rtorrent
Ranked 3 of 3 torrent clients by recommenders
Recommended for serious command-line torrenting and long-term use; the most common caveat is UI hangs lasting several seconds.
Recommended for serious command-line torrenting and long-term use; the most common caveat is UI hangs lasting several seconds.
6 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 83%
Recommended in 1 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 1 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not 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
Long-term reliable daily use
“I use that with a rutorrent front-end since 13 years, works great!”
Comment from 24 Nov 2025 in “A ncurses-based command line torrent client for high performance” “I've been using rtorrent for like 15 years and still do.”
Comment from 24 Nov 2025 in “A ncurses-based command line torrent client for high performance”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
UI hangs for multiple seconds
“the UI would hang on me for sometimes multiple seconds”
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| qBittorrent | 29 | 7 | 81% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Transmission | 19 | 6 | 76% | 10 | — | Approved |
| rtorrentThis page | 5 | 1 | 83% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
All 6 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“the general trend in its issue tracker screams "not stable" to me”
“For people really serious about torrents on the CLI/TUI, this is the best one I've seen”
“I use that with a rutorrent front-end since 13 years, works great!”
“rtorrent is great as well”
“I've been using rtorrent for like 15 years and still do.”
“the UI would hang on me for sometimes multiple seconds”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.