What is qBittorrent & Is it Actually Safe to Use?

qBittorrent is a very popular, free, and open-source alternative to the likes of BitTorrent and uTorrent. This torrent client among other open-source options gained popularity especially when most of the torrenting community developed a negative outlook regarding proprietary torrent clients.

As the name suggests, qBittorrent is at its core, a torrent client. A very simple definition of a torrenting client is software enabling P2P (Peer-to-peer) sharing using the BitTorrent protocol. In fact, if you’re not up to speed with the concept of torrenting, here’s a general overview.

Why qBittorrent?

BitTorrent is the pioneer of torrenting, in fact, the word “Torrent” is derived from “BitTorrent“. Another fun fact, torrenting revolves around the BitTorrent protocol, which as you guessed, is linked with the BitTorrent client. Then why are consumers willingly shifting to open-source alternatives like qBittorrent?

↪ uTorrent’s Mining Scandal

In 2015, uTorrent received an update to version “3.4.2,” which infamously included bundled Bitcoin mining software. This small mistake took away the trust of many customers and warranted a shift to other options. Another factor is that uTorrent is closed source and shows ads unless you pay $4.95 yearly.

Even if installing the miner was consensual, who reads the EULA these days? People simply press “Next” and try to install the required program as soon as possible. If you’re downloading uTorrent, you expect the installer to only install uTorrent and not anything else.

↪ BitTorrent’s Ad Problem

BitTorrent and uTorrent are owned by the same company, Rainberry, Inc. As such, BitTorrent (the client) also comes jam-packed with ads and requires a subscription if you wish to remove them.

At this point, you’d question yourself, “Why even bother?“. Both applications are proprietary and adware. What is so incentivizing that users would not jump ship and move to a trusted, open-source, and ad-free alternative?

What is qBittorrent?

qBittorent is an open-source and cross-platform torrenting client written for Windows, Linux, macOS, and various other Operating Systems. It was originally developed in March 2006 and is currently being maintained by various contributors globally through donations.

Since the code is open source, you may compile the program yourself if you so desire. You can easily access and review the code if you have safety concerns. So, without bringing into question legality, qBittorrent is absolutely safe, if your downloaded files are virus-free.

Is qBittorrent Safe?

The real question should be, “Is torrenting safe?“. In most third-world countries, the policies aren’t stringent enough that you’d have the cops knocking on your door minutes after you download a torrent. Let’s discuss why some people may get filed DMCA notices by their ISPs and could potentially be sued.

If you use a public tracker, which most of us do, there are tons of services and websites that log which IP is downloading which torrent. Don’t trust us? See for yourself. Your ISP will generally not care if you pirate something until they get served with a subpoena from the law office of the respective copyright holders.

When large multi-billion corporations pressurize ISPs, they are forced to either cut off your internet service or take the matter to court. In Singapore, Anime distributor Odex sent legal threats to users for downloading fansubbsed anime in 2007. Court orders caused the disclosure of many identities with settlements coming in at a minimum of $2,000 (USD) per person.

In the US, the US Copyright Group obtained the IP addresses of users downloading copyright-protected movies, mostly through the transparency of public trackers. Again, ISPs were forced to disclose identities, and settlements were offered in the range of $1000–$3000. In just 9 months, over 16200 people were served with legal notices.

Torrenting does come with a lot of risk, but there are certain ways you can get around these issues, for the most part.

↪ Down the Privacy Rabbit Hole

Using a VPN is a very simple way to mask your identity when torrenting. Since users are tracked and pinpointed via their IP address, with a VPN, public trackers are unable to reveal your real IP. That is unless authorities or your government forces the VPN providers to hand out personal information. Therefore, make sure you use a privacy-focused VPN.

For context, Mullvad was subject to a police search warrant, but they couldn’t find any data since Mullvad doesn’t log its users. The short answer is that unless you’re distributing stuff that could compromise national security, the FBI won’t use underhanded trickery to apprehend you.

Most ISPs are still using IPv4, which basically means that your IP is likely shared amongst many users. Thus, it becomes a chore, even for the ISP to precisely point out the specific internet connection. Alternatively, users also opt for seedboxes which are PCs set up somewhere else for seeding purposes.

While it is possible to track you down, if your seedbox is hosted in another country and your seedbox actually cares about your privacy, it simply wouldn’t be worth the extra cost for the authorities.

Conclusion

There are open-source alternatives to qBittorrent as well such as Deluge, Transmission, and whatnot. But qBittorrent is generally accepted as THE alternative, not something you’d find alternatives for. We have not explicitly stated that uTorrent and BitTorrent are unsafe, however, there are other better and hassle-free options.

Lastly, always use a VPN when torrenting. You may pair this with a VPS, seedbox, or a docker setup but they have diminishing returns. Torrenting is safe if you take the necessary precautions and keep away from malware-infested files.