BitTorrent
Hacker ApprovedThe most recommended of 3 file sharing protocols
Recommended for moving large files and serving content durably; people say it just works. Critics note it is mostly used for piracy and v1 lacks per-file checksums.
Recommended for moving large files and serving content durably; people say it just works. Critics note it is mostly used for piracy and v1 lacks per-file checksums.
61 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 50
- criticize it
- 11
- approval share
- 82%
Recommended in 12 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 50 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 4.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 12 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Works reliably and is usable
“Ultimately the better balance which is why BitTorrent is still going strong today”
Comment from 25 May 2026 in “Gnutella: A Protocol Outlives the World That Created It” “People have no problem using bittorrent because the software is actually usable.”
Comment from 23 Sep 2026 in “Radicle: Disclosure of Vulnerability in the Network Protocol” “that's why bittorrent still exists and works fine”
Comment from 12 Apr 2026 in “Tell HN: docker pull fails in spain due to football cloudflare block” - Comment from 30 Jan 2026 in “Peerweb”
- Comment from 17 Oct 2026 in “Show HN: Flipflop – Iroh-powered persistent tunnels for filesharing”
- Comment from 14 Mar 2026 in “Ceno, browse the web without internet access”
Decentralized content distribution model
“Similarly I would argue that technology like bittorrent or bitcoin favor decentralization over centralization.”
Comment from 19 Aug 2026 in “Civic Hygiene – avoid building technologies that could be used by a police state (2013)” “I guess I'd rather have something approaching bittorrent, edonkey/kad, ipfs, blockchain, webarchives.”
Comment from 12 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: s@: decentralized social networking over static sites” “I always pick BitTorrent as the most successful example of such networking protocol”
Comment from 12 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: s@: decentralized social networking over static sites” - Comment from 29 Apr 2026 in “Tangled – We need a federation of forges”
- Comment from 24 Aug 2026 in “IPFS Maintainers Winding Down”
- Comment from 21 Nov 2025 in “Germany: States Pass Porn Filters for Operating Systems”
Better for downloading large files
“Bit torrent is a superior way to move data around (as compared with http downloads).”
Comment from 25 Aug 2026 in “Nostr is an inclusive communication commons” “Bitorrent is the best for all these read-only model files laying on SSDs”
Comment from 27 Aug 2026 in “Nvidia agrees to acquire Hugging Face for $13B” “I have a lot of (actual) Linux disk images, and it works well for that!”
Comment from 21 Jun 2026 in “Google Hits 50% IPv6” - Comment from 20 Feb 2026 in “Ggml.ai joins Hugging Face to ensure the long-term progress of Local AI”
Scales and resists DDoS
“its model of redundant copies scaled better than Gnutella”
Comment from 25 May 2026 in “Gnutella: A Protocol Outlives the World That Created It” “BitTorrent does not have this same DDoS problem”
Comment from 17 Nov 2025 in “The internet is no longer a safe haven”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Buggy, rough, confusing client
“It's a little buggy and super rough around the edges”
Comment from 24 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: CineCLI – Browse and torrent movies directly from your terminal” “It was a very confusing BitTorrent client. I struggled to use it, and wasted time waiting for a download to complete”
Comment from 20 Sep 2026 in “Pirate Face Rescues LLM Models from Deletion” “the experience is much less polished than BT”
Comment from 16 Jul 2026 in “The lost joy of music piracy” Not a full replacement for the web
“Bit torrent only did the parts that scaled pretty well, so it wasn't a true replacement”
Comment from 25 May 2026 in “Gnutella: A Protocol Outlives the World That Created It” “It's a bad fit for anything that's supposed to replace the traditional web.”
Comment from 25 Aug 2026 in “IPFS Maintainers Winding Down” BitTorrent v1 hashing and seeding weak
“The main drawback of BitTorrent v1 file hashing scheme inside the .torrent file”
Comment from 1 Jul 2026 in “How We Made IPFS Content Publishing 10x Faster” “The biggest problem with BTv1 was the lack of per-file checksumming”
Comment from 20 Sep 2026 in “Pirate Face Rescues LLM Models from Deletion” “BitTorrent V1 makes long term seeding annoying”
Comment from 20 Sep 2026 in “Pirate Face Rescues LLM Models from Deletion”
Other file sharing protocols people recommend
The two most recommended other file sharing protocols, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 3 file sharing protocols, rankedWhat people said
40 of the 67 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Bittorrent exists and works since 20 years.”
“People have no problem using bittorrent because the software is actually usable.”
“I always thought that BitTorrent would eventually take off and make these kinds of sites irrelevant”
“It was a very confusing BitTorrent client. I struggled to use it, and wasted time waiting for a download to complete”
“The biggest problem with BTv1 was the lack of per-file checksumming”
“BitTorrent V1 makes long term seeding annoying”
“Bitorrent is the best for all these read-only model files laying on SSDs”
“I proposed bittorrent as the solution and the sysadmin lost his mind.”
“It's a bad fit for anything that's supposed to replace the traditional web.”
“Bit torrent is a superior way to move data around (as compared with http downloads).”
“Bittorrent is the better solution for most of what it was trying to solve”
“For a real world example of a hybrid approach that works see bittorrent”
“I always thought it could be the evolution of Bittorrent”
“bittorrent is "good enough" for serving content durably and somewhat in a content addressable manner”
“Similarly I would argue that technology like bittorrent or bitcoin favor decentralization over centralization.”
“the experience is much less polished than BT”
“The main drawback of BitTorrent v1 file hashing scheme inside the .torrent file”
“In practice BitTorrent as a protocol is still mainly used for pirated video files”
“I have a lot of (actual) Linux disk images, and it works well for that!”
“Despite having huge upsides, everyone just hosts on centralized CDNs”
“Bit torrent only did the parts that scaled pretty well, so it wasn't a true replacement”
“Bittorrent, with its private trackers had some accountability, ratios, etc...”
“So this sort of thing has all kinds of benefits for the network.”
“its model of redundant copies scaled better than Gnutella”
“Ultimately the better balance which is why BitTorrent is still going strong today”
“more like you want better decentralization, like IPFS or BitTorrent”
“that's why bittorrent still exists and works fine”
“There are some useful ideas from SoftEtherVPN, BitTorrent, Yggdrasil Network, and Tor you could borrow”
“Because one works well, the other doesn't.”
“I always pick BitTorrent as the most successful example of such networking protocol”
“I guess I'd rather have something approaching bittorrent, edonkey/kad, ipfs, blockchain, webarchives.”
“Both were wildly successful, and ultimately died because of legal issues.”
“BitTorrent protocol is IMO better for downloading large files.”
“Peers can't manipulate content since you independently verify it.”
“Bittorrent, in my experience, "just works,"”
“Nowadays, we have better solutions (appendable BitTorrent comes to mind)”
“It's a little buggy and super rough around the edges”
“the censorship resistant protocol known as BitTorrent”
“this is the only technology which makes a PITA to any counter-freedom actors”
“BitTorrent does not have this same DDoS problem”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.