When it comes to downloading illegal legal stuff online, uTorrent is the world’s most popular option. The software is owned by the official BitTorrent company and has long been the most usable piece of software.
But uTorrent has been getting more and more annoying over the years. Software updates have made it slower than ever before. Users are now bombarded with advertisements. The software used to be lightweight and easy-to-use. It’s still easy-to-use, but it’s just a lot more annoying to use.
Oh, and we didn’t even mention that the company was also accused of secretly installing a cryptocurrency miner onto users’ computers earlier this year.
With that in mind, we decided to research the best 5 BitTorrent clients that aren’t uTorrent. Here’s what we found:

qBittorrent

qBittorrent advertises itself as the world’s best alternative to uTorrent. When you fire it up, you’ll see why: the software looks almost identical to uTorrent. You’ve got a similar sidebar, similar download window, and similar upload/download speed listings along the bottom.

But the best part about qBittorrent is that the software doesn’t scam its users or farm them for advertising money. The software doesn’t bundle any other software with its installation, nor does it deliver any ads.
The software also has all the under the hood features you appreciate with uTorrent, like UPnP/NAT-PMP fort forwarding and upload/download speed restrictions. You can even add proxy services or customize disk write cache size. You’ll probably never touch any of these features – but they’re there if you need them.
This open-source freeware comes with no limitations and works with Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. You can download it from here: http://www.qbittorrent.org/

Deluge

Why would we keep looking for uTorrent alternatives after finding such an awesome software like qBittorrent with the first click? Well, because we called this article the “top 5”, and we can’t just break that promise.

Fortunately, the next software on our list is pretty good too. Deluge, like qBittorrent, is an open-source, cross-platform piece of software that capably manages your torrent downloads.
The only problem with Deluge is that it comes with a few different plugins pre-installed. You can launch a browser called WebUI from within Deluge, for example. You don’t have to use these plugins, but they are preinstalled.
Deluge is also lightweight and comes with all of the features you need – like upload and download speed limiting and UPnP/NAT-PMP, proxy support, private torrent support, and more.
Download Deluge today from here: http://deluge-torrent.org/

Tribler

Tribler looks different from any other program on this list. It was actually developed by college researchers at the Delft University of Technology. The software was released over a decade ago, but it’s been regularly updated with patches over the years.

The main advantage of Tribler is that it supports the TOR onion routing protocol. This effectively lets its software build a custom version of the TOR network. It’s built-in anonymity: you don’t grab bits of the file directly from the seeders. Instead, your downloads are filtered through three layers of proxies before they hit your hard drive.
It doesn’t make it impossible for someone to track you, and it doesn’t totally absolve you of all virtual crimes – like copyright infringement. You’ll see this ominous warning after you activate Tribler’s TOR feature:

Basically, you’re becoming an exit node for other users’ downloads (just like those other users are becoming an exit node for your downloads).
If that makes you uncomfortable, then you can also use Tribler on its own without the TOR option, in which case it functions just like most other BitTorrent clients.
Download Tribler for free from www.Tribler.org

BitComet

BitComet once shared the BitTorrent software crown with uTorrent. Over the past few years, however, BitComet has fallen prey to many of the same problems as uTorrent: it tries to sneak in other software during the installation process and there are annoying ads once you actually open the software.

After you carefully install the software, you’ll enjoy the same uTorrent experience, including Disk Cache size customization, bandwidth scheduling, and more.
Of course, if you’re reading this article, then you’re probably annoyed about uTorrent’s advertisements and backdoor software installation. If you don’t like either of those things, then BitComet isn’t your best choice for a replacement.
Download BitComet for free at www.bitcomet.com

Vuze and Vuze Leap

Vuze and Vuze Leap are two separate BitTorrent clients made by the same developers. Both clients are free to download. The main difference is that Vuze Leap is a “light” version of the software with no plug-ins, remote access control, or advanced features. It downloads torrents for you, and that’s about it. The full version of Vuze comes with advertisements and is more full-featured.

While installing Vuze, make sure you carefully read through each installation window. At one window, Vuze will try to install Yahoo Search using a normal terms of service screen.
After you’ve dodged that problem, you’ll find that Vuze functions just like you would expect most other programs to run.
Download both versions of Vuze from www.Vuze.com
What’s your favorite uTorrent alternative? Let us know your best BitTorrent clients in the comments section below!