Transmission
Hacker ApprovedRanked 2 of 3 torrent clients by recommenders
Free BitTorrent client praised for stability, low system load, and headless use, with a useful command-line and remote daemon. Critics point to bugs, regressions after v4, and tracker overload.
Free BitTorrent client praised for stability, low system load, and headless use, with a useful command-line and remote daemon. Critics point to bugs, regressions after v4, and tracker overload.
25 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 19
- criticize it
- 6
- approval share
- 76%
Recommended in 10 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 19 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.2 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
Stable and reliable for years
“I never have issues with Transmission and actively avoid other feature-rich clients”
Comment from 10 Aug 2026 in “Transmission has been forked as "ReTransmission"” “they've really felt "complete" for the years I've been using it”
Comment from 10 Aug 2026 in “Transmission has been forked as "ReTransmission"” “Worked since forever for me.”
Comment from 10 Aug 2026 in “Transmission has been forked as "ReTransmission"” Good command-line and RPC tools
“transmission daemon and transmission-remote was better in that regard”
Comment from 24 Nov 2025 in “A ncurses-based command line torrent client for high performance” “Massive thanks to the team! Really excited to try the RPC APIs out.”
Comment from 28 Jan 2026 in “Transmission 4.1.0” “transmission-cli is great.”
Comment from 24 Nov 2025 in “A ncurses-based command line torrent client for high performance” Runs headless with low load
“can be installed headless with negligible system load on a vast number of devices”
Comment from 23 Dec 2025 in “Inside CECOT – 60 Minutes [video]” “transmission daemon and transmission-remote was better in that regard”
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
Bugs and regressions since v4
“there have been lots of little bugs to contend with”
Comment from 28 Jan 2026 in “Transmission 4.1.0” “Transmission botched its v3 -> v4 transition by underestimating the difficulty of keeping regressions under control”
Comment from 12 Aug 2026 in “Transmission has been forked as "ReTransmission"” “4.0 to 4.0.5 broke Sonarr total file management”
Comment from 28 Jan 2026 in “Transmission 4.1.0” Tracker overload from update requests
“a bug caused it to hammer tracker servers with update status requests”
Comment from 10 Aug 2026 in “Transmission has been forked as "ReTransmission"” “due to a critical bug in its announce logic, which causes it to overwhelm trackers with excessive requests”
Comment from 28 Jan 2026 in “Transmission 4.1.0” Feels slow, falling behind rivals
“Am not fond of transmission at all. Feels slow and sluggish in comparison.”
Comment from 24 Dec 2025 in “Inside CECOT – 60 Minutes [video]” “They have been slowly falling behind other clients.”
Comment from 10 Aug 2026 in “Transmission has been forked as "ReTransmission"”
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 |
| TransmissionThis page | 19 | 6 | 76% | 10 | — | Approved |
| rtorrent | 5 | 1 | 83% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
21 of the 26 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“UX is on par with paid services and don't have to deal with this ads bullshit.”
“a well-designed torrent client like Transmission to my web browser”
“I literally use all of these now daily.”
“Transmission botched its v3 -> v4 transition by underestimating the difficulty of keeping regressions under control”
“They have been slowly falling behind other clients.”
“a bug caused it to hammer tracker servers with update status requests”
“Worked since forever for me.”
“I never have issues with Transmission and actively avoid other feature-rich clients”
“It doesn't work in Transmission.”
“they've really felt "complete" for the years I've been using it”
“I suppose it's time to form a new media consumption habit.”
“I'd like to think that the feature would be a big deal, even if my implementation of it's kinda crappy.”
“Massive thanks to the team! Really excited to try the RPC APIs out.”
“4.0 to 4.0.5 broke Sonarr total file management”
“due to a critical bug in its announce logic, which causes it to overwhelm trackers with excessive requests”
“there have been lots of little bugs to contend with”
“Am not fond of transmission at all. Feels slow and sluggish in comparison.”
“can be installed headless with negligible system load on a vast number of devices”
“transmission-cli is great.”
“transmission daemon and transmission-remote was better in that regard”
“actively attempts to impose its limitations on the rest of the ecosystem”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.