News & Guides

The world of torrenting, file-sharing, and privacy is constantly changing. Copyright laws, piracy, and advertising tie-in with torrenting. It is not easy to make sense of it all because it’s an entangled world where the facts can get lost easily. That’s why you need TorrentFreak (TF) in your life.

Out of all torrent websites that you visit, TF is the most important. Although, it’s not for sharing torrent files, it’s serving a noble cause nonetheless. Keeping you connected and informed. If you are participating in torrenting, it must be on your frequently visited website’s list.

Founder

Lennart Renkema, Founder, and Editor-in-Chief

A college professor and media consultant, Ernesto founded TF in November 2005. He writes under the pseudonym Ernesto Van Der Sar.

In 2007, Andy “Enigmax” Maxwell and CTO Ben Jones joined the site. Rickard Falkvinge, founder of the Pirate Party regularly contributes articles on the websites as well.

Furthermore, Andrew Norton who is an activist in the Pirate Party is the lead researcher and community manager at TF.

What is TorrentFreak?

More than a news website in the blog format, TF shares original stories from the p2p world. Dedicated to bringing you news stories about the BitTorrent protocol and file-sharing. It’s an indispensable source for anybody interested in torrents.

Many major news outlet use TF as a reference including The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Wall Street Journal. TF share news stories about issues such as:

• Net neutrality.
• Anti-piracy.
• Safe harbor law.
• Blockchain technology.
• Federation against Copyright Theft.

TF has around 75,000 followers on Twitter and 102,273 Likes for their Facebook Page.

In our opinion, you should keep an eye on TF to stay updated with all news related to torrenting. Most assuredly, it is the true pulse of everything torrents, copyright laws, and peer to peer sharing.

FrostWire is an ad-free torrent client that makes file sharing and torrenting a positive experience.

FrostWire has an easy to use interface, it can open multiple local torrent files and as well as magnet links, and allows in-app file search.

However, FrostWire has some issues, and long-time users ditched it for other torrent clients, as a result. If you have had some of the following issues, you too, may be looking for a FrostWire alternative:

• Although it has a built-in torrent search engine, it doesn’t always turn the best results and it won’t allow you to add your favorite torrent websites.
• Installs hidden software that may not be necessary for its functions.
• Corrupted downloaded files.

Here are the best alternatives:

uTorrent

uTorrent is a light torrent client with heavy features. It is the most popular torrent client for a reason. Two reasons to be exact.

1. RSS Downloader:

Insert your favorite torrent website and let uTorrent download all newly added torrents automatically.

2. uTorrent Remote:

Access uTorrent anywhere you go to check download progress, add torrents, or shut it down. You’re in control.

Want more Pros? You can create your torrents, hibernate/standby/reboot/shutdown your machine after downloading is finished, and you can install it on your Android device.

But what are the cons? A rumor said that uTorrent install a BitCoin mining software that uses CPU power when the device is idle. It is not ad-free. Older versions erase your download history if the device hangs up.

Deluge

Deluge is a free torrent client that provides several usability features with the addition of plugins. So, you install the features you need while discarding the others.

Deluge is also ad-free, lets you create your torrents, and has a simple interface. It has an RSS Reader similar to the feature in uTorrent but you must install the plugin first. And it doesn’t have the built-in search ability found in FrostWire.

Transmission

Transmission has a bad history with malware and suspicious behavior as well. But we still recommend it for several reasons. It doesn’t eat up your RAMs or CPU. For a while, it was the reigning torrent client for the Mac. It has cross-platform capabilities, working on macOS, Linux, and Windows.

Here are some of its best features:

• Encryption support.
• Creating torrents.
• IP filtering.
• Download scheduling.
• Remote management.
• Very customizable.
• Allows download automation.

Cloud Torrent Downloaders

A new breed of torrent clients is the cloud torrent client, which allows you to download torrents from your browser. A great example of this type of torrent clients would be Bitport.io, which allow you to torrent without revealing your IP. Thus, it eliminates the need for VPN. It also means that you download the torrent files from the cloud anonymously. Since the files are stored in the cloud, you can access them without even downloading them.

In essence, cloud torrent downloaders will download the files for you and allow you to download them with a direct link. They represent a solid alternative not only to FrostWire but to regular torrent clients. In some countries where ISPs slows down torrenting on purpose, cloud torrent downloaders provide an excellent alternative to normal clients as well.

Nody is another superb cloud torrent downloader that essentially converts torrents to direct links. If you’re stuck behind a college or workplace firewall, cloud torrent is your way out.