The difference between torrent files and magnet link

At first glance, the two types of file sharing seem the same, as both are used to download and share everything with others, but after all, they are not exactly the same.

How do magnet links and torrent files work?

Both the magnet link and the torrent file are used by the torrent client to fetch files for the user. That means if you're looking to download something, whether you have a magnet file or a torrent address, the torrent client can make it work.

What is the difference between a torrent file and a magnet link?

The difference is not in what you get when you download a file, but where it comes from. A torrent establishes a connection between the user's torrent client and the web server somewhere. The mentioned file is retrieved from the web server and made available to the user.

Both magnet links and torrent files are used to share content with others through torrent services like uTorrent or BitTorrent.

Torrent files

The extension for torrent files is .torrent. As the name implies, these files take up space and must be stored somewhere. Namely somewhere that everyone can always access. This is not always as convenient as the magnet link.

What about the magnet link?

The magnet links also get a file, but in a different way. The torrent system relies in part on seeding and leeching (uploading and downloading) - so file creation processes are available to others upon receipt and magnet links take advantage of that.

Links connect users to anyone who has files available for download. The web server from which the files originated is unnecessary - in fact, if the server crashes or the file is deleted from it, the magnet file will still work, at least when there is at least one user on the network that has the file. and are seeding it. They also make it easier for others to access files - by sharing the link instead of the entire file.

Kareem Winters

Update 30 August 2020