Transmission

A BitTorrent client that comes as a native macOS app, GTK and Qt desktop apps, and a headless daemon with a web interface for servers.

15.4k stars, 1.5k forks C++ On GitHub since May 2015

Visit website View on GitHub How to run it

Transmission at a glance

Open sourceYes, GPL-3.0No paid parts in the repository
Health66 of 100Actively developed
Self-hostingmacOS, WindowsOne-click in Umbrel, YunoHost and 5 more
AppsmacOS, WindowsBuilds in GitHub releases
Interface72 languagesIncluding English, German and French
Issue repliesWithin ~21 hoursMedian first reply; 23% of recent issues answered

What is Transmission?

Transmission is a BitTorrent client offered in several forms: a native macOS application, GTK and Qt applications for Linux and BSD, a Qt build for Windows, and a headless daemon for servers and routers. A web UI can control any of them remotely, and transmission-remote is the preferred command-line client. Separate tools named transmission-show, transmission-create and transmission-edit inspect, create and modify .torrent files. Its interface is translated into 72 languages.

Good fit if

  • You run downloads on a NAS, home server or router and manage them from a browser.
  • You want a client that looks native on macOS.
  • You script torrent tasks from the shell.

Look elsewhere if

  • You prefer one Qt desktop client that behaves the same on Linux, Windows and macOS: qBittorrent.
  • You need to hand a file to a colleague through a short-lived link: transfer.sh.

Before you adopt it

Transmission is GPL software: it may be redistributed under GPL-2.0, GPL-3.0 or a later license endorsed by Mnemosyne LLC, with linking to OpenSSL permitted, and some source files carry more permissive licenses. The repository holds no paid add-ons or editions. The README admits that the documentation is out of date and asks volunteers to help update it. Ready-made builds cover macOS and Windows; on Linux the tools come from distribution packages, which may split them up.

Drafted with AI from the project's README and repository data, then checked against that data on 7 November 2026. Report a correction

How to run Transmission yourself

One-click install

Not listed in Coolify. Checked against each panel’s app catalog on 12 November 2026.

Ways to install

Docker files
None in the repository
Compose file
None in the repository
Setup effort
Not rated: no compose file to judge from
Kubernetes
No Helm chart in the repository
Packages
Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, EPEL, Arch Linux, AUR, Alpine, openSUSE and 11 more versions on Repology
Desktop and mobile
Builds for macOS, Windows in GitHub releases
Interface languages
72 languages, including English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Russian and Ukrainian
Show all 72

Afrikaans, Albanian, Arabic, Aragonese, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Bangla, Basque, Bosnian, Breton, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Estonian, Faroese, Finnish, French, Galician, Georgian, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Kazakh, Korean, Kurdish, Kyrgyz, Latvian, Limburgish, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malay, Malayalam, Maltese, Manx, Marathi, Northern Sami, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, Occitan, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Sinhala, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uyghur, Uzbek, Vietnamese, Welsh

Install instructions: transmissionbt.com or the README on GitHub. Docker images and packages are checked weekly.

Transmission health: is it still maintained?

66 of 100, actively developed

Release rhythmEvery ~3 months5 releases in 12 months; latest 4.1.4
Issue repliesWithin ~21 hoursMedian first reply; 23% of recent issues answered
Bus factorLow riskThe most active of 11 authors wrote 46% of recent commits
  • Activity
    32 commits in the last 90 days, the latest on 9 November 2026.
    18 / 30
  • Contributors
    11 people wrote the 32 commits of the last 90 days; the most active wrote 46% of them.
    14 / 20
  • Releases
    5 releases in the last 12 months; the latest, 4.1.4, on 24 October 2026.
    16 / 20
  • Replies to issues
    Maintainers answered 23% of recent issues, with a median first reply after 21 hours.
    14 / 20
  • Security practices
    OpenSSF Scorecard 4.2 of 10.
    4 / 10

Read from GitHub on 12 November 2026. How the score works

Transmission security

Security advisories are the vulnerabilities the maintainers disclosed on GitHub, with the versions that fix them; many advisories can mean careful disclosure as much as weak code. OpenSSF Scorecard checks how a project is developed and released: reviews, protected branches, pinned dependencies, signed releases. It does not audit the code itself.

Security advisoriesNone publishedNo advisories in the repository’s Security tab
OpenSSF Scorecard4.2 of 10How the project is built and released
Security policyNoNo SECURITY.md or similar
Signed releasesNoDownloads cannot be checked against a signature

What each Scorecard check found

  • Dangerous workflows10 / 10No risky patterns in GitHub Actions
  • Maintained10 / 10Steady commits and issue activity in the last 90 days
  • License file9 / 10A license file is present, but not where tools look for it
  • Static analysis9 / 10Code is scanned for bugs on some changes
  • Binary files5 / 10A few compiled binaries are checked into the repository
  • Code review4 / 10Some changes are merged without review
  • Branch protection3 / 10Rules on the main branch are partly enforced
  • Pinned dependencies1 / 10Some dependencies use fixed versions
  • Best-practices badge0 / 10No OpenSSF Best Practices badge
  • Fuzzing0 / 10No fuzz testing found
  • Security policy0 / 10No security policy
  • Signed releases0 / 10Releases are not signed
  • Token permissions0 / 10CI tokens have broad write rights

Advisories read from GitHub on 12 November 2026. From the OpenSSF Scorecard of 9 November 2026; checks that do not apply to Transmission are left out.

Transmission license: is it open source?

Transmission uses GPL-3.0, an open-source license approved by the OSI.

  1. May 2015First published on GitHub.
  2. TodayGPL-3.0.

Transmission for developers

Written in

  • C++ 73%
  • Objective-C++ 15%
  • JavaScript 4%
  • Objective-C 4%
  • CMake 3%
  • Other 2%

Getting involved

Good first issues47Open, labelled “good first issue”Help wanted40Open, labelled “help wanted”Contributing guideYesCONTRIBUTING.mdOpen issues726On GitHub
Authors, 90 days11Of 32 commits

Language shares are GitHub’s count of the code in the repository.

Alternatives to Transmission

  • qBittorrentqBittorrent BitTorrent client 91 health · GPL-3.0 · 41.5k stars
  • ZiplineA ShareX/file upload server that is easy to use, packed with features, and with an easy setup! 78 health · MIT · 3.5k stars
  • DashBeamShare files nearby and beyond. 77 health · AGPL-3.0 · 10.3k stars
  • slskdA modern client-server application for the Soulseek file sharing network. 72 health · AGPL-3.0 · 4.3k stars
  • OnionShareSecurely and anonymously share files, host websites, and chat with friends using the Tor network 69 health · GPL-3.0 · 7.2k stars

All 14 projects in File sharing

Questions about Transmission

Is Transmission open source?

Yes. Transmission is published under GPL-3.0, an OSI-approved open-source license.

Is Transmission still maintained?

Its health score is 66 of 100 (actively developed). It had 32 commits in the last 90 days, the latest on 9 November 2026, and its latest release came out on 24 October 2026.

How do I run Transmission?

You can run it as an app for macOS, Windows and in one click from Umbrel, YunoHost, TrueNAS and 4 more. The README on GitHub has the exact steps.

What is Transmission written in?

Transmission is written mainly in C++ (73% of the code), with Objective-C++ (15%), by GitHub’s count of the repository.

What languages is Transmission available in?

The repository has interface translations for 72 languages, including English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch and Polish.

What are the alternatives to Transmission?

Close alternatives in the File sharing category include qBittorrent, Zipline, DashBeam.