WebTorrent: Stream torrents in browsers and on desktop
Reviewed by Gabriel Bachmann
WebTorrent
webtorrent.io No ratings yet. Be the first.
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Threat level
Covered
A covered pick. Anyone can use it as a private drop-in, with no setup or know-how. Enough for most people. Threat levels
Our take
Different from the rest of the list in a way that matters: WebTorrent speaks WebRTC so it can stream torrents in the browser, which is genuinely novel but also means it can only swarm with other WebTorrent-capable peers for that feature. That limits its usefulness as a general-purpose downloader. Pick it when in-browser or streaming playback is the actual goal, not when you just want to grab files. For ordinary torrenting, a traditional client like qBittorrent will connect to far more peers.
GitHub at a glance
webtorrent/webtorrent
Stars
31,270
+ 276 this week
Last commit
9d ago
healthy
License
MIT
Latest release
v3.0.16
1mo ago
Stars, last 29d
Website at a glance
webtorrent.io
D- score 25
Weak website security headers
Graded by Mozilla HTTP Observatory, tested 13d ago
Inspect this site yourself
Measures the security configuration of the tool's own website, not the privacy of the product itself. A strong tool can still score low here.
WebTorrent alternatives
WebTorrent license, in plain English
MIT Permissive
Do almost anything: use, change, and ship it, even inside closed-source products. The only condition is keeping the copyright notice.
Permits
- Commercial use
- Modification
- Distribution
- Private use
Requires
- License and copyright notice
Does not provide
- Liability cover
- Warranty
Why it matters: Permissive licensing lets anyone reuse this, including inside closed products. That is freedom to build on, but no guarantee that downstream copies stay open.
Plain-language summary of the project's license, not legal advice. Read the full text for the exact terms.
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