Comparison of file sharing applications

File sharing is a method of distributing electronically stored information such as computer programs and digital media. Below is a list of file sharing applications, most of them make use of peer-to-peer file sharing technologies.

This comparison contains next to file sharing applications also download managers that can be used as file sharing applications (using the torrent-protocol). For pure download managers see the Comparison of download managers.

Table

Name Network[1] Anonymous P2P Link system compatibility Price Platform License Programming language Spyware-adware free Latest release version Extra information
Acquisition Gnutella, BitTorrent No magnet Nagware or US$17.99 OS X GPL Objective-C, Java Yes 2.2 (v223) (November 19, 2010) [±] Alternative to LimeWire for Mac users; uses Cocoa GUI
aMule eDonkey, Kad No eD2k, magnet Free Linux, OS X, Windows GPL C++ Yes 2.3.1 (November 11, 2011[2]) [±]
ANts P2P ANts Yes ed2k Free Linux, OS X, Windows GPL Java Yes 2010 File sharing and HTTP publishing.
Ares Galaxy Ares, BitTorrent No arlnk Free Windows GPL Object Pascal (Delphi) Yes 2.3.0 (August 17, 2014

[3]) [±]
BearShare
(pre v6.0)		 Gnutella No ed2k, magnet Free or US$3.29 monthly Windows Proprietary C++ No 10.0.0.131462 (January 29, 2013) [±]
Since version 6: clone of the commercial iMesh software; does not connect to Gnutella and restricts downloads to media formats
BitComet BitTorrent, eDonkey, Kad;[4] HTTP/FTP download No ed2k,[4] magnet Free Windows Proprietary C++ Yes 1.38 (March 30, 2015) [±][5] Exploits SuperSeeding and thus is often banned by trackers and peers. Compatible with e2DK links through an eMule plugin which gives access to eDonkey and Kad networks and cross-network sharing abilities with BitTorrent network.
BitTornado BitTorrent No No Free Linux, OS X, Windows MIT Python Yes 2006
BitTorrent BitTorrent No No Free Windows, Mac OS X Proprietary C++ Yes Windows:

7.9.3 (Build 40209) (April 27, 2015) [±][6]

Mac OS X:
7.4.2 (Build 36418) (November 21, 2014) [±][7]

 µTorrent rebrand
broolz[8] Direct Connect No No Free or US$59.95 Windows, OS X, Linux Proprietary Java Yes 2011 Internal p2p protocols that allow only secondary users authorised by primary user to share.
Cabos Gnutella No magnet Free OS X, Windows GPL Java, REALbasic Yes 0.8.2 (February 9, 2010) [±]
Calypso MUTE Yes No Donation Linux, Windows GPL C++, Qt Yes 2010 Prior name: Kommute
Datawire P2P Private Networking (chat supported) Yes No Free Windows, Linux, OS X Proprietary Java Yes 2011
DC++ Direct Connect No magnet Free Windows GPL C++ Yes 0.799 May 5, 2012 Many modifications exist, for example LinuxDC++
Deluge BitTorrent Unknown magnet Free Linux, OS X, Windows GPL Python Yes 1.3.11 (November 30, 2014) [±]
eDonkey2000 eDonkey, Overnet No ed2k Free or US$19.95 Linux, OS X, Windows Proprietary C++ Yes 2005 Discontinued
eMule eDonkey, Kad No ed2k Free Windows GPL C++ Yes 0.50a (April 7, 2010[9]) [±] Supports protocol obfuscation
ExoSee ? No No Free Windows Proprietary ? Yes 2007 ExoSee appears to have no business model.
Filetopia Filetopia No (except when using a bouncer) No Free Windows Proprietary Delphi No 2002
Flashget BitTorrent, eDonkey; HTTP/FTP download ? ? ? Windows GPL ? ? ?
Free Download Manager BitTorrent; HTTP/FTP download No metalink Free Windows GPL C++ Yes 3.9.5 (build 1537) (April 14, 2015) [±][10]
Freenet's FProxy Freenet Yes No Free Linux, OS X, Windows GPL Java Yes 0.7.5 (Build 1465) (August 9, 2014) [±][11]
Frost Freenet Yes No Free Linux, OS X, Windows GPL Java Yes 2011
FrostWire Gnutella, BitTorrent No magnet Free Linux, OS X, Windows GPL Java Yes 6.0.6 (February 18, 2015) [±] Fork of LimeWire, with no copyrighted-material blocker planned.
GetRight BitTorrent; HTTP/FTP download ? ? ? Windows ? ? ? ?
giFT OpenFT and, with plugins, Ares, Gnutella, FastTrack No No Free Linux, OS X, Windows GPL C Yes 0.11.8.1 (2004-11-27) [±]
Gnucleus Gnutella, Gnutella2 No No Free Windows GPL C++ Yes 2.2.0.0 (June 17, 2005) [±]
GNUnet GNUnet Yes ECRS Free Linux, OS X, Windows GPL C Yes 0.10.1 (April 8, 2014[12]) [±]
gtk-gnutella Gnutella No magnet Free Linux, Windows GPL C Yes 1.1.3 (April 8, 2015) [±]
iMesh
(pre v6.0)		 FastTrack, Gnutella, Gnutella2 No No Free Windows Proprietary C++ Yes 2008
I2Phex I2P (protocol Gnutella) Yes magnet Free Linux, OS X, Windows GPL Java Yes 2011 Need I2P to run.
I2PSnark[13] I2P (protocol BitTorrent) Yes magnet Free Linux, OS X, Windows GPL Java Yes 2014 Integrated into I2P distribution.
iMule I2P (protocol Kad network) Yes ed2k, magnet Free Linux, OS X, Windows GPL C++ Yes 2.3.2.3 (May 3, 2013) [±] needs I2P to run
Infinit Infinit No No Free OS X, Windows Proprietary C++ Yes 2014 Unlimited and encrypted peer to peer file sharing application with pause and resume.
Kazaa FastTrack No No Free Windows Proprietary C++ adware & spyware 2006 Illegal in Australia.
Kazaa Lite FastTrack No No Free Windows Proprietary ? Yes 2007 Adware-disabled version of Kazaa (fake versions in circulation)
KCeasy Ares, Gnutella, FastTrack, OpenFT No No Free Windows GPL C++, Object Pascal (Delphi) Yes 2008 Uses integrated giFT file sharing daemon as back-end.
KGet BitTorrent; HTTP/FTP download ? ? Free part of KDE on Windows GPL ? ? ? ?
KTorrent BitTorrent No magnet Free Linux, OS X, Windows GPL C++ Yes 4.3.1 (January 17, 2013[14]) [±] Part of the KDE desktop, can be installed separately.
LimeWire Gnutella, BitTorrent No magnet Free or US$18.88 Linux, OS X, Windows GPL Java No 2010 Shutdown permanently due to injunction from MGM v. Grokster in which Limewire was ordered to disable all functionality of the software.[15]
Manolito MP2P No MP2P Free or US$19.95 Windows Proprietary ? No 2008
MLDonkey BitTorrent, eDonkey, FastTrack, (Gnutella, Gnutella2), Kad; HTTP/FTP download No ed2k, magnet, sig2dat Free Linux, OS X, Windows GPL OCaml Yes 3.1.5 (March 22, 2014[16]) [±] P2P application, telnet / web-interface / GUI interface, complete and complex remote usage. Sancho GUI makes automatic SSH tunnels.
MonoTorrent (client library) BitTorrent No magnet Free Linux, OS X, Windows MIT/X11 C# Yes 0.90 (May 22, 2010) [±] Requires either Mono or .NET Framework to be installed
Morpheus NEOnet, Gnutella, Gnutella2, BitTorrent No No Free or US$19.95 Windows Proprietary ? Yes 5.55.1 (November 15, 2007) [±]
MUTE MUTE Yes No Donation Linux, OS X, Windows GPL C++ Yes 2007
µTorrent BitTorrent No magnet Free OS X, Windows, Linux Proprietary C++ No Microsoft Windows
3.4.3 (Build 40208) (April 21, 2015) [±][17][18]

OS X for Intel
1.8.7 (Build 39558) (March 19, 2015) [±][19][20]
OS X for PPC
1.6.5 (Build 27624) (July 25, 2012) [±][19][21]
Android
2.125 (March 10, 2015) [±][22][23]

 Specifically designed to be very small; entire program runs from a 315KB compressed executable which can be either installed or run as a stand-alone.
Nachtblitz I2P (protocol Kad network) Yes ed2k, magnet Free Windows, Linux with Wine GPL .NET Framework Yes 1.4.18 (April 30, 2014) needs I2P to run
Net Transport BitTorrent, eMule; HTTP/FTP download ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Nodezilla Private Yes No Free Linux, Windows core proprietary, GUI GPL Java Yes 2010 Most is proprietary, GUI is GPL.
Opera BitTorrent; HTTP/FTP download No No Free Linux, OS X, Windows Proprietary C++ Yes
Windows, OS X, Linux

29.0.1795.47 (April 28, 2015[24]) [±]
Perfect Dark Perfect Dark Yes No Free Windows Proprietary ? Yes 2014 Boards. Auto update.
Piolet[25] MP2P No MP2P Free or US$19.95 Windows Proprietary ? No 2008
qBittorrent BitTorrent No magnet Free Linux, Solaris, OS X, Windows GPL C++ Yes 3.1.12 (February 22, 2015) [±][26]
Retroshare Retroshare Yes Own format Free Windows, Linux, Mac OS GPL C++ Yes 0.5.5c (2014), 0.6.0 beta (2015) Uses PGP for friend authentication. Decentralized F2F network type.
RShare RShare Yes No Free Windows GPL C# Yes 2007 eMule-like usability
Robert I2P (protocol BitTorrent) Yes magnet Free Linux, OS X, Windows GPL Python Yes 2012 needs I2P to run
Share Share Yes No Free Windows Proprietary Object Pascal (Delphi) Yes 2006 Anonymous developer; tries to be Winny successor
Shareaza eDonkey, BitTorrent, Gnutella, Gnutella2, Direct Connect; HTTP/FTP download No ed2k, magnet, Piolet/MP2P, gnutella Free Windows GPL C++ Yes 2.7.8.0 (December 15, 2014[27]) [±] Uses a powerful files library; maintained by volunteer group
Sharing Max Sharing Max No Yes Free Windows Proprietary Visual Basic No 2012[28]
SoMud[29] SoMud No magnet uri, meta link Free Windows, OS X Proprietary C++ Yes 2013 Search and download P2P and web video networks such as YouTube and Yahoovideo etc.
StealthNet RShare Yes No Free Linux, OS X, Windows GPL C# Yes 2011 Evolution of the RShare client with many functions.
Soulseek Soulseek No No Free, donations for privileges Windows Proprietary ? Yes SoulseekQt build 2015.2.21 (February 21, 2015) [±] Folder downloads, browse users with folder trees, no multi-source downloads
SymTorrent BitTorrent No No Free Symbian S60 GPL C++ Yes 2008 Runs on mobile phones with Symbian operating system
Thaw Freenet Yes No Free Linux, OS X, Windows GPL Java Yes 2008
Transmission BitTorrent No magnet Free BeOS, Linux, OS X MIT C, Objective-C Yes 2.84 (1 July 2014) [±][30] Lightweight, cross-platform
Tribler BitTorrent Yes magnet Free Windows, Linux, OS X GNU LGPL v2.1+[31] Python, C++ Yes 6.4.3 (January 21, 2015) [±] Unlike most other torrent clients, Tribler is decentralized (as well as anonymous) and does not rely on any trackers or any other indexing service to discover content.[32] Also features a built-in video streamer.
TrustyFiles[33] eDonkey, Overnet, Gnutella, Gnutella2, FastTrack, BitTorrent No ed2k Free or US$29 Windows Proprietary ? adware & spyware 2007[34] Has code stolen from Gnucleus, giFT, and avlib;[35] Linux version announced, but never released; takeover similar to the Shareaza.com and Lphant issues is likely to have happened
uGet BitTorrent; HTTP/FTP download ? magnet, metalink Free Linux, Windows, Android LGPL C, GTK+ Yes 2014 uGet 2.0 is currently in Beta Development (as of 9 September 2014) and available for testing via uGetdm.com
Vuze
(formerly Azureus)		 BitTorrent No (except when using I2P) magnet Free Linux, OS X, Windows GPL Java No 5.6.0.0 (March 3, 2015) [±][36]
Warez P2P iP2P DHT No No Free or US$19.99 Windows Proprietary ? Yes 2007 Developer claims Warez v3.0 beta is malware-free
WinMX WinMX Peer Network (independent, now user-operated), OpenNAP, chatrooms supported No No Free Windows Proprietary C++ Yes 2004 Official development has ceased due to RIAA coercion. Versions 3.53, 3.54 beta 4 and older are available from 3rd parties.
Winny Winny Yes No Free Windows Proprietary C++ Yes 2003
Wuala Wuala No No Free Linux, OS X, Windows Proprietary Java Yes 2009
YobiDrive FLOWS YobiDrive No No Free Linux, OS X, Windows Proprietary Java Yes 2013
Name Network Anonymous P2P Link system compatibility Price Platform License Programming language Spyware or adware free Last release year Extra information

Comparison pages

File sharing web applications

A web application, unlike a software, does not need to be installed on the computer.

Name License Programming language Latest release version Extra Information
FileZ GPL PHP 2012 https://github.com/FileZ/FileZ
ZendTo free PHP 2013 http://zend.to/

See also

Notes

  1. ↑
  2. ↑ "Download", aMule team (sourceforge.net), 2011-11-12, retrieved 2012-11-05
  3. ↑ "Ares Galaxy at SourceForge.net". AresGalaxy.SourceForge.net.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Compatibility with eDonkey and Kad networks is done via a modded eMule plugin also developed by the Comet team
  5. ↑ "BitComet Client Release Notes - A free C++ BitTorrent/HTTP/FTP Download Client". www.bitcomet.com. 2010-08-31. Retrieved 2010-08-31.
  6. ↑ BitTorrent Windows download page
  7. ↑ BitTorrent Mac download page
  8. ↑ "broolz - your cloud your way; File Sharing, File Synchronization, File Backup, File Recovery & Enterprise Collaboration Tools". Web.archive.org. 2012-02-25. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
  9. ↑ "The eMule Project at SourceForge.net". eMule.SourceForge.net. 2010-04-07. Retrieved 2010-07-11.
  10. ↑ "Free Download Manager". Files. Free Download Manager.org. Retrieved 24 December 2014.
  11. ↑ https://freenetproject.org/news.html#build01465
  12. ↑ Grothoff, Christian (2013-12-24). "GNUnet 0.10.0 released" (Mailing list). info-gnunet. Retrieved 2013-12-25.
  13. ↑ "Untraceable: How to Seed Torrents Anonymously Using I2PSnark « Torrent". Torrent.wonderhowto.com. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
  14. ↑ KTorrent, ktorrent.org, 2013-01-17, retrieved 2013-01-29
  15. ↑ Judge Wood (26 October 2010). "Limewire Permanent Injunction" (PDF). Retrieved 17 March 2012.
  16. ↑ "MLDonkey at SourceForge.net". MLDonkey.SourceForge.net. 2014-03-22. Retrieved 2014-05-09.
  17. ↑ "Download - µTorrent - a (very) tiny BitTorrent client". www.utorrent.com. 2014-02-19.
  18. ↑ "Current Stable Release". http://releasenotes.utorrent.com. 2015-01-07.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 "Download - µTorrent - a (very) tiny BitTorrent client". www.utorrent.com. 2013-04-03.
  20. ↑ "Current Stable Mac Release".
  21. ↑ "uTorrent for Mac release notes PPC".
  22. ↑ BitTorrent (March 7, 2013). "µTorrent® - Torrent Downloader". Google Play. Google. Retrieved November 18, 2014.
  23. ↑ "µTorrent Version History". www.apk4fun.com. 2015-03-17.
  24. ↑ "Access the same tabs from your computer and your Android phone". 2015-04-28. Retrieved 2015-04-28.
  25. ↑ Piolet Networks. "Free music downloads, mp3 downloads". Piolet. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
  26. ↑ qBittorrent Win32 Build, SourceForge.net
  27. ↑ "Shareaza download page on sourceforge Web site". SourceForge. Retrieved 2014-12-24.
  28. ↑ "Download Free Sharing Max, Sharing Max 1.0.0.2 Download". Brothersoft.com. 2012-05-31. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
  29. ↑ "Features". Somud.com. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
  30. ↑ Changes – Transmission, trac.transmissionbittorrent.com, 2014-05-18, retrieved 2014-05-19
  31. ↑ tribler/LICENSE.txt at devel · Tribler/tribler, GitHub, retrieved 2014-12-18
  32. ↑ whatIsTribler/2
  33. ↑ "TrustyFiles Ultimate P2P - Personal File Sharing for MP3 Music, Movies, Games, Photos, and Software". Trustyfiles.com. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
  34. ↑ From RazorPop:. "TrustyFiles Free - Free download and software reviews - CNET Download.com". Download.cnet.com. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
  35. ↑ "Gnucleus won't connect - Page 2". Gnutellaforums.com. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
  36. ↑ "Changelog". Vuze Community. Retrieved 2013-08-24.