Open-source BitTorrent app FrostWire 7 launches with rebuilt engine and zero ads
FrostWire, the long-running open-source BitTorrent client, has announced the arrival of FrostWire 7, a major update that replaces the app’s entire engine and changes how the desktop client handles peer-to-peer downloads. The new version focuses on speed, reliability, and cleaner packaging across Windows, macOS, and Linux, while removing older components that were slowing down the project.
One of the biggest changes in the new version is a move to the jlibtorrent 2.0 engine. This was the result of two years of engineering work that saw hundreds of internal improvements. The upgrade supports BitTorrent v2, improves data integrity, boosts swarm performance, and allows the software to handle larger torrents better on modern hardware.
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FrostWire 7 goes ad-free
The project is now fully supported by its community through optional donations and VPN referrals, and as a result FrostWire 7 has jettisoned all third-party ads and bundled installer offers. The team says it wanted to restore FrostWire to a cleaner, distraction-free desktop client that behaves like traditional open-source software. Everything is free to download and fully open.
Search performance has been rebuilt, replacing the previous search system with a lighter and faster design that uses less memory and delivers results much faster. New search providers such as Knaben and TorrentCSV have been added, and FrostWire says the interface should be more responsive, especially on older hardware.
Startup and general responsiveness have been improved too, with more than a dozen tasks that previously blocked the main interface thread being identified and reworked so they now run in the background, resulting in quicker launches, fewer pauses, and smoother scrolling across long lists of torrents.
Instead of separate files for different Linux distributions, FrostWire now provides two universal archives for x86_64 and ARM64. Users can unpack and run the client directly or install it with a simple script.
On macOS, installation now uses a .pkg installer rather than the older drag-and-drop .dmg format, which should make updates easier for most users.
Another big change is that FrostWire 7 no longer includes its own media player. It was removed it to reduce bloat and media playback will now be handled by a user's default player.
The release includes many smaller improvements, from better diagnostics and updated libraries to long-awaited cleanup of legacy code that has been part of the project since the early 2000s.
FrostWire 7 is available to download from here.
What do you think about FrostWire launching a fully rebuilt client after all these years? Let us know in the comments.
