Comparison of file-sharing applications

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

This comparison also contains download managers that can be used as file sharing applications. For solely download managers, see the comparison of download managers; for BitTorrent-only clients, see the comparison of BitTorrent clients.

Table

• Note that several applications have had adware or spyware tied in during the past and may have it again in the future. The same goes for forks of open source apps, e.g. eMule. This list attempts to display the current^[when?] status only.
• No longer available from their websites: Acquisition, Audiogalaxy, Bearshare, Bitblinder, CuteMX, edonkey2000, Grokster, iMesh, Kazaa, Kazaa Lite, LimeWire, Manolito, Morpheus, Napster, Pando and Scour Exchange.
• Opera web browser no longer includes P2P functionality.

See also

• File sharing in Canada
• List of file-sharing programs for Linux and BSD
• List of P2P protocols
• Open music model
• Timeline of file sharing

Other comparisons

• Comparison of Advanced Direct Connect software
• Comparison of BitTorrent clients
• Comparison of eDonkey software
• Comparison of G2 software
• Comparison of gnutella software
• Comparison of download managers
• Comparison of file transfer protocols

Notes

1. • According to the article Forbes, Top File-Sharing Networks, on 22 June 2005
     • eDonkey had 4,856,554 users
     • FastTrack had 2,548,774 users
     • Gnutella had 1,530,299 users
   • BitTorrent 10 million in March, 2006 according to the Business Week article BitTorrent Goes Hollywood Archived 2009-04-07 at the Wayback Machine
2. "Download", aMule team, sourceforge.net, 2021-02-07, retrieved 2021-02-07
3. Compatibility with eDonkey and Kad networks is done via a modded eMule plugin also developed by the Comet team
4. "BitComet Changelog". www.bitcomet.com. 2022-09-11. Retrieved 2022-09-11.
5. "The eMule Project at SourceForge.net". eMule.SourceForge.net. 2010-04-07. Retrieved 2010-07-11.
6. "Free Download Manager 6 Forums". FreeDownloadManager.org. Retrieved 24 February 2021.
7. "Releases · freenet/fred". github.com. Retrieved 2024-06-28.
8. https://fopnu.com/ ^{[bare URL]}
9. "license notice placed at the top in one of the source files of the project's repository, probably in each of its source files". Retrieved June 8, 2018. GNUnet is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
10. Schanzenbach, Martin (2023-04-01). "GNUnet 0.19.4". gnunet.org. Retrieved 2023-04-03.
11. "GNUnet download website". Archived from the original on 2018-06-12. Retrieved 2018-06-09.
12. "MLDonkey at GitHub". GitHub. 2017-01-22. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
13. "Shareaza download page on sourceforge Web site". SourceForge. Retrieved 2019-07-06.
14. tribler/LICENSE.txt at devel · Tribler/tribler, GitHub, archived from the original on 2014-12-18, retrieved 2014-12-18
15. "Releases".
16. whatIsTribler/2 Archived 2013-07-28 at the Wayback Machine
17. "Changelog". Vuze Community. Retrieved 2017-12-11.