guess that he won’t get much money in a short term and will either drop the price, stop developing, or create a reliable trial.
Anyway, I keep waiting for uTorrnt for Mac!
Appreciate your help
[quote comment="11373"]Transmission is banned on pretty much all of the members-only torrent trackers. It’s interface and RAM-footprint is amazing. It’s µTorrent for OS X, once it fixes the announce interval and gains RSS functionality.[/quote]
could i get an invite please please please -=)
c0nfused84@yahoo.com
Which clients offer some form of security to protect people downloading movies/tv shows?
*Holds head to stop it from spinning…
Eventually I will assimilate a decent comprehension of torrent traffic.
Please don’t read this and think I know what I am talking about. My perspective is very limited so far.
That said, I am a Graphic Designer with a past including Air Force Tech on aircraft, so I am not completely in the dark…
——-
Here is an assortment of questions, observations and gray areas I hope someone can help me with :
(for context I am running OS 10.3.9 on a dual proc 867 Mac G4 - So some newer versions of these apps might be out that I can’t use)
I have tried the following torrent clients:
Transmission - Version in use: 0.6.1 (v480)
- Currently using for lack of something that seems better.
Tomato Torrent - Version in use: 1.5b1
- I used to use this and get good results, but recently I started getting refused by trackers and getting slow downloads.
-One feature I really liked was the ability to control upload speed for each torrent separately (Transmission only allows one upload limit for all active torrents).
-It also had a feature that allowed you to control how often more peers where requested (seems like a kool thing).
Bits on Wheels - Version in use: 1.0.6
- While I did like all the information it seemed to be providing, it seemed to me to consistently drop the ball with regard to actual download speed. (which is kind of the whole point isn’t it?!?)
I did try out other clients, I don’t remember which, but when an app does something I think is squirely or suspect I immediately delete it so I don’t forget and use it again…
——-
It seemed that only one person made mention of traffic shaping with regard to torrent traffic.
Isn’t traffic shaping the big daddy obstacle to p2p use?
Port forwarding: This particular voodoo has got me stumped.
I have the following network setup: Cable modem — vonage box — netgear WGR612 router (wireless routing shut off) — My afore mentioned G4 (in that order).
I have tried configuring my port forwarding but it ’seemed’ like when I did that, my isp (charter com in Michigan) would gimp my bandwidth. I actually asked them about this (I know - funny right) and they said that they did not use traffic shaping (of course I was speaking to some guy in India doing a halfway decent job of pretending to be American so maybe he was just lying…).
Is there a difference in encryption or lack of it between different clients (or trackers for that matter)?
The tracker I mostly use is The Pirate Bay which seems ok for a public tracker.
Demonoid is down btw: someone got to their server provider, so they are offline.
Is there a way to make my client use some discretion with regard to upload vs. download speed?
I usually keep an eye on my up vs. down and sometimes it gets to be a real crappy deal: maxed up with just a trickle down. when that happens I either pause, quit, or (x) my torrent (Using transmission) and restart my connection. I have done that and gone from a 5 KB/s download to 150 KB/s! Why???
With regard to upload limits, I seem to start choking my bandwidth off anytime I go over a 30 or 40KB/s upload limit (I can go higher but when I do my download starts dropping through the floor). I have a 3 mb cable modem service (sometime even the 5mb service) which I know can go way higher for upload. Is this the ‘non-existent’ traffic shaping again?
What about incoming TCP port? I don’t leave mine set at the default 9090 that Transmission uses because of an article suggesting traffic shaping functions by filtering certain traffic patterns on certain ports. It actually does seem to function better with a higher port setting.
——-
Sorry if anything I have said was dumb or offended anyone, I just want to know more and some of you seem to know what you are talking about…
- addendum to the previous article
I would like to note that I am looking forward to the Mac Release of uTorrent (so I can try it out). At the time of this comment, the uTorrent site indicates that it is not yet available to the public. It does seem like a closed beta test may be in progress.
When it does come out I hope it won’t be another one of these OS 10.4 or later apps (grr).
For those who don’t know, OS 10.4 or later apps just sit there doing nothing when you try to run them in OS 10.3.9, no error message, just nothing…
Oh and I like Version tracker for your every day download of share ware, demos and the like. That is where I have found all the torrent software I use (you can sometimes even find older versions of things).
http://www.versiontracker.com/
BitTorrent doesn’t work.
transmission allows selective downloading now
I just got a 1.8 gig single cpu G5 with Leopard. I still like PC’s with XP pro. I tried Azureus and it is just way too fucking much, the Veuz HD crap needs to fuckin go. Utorrent is the BEST. I will use Transmission or an older version of Azureus which I do like, especially the FROG. Tranmission having selective downloading now, sounds great. I will probably use Tranny. All these comments have helped very much. By.
So… I used to be able to do the “selective downloading” with Azureus… but I got a new MacBook, and now I don’t have that ability.. annyone know why that may be?
Azureus has a bug (at least on Leopard) that sometime after screen sleep on macbooc pro it couldn’t wake up.
Mike,
you just have to go to view - advanced and then open the torrent file from within Azureus.
Also,
An application called bitrocket (http://www.bitrocket.org/) is open source, native, and appears to support selective downloading (though I haven’t tried it myself). Best of all worlds.
was just thinkin’…… shouldn’t they have called that Tomato torrent app ‘Tormator’ ….
Transmission supports selective d/loading.
[quote comment="38062"]As for myself, none of the clients mentioned above will ever be found on my machine again. Yes, I’ve tried them all and don’t miss a thing now that they belong to my past.
That said, here are my recommendations which I run simultaneously on a very low end Mac Mini:
1- rTorrent
Extremely light command line client written in C++ with its own library that works flawlessly on Unix boxes. Highly recommended to those who don’t care much about appearence but value performance instead and are not afraid of the command line.
LibTorrent is a BitTorrent library written in C++ for *nix, with a focus on high performance and good code. The library differentiates itself from other implementations by transfering directly from file pages to the network stack. On high-bandwidth connections it is able to seed at 3 times the speed of the official client.
The client uses ncurses and is ideal for use with screen, dtach or simply Terminal or iTerm. It supports saving of sessions and allows the user to add torrents by dragging them to a specific folder.
2- KTorrent
KTorrent is a BitTorrent program for KDE. The current release is 2.1rc1 which is the second release on the way to the final 2.1 release.
Features:
* uTorrent compatible peer exchange
* Zeroconf extension to find peers on the local network
* WebGUI plugin
* RSS plugin
* Grouping feature to put torrents into groups
* Search plugin, which allows multiple searches
* Upload and download speed capping
* Internet searching using various search engines, you can even add your own
* UDP Trackers
* Port forwarding with UPnP
* IP blocking plugin
* Importing of partially or fully downloaded files
* Support for distributed hash tables (mainline version)
* Protocol encryption
* Bandwith scheduling
* Directory scanner to automatically load torrents in certain directories
* Trackers can be added to torrents
* File prioritization for multi file torrents
These are just to name a few.
These clients can be easily installed/uninstalled through Fink, or if you’re feeling adventurous, compiled from their latest downloaded source for more recent and better versions of them.
Damn, what took me so long to find out about these?
Peace.
P.s.: Texts extracted from their respective sites and a bit adapted to this column.[/quote]
All Azureus does is constantly Beach Ball of Death.
Give me a program that actually works. What a piece of crap.
Used Azureus…wasn’t a big fan. Also have been using Bits on Wheels. Love the look and feel of it but seems really buggy. Crashes a lot. Really wish they would of made an updated version of it.
Just downloaded Transmission and seems really nice and easy to use.
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