μTorrent

Torrents remain one of the best ways to download large files from the internet. They offer distinct advantages over regular FTP or HTTP downloads, as they can be easily interrupted and resumed at will.

Though torrents have gained notoriety for pirated content, they are still used for legitimate downloads. Torrents have now become a popular platform to distribute media even in the film industry.

A long-standing contender

In order to download torrent files, you would need a BitTorrent client. While there are many torrent clients available in the market, few can match the capabilities of µTorrent.

µTorrent has been around since 2005 and is still one of the most widely used BitTorrent clients across the world. The software is free but does contain some small ads. A paid ad-free version is also available for a yearly subscription.

Performance and resource footprint

µTorrent's main appeal is its fast and minimalist design. With a lightweight setup file, it installs ultra-fast on your computer. The user interface of µTorrent is highly intuitive, making it usable even for people with no prior experience with torrents. It doesn't even gobble up too many of your system resources, typically maintaining a low memory footprint.

Extensive features and cross-platform sharing

Despite its small design, µTorrent packs a variety of features and easily configurable download settings. It offers an option to download a number of torrents at the same time, and also allows you to save them at different locations. It offers bandwidth management in the form of speed limits; you can change the download or upload speed limit when required.

Besides downloading, µTorrent can be used to create new torrent files using any file or folder. The software is available across multiple platforms, including several versions of Microsoft Windows, modern macOS (via its Web version), Linux, and Android.