If you're a Mac user, you might be a bit disappointed with the available BitTorrent (BT) clients. They're not as many as compared to those for Windows machines. Being a Macuser myself, I know the plight we have to go through. But still, let's not lose hope. There are actually good BT clients out there. And Torrent Freak has given us a lowdown of the more popular ones.

1. BitTorrent OSX
This is the grandest daddy of them all. Kinda like your "default" BT client if ever they were to start packaging OS systems with one. It's like your most basic torrent app, and according to Torrent Freak, it's about as "feature-full as the Safari's download box." Well, that's not saying much, but still, some people (like me) wouldn't mind simple interfaces. Kinda like a "lesser features means lesser confusion" sort of thing.

2. Transmission
Transmission is an open-source project from HandBrake. What's neat about this client is that it allows you to see your download/upload rates right on the Dock without having to open the window itself. It also help the user with "cleaning up" .torrent files when they are done as it automatically trashes them from your desktop. One unfortunate thing though is that Demonoid (one of the leading torrent directories) has banned this application due to its supposed refusal to "adhere to standards." Well, you win some, you lose some.

3. Azureus
This application was written in Java and is quite sluggish compared to the other BT clients. But despite this, it remains one of the most popular ones because of its file-selection feature, "Selective Downloading," as some would say. This allows you to specify which files in the .torrent you only want to download, like say, just a few certain songs from a given album. For Mac-users, this is the only BT client with this feature that is popularly available.

4. Tomato Torrent
This is what I personally use. I like it because it hardly chokes up your RAM - it's a lightweight application. It's based on the BitTorrent build and allows you to specify which folders to download files into by simply dragging an AppleScript file around. Unlike the other BT clients stated above, this isn't multi-platform and available only for Mac OS X. Very simple program, without the frills and all that jazz.

5. Bits on Wheels
The pro: it's got a visual 3D Swarm which allows you to view your downloads and the peers you're seeding/ leeching with. The con: it was last updated November 2005. Well, anyways, if you wanna go hardcore, you can try it out. It's freeware, but not open source (despite being written on Objective-C and Cocoa). And like Tomato Torrent, it's a Mac-native client.

The Verdict:
Well, as with everything else, there isn't one "Super-Duper Absolutely Best Must-Have BT Client in the World" that rises above the others. There are always pros and cons; some features that are lacking and some features that are exclusive. Of course, the best BT client would be the one which merges all the good qualities of all the clients, like a motherload program that runs low on RAM and allows you to view a 3D Swarm chart, that is viewable on the dock, etc. etc... But as for now, there is no single BT client that can do that. Hopefully in the future, we get to see the synthesis of all the nice features.