For many file-sharing users, especially the new ones, downloading torrents can be a cumbersome and time-consuming process. They need to download and install the torrent client, find and download a torrent file, which downloads another file… something not very popular nowadays, especially for millennials (who want things now!)
Many of them would prefer to stream media online and keep it simple.
Wouldn’t it be easier to download and stream any torrent right from your web browser? Without having to deal with third-party software, such as BitTorrent clients and media players, wouldn’t it be easier to do it all from the web browser?
In this post, we’ll go through six easy ways to download and watch torrents on your web browser. Although downloading and watching torrents from your web browser is nothing new, now technology has changed, which allows us to do this faster and smoother.
Requirements for downloading and streaming media.
Before we continue, a few words of advice.
To download and stream a file at the same time, you need a decent bandwidth.
- If you have a bandwidth around 500 Kbps to 1 Mbps, you might not be able to stream a high-quality movie (probably only music or low definition videos). Take your time, be patient, download, and save your movies for watching later.
- If you have decent bandwidth, and you can watch Youtube or Netflix at 1080p, you might also be able to download and stream a 900MB (2hrs long) movie. For instance, a 4K stream would require an average bandwidth of 32 Mbps.
1. Use a Seedbox.
A Seedbox is a server built especially for uploading and downloading torrents. It can be a VPS, appliance, or seedbox-based software offered as SaaS. With a seedbox, you only use your computer and web browser for connecting to the seedbox and managing all your torrents with clients like BitTorrent Web, uTorrent Web, or Deluge installed on the Seedbox server (not your computer).
How to use a Seedbox?
Just download anything you want at high-speed to the server (and not to your local machine). You can later download using safe file transfer mechanisms like SFTP or FTPS or stream from your web browser using Plex or Kodi.
If you get a more advanced Seedbox, you might need a bit more setting at the beginning as you might have to connect via remote PC applications and customize the seedbox as you like. The best part is that seedboxes come with torrent automation software, other tools like VPNs, streaming servers, media conversion software, and a lot more.
2. Use popular clients such as uTorrent Web.
The uTorrent Classic standalone client is one of the most popular torrent clients in the market. But now, uTorrent has diversified from this traditional standalone application and created other versions of their software, including uTorrent Web and uTorrent Mobile (or uTorrent Android).
The uTorrent Web client is much lighter than the uTorrent Classic. So, although it is easier to use and is faster than the Classic interface, uTorrent Web does come with a lot fewer features and requires installation. But still, if you are looking to watch or play torrents (files and magnet links) as they download, you can do this with uTorrent Web’s built-in high-quality media player.
As you are downloading the video or audio file, you’ll be able to play it, near instantaneously— depending on your bandwidth.
3. Use an innovative client like WebTorrent Desktop
The WebTorrent Desktop is more than just a torrent client; it is known as the “streaming browser torrent client.” The Web Torrent Desktop was designed to support two key protocols simultaneously to allow torrent download and streaming from the web browser, the BitTorrent and Web torrent (WebRTC).
With WebTorrent Desktop, you can connect to the traditional BitTorrent peers and connect to web torrent sites like instant.io. In addition, supporting the WebRTC protocol also allows BitTorrent peers to stream from websites. WebTorrentDesktop doesn’t need browser plugins, extensions, or installations. Simply run it from your favorite web browser.
Windows, macOS, and Linux support this streaming torrent client.
4. Use the Brave Browser.
The Brave Browser is known as one of the most innovative and private browsers in the market. According to its website, it is 3x faster than Chrome and protects your privacy and protection from Google and Big Tech. The Brave browser blocks trackers and ads and can even route your traffic through Tor.
Brave comes with a built-in feature that allows its users to download and upload torrents. The built-in torrent functionality of Brave is simple but works.
How to download torrents with Brave Browser?
- Search for your favorite torrent,
- Open the magnet link (or import a torrent file)
- And Brave will start to download your torrents.
Brave browser leverages WebTorrent to download torrents and provides a high-quality web media player so that you can watch your torrents from the web browser.
5. Use an online torrent client, such as Seedr.
Seedr is a free web browser-based torrent client service. With Seedr, you download torrents through Seedr’s servers; once the download is finished, you can download the file directly to your computer or stream it online. The benefit with Seedr is that you don’t use a torrent client on your computer. Just your browser to manage torrents and then stream them from any device.
Highlights
- They won’t limit download speeds, but they limit storage up to 2GB for the free tier. You can increase this space with a paid account.
- The service also provides a Chrome extension to directly add links to the web browser.
- Seedr is also optimized for mobile devices. You can access their website, manage all your torrents downloads, and stream multimedia from your mobile device.
6. Download torrents with a browser extension.
Although browser extensions and add-ons for torrenting are quite popular today, it is actually difficult to get your hands on a stable one. For instance, the Java-based Billet used to be one of the best and most stable add-ons to download torrents from the browser. Still, unfortunately, since Java Applets became unsupported by many browsers, Bitlet became obsolete.
But still, there are many new extensions and add-ons for torrenting which are quickly gaining popularity and have a good reputation for their stability. For instance:
- JSTorrent Lite. A BitTorrent client designed for Google Chrome. It runs on JavaScript. JStorrent downloads torrents to your downloads folders and can handle large files.
- Bitford. This is a BitTorrent client for Chrome. BitFord is built on 100% JavaScript and features instant media playbacks from the browser.
- Torrent Control is a Firefox add-on designed to control torrents (not download them). This add-on sends the torrent and magnet links to your favorite torrent client’s web interface.
Final Words.
So, how to download torrents directly from a web browser? You can use a Seedbox, popular clients such as uTorrent Web, an innovative client like WebTorrent Desktop, the Brave Browser, an online torrent client, such as Seedr, or torrent browser extensions.
Either way, you choose, if you are streaming high-quality content remember to upgrade that bandwidth. If you want to protect your privacy and increase download/upload speed, use a Seedbox.