qBittorrent
Hacker ApprovedThe most recommended of 3 torrent clients
Free, feature-rich torrent client with built-in search, RSS and a web UI. Common caveat: it is Qt-based rather than native.
Free, feature-rich torrent client with built-in search, RSS and a web UI. Common caveat: it is Qt-based rather than native.
36 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 29
- criticize it
- 7
- approval share
- 81%
Recommended in 10 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not 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
- 29 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 4.1 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 10 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
Built-in search and RSS
“qBittorrent has a search right inside the client, there is no need to even access the websites”
Comment from 7 Nov 2025 in “Apple is crossing a Steve Jobs red line” “You can also import torrent sites into qbitorrent and search within it.”
Comment from 1 Jul 2026 in “Sony Deletes 551 Movies PlayStation Owners Paid For” “Has RSS, has search in the client, has paths based off categories”
Comment from 9 Aug 2026 in “Transmission has been forked as "ReTransmission"” - Comment from 1 Jun 2026 in “The Pirate Bay Remains Resilient, 20 Years After the Raid”
Featureful and easy to use
“If they had a easy and featureful client like qbittorrent they would have had a lot more of a chance.”
Comment from 2 Jun 2026 in “The Pirate Bay Remains Resilient, 20 Years After the Raid” “At that point, I switched to qBittorrent, which has some nice extra features, too.”
Comment from 10 Aug 2026 in “Transmission has been forked as "ReTransmission"” “Has RSS, has search in the client, has paths based off categories”
Comment from 9 Aug 2026 in “Transmission has been forked as "ReTransmission"” Web UI for remote use
“the client has optional web UI, so you can order a download from your phone and watch it on your TV”
Comment from 8 Nov 2025 in “Apple is crossing a Steve Jobs red line” “As far as WebUI goes I do prefer qbittorrent.”
Comment from 24 Nov 2025 in “A ncurses-based command line torrent client for high performance”
Other torrent clients people recommend
The two most recommended other torrent clients, 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.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| qBittorrentThis page | 29 | 7 | 81% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Transmission | 19 | 6 | 76% | 10 | — | Approved |
| rtorrent | 5 | 1 | 83% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
24 of the 38 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“You do have to clean out qbittorrent every few days so that sonarr will search again, so that's a pain.”
“This doesn't sound safe, since this is not anonymous and there are a lot of "Linux haters"”
“its package will try to pull in a bunch of display-related stuff by default”
“It also used my creditcard to consume ai credits”
“The bastard not only escaped but also did a nat traversal and forwarded a port from the router.”
“qBittorrent looks great on KDE, and would look great on macOS too if they used native icons”
“still no clean client/daemon, like Qb”
“At that point, I switched to qBittorrent, which has some nice extra features, too.”
“the lack of non-Web UI remote clients”
“Has RSS, has search in the client, has paths based off categories”
“You can also import torrent sites into qbitorrent and search within it.”
“just downloading qBitorrent from Github like a normal person”
“I can find almost everything I look for”
“If they had a easy and featureful client like qbittorrent they would have had a lot more of a chance.”
“I found out I could search for them from within qBittorrent.”
“still no option to enable "download first and last piece first" by default”
“The stack I use now: Docker, Lidarr, slskd, Tubifarry, Prowlarr, qBittorrent, Blissful and Soulmate.”
“Out-of-memory and resume issues, but varying according to the torrent size”
“not working out of the box in clients like qBittorrent”
“qbittorrent is still regarded as independent and safe, I think.”
“As far as WebUI goes I do prefer qbittorrent.”
“Qbitorrent is not native (it uses Qt, right there in the name).”
“the client has optional web UI, so you can order a download from your phone and watch it on your TV”
“qBittorrent has a search right inside the client, there is no need to even access the websites”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.