So a bunch of people in this subreddit told me that uTorrent was trash and to switch to QBitTorrent.

I didn’t think much of it. How could one be so much better than the other? They’re both just torrent downloaders.

Holy shit was I wrong. I don’t even really understand what is happening, but downloading torrents on QBitTorrent is so, so, so much faster and I don’t even understand how.

A movie downloads in basically seconds compared to 10 or 20 minutes on uTorrent.

Why is this? What is this magic? What makes QBitTorrent so much faster?

  • rtxn@lemmy.worldEnglish
    34·
    11 months ago

    uTorrent has been down the shitter for over a decade now, I wouldn’t be surprised if the download speed was throttled without a pro subscription. It could also be a difference in how the applications discover seeds, or how much CPU time or memory is allocated to downloads.

    As a general rule, if an application is full of anti-features, it tends to have better, usually FOSS, alternatives.

      • Pringles@lemm.eeEnglish
        0·
        11 months ago

        I always thought that was what everyone said, as that’s actually how it’s spelled. I wasn’t even aware it was called different by some or even most people, although I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised as I can imagine many people not knowing the greek alphabet.

  • CaptainBasculin@lemmy.mlEnglish
    11·
    11 months ago

    I don’t know if uTorrent does ratelimit torrents someway (they shouldn’t be by theory), but it being adware is enough of a result to switch to another torrent client.

    I’m more of a fan of Deluge, but alternatives like qBittorrent / Transmission are solid choices.

  • Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    101·
    11 months ago

    I’m assuming you mean you were using one of the older, “safe” versions of uTorrent. But yeah, the technology has updated. It’s better.

  • DingoBilly@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    11 months ago

    You were probably using the wrong version of utorrent.

    I think you need something like 1.6. No adware, no malware, just works fast and easy.

  • SterbenDeathGun@lemmy.mlEnglish
    4·
    11 months ago

    QBittorrent has been my torrent Client for 4/5 years at this point, never having problems. It works on my Steam Deck too (Arch).

  • MIDItheKID@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    11 months ago

    I switch from uTorrent to qBittorrent when Ninite dropped it. I wasn’t aware that uTorrent had become aware, and Ninite had my back. I trust those guys with the selection of softwares they offer.

  • ram@bookwormstory.socialEnglish
    0·
    11 months ago

    uTorrent doesn’t play well in the landscape of the modern bittorrent protocol. It’s also adware, infringes upon your privacy, and is a malware risk.

    qBittorrent is my client of choice, but other popular and great clients are Deluge (only up to ~500 torrents), transmission, and rtorrent (on Linux). There’s other clients as well but YMMV, especially if you do any private tracker usage.

      • ram@bookwormstory.socialEnglish
        0·
        11 months ago

        Ya, my only issue with Deluge is after ~500 torrents it starts to slow. I’m on private trackers, so I always tend to have ~2,000 torrents seeding at once. For my particular usecase, it simply becomes too slow and bogged down to be viable.

        Granted, I’ve not used Deluge in some 2 or 3 years; maybe they improved process handling since then? I’d love to be corrected if so.

          • ram@bookwormstory.socialEnglish
            0·
            11 months ago

            If you do, I’d be interested to hear results. Deluge’s plugins are nice and it’s easy to make your own. If it wasn’t for the performance issues, I’d likely still be there.

  • LocustOfControl@reddthat.comEnglish
    0·
    11 months ago

    I do miss that really detailed block download page, but that’s only cos I’d watch it instead of doing something useful with my life.

  • rockhandle@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    10 months ago

    UT has been garbage for some time. I reckon the data it uses to send your info back to them and to load ads, bogs down the network, especially on slower networks. The last time I used it, there were also graphical artifacts all over. Qbit on the other hand, is much cleaner and simpler to use, and it doesnt add any unwanted network traffic, which is why it’s probably faster

  • Untitled4774@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    0·
    11 months ago

    There are a handful of features that I really like with qbittorrent but there were plugins I can’t find replacements for from Deluge:

    • having items deleted after meeting seeding requirements, as *arr auto imports, but having exceptions for private trackers
    • the above without having the *arr stack have a permanent warning
    • auto adding public default trackers to any public torrent

    I’ve switched back and forth a few times and I run them side by side but let deluge take the reins of most of it because I have it set up to be hands off with the above.

    If anyone knows how I can set up qbt the same way that would be great though